Welcome to what I hope you will experience as a four or five night midwinter-lull footie video festival, to warm your hearts and hearthsides as we trek together round the globe in search of the 2008 perfect goal…

This feature purports to represent many of the best goals of 2008 by way of video evidence. The brief remarks framing the video clips are intended mainly to provide relevant archival information—with, here and there, a bit of mostly enthusiastic appreciation,  amateur aesthetic critique, and common-fan gossip added in purely as stuffing.

It should perhaps be explained, to qualify the above, that the intent to provide relevant archival information was limited in important respects by several decisive factors.  First, the basic research for the piece was done by looking at video clips.  Of maybe 500 matches, containing maybe 2500 goals, which were then reduced down to a thousand, and then… well, you get the sad picture.  One’s two-week “holiday” (!) expedition to the Land of a Thousand Goals had its enthralling moments certainly, but eyeball death repeatedly appeared imminent, sleep became a forgotten memory, and finally, lest it take till Doomsday to finish the video-searching, clip-shuffling and fact-checking, some lines had to be drawn.  I mean, after all, who wants to keep watching other people scoring for weeks on end when you yourself, due to this strange endeavour, aren’t?

Selection Criteria

The clips were chosen principally for their visual quality and clear representation of the goal plus the flow of play from which it develops.  But when there was great quality in a goal and good video quality wasn’t to be found, poor quality video was settled for. Narrated soundtracks were preferred but not always available. English narration was usually preferred when available; some of the non-English narration, however, will probably prove to those who experience these clips at least as informative in comparison, and not infrequently also even a bit more exciting (particularly in the cases of the Spanish-language clips).  Non-narrated clips with music tracks can be predictable but they can also be inspiring.  Inspiring ones have been preferred, again when available.

I have not picked a “best” goal, or even a “ten best”–my search has left me deeply convinced all such evaluations contain strong subjective elements, and that therefore the perfect goal’s beauty is almost always in the eye of the obsessed beholder–but I do believe there are some obvious (and some not so obvious) candidates for these honors; and have tried to indicate them by emphasizing the scorer’s name in boldface.

Never did the inaccessibility of a clip daunt this researcher from his relentless pursuit.  Not that there weren’t certain mountains to climb and deserts to cross, when it came to access.  The least familiar goals from the most obscure games in the most unknown leagues proved, curiously enough, easier to find than some of the best known goals in the most important games in the largest leagues. This discovery will come as no surprise, though, to footie video junkies.  

The biggest issue for anyone seeking out the most popular clips these days is the obvious one: nothing can stay popular for long without someone claiming to own it, with lawyers not far behind.   So if you want to follow this trail of the perfect goal you will be foiled maddeningly at times by the proliferating withdrawals from You Tube and other major sites of certain clips for copyright reasons–with UEFA and the EPL appearing the principal policing cruisers in these unregulated video-clip-posting high seas, never quite closing down on the bold buccaneers but often driving them out of You Tube, Daily Motion, Footytube (et al.) and back into uncharted waters from which they came. In those perilous waters many of these clips were found.

And if you click on one and find somebody doing or saying something that does not appear even remotely connected with footie, you will be proceeding at your own risk: caution is advised. In fact, caution is advised in regard to everything connected with cruising unfamiliar internet sites–but you already knew that.  And it was solely in your entertainment interests that this tireless researcher himself, throughout his alleged “holiday”, hurled all such caution to the winds; so, please to not blame him for anything that may befall you on your trek.

Finally, as to the archival data. The overwhelming majority of goal clips posted on the net contain little or no identifying information (dates of matches in particular are almost always missing), so the factual data you will find here is almost entirely of one’s own no doubt imperfect provision. And as a mere human, as suggested above under “limitations” and “Doomsday”, one had to finally draw the line on looking up the exact dates of every match on every clip.  Probably ninety-five percent of the dates given here are correct, but if you attended one of these matches and find I’m a day or two off in dating them, please don’t let me know. 

The Best Goals of 2008 – Navigation:

In Pursuit of the Elusive Perfect Goal: 2008
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 1 (World Football)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 2 (England / Scotland)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 3 (Europe)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 4 (Americas)

Also See: The Best of Football and Soccerlens in 2008

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

From North America (MLS, Mexico) to South America (Argentina, Brazil and all the rest), the best goals of 2008:

USA (MLS)

MLS best goals 2008 (53 goals by Beckham, Blanco, Angel, Gallardo et al.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJtIYJCS8s

David Beckham (LA Galaxy) vs. Real Salt Lake (2) 5.03.08  (The man can still do what he’s always done best.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FJSpIueB6Ak&feature=related

Marcelo “El Muneco” Gallardo (DC United) vs. Real Salt Lake 4.26.08 (Full volley, pure skill, grand footballer.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz3Zd4NtU-s

Marcelo Gallardo (DC United) vs. Chivas USA 5.17.08 (A decade after his glory days with River, “El Muneco” is the deadliest scorer in North America.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec8Ti73a_Qk&feature=related

Top ten de Cuauhtemoc Blanco en la MLS. (The great Mexican player, showing the U.S. how it’s done–his several goals on this clip all among the best of the year in the MLS.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kbrc6njFYZA&feature=related

Superliga 2008 (MLS / Liga Mexicana)

Christian “El Hobbit” Bermudez (Atlante) vs. DC United  7.16.08 (Golazo by the diminutive teenager, for the victory on unwelcoming norteamericano soil.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TIchyJzhhAc&feature=related

Damian “La Chilendrina” Alvarez (Pachuca) vs. Santos Laguna 7.21.08 (The veteran Argentine forward scores impressively for Pachuca fifty seconds into the clip.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fyP6ynsm3lc

Mexico

Hugo Droguett (Tecos de UAG) vs. Atlante 2.03.08 (The incandescent Droguett scores the first and makes the second in Tecos’ surprising away win over reigning champions Atlante.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w-xJgEZLoBU&feature=related

Fernando Arce (Santos Laguna)(2) vs. Tecos 3.30.08 (See the final goal on this short clip–the match finished off by the skillful Arce.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dOBmuGQD2GY

Fernando Arce (Santos Laguna) vs. Tigres 4.26.08 (The clever midfielder Arce shows his great control and touch as he chips the keeper at 1:14 of this clip.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WfxqOzJqRtw&feature=related

Daniel Emmanuel Luduena (Santos Laguna) vs. Cruz Azul (Clausura gran final–return leg) 6.02.08 (The goal by the marvelous Argentine midfielder “Hachita” Luduena makes small-club Santos the Clausura campeon.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPpY7668FM

Alfredo Moreno (America) vs. Puebla 10.12.08   (This goal might be called orchestral: it includes a spectacular gambeta-cum-stepover that’s not showy but functional, serving to lose two bewildered defenders, followed by a quick blind pivot-on-a-penny, spin-on-a-grassblade to launch a beautiful shot across the body from distance off the underside of the bar–golazo-azo-azo for the Argentine forward they call “El Chango”, and for my money the goal of the year, anywhere.  It’s worth watching from several angles. The third of these is perhaps the best clip.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1664267/
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1664269/
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9hC3-JjuR3o

Dario Botinelli (Atlas)(2) vs. Atlante 8.28.08  (Another transplanted Argentine having a fine season in Mexico, see particularly his second on this clip.)
http://www.clubatlas.tv/view_video.php?viewkey=110656874902f0737800&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0QPiZClK82o

Christian Correa (Pachuca) vs. Indios de Ciudad Juarez  8.30.08 (Lovely strike by Brazilian veteran scorer, couldn’t not include it.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o34Iv_VPr8o

Mauricio Romero (Atlas) vs. Cruz Azul  8.23.08 (The chilena–overhead kick–of the year?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oFVXX4DJ5gc&NR=1

Hugo Droguett (Morelia) vs. Monterrey 9.20.08  (Golazo by the long-haired Chilean.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bUcTj-fv1yA&feature=related

Christian “El Hobbit” Bermudez (Atlante) vs. America 9.22.08  (An authentic talent is born–here “the hobbit” beats Mexico’s best keeper, Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa of America.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rByAroSjPEw&feature=related

Andres “El Condor” Mendoza (Morelia) (2) vs. Necaxa 9.28.08 (The brilliant and temperamental Peruvian midfielder scores with force, will and finesse in Mexico.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PByK4umqmUY

Andres “El Condor” Mendoza (Morelia) (hat trick) vs. Jaguares de Chiapas 11.02.08 (The Condor strikes again.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TYG1Unn8Yb0

South America

Copa Libertadores ’08

compilations

Check out these two  montage compilations and then ask yourself, which tournament contained more great goals, Euro 2008 or this one?
Grandes Goles de la Copa Libertadores (parte 1)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fEjg6ct9V5E
Grandes Goles de la Copa Libertadores (parte 2)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-j_evKgxLNg&feature=related

Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Jrs) Copa Libertadores 2008.  (Riquelme tournament highlights video, climaxing with his splendid free kick goal vs. Fluminense.   This seven-minute records many of the wonderful touches, sublime passes,  tricky gambetas and  wicked shots in this tournament by the noble Roman, whose intuitive skills and commanding vision remain the center of the potent Boca attack.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sCSk5m3teZQ&feature=related

Bruno “El Barullo” Marioni (Atlas de Guadalajara) all goals in copa libertadores 08. (Documents the heroic goals, decisive passes and acrobatic goal celebrations by the goleador of the copa, a one-man strike force keeping  dark-horse Atlas in the running well past even their supporters’ wildest expectations.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YdVtZqNYif0

individual goals

Mauricio “Mao” Molina (Santos) vs. Chivas de Guadalajara 3.04.08 (Individual goal of the tournament: the Colombian striker’s booming shot from well outside the area nearly brings rain, then just slips into Chivas keeper Luis Michel’s upper right corner, moving Santos to the top of  its group)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XY6kc2M_Ry4

Bruno Marioni (Atlas de Guadalajara)(2) vs. Boca Jrs  4.08.08  (The explosive Argentine forward, with something to prove against Argentine opponents in this tournament, carries his club on his shoulders through the difficult tie with Boca.)

Bruno Marioni (Atlas de Guadalajara) vs. Lanus 4.30.08   (Un gran taquito.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB48uTjOGXc&feature=related

Damian Manso (Liga de Quito) vs. Arsenal  3.26.08 (The brilliant midfielder Manso’s swerving free kick provides Liga’s third goal, his dream pass to Luis Bolanos their fourth, as Liga emerges from the group stages.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XacrLJgNobQ&feature=related

Damian Manso (Liga de Quito) vs. San Lorenzo  (quarter-final)  5.22.08 ( 1-0: another Manso free kick.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s4xgNMDvhkU

Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Jrs)(2) vs. Fluminense  (semi-final, first leg)  5.29.08 (Riquelme scores at the end of a typically lovely Boca link play initiated as usual by himself and continued through Martin Palermo and Rodrigo Palacios; Flu’s big guns Thiago Silva and Thiago Neves then respond to gain the crucial away draw.)   The first clip has English narration:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4XtBQH6djYI&feature=related
A second clip, spanish narration:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5la8f

Thiago Neves (Fluminense)(hat trick) vs. Liga de Quito  ( final, return leg)    6.08 (two clips)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhhuTbp5Yk&feature=related
http://www.dailymotion.com/related/x5zzap_fluminense-3-liga-universitaria-de_sport/video/x5x137_liga-4-fluminense-2-goles-bieler-gu_sport

Copa Sudamericana ’08

Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes) vs. Botafogo (semi-final) 10.21.08  (Veron, with Riquelme still one of the two best Argentine players continuing to play in their native country, dominates this important tie, not only with this masterly–and alertly opportunistic–long strike, but with an even better pass that produces his club’s second goal, unfortunately not caught on this clip.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6TN4-AJHbmI&feature=related

Braulio Luna (San Luis) vs. Deportivo Quito 8.29.08 (Over the wall but under the moon for dead-ball artist Luna.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3kPUXxP1y18&feature=related

Brazil

Ibson (Flamengo) (hat trick) vs. Palmeiras  11.16.08  (A  flashy show indeed from the quality striker on loan from Porto, the third goal a brilliant backheel.)

Argentina

Jairo Patino (Banfield) vs. Argentinos Jrs. 3.30.08  (The Colombian viejo remains a master scorer wherever he goes, as this excellent goal for Banfield shows.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4w6ar_banfield-32-argentinos-juniors-21-p_sport

Martin Morel (Tigre) vs. Argentinos Jrs. 2.11.08  (An early inkling of a great scoring year for the leader of this overachieving little club–later in the year to become, thanks largely to Morel’s efforts, the popular favorite  underdog in an Apertura title race against big clubs San Lorenzo and Boca.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c7dk_tigre-21-gimnasia-la-plata-11-morel_sport

Gabriel Hauche (Argentinos Jrs.) vs. Lanus  5.31.08 (Exquisitely finessed golazo launched on the run from outside left with enough mysterious torque to corkscrew the shot into the extreme top right corner.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ma5m_argentinos-juniors-30-lanus-20-hauc_sport

Agustin Pelletieri (Lanus) vs. Colon  2.23.08 (Another young Argentine with a bright future.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4h66s_40-51m-pelletieri-lanus_sport

Damian Escudero (Velez) vs Boca Jrs. 5.24.08  (The rising figura “El Pichi” Escudero navigates at stutterstepping quickpace through two lines of defenders to finish expertly.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YpoUHAJf5S0

Santiago Salcedo (Newell’s Old Boys) vs Gimnasia de Jujuy   6.16.08  (The kind of goal that caused this young sensation to draw a large transfer fee from River, where he then struggled.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MIGz7k0S7nA&feature=related

Matias Abelairas (River Plate) vs.  Gimnasia la Plata 5.10.08 (A key figure in River’s title run, the young midfielder “El Pitu” here leads the “Millionaires” past Gimnasia, scoring their first–at 1:00 of the clip–with a running, turning strike across goal from distance, making their second for Buonanotte and then finishing the job by scoring their third on a sweet  volley.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hIGnIEO3cFo&feature=related

Diego Buonanotte (River Plate)(2) vs. Argentinos Jrs. 4.27.08 (With these two goals–River’s first and third on the clip–as his annunciation, el mago Buonanotte comes of age, at exactly the right time for Simeone’s River.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pQo6f4EsD2c

Diego Buonanotte (River Plate) (2) vs. Olimpo  (6.06.08) (Clausura, 18th round:  River Campeon! — “…and a child shall lead them…”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LdZOpfrHGLM&feature=related

Cano de buonanotte a neri Diego Buonanotte (River Plate) vs. Boca Jrs 11.07 (This clip captures the backdrop to a legend: it was the cheeky Buonanotte gambeta in the previous November’s clasico against hated Boca–audaciously nutmegging hard man Neri Cardozo at the touchline–that first hinted of this wisp of a lad’s surprising competitive fires…not to mention his budding dramatic skills.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-2E1PsM9YI&feature=related

Nicholas Pavlovich (Argentinos Jrs.) vs. Gimnasia la Plata (9.13/14.08) (A pretty finish, and the raw footage of the halftime fracas/polemica captures essential local atmospherics: a night out in Argentina.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vz7cl4EHl4

Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Jrs) vs. Arsenal 11.09.08 (A typical Riquelme free kick, and is it too much to suggest that there are few things in the world of athletics more aesthetically pleasing?   The last few seconds of the replay catch something of this beauty here.  Like a large awkward-looking long-legged waterbird taking flight, Roman glides forward toward the ball in one or two loping deliberate strides… and then the seeming ungainliness turns to fluent motion, stately elegance and grace, all in a fraction of a second: another score for Boca, and another minor masterpiece for the aficionados to  savor.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1749737/

Juan Roman Riquelme–Temporada/season 2008 (Excellent video compilation of Riquelme skills, moves, passes and shots, exploring the mysteries of the enigmatic maestro who holds the keys to the perfect goal in Boca country: nice music track helps the interpretation, from “I’ve got soul but I’m not soldier” to the ballad of Riquelme, a man whose every act on the pitch seems to say “I am alone, isolated, unique.”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f0CkiEbjYrY

Carlos Ariel Recalde (Argentinos Jrs.) vs. Banfield 12.14.08 (Recalde drops this shocker in from somewhere out on the pampas.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U5goqyzBQ0c&feature=related
shorter clip:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YcHLzlMdA60

Gaston Aguirre (San Lorenzo) vs. Independiente 12.07.08 (Miraculous keeper-deconstructing footwork in front of goal by a portly defender who appears to have the touch of an angel mounted on the turning speed of an oil tanker –golazo!)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzgzKL7BqE&NR=1

Rodrigo Palacio (Boca Jrs.) vs, San Lorenzo 12.20.08  (See the second Boca goal–a one-touch chain is begun in midfield by Riquelme, Palacio’s finish is enabled by Riquelme’s return pass, a  brilliant volleyed flick on the run: this crucial goal eliminates San Lorenzo from the season-ending triangular  Apertura championship playoff.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OOcKSKuE-ug&feature=related

… and in the end my quest for the year’s perfect goal leads me back to September, and a game of perfect goals that would not stop coming–was I watching or merely dreaming it all?

Cesar Carranza/Adrian Gonzales/Jorge Luna/Fabio Pieters, et al.  Gimnasia Jujuy 4-3 Huracan    9.14. 08
(This last Argentine clip documents Gimnasia’s wild 4-3 victory in a match featuring the most thrilling exchange of brilliant goals anywhere on the planet in 2008–the goals start out great and, as the match tips back and forth, just keep getting better and better, what a night!  Enjoy!)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iL5faBEoBQc
longer version
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=121UWvGnYPk
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fx-8oy4MvGY&feature=related

addenda
2008 goal compilations

There are hundreds of these to be found on the internet; I’ll list only the one I liked best, plus a couple of representative samples.

Super goals 2008-2009. Great montage–”enjoy yourself, take only what you need”.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WRUzPMVELR8&feature=related

Amazing soccer goals 2008. Another montage, mostly EPL, with miscellaneous goals from Europe incl. AC Milan, plus  Mexico incl. Pachuca, Chivas.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rDfmuarBIts

Beautiful Goals 2008-2009. This one covers EPL and major European leagues as well as many unfamiliar goals from Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ldLs92dY89A

best goal compilation sites, ongoing

The work of compiling great (and other) goals is conducted all year round on a daily basis by these two very useful sites.

Golo Do Ano
http://www.tvgolo.com/best_goal_of_the_week.php?subaction=showfull&id=1216553324&archive=&start_from=&ucat=57&

101 Great Goals
http://www.101greatgoals.com/

The Best Goals of 2008 – Navigation:

In Pursuit of the Elusive Perfect Goal: 2008
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 1 (World Football)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 2 (England / Scotland)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 3 (Europe)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 4 (Americas)

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The best goals of 2008 from Europe – from Euro 2008 to Champions League, UEFA Cup and the top domestic leagues across mainland Europe.

Euro 2008

A great tournament loaded with exceptional goals viewed and re-viewed by hundreds of millions of footie fans around the planet–at least half of whom seem to have crafted their own personal best-goals compilations and posted them on You Tube.  I spent three nights burning up my eyeballs on these, getting through two dozen or so before the exceptional goals began to appear almost ordinary (a sure sign it was time to stop). 

The ones listed here are some of the most interesting, if only for the surprising variety of choices: of the 77 goals scored in the tournament, at least half have ended up on somebody’s best-goals compilation, with many of the scorers–Wesley Sneijder, David Villa, Michael Ballack (and this includes the Ballack “goal” vs. Portugal, actually more foul than goal),  Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Semih Senturk,  Robin van Persie,  Arda Turan–represented by more than one goal, often on the same video. 

No doubt if you’re reading this you’ve seen most of these goals before, so I won’t try to elaborate on their several beauties, beyond briefly suggesting my own favorites:

Nihat Kahveci (Turkey) vs. Greece (a thrilling match-winner that looks more amazing the more it’s seen, the violent torque required to launch the shot apparently proving once more there’s truth in those proverbial sayings:  necessity is the mother of invention, and where there’s a will there’s a way); Wesley Sneijder (Holland) vs. France (the resourceful turn, spin and deadly marksmanship–a classic product of pure shooting skills that still dazzles); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) vs. Greece (another masterpiece that keeps improving with repeated looks and may just be looked back upon as the brilliant inauguration of a season in which the great striker Ibra made believers of fans beyond Serie A and around the world).

best of the best goals compilations

Los 15 mejores goles de la Eurocopa 2008.  Selections from fifteenth ascending to first and best: Schweinsteiger vs. Portugal, Villa vs. Sweden, Schweinsteiger vs. Turkey, Podolski vs. Poland, Torres vs. Germany, van Persie vs. Romania, Guiza v Russia, Sneijder vs. Italy, van Persie vs. France, Robben vs. France, Sneijder vs. France, Nihat v Czech Rep., Lahm v Turkey, Ibrahimovic vs. Greece, Ballack vs. Austria.  

Don’t accept substitutes: this is simply the best Euro 2008 goal compilation, featuring brilliant selective editing, incorporating useful slow-mo and long-shot replays, putting each goal into the context of the flow of play and showing key elements of the build-up to each;  it has good interpretive music, intelligent goal selections;  offers excellent compression of goals into key moments, and useful focus on crucially telling details–e.g.:

the wonderful, deceptively nonchalant no-wasted-motion Fabregas dinked pass over the defense leading to Guiza vs. Russia;  the masterful, flowing, architecture-in-the-moment series of open-field passes culminating in Sneijder vs. Italy; the great control and  subtle touch contained in the sudden epiphany of van Persie vs. Romania; the surprising van Nistelrooy stepover developing into van Persie vs. France (two goals virtually ignored in all the other best goals compilations); and a surging Torres brushing Lahm aside like a small straw man as he sweeps in for the tournament-winning goal vs. Germany.   A welcome Last Chance Saloon for weary prospectors on the Trail of the Perfect Goal, this video packs much of the very best attacking football of a great attacking tournament into an entertaining 7:14.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9WRQzeFbWFI&feature=related

Top 5 Goals Euro 2008. Sneijder vs. Italy, Ibrahimovic vs. Greece, Sneijder vs. France, Nihat vs. Czech Rep., Ballack v Austria.  Another excellent compilation, well edited; selections here perhaps represent conventional consensus choices, but this video boasts an essential added feature, not on other clips:  the live commentary in English from itv 4, recapturing the drama of those ’08 summer nights–especially on Sneijder vs. France: “Can it get any better than this? Yes, if they carry on playing this brand of counter punch football”–famous last words for Holland, as it turned out, but nonetheless exciting stuff at the time; or again, on Nihat’s astonishing match-winner, a goal that distilled the pure drama of the tournament: “utterly aghast are the Czechs–and it may get worse, here’s Nihat–oh, he may have won it!”
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zznbvFC0hFg

some other compilations

Unbelievable Soccer Goals.  This one captures all Spain goals from Euro 2008 and is thus a pleasure,  perhaps not unlike re-living a good honeymoon.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qk2FIoaqLs&NR=1

Top 10 the most important goals of Europe 2008. This one is distinctive for affording a place–admittedly the lowest–among the “most important and most beautiful” goals of the tournament to what must have been one of the worst goals of the tournament: Vastic (Austria) vs. Poland.  One naturally assumes the author of the video to be Austrian.   At any rate originality is always to be praised.This Central-to-Eastern-Euro-flavored compilation also includes Torbinsky (laudable certainly if only for that dangerous Arshavin cross), a Turan, a Semih, two Ballacks, a Lahm and a Nihat. (There’s a You Tube URL snafu with this one, but it’s by Macieju990 and can be found by searching title and author.)

My Uefa Euro 2008 top 10 goals.   Andrei Arshavin (Russia) vs. Sweden interestingly makes this list.  Plus two Schweinsteigers. And the winner here is: Sneijder vs. France.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qFGaGTrBqAc

Top 15 goals on Euro 2008.  Two Semihs on this one.  Also two Podolskis. The fine Arjen Robben (Holland) vs France.  And not to be found elsewhere: Gio von Bronckhorst (Holland) and Daniele de Rossi (Italy) vs. France.  Nihat comes top, fairly enough.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRkcadbXdg&feature=related

Los 15 mejores goles de la eurocopa 2008.   Jaroslav Plasil (Czech Rep.) vs. Turkey makes this one, and it is unique for that.  And Pepe (Portugal) vs.Turkey, ditto.  (Did you know Pepe’s first name?  Hint: think famous astronomer beginning  with”K”.)   Honors taken here by Sneijder vs. France.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ehtbvZjbGoQ&feature=related

Los mejores goles de la eurocopa 08.   Sound a little like that last one? But they’re not the same. Distinguishing feature here:  Torbinsky vs. Holland.   Sneijder vs. France again reigns.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O3KuZrO9uHw

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals. The author here is ScreaManUnited and maybe that’s why this is the one compilation out there that includes the otherwise entirely undistinguished Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) vs. Czech Rep. And here’s that man Kepler Pepe (vs. Turkey) again.   Top honors to: Ballack (Germany) vs. Austria (the free kick).
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OJVsjPUZyQ0&feature=related

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals. Surprises: Raul Meireles (Portugal) vs.Turkey,  Thierry Henry (France) vs. Holland (a kindness that, for old times’ sake, surely?).  The shock winner: Torbinsky v Holland.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Fd0sfpW8c&feature=related

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals. Sneijder vs. France takes it.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=45N65O0hCvc&feature=related

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals. Unusual inclusion: Xavi Hernandez (Spain) vs. Russia.  Honors to: Torres vs Germany.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CFaei42itzU&feature=related

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals. Roman Pavyluchenko (Russia) vs. Holland somehow makes this one. Sneijder vs. France is #1.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q0PBDB5ZgRk&feature=related

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals.  Ballack, the free kick.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_qsPvHUmXog&feature=PlayList&p=F75B052E4D82079D&index=21

Euro 2008 Top 10 goals. Ruben de la Red (Spain) vs. Greece, the surprise here, Nihat the winner.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FtLmquqAQkQ

Euro 2008 Top 10 Goals.  Sneijder v.Italy, yet again.  And fair enough.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1xW_rokvKQw&feature=related

UEFA Champions League

’08

Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) v.s AC Milan 3.4.08 (Cesc performing decisive last rites over the expired body of the defending champions.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SleLoTY3SpM

Emanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) vs. Liverpool  4.08.08  (Credit to Adebayor for getting there to finish, but Walcott’s incredible run is the real story of this goal.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9dG6ag7qU)

Ronaldo (Man Utd) vs. Chelsea (final) 5.21.08 (Ronaldo’s imperious skywalking header in the twenty-sixth minute is the 42nd goal of his glory season, gives the Reds a 2-1 lead and our commentator cause for celestial hyperbole: “a stunning header…watch cech, he doesn’t move–it’s beyond human flesh“…well, so what he really said was “it’s beyond him in a flash,” but do Reds fans the world round really need to understand Scots?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MQh3AKLkWwI&feature=related

Manchester United/Chelsea  (final)   5.21.08  (The penalty kicks: makes by Tevez, Carrick, Hargreaves, Giggs, Anderson, Ballack, Belletti, Lampard, Kalou; misses by a hesitating Cristiano Ronaldo–plus theatrical silent plaint to the gods,”how could you let me miss?” ; by a disconsolate John Terry– a slip in the rain and “the agony is there again“; and by the sulking late sub Nicolas Anelka –”he didn’t look happy coming forward, and he’s not happy now.“)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UVJTM1Ab71g&feature=related

’08/’09

compilation

Best goals of the champions league group stage 08/09. This excellent compilation includes:
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) vs. Marseille 9.16.08 (And goodbye to Marseille for another year.)
Juan Culio (CFR Cluj) vs. Roma 9.16.08 (The Roma owner nearly had a heart attack in her seat.)
Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk) vs. Basel  (The wickedest of Shakhtar’s Brazilians does it from distance)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) vs. Basel 10.22.08 (More Messi magic.)
Alessandro del Piero (Juventus) vs. Real Madrid 10.21.08 (Never miss a del Piero free kick if you can help it)
Mirko Vucinic (Roma) vs. Chelsea 11.06.08  (Roma’s danger man.)
Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos) vs. Werder Bremen 11.06.08  (Long curler could be best ’08 CL goal ?)
Jeppe Curth (Aab Aalborg) vs Man Utd 12.10.08 (A strong head on that lad.)
Arjen Robben (Real Madrid) vs. Zenit St. Petersburg12.10.08  (What touch this man has!)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3mdke9LZ8kw

individual goals

Alessandro del Piero (Juventus) vs. Zenit St. Petersburg 9.17.08 (A 37.8 m. free kick: del Piero is so good at this, one’s almost–but not quite–tempted to take such miracles for granted.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XpAdtsQZ0Ek&feature=related

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) vs. Marseille 9.16.08 (A Stevie Wonder special, all the power, will and skill in the world packed into this scorcher.)
http://www.soccervisions.com/2008/09/marseille-vs-liverpool.html

Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid) vs. PSV Einhoven (first 2 goals) 9.16.08 (How can so much power be packed into so small a unit?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0iXDaL-ndYQ

Albert Riera (Liverpool) vs. PSV 12.09.08 (A goal worthy of a coming champion: what no one at Man City suspected he could do, Riera is making a habit of with Liverpool.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1842938/

UEFA Cup

Mladen Petric (Hamburg) vs. Aston Villa   12.18.  08   (UEFA cup goal of the year?)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1871682/

Felipe Caicedo (Man City) vs. Racing Santander  12.18.08 (The virtually unknown young Ecuadoran–with Luis Antonio Valencia, his nation’s best players of a generation– declaring himself a sudden backheel master.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1876055/

Ronaldinho (AC Milan) vs. Braga 11.06.08  (The remarkable skills–and smile– surviving the Italian transplant)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1739198/

Spain

Marcos Senna (Villareal) vs. Betis 4.27.08 (A 55-meter stunner: “el gol de la temporada…sensacional! increible!”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Rp-EUySQ0&feature=related

Ronaldinho (Barcelona) vs. Atletico Madrid 3.01.08.  (Going out with style.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=riAz8tzNpaE&NR=1

Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona) (hat trick) vs. Almeria 10.25.08 (A brilliant Eto’o volley, a lightning sidefoot flick by Henry, then two more rapidfire Eto’o scores, capped off by a sizzling Daniel Alves freekick–all this by the 37th minute, as here we see Pep Guardiola’s fast, fluid and phenomenal scoring machine, propelled by the geniuses Messi and Xavi, moving almost effortlessly into overdrive.  You get the feeling Barca could have put across five more in this one, had they encountered any resistance at all from a shattered Almeria…What I’m feeling my way toward saying here, after watching this and other similar match videos over and over, is that I think the best fit for this year’s perfect-goal-wearing Golden Boot is the Barcelona offense, collectively.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R-WYugtT6F8&feature=related

Lionel Messi–Number 10–2008/2009–Part 1 (“I just can’t look, it’s killing me”).  (These three recent Messi compilations catch some of the Barca attacking magic by concentrating on the quicksilver central magician, the man no one’s yet been able to keep up with, so slippery and elusive in his furious arm-pumping runs it’s no wonder they call him la pulga–the flea.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_X5G63NZ0&feature=related

Lionel Messi–Number 10–2008/2009–Part 2 (“You make me feel so guilty”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RwLoNAQkXFM&feature=related

Lionel Messi–Number 10–2008/2009–Part 3 (“No fear”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8S_sTGAqGzM&feature=related

La chica de Messi.  (This clip is by way of a brief aside: in the so-far charmed career of this wonderfully gifted, entertaining and brilliant young footballer–and this season is all the proof–it’s still raining angels)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LikkG294FuY

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) vs. Sevilla 11.29.08 (Golaazzooooo! The euphoria continues at the Nou Camp as an elated Messi delivers the final blow in a decisive 3-0 demolition of once-formidable Sevilla.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ITMupKntZ6w

Thierry Henry (Barcelona) vs. Valencia  12.10.08 (The Barca machine rolls on over Valencia–Valencia who?– as Titi Henry’s wonderful opening chip, glittering with quality, announces his adjustment period in La Liga is finally over and he is at last enjoying himself at the Nou Camp–or as the beautifully chosen music track puts it : “a freak like me/just needs infinity“–and while the oles ring around Henry’s head, the appreciative aficionados seem to be chanting back to him, “relax, take your time, trust in me/ and you will find infinity“… will he find it?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=987PJPRUsW0&feature=related

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) vs. Real Madrid 12.13.08 (Real holds out bravely against the inevitable until Eto’o beats Casillas at 82 minutes, and eight minutes later this lovely Messi chip completes the masterpiece–and also nearly knocks out Cannavaro, who collides violently with the bar in his attempt to forestall footie destiny.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I775jMPb_Rk&feature=related

Marcos Senna (Villareal) vs. Osasuna   9.14.08  (Who on earth is a deadlier threat on very long free kicks?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TJuAohIv1m0&NR=1

Jose Javier Barkero (Numancia) vs. Real Madrid 9.14.08 (This unexpected early-season blast from nowhere drove Real back on its gilded heels.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KihLzxPYO9s

Giuseppe Rossi (Villareal) vs. Almeria 11.09.08 (A Rossi rocket)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1747308/

Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid) vs. Valencia 12.2 .08 (The phenomenally gifted young Argentine, coming into his own for real with Real, and showing his skill level with this lovely floater.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fvesw6yDiV8

Maxi Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid) vs. Valencia 12.21.08  (Another Argentine ace in Spain, Maxi is still dangerous to the max.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1883844/

Italy

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter) vs Bologna 10.04.08 (Killer backheel: two views given here. And what a goal. How could a human being do this?  I’ve watched it a dozen times and still can’t understand it)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ogMVLShjk
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1629304/

Pablo Daniel Osvaldo (Fiorentino) vs.Torino 5.21.08  (is it a man or an angel who scores this goal?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVr3gWEaVg&feature=related

Ricardo Quaresma (Inter) vs. Catania 9.13.08 (Two defenders move in to close him down, but the miraculous wing-footed  $20 m. Quaresma, on his Inter debut, uses a serendipitous deflection from one of them to score anyway–and still the Special One, likewise new to Serie A, but used to receiving such expensive gifts, remains evidently unmoved, like a child on whom too many extravagant presents have already been lavished.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xG7aS63Ogao&feature=related

Kaka (AC Milan) vs. Lazio 9.21.08 (Great player showing why he’s great, once again)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1585638/

Daniele Conti (Cagliari) vs. Roma 12.14.08  (A name to remember)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1859952/

Sulley Muntari (Inter) vs. Napoli 11.22.08 (The tic-tac-toc series of one-touches, almost quicker than the blink of an eye, starting with Julio Cruz’s ungodly backheel and continued through Maicon to Muntari’s lightning first-time finish: every element comes together to qualify this great work as a serious goal-of-the-year candidate.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Mdmt5th9A

Andrei Shevchenko (Milan) vs. Lazio 12.03.08 (Was the Chelsea flop just a blip for Sheva?)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1823042/

Jeremy Menez (Roma) vs. Chievo  12.06.08  (Wonderful volley from the French newcomer.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1832617/

Fausto Rossini (Livorno) vs. Frosinone (Serie B)   10.11. 08 (A lower division goal to equal anything done in Serie A this year.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1664216/

Portugal

Ricardo Quaresma (Porto) vs. Academica 3/09/08 (Pure merciless Quaresma: loses his man, then stuns the keeper with a bullet.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XJcj1YhSvB8&feature=related

Ricardo Quaresma (Porto) vs Vitoria Guimaraes 4.13.08  (Awesome stuff–the dancing master locates his spot and unleashes a deadly projectile.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xIkdASxO6Ic

Ricardo Quaresma (Porto) vs. Setubal 5.13.08 (Quaresma curves this classic boomeranging free kick around the wall and just inside the hopeless keeper’s left-hand post.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ngyGveLb6LQ

Lisandro Lopez (Porto) vs. Benfica 4.20.08  (The talented Argentine Lisandro works to make space, spins, belts it, celebrates with flagwaving gusto.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sdCRmrIUIXc&feature=related

Anderson (Setubal) vs. Benfica 12.07.08 (Striking lightning to stun the big club from Lisbon.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/181740/

Hulk (Porto) vs. Amadora 12.17.08  (A thunderbolt that shows the Porto powerhouse living up to his name, with some wicked spin thrown in.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1873559/

France

Steve Savidan (Valenciennes) vs. Bordeaux 3.23.08 (Wonder volley by “savi-gol”.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DMGeOa-Dg

Marama Vahirua (Lorient) vs. Le Havre 12.13.08 (This bolt from the blue must be seen to be believed.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1864749/

Carlos Sanchez (Valenciennes) vs. Monaco 12.13 .08  (An absolute cracker–magnifique!–by the on-and-off Colombiano.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1864752/

Habib Bamogo (Nice) vs. Marseille 12.06.08 (A goal to make your evening.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/habib%2Bbamogo/video/x7obl6_habib-bamogo_sport

Remi Mareval (Nantes)  vs. Marseille   29.10.08 (Long volley–and I do mean long.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rjU5g0XssdE

Karim Benzema (Lyon) vs. Le Mans 11.29.08 (Artistic business as usual for this great striker.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-1nPg2wIFks&feature=related

Germany

Bundesliga Best Goals 2008/2009 Hinrunde/Fall Season. Magificent 3:48 compilation packs in excellent goals by Bastian Schweinsteiger,  Mesut Ozil, Christian Trasch, Ivica Olic, Hugo Almeida, Johannes Van den Bergh, Franck Riber, Jan Simak, Kuba Blaszczykowski, Branko Jelic, Diego (2), Mohamed Zidan, Aaron Hunt, Carlos Eduardo, Torsten Frings, Thomas Zdebel, Tamas Hajnal, Tranquilo Barnetta, Stanislav Sestak, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Alexander Baunjohann, Mikael Forssell, Demba Ba, Mladen Petric.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7reYuzKFNC4

Mladen Petric (Hamburg) vs. Hertha Berlin 11.16.08  (Undisputable excellence.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1768101/

Diego (Werder Bremen) vs. Hertha Berlin 11.01.08 (Chest control, pivot, half volley, all in one motion: the unearthly skills, here on full display.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1722811/

Ivic Olic (Hamburg) vs. Werder Bremen 11.23.08 (A staggering shot from distance, goal of the season candidate.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1791291/

Johannes van den Bergh (Monchengladbach) vs. Borussia Dortmund 12.12.08 (Ditto the above for this wonderful long volley)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U9lEmTLIbko
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p2G4LH0nk0k&feature=related

Rest of Europe

Holland

Diego Biseswar (Feyenoord) vs. NAC Breda 12.27.08  (Where did this wicked wonderstrike come from?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4QMTODoqoME

Marcus Berg (Groningen) vs. PSV 12.7.08 (A fantastic series of touches, the best a backheel by Gonzalo Garcia, building up to the precise finish by 22-year-old Swedish scoring sensation Berg.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1832927/

Marcus Berg (Groningen) (2) vs. Feyenoord 9.28.08 (Adding to his reputation against another bigger club.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=daBh6ynvI7I&feature=related

Denmark

Peter Madsen (Brondby) vs. Sonderjysk 11.22.08 (A classic rabona–trickiest heel work in Nordic footie history?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w660xlUb2Lk&feature=related

Austria

Karel Pitak (Salzburg RB) vs. Mattersburg 11.20.08 (Short clip, not very good quality, but an astonishing  goal– on the full volley, from some other dimension.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S3MSlSIMqAY&feature=related
(better clip, full highlights, goal at 4:46 and worth the wait–it’s a stunner:)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oB1StKm4JZE&feature=related

The Best Goals of 2008 – Navigation:

In Pursuit of the Elusive Perfect Goal: 2008
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 1 (World Football)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 2 (England / Scotland)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 3 (Europe)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 4 (Americas)

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Working here on the assumption that to most readers these will be the most familiar goals, I’ll bow to your prior comprehension and suggest that if you’ve already seen and made your own judgments of these, you might want to skip over this section.

Compilations

There are many of these indeed.  Here are some I found useful and entertaining.

Top 10–2008/09–Premier League–first round.  Best EPL goals from the months of August and September; all goals of high quality: Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal) vs. Bolton 9.20.08; Wayne Rooney (Man Utd) vs. Bolton 9/27/08; Matthew Taylor (Bolton) vs. Wigan 10.05.08; Stephen Gerrard (Liverpool) vs. Boro 8/23/08; Germaine Defoe (Portsmouth) vs. Everton 8.30.08; Geovanni (Hull) vs. Arsenal 8.16.08; Juliano Belletti (Chelsea) vs Boro 10.18.08; Gretar Steinsson (Bolton) vs. Stoke City 8.16.08; Amir Zaki (Wigan) vs. West Ham 8.16.08; Peter Crouch (Portsmouth) vs. Stoke City 10.05.08.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CrpZILEWhho&feature=related

2008 EPL top goals.  Includes memorable September goals from Robinho (Man City) vs. Chelsea 9.13.08; Seyi Olofinjana (Stoke City) (from a Rory Delap long throw) vs. Everton 9.14.08; Geovanni (Hull) v.s Arsenal 9.27.08; Luis Antonio Valencia (Wigan) vs. Man City 9.28.08; also Bellamy, Carvalho, Park, Kalou, Cousin, plus a couple of Bundesliga goals including some Diego (Werder Bremen) beauties, plus an oddly included final goal from Racing Club of Buenos Aires (why not?).
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xYgoHBBxyu4&feature=related

Premier League top 10 goals 2009 August-September goals from soccer a.m.:  stands out among among all this year’s top-ten clips if only for the oddity that it contains but nine goals: Denilson, Osman, Derbyshire, de Michele, Wright-Phillips, Owen, Bendtner, C.Evans…and now I too seem to have missed out another…watch, enjoy, but please don’t count!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=weIGVlm1-8E

and these four superb compilations superbly represent the superb goals of the season so far:
Superb Goals 08/09 Part I
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sj2oBTInU0I&feature=relatedhttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sj2oBTInU0I&feature=related
Part 2
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BpcTrOgY864&feature=related
Part 3
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fsVzPPG4aTs&feature=related
Part 4
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ONpcJwhBirE

Carling Cup

Well, didn’t one’s imaginary internal editor want something from the Carling Cup?  Anything to please.   But one said to oneself, no more than the one. And one thought of young Aaron Ramsey’s fine Carling Cup goal for Arsenal.  Then one said to oneself again: no, only the one.  How about this:

Carlos Tevez (Man Utd) vs. Blackburn (Carling Cup) 12.06.08 (The tic-tac-toc from Giggs & Anderson, finished off by a visibly animated Carlitos on his four-goal night after months of languishing unhappily in mothballs.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wcP8vNyMUvo

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo top ten goals 07/08. A compilation that remains astounding no matter how many times one  looks.  Still, perhaps the best summary of Ronaldo’s semi-mythic season of seemingly unending wonder-goals is contained in the top two comments I found on this You Tube video clip, last time I called it up– rendered here  verbatim, for their curious eloquence: “i hate him but i gotta admit that he is a great football player”; “he is an ars hole but u cant deny he has got bags of talent”. ( Er, sic–and amen to that.)  For a good exhibition of what came out of those bags during that famous season, see especially the last three goals on the video:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) vs. Portsmouth 1.30.08 (The free kick that probably did most to establish the legend.)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) vs. Bolton 3.19.08 (The backheel that stopped the world.)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) vs. Aston Villa 3.29.08 (The legend enhanced.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-GJetwg_nGs

Cristiano Ronaldo–from Dimitar Berbatov (Man Utd) vs. West Ham 10.29.08 (A new season here–and though the goal is our Ronnie’s, the miracle-work on the byline is all that of the sullen maestro Berbatov, who here proves himself a pure footballing genius even if he were never to take another touch: anyone who hasn’t yet seen this is not living on planet earth.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xxJ9wdXXbwY&feature=related

Scottish Premier League

Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic) vs. Rangers 4.16.08 (This swerving screamer from distance is Nakamura’s first Old Firm goal, and also a very strong contender for goal of the year.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lkeUNsCbJ1g&feature=related

Scott McDonald (Celtic) vs. Rangers 12.27.08  (McDonald wins the old firm derby in stirring fashion.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m4pyAVbJaZo&feature=related

English Premier League

David Bentley (Tottenham) vs. Arsenal 10.29.08 (Wondrous–and wondrously lucky?– shot from over the rainbow, simply unforgettable once you’ve seen it–one memorable highlight from another dismal Spurs season.)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1941068/david_bentley_goal_for_tottenham_vs_arsenal_on_29_10_08/
–and for better quality video, see also TV Golo goals-of-the-week clip for10/08/week 5: Bentley’s is first goal on clip:
http://www.tvgolo.com/best_goal_of_the_week.php?subaction=showfull&id=1225470027&archive=&start_from=&ucat=57&

Juliano Belletti (Chelsea) vs. Tottenham  1.12.08 (A scorcher from outer space–surprises himself as well?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-lTsCOZfbQg&feature=related

Kevin Nolan (Bolton) vs. Blackburn 1.15.08 (Amazing sidewinder on the full volley: Nolan isn’t supposed to be able to do this sort of thing, is he?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N40wuZK6Et0&feature=PlayList&p=C14778CAA1B465BD&index=12

Fernando Torres (Liverpool)(3) vs. Middlesbrough 2.23.08 (This El Nino hat trick shows why he may be the finest striker in Europe –see especially the 2nd goal.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RG2_7ohR_ZY&feature=related

Kieran Richardson (Sunderland) vs. Newcastle 10.25.08 (Have you seen a better free kick this year?)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1699569/

Grant Leadbitter (Sunderland) vs. Arsenal 10.04.08 (In every way a wonder goal–timing, opposition, intangibles: the journeyman Leadbitter comes on late and scores this blinder from the spot where his dad’s ashes are buried, presumed fact thus once again outdistancing the weirdest fiction.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tfqTvTHGA8U&feature=related

Geovanni (Hull) vs. Arsenal 9.27.08 (Like the little girl with the curl, when he’s good he’s very very good.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1605226/

Geovanni (Hull) vs. Tottenham 10.5.08 (Another spinning scorcher from the dangerous Brazilian.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1634465/

Javier Garrido (Man City) vs. Liverpool  10.05.05 (Surprising free kick score from the unheralded City defender.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1631626/

Frank Lampard (Chelsea) vs. Hull 10.29.08 (A long, lovely and lethal Lampard chip–can  anyone do this better?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pu1QEkeNg18

Peter Crouch (Portsmouth) vs. Stoke City 10.5.08 (Gobsmacking this–a Peter Crouch chilena.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1632080/

Matthew Taylor (Bolton) vs. West Ham 10.05.08 (Another Matt Taylor laser.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1631545/

Deco (Chelsea) vs. Bolton 12.06.08  (A pretty overhead kick from the veteran Brazilian/Portugese artisan.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EggJeeAYoRU&feature=related

Steed Malbranque (Sunderland) vs. Hull 12.20.08 (Super Slowhand Steed, lethal at this range.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1883884/

Robin van Persie (Arsenal) vs. Liverpool 12.21.08 (Great control, awesome technique, when he’s healthy no forward plays better textbook football.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1883884/

Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea) vs. West Brom 11.15.08 (Was it a shot? Are you having me on?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wli7Cz4A1OY&feature=related

Glen Johnson (Portsmouth) vs. Hull 11.22.08  (Click on second half highlights–see second goal–yes that’s really Glen Johnson.)
http://www.eplmatches.com/index.php/2008/11/22/portsmouth-vs-hull-highlights/

Robinho (Man City) vs. Arsenal 11.22.08  (So this is why they paid $25 m.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1791291/

Felipe Caicedo (Man City) vs. West Brom 12.21.08 (The longer and more surprising of Caicedo’s two great backheel goals in a ten-day period.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1876055/

Rafael da Silva (Man utd) vs Arsenal  11.08.08 (Young Rafael’s belter: shock goal of the English domestic season?)  first clip is “raw” video shot from stand:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y11hmA6Lt5A&feature=related
also see this clip from unlicensed webcam, capped tv, no sound:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0zA-Mq3Lo&feature=related
and here’s one with Italian narration (“mama mia!… bellissimo!...spectacular!):
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1744304/

Wayne Rooney (08-09) (Part 1) (Sweet compilation of Wazza goals for United and England in the new season, with a music track that nicely fits the action: “hits you like a ton of bricks”.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OpnwfK1okGQ&feature=related

Wayne Rooney: he’s getting perfect. (The title of this video is almost justified by Rooney’s spectacular early season form:  a nice short montage of his Fall ’08  goals, plus a couple of near misses, showing he’s still a bit short of perfect.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4jXn14wgxoY&feature=related

The Delap Phenomenon–this season’s Ronaldo?  (with pseudo-Delaps)

With Ronaldo suddenly proving himself mortal after all in the new season, the most notable attacking phenomenon on the English scene, remarkably enough, was–and who would have believed it–an Irish journeyman plying his trade for newly-promoted and otherwise absolutely unremarkable Stoke City.  And what a trade it was.  Until  Rory Delap wore out his shoulder with all those devastating super-long laser-like throws on goal, he had the likes of David Moyes, Martin O’Neill and Arsene Wenger grinding their teeth and scratching their heads over ways and means of warding off harm from the Delap Bomb; which, due to its brilliant manipulation of a loophole in the offside rules, multiplied by Delap’s untoward ability, kept proving utterly impossible to defend against  (if not also–to some hidebound football purists–indefensible).  The following clips provide rare views, woolly analysis, and some curious evidence of the worldwide influence of this strangely refreshing if short-lived phenomenon, as well as some worrisome hints of its potential dangers for the children of all footballing nations. (Not that the long throw was new to football–most recently J.J.Okocha is still remembered, as are the somersault throws of various Brazilians, not to mention Steve Watson–but nothing quite like what you will see here has ever happened before.)

It’s ironic proof, perhaps, of the deep strangeness of the Delap phenomenon, that no other EPL clips on the net–not even those of the golden Ronaldo–are more universally proscribed than Delap’s.  Believe it.  And treasure these rare gems then, accordingly; particularly the first two, available only in corner pockets such as these, while in the freshly-laundered annals of You Tube, Delap vs. Arsenal has already ceased to exist. (And hasten ye unto said clips, for at any moment, like so much Delappian-goal faery dust, they too may well soon vanish in the night.)

Ricardo Fuller (Stoke City) vs. Arsenal  11.01.08 (from Delap long throw: 1-0)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1723071/

Seyi Olofinjana (Stoke City) vs. Arsenal  11.01.08 (from Delap long throw: 2-0)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1723070/

Rory Delap–Stoke City re. Stoke City/Everton 9.14.08 (Fascinating highlights of multiple Delap throws-on-goal terrorizing Tim Howard and the Toffees in this thus-made-bizarre contest.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vvTS2wmnt3A&NR=1

Tribute to Rory Delap. (Highlights of Delap throws-on-goal vs. Villa, Everton, Sunderland,  Sept./Oct. 08.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=742KZspdgr0&feature=related

Leah/ Daiane (brasil) v Mexico, Womens Under-20 WC 11.24.08 (With segue to unfortunate sub-16 pseudo-Delap.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yJdf_U5Wgds&feature=related

Saque de banda espectacular 11.08  (Quick glimpse of pseudo-Delap mini-catastrophe.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UxcugR4jdXI&feature=related

Pseudo-Delap catastrophe: football throw-in to face (Pompey boys) (longer clip than the above, for context–1:20)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldlAI3bUTU

The Best Goals of 2008 – Navigation:

In Pursuit of the Elusive Perfect Goal: 2008
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 1 (World Football)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 2 (England / Scotland)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 3 (Europe)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 4 (Americas)

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Let us then begin with the long view, seeking the perfect goal on the larger world stage…

African Cup of Nations

This first major tournament of 2008 unfortunately went largely unseen outside the continent where it took place; in Europe and especially England, indeed, it was widely (if quietly) regarded as something of a nuisance, because it summoned major club players back to their home lands.  One article I saw even hinted that African nations should perhaps feel a bit guilty about this.  (But think for a moment: if many of the world’s best players were English–ah, fantasy!–and happened to play their club football in Africa, would England fans feel guilty about seeing them summoned back for a European Cup?)

You goal junkies who missed the tournament will now have a first chance to savor some of its scoring joys, in a fine compilation: African Cup of Nations Top 10 Goals.   The scorers on this clip:  Mohamed Zidan (Egypt) vs. Cameroon, Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) vs. Guinea, Sulley Muntari (Ghana) vs. Guinea, Geremi (Cameroon) vs. Tunisia, Chaouki ben Saada (Tunisia) vs. Cameroon, Salomon Kalou (Ivory Coast) vs. Nigeria, Mejdi Traoui (Tunisia) vs. Senegal,  Eirio van Heerden (South Africa) vs. Angola, Hicham Aboucherouane (Morocco) vs.  Angola, Manucho (Angola) vs. Egypt.
http://www.footytube.com/category/videos/african-cup-of-nations-2008/

see also:
Manucho Goncalves (Angola) vs Egypt 2.10.08 (Notorious for his inconsistency, Manucho also made himself famous for this wicked best-of-tournament strike from way up top.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LsutX4kWGy8&feature=related

Manucho Goncalves (Angola): Manucho O Artilhero “Miguxo” (All Manucho goals in this tournament.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TqVin_Hjo7s&feature=related

2008 Beijing Olympics

This summer “soccer” tournament, unseen or ignored by many of those billions who saw all those hours of gymnastics,  swimming,etc., turned out to be much too good to have been missed.  A good deal of pride was at stake and a good deal of rising talent was on display.  And Argentina even smuggled in Juan-Roman Riquelme.  What more could one want?  (And don’t say, “An England side”.)

Angel di Maria (Argentina) vs Nigeria 8.23.08  (Final 1-0) (This clever chip by a rising world star, coming after a couple of hard tumbles seen at the beginning of the clip, was the tournament’s winning goal)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v581iZtRIbw

Diego Buonanotte (Argentina) vs. Serbia 8.12.08  (On  Lio Messi’s day off in the tournament, the tiny youth who may one day succeed him in the role of el mago came brightly to the fore.)
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/diego%2Bbuonanotte/video/x6febl_gol-de-buonanotte-vs-serbia_sport

Royston Drenthe (Holland) vs. Japan 8.10.08   (This list’s candidate for near-miss of the year, the sizzling Drenthe free-kick off the bar against Japan, coming after a sympathetic three-minute documentation of this famously inconsistent young player’s awful struggles in the tournament, very nearly–but not quite–proves the assertion in the accompanying song-track that “What didn’t kill me can only make me/Stronger”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rcJ70R65_eU

World Cup qualifiers and other internationals

Bafetimbi Gomis (France)(2) vs. Ecuador (friendly) 5.27.08 (A pair of acrobatic wonder strikes from a debutant callup, the first a twisting shot across goal, the second a flying volley–merveilleux!)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zHJgPZvjBWw&NR=1

Sergio Ramos (Spain) vs. Denmark (friendly) 20.08.08 (This Ramos goal comes as the culmination of a 26-pass move, the real quality of the goal consisting not in the sweet clinical finish but in the brilliant interplay of the buildup, so that it’s the teamwork and not the individual that finally deserves the credit: here we see the way Spain plays at its best, wonderful artistic football, inspiring to behold.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MJH1f_U-ezM

Andres Iniesta (Spain) vs Belgium (WC qualifier) 10.15.08 (Iniesta is the stutter-stepping fast-footworking impossible-angle finisher, but the interception and thrilling feed-pass are the familiar wonderstuff of Cesc Fabregas: again, Spanish football at its fancy-finest, moving coach Vicente del Bosques to superlatives later–”all of us in the  dressing room thought it was the best goal of the season; Iniesta himself was more modest: “nice goal, but I can do better.”)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl403YYrh08&NR=1

Pedro Morales (Chile sub-23) vs. Ivory Coast (Toulon Under-23 Tournament, semi-final)(5.23.08 (A heart-stopping moment from the Chilean prodigy:  long range strike of the year?)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bmc4X1O8puQ&feature=related

Fabian Orellana (Chile) vs. Argentina  (WC qualifier)10/15/08 (This one deserves full honors not only for the end-to-end quality of the move preceding it–eight players touching the ball in a rapid, dynamic buildup of the sort normally associated with the other side in this match–but for the youthful debutant Orellana’s cool and poised finish: altogether a perfectly constructed goal stealing a page out of the albiceleste‘s own book, delighting a great crowd in Santiago and securing Chile’s first-ever international victory over Argentina.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3bjMhapLxXQ

Salvador Cabanas (Colombia) vs. Paraguay (WC qualifier) 10.11.08 (“Quick thinking” by the bullish striker with the surprisingly lovely touch, Cabanas–this one, scored early at 9″, silences Colombia for good on a great away night for Paraguay.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N2jqF_eRTuI&NR=1
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfXJaQVV9Q&feature=related

Carlos Costly (Honduras) vs. Canada  (WC qualifier)10.11.08 (A swerving 38-meter howitzer blast into the top right corner from distance that proved costly indeed for the Canadians, whose World Cup hopes it terminated.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sWR0HYVLl3o&feature=related

Ronald Garcia (Bolivia) vs. Peru (WC qualifier) 10.11.08 (This powerful and deadly missile from distance leaves everyone in the La Paz stadium stunned, no one more so than the surprised shooter himself, who barely survives the emotional shock of his wonder goal.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o7BE813z2OM

Ali Gerba (Canada) vs. Mexico (WC qualifier) 10.15.08 (Starting Sven-Goran Eriksson off on another harrowing night in his troubled qualifying campaign at the helm of a team whose veteran players had spoken out boldly against his appointment, Gerba’s wonderfully weighted and lofted lob floats over the head of flabbergasted Mexican keeper Osvaldo Sanchez–and a fretful Sven anxiously paces the touchline, to an ominous music track.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZHFDrNNrlI&feature=related

Jakub “Kuba” Blaszczykowski (Poland) vs Czech Rep. (WC qualifier) 10.12.08 (Don’t worry about pronouncing the name, this talented young player is known to those who love him simply as “Kuby”–and here he tricks the frantically advancing keeper, no less than Petr Cech mind you, with an audaciously cute chip.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWRxdxfvzw&feature=related

Daniele de Rossi (Italy) vs Georgia  (WC qualifier) (9.10.08). A de Rossi missile from distance.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=paizCSnrJ5U

Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney (2) (England) vs. Belarus (WC qualifier) 10.16.08 (England’s two finest players working together very nicely:  Gerrard’s lethal 30-yard drive into the far corner, on the run, is fine, and even better is Rooney’s victory-clinching second on the night, lifted over the keeper after a brilliant feint and displaying a pure scorer’s instincts; Rooney’s post-game comment “it’s probably the best I’ve ever played for England to be honest” was no exaggeration)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pOqdOFH7_78&feature=related

Yohan Gourcuff (France ) vs. Romania  (WC qualifier) 10.11.08 (Last goal on clip: this coming star’s cannon-shot strike will take your breath away.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YkZjHlgxszY&feature=related

Elano (Brazil) vs Portugal  (friendly) 11.19.08 (And a bit of finesse to go with all that high-calibre artillery.)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1782122/

2008 World Club Cup

Cristiano (Adelaide United) vs Al Ahly 12.18.08 (A wicked blast from distance by the other Cristiano, this the Brazilian one– easily the best goal of the tournament.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jEVVlhE5mw0

Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United) vs. Waitakere Utd  12.11.08 (The runner-up–second goal on this clip, the big header by the man in red creates another happy moment for Adelaide United fans everywhere.)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ehbjlVS2-Bk&feature=related

ESPN Top 5 Goals of 2008:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1908656/

and should you like to choose views of the above from alternative clips:

5 Emanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) vs. Liverpool  4.08.08 (Champions League) (plus the Walcott run)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9dG6ag7qU

4 Sulley Muntari (Inter) vs. Napoli 11.22.08i
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Mdmt5th9A

3 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) vs. Atletico Madrid 3.01.08
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=riAz8tzNpaE&NR=1

2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter) vs. Bologna 10.04.08
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=i3ogMVLShjk

1 Pablo Daniel Osvaldo (Fiorentino) vs. Torino 5.21.08
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVr3gWEaVg&feature=relatedr>

The Best Goals of 2008 – Navigation:

In Pursuit of the Elusive Perfect Goal: 2008
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 1 (World Football)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 2 (England / Scotland)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 3 (Europe)
The Best Goals of 2008 – Part 4 (Americas)

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Underestimating your adversary is a poor strategy in any competition.

Last night in Yokohama, where they were contesting the final of the World Club Cup, Manchester United came dangerously close to doing that. Their opponent, Copa Libertadores champion Liga de Quito of Ecuador, put up a courageous fight. Proving themselves a far more formidable opponent than expected, at the end a talented and experienced Liga side had mighty United on the back foot.

When in the 90th minute a fully extended Edwin van der Sar managed to tip Damián Manso’s blazing strike from distance just over the bar, the quiet sigh of relief in the United camp was almost audible.

Manso had terrorized van der Sar earlier, coming wickedly close with a 25-yard bolt in the 62nd minute; that had been Liga’s first shot on goal, but it marked a turning point in this match–the last third of which saw United on the defensive, all its holding skills required to deal with the surprising threat on the wings from Liga’s speedy and mercurial Luis Bolanos and from–above all–the aggressive, confident Argentine veteran Manso, whose sure touch, excellent delivery and rampaging forward motion appeared to catch the European champions entirely off guard.

But perhaps United should be forgiven for failing to anticipate the threat represented by Manso and Bolanos. The very useful Goal.Com rating system for world players ranks Manso third and Bolanos fifteenth among all midfielders (To put this in perspective, Xavi ranks fifth, Cesc Fabregas sixth, Kaka ninth–and the highest ranked Englishman, Frank Lampard, no higher than 18th).

Certainly the English media were caught unawares. Both Barry Glendenning of the Guardian and Chris Bevan of the BBC, in their match reports, referred repeatedly to Damián Manso as Alejandro Manso (Andy Hunter, in his followup piece in the Guardian, repeated his colleague’s mistake) (Editor: Alejandro is Damian Manso’s middle name). No doubt their error was the result of limited research–but again, they too might be forgiven, since the sponsoring wisdom of FIFA, as evidenced in their website and publicity releases (which Barry and Chris must have been following, how else explain their common laziness), equally failed to include the correct first name for this wonderful player, who is renowned throughout South America but obviously unknown to the xenophobic sages of European football.

Certainly the twenty-nine-year-old veteran Damián “Piojo” Manso is well known in Argentina, where he played brilliantly for Newell’s Old Boys of Rosario in 1996-2001 and 2002-2005. His teammates at Newell’s in those years included the likes of Maxi Rodriguez, Gabriel Heinze and Gabriel Batistuta; among those behind him in the side was a Newell’s youth team player and local Rosario lad named Lionel Messi.

And indeed Damián Manso did finally earn the attention–and respect–not only of the twice-challenged van der Sar but of United captain Rio Ferdinand, arguably the finest central defender in what is generally considered the most powerful football league on the planet. Not that Rio had gone so far as to be able to put a name on the number of the man who had been such an irritant all night. “That little left footed front man, number 21, is a fantastic footballer,” Ferdinand fairly conceded to a Japanese interviewer after the match.

At least Rio Ferdinand had sorted out the numbers. The Guardian’s Glendenning, whose strongest assertion all night had been his stated wish that the match would end in 90 minutes so that he could get back to London to complete his holiday preparations (“I’ve got lots to do to clear the decks before heading home to my mammy in Ireland for Christmas”), computed Manso’s laserlike stroke-of-90-minutes near-miss as coming three minutes before that–and, most curiously, credited the shot not to the man who had taken it but to another Liga player, Claudio Bieler.

Ah well, why bother to get things right in a game everyone in the English media had treated all along as the culmination of a ridiculous folly of a tournament?

United took the match–1-0 on a splendid 73rd minute Wayne Rooney goal–and won the Cup. Without much celebration, as it had been a somewhat harrowing contest. And there was that long flight home. And the prospect of Stoke City to contend with on Boxing Day.

But then United know what to expect from a hapless Stoke side, having punished them without much mercy in an easy 5-0 win last month at Old Trafford.

Stoke unlike Liga have proven themselves worthy of no more than limited respect. Of course we’ve heard endlessly of the threat posed by the epic throw-ins of Stoke’s Rory Delap. Delap is by now a name everyone in the wide world of football knows. Still, it seems that not even after he scared United half to death last night is anyone in the charmed kingdom of Premier League triumphalism able to get Damián Manso’s name right.

Why is this? Is xenophobia an English virtue?

Coming into this final, contributors on English websites, eager to demonstrate their cultural provincialism, consistently disparaged the Ecuadoran side. Liga de Quito would provide–it was thought–no more than a straw foe for might United to easily bowl over. One particularly confident blogging dummy referred to them as “LDU Quinto”. Why bother to know who you’re playing when you don’t even expect a serious game?

The odd thing is, there are parts of the world where Liga de Quito is taken very seriously indeed. Brazil, for example, where, rumour has it, people know a bit about football. In order to qualify for the World Club Cup, Liga had to come out on top in the grueling Copa Libertadores competition, the highest club-level prize available to sides from South America and Mexico.

Getting to the July final of the Libertadores–the decisive second leg was an unforgettably intense, emotional match played before 90,000 highly-involved Brazilian fans in the mammoth Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro–took six months of hard labor on Liga’s part. There was no fluke in their victory. Up 4-2 over Fluminense after the first leg at home in Ecuador, they found themselves brought level at 5-5 aggregate after two spectacular goals from Flu’s marvelous Thiago Neves (another brilliant South American player virtually unknown in Europe before his move to Hamburg SV). Amidst the rocking euphoria of the Maracana, however, Liga held on. In a penalty shootout their great 37-year-old keeper Jose Francisco Cevallos, the final’s most valuable player, saved three kicks–and perhaps also the life of Liga manager Edgardo Bauza, whose isolated agony during the fraught shootout, caught by television images, provides one of the more interesting emotional dramas in recent football history.

You can see the riveting highlights of that memorable final here:

First Leg Highlights

Second Leg Highlights

After the Libertadores victory Liga returned to their own league, where, like United, they have had their own struggles. In the recently concluded Ecuadoran Apertura, they finished second to local rivals Deportivo Quito. Their title-deciding end-of-November clasico against Deportivo was a magnificent affair, closely-contested, every ball fought for with great feeling; it was a match that will be remembered in Ecuador for many years. But don’t take my word for it, look for yourself:

As of course will many in South America–if not in Europe– remember this 2008 World Club Club final, a match that was regarded, in the run-up, with little more than ridicule and annoyance by the fans and press corps of the English champions. But just ask Rio Ferdinand if this was an easy night for United. Defeating the second-best side in Ecuador (and the best in South America) required every bit of energy left in United’s tank. You can bet that Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo had not anticipated being on the pitch a full 90 minutes, as in the event they were.

Liga stood brave and tall in defeat, though at the end the desolated keeper Cevallos sat gutted between his posts, watching the big screen at the other end of the stadium as though it might miraculously show a different outcome on a night when the unbelievable had nearly happened.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The problem I fear with approaching any non-European competition as an admitted a priori “avid PL supporter”, as  does Mr. BD Condell in a prior piece posted on this site, is that one tends to be blinded by one’s predispositions and miss what virtues there may be in such competitions.  

While concurring in Soccerlens’ correspondent  Condell’s disparaging view of many elements of  this tournament, I also fear his disdain teeters over at some points into outright scorn, rather unfairly given the quality of some of the actual play; and that this imbalanced and perhaps prejudicial treatment calls for a bit of redressing.

The Eurocentric prejudice against less familiar manifestations of world football I’m here addressing holds true especially in the case of Latin American competitions, and tends also to extend into a general disregard for the contributions of Latin American clubs in international competitions in general. 

Granted Latin American football doesn’t much resemble European football–it boasts less raw power, and probably also less pace than one might expect from the EPL, if not also from La Liga, and perhaps even from Serie A  (though has anyone ever sincerely accused Serie A of being the least bit pacy?)–it also offers relative virtues of its own: more touches, more finesse, more grace, and, in this writer’s modest view, more true fighting spirit.

The present Japan world club tournament is no exception.  The sometimes farcical nature of the set-up and proceedings may well have caused others along with Mr. Condell to see this as a shambolic clown show to be laughed at and ignored in anticipation of the ultimate appearance of the semi-divine grandees from Manchester, who have pretty much been accorded the championship before even venturing out of the hotel mass-autograph-sessions to bother to  touch stud to pitch.

But in the quarter-finals we did–as is unfortunately not reported by the possibly slightly-biased Mr. Condell–see one wonderful match.  Al Ahly, the skilled and brave Egyptian club here representing Africa, looked indomitable for most of the night against Mexican CONCACAF representative Pachuca; but in the second half Pachuca came roaring back, tied the match at 2-2 late-on with a score by Argentine forward Christian “Chaco” Gimenez, working an adroit 1-2 with his fellow Argentine Bruno Marioni, then scored twice again in extra time–the ultimate winner put in by another of Pachuca’s experienced and talented Argentine contingent, Damian “El Chilendrino” Alvarez, with an insurance goal coming on Gimenez’s second of the night.  Marvelous and utterly exciting game, in short, whichever side you may have been rooting for.

Then, after enduring the intervening descent into admittedly dull matches involving the pretty ordinary Oceanian and Asian representatives–never more than straw opponents anyway, vying in futility for the anticipated dubious honour of being knocked out by  imperious United in the semis–came the semifinal between Pachuca and Copa Libertadores winner Liga de Quito of Ecuador, representing the South American continent.

You may not have heard of the latter club unless you’re enough of a football fan to have looked in on their recent victorious Libertadores campaign, crowned by a fantastic conquest away to Fluminense in the caldron of Rio de Janeiro; but if you were lucky enough to see any of that, you’ll know that Liga represents no straw opponent for anybody.  This is a wicked-good football club.

As I’d expected unreason got the better of me and I ended up, after three nights up working on the Mexico gran final piece posted elsewhere on this site (Tears of Joy: Mexican Apertura 2008 Final), not sleeping again, opting instead for tuning in at 2.30 a.m. to the  Pachuca/Liga semi-final in Japan.

And the game I thought was bad/good, with the good winning out on balance. The weather conditions and crowd apathy: very bad. Reminded me of 2002 Copa Mundial and why I hate watching games played in Far East: unless local teams are involved (in which case we observe mass robotic beehive-culture fanatic brainless crowd support), nobody in the stadium  understands or cares what’s happening save the few loyal traveling supporters. Thus here, a few dozen Pachuca fans made more noise than the “neutral crowd.”

But the football they saw, despite awful conditions, had some real quality I thought. The ultimate winners from Ecuador sported in their starting eleven the nucleus of the same wonderful Liga club we aficionados of Latin football all know from the Libertadores—the night’s two scorers Bieler and Bolanos,  plus Manso, Riesgo, Cevallos, all the key players from last year save the excellent,  now-departed winger Guerron. Once behind 2-0, in a nasty cold rain, Pachuca had an impossibly slippery hill to climb.

But this was the same veteran club that  had fought back so courageously to defeat Al Ahly a few nights earlier, and you could see they believed in the possibility of doing the same here—si se puede! Were I a Pachuca loyalist, I’d have been disappointed on the night yet nonetheless would have felt no shame in holding my head high afterward, given the battling performance of my defeated club.  And were I an Argentine (instead of merely a foolish old norteamericano) I’d be entirely proud of the fighting spirit shown, pretty much for pride’s sake, by the venerable Pachuca front line of Gimenez-Alvarez-Marioni… luchando, peleando till the end. Pachuca must have outshot Liga by 20-8 or so, dominated possession by something like an 80/20 ratio, made many great late chances, just could not manage to llegar–get there in the end– but left all their hearts on the pitch nonetheless.

So: I took that good  (excellent competitive football of  a pleasantly high quality) from the otherwise bad (the rest of the tournament, i.e. games not involving the three clubs from Africa and Latin America).   Mixed views on the tournament so far, then–but please let’s not entirely dismiss it, as Mr. Condell has done.

You can probably tell from all this that in my heart I had really wished for a Pachuca/United final. And as it is, I expect LDU to give United a run for their money. Anyone else feel likewise?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

If you can’t remember the last time you watched thousands of mature adults, on a day of deep blue skies and  blindingly bright high altitude winter sunshine, all weeping and singing at the same time, then you’re like me.  And while you like me have probably read in the news lately that happiness has been discovered to be contagious, but only when shared in person,  a case might be made for the belief that every now and then you can pick up a bit of contact emotion–including sheer joy–over distances of thousands of miles.

That’s what happened to this grateful scribe, observing from afar Sunday’s return leg of the championship final of the Mexican fall torneo.

The match was played in Toluca’s Estadio Nemesio Diez (nicknamed La Caldera, and for visiting clubs traditionally about as comfortable as the crater of an erupting volcano), and won by Toluca over Cruz Azul by a final global or aggregate count of 2(7)–2(6).  But mere numbers do not do justice to such a day.    This was an intense, exhausting affair full of wonderfully competitive football–much of it beautiful, passionate, skillful, and some of it brutal; there were thirteen yellow cards, a red card, and more hard knocks than could be counted, yet without a single C-Ron-esque display of wounded theatrics. 

This was real war, not the opera:  one player, the defender Jose Manuel Cruz Alta of Toluca,  ended up staying on the pitch all the way to the end with one side of his face blue and swollen twice the size of the other–and he’d been the one who’d got the better of things in a violent clash with the excellent young Cruz Azul midfielder Cesar Villaluz; Villaluz  went into convulsions, apparently stopped breathing and when last seen was on oxygen being stretchered off to the hospital (as his side had run out of substitutions, they had to fare the rest of the way–and coming from behind at that– with ten men).

This was an unrelenting affair which took nearly three hours.   Ninety minutes of furious action followed by two periods of leg-heavy extra time followed by an energy-draining round of thirteen penalties, the first twelve all made. When the unlucky-for-the-visitors thirteenth was saved by Toluca’s 39-year-old Argentine keeper Hernan Cristante, an infernal ocean of dammed-up feeling broke loose and turned to pure heavenly joy among the red-clad sections of the crowd.

Andres Cantor, the great Argentine announcer, made the contest a stage upon which to build with his astonishing voice the roller coasters of emotion that always make these finals so thrilling–none more so than this one.   This was a match that finally wrung every last drop of emotion out of everyone: not only the sincerely committed, enormously valiant players and coaches, but the masses of absolutely involved spectators. There was not a quiet moment all day,  the small lagoon of  Cruz Azul blue-shirts standing up continuously to sing bravely in the face of the far louder, brighter sea of Toluca red shirts and pennants and banners that surrounded and finally overwhelmed them.

Coming in to this return leg, or vuelta, down 2-0 after a flat and dispirited performance before their disappointed home fans on a bone-chillingly cold night back in the capital, Cruz Azul appeared to have little chance to dig themselves out of the hole they were in.  They faced not only perhaps the most difficult of all Mexican away venues, but also the most difficult of defenses; Cristante, indeed, was coming off a recent stretch of nine consecutive games without surrendering so much as a single goal.  He’d already won four championships in goal for Toluca, and it appeared now as though a fifth was inevitable.

And indeed, as the gran final now began to unfold, it looked very much like a repeat performance.  Once again Toluca was orderly, precise, serene, dominant; as they had in Mexico City three nights earlier, they were playing with energy, discipline, confidence and flair.   But then something mysterious occurred.  After half-time Cruz Azul coach Benjamin Galindo tossed caution to the winds, made three substitutions, opted to attack at any cost and sent his players out chasing for all they were worth a forlorn hope–what now appeared to be a mission-impossible fightback.

It was as if Galindo had instilled in his team the understanding that to lose by six was no worse than to lose by one or two.  And then suddenly, back they came.  There was a Cruz Azul score: a lovely centering pass from the gifted joven Villaluz, flicked by the heel of Paraguayan forward Pablo Zeballos (a classic taquito) into the path of Alejandro Vela to turn home.  Tienen la esperanza! exclaimed Andres Cantor.  They’ve got a look-in!  And then, with twelve minutes left, blue-shirted defender Julio Caesar “Cata” Domingues headed in a corner from Jaime Lozano, and Cantor’s famous Gooooooooaaallll! echoed all across the intently listening Republic.

The aggregate stood now at 2-2: and the real drama was at that point only beginning.

The Mexican final–since 1997 three have been two every year, the Apertura in the Fall and the Clausura in the Spring–is a sort of national fiesta, and as such a pretty tough ticket at the best of times. But when, as has happened quite often in recent years (the past two winners before Toluca, Atlante and Santos, were also smaller clubs), the final migrates away from the big stadiums of Mexico City and Guadalajara, it  can be all but impossible to buy your way in through honest means.This aspect of things always adds a little extra publicity spice to the run-up, and this year, interviews with ticket-hungry Toluca followers dominated the sports news in advance of the deciding leg.

And so that much anticipated match finally took place on Sunday: in the thin air of this small-to-mid-size  provincial market and industrial city–the city located at the highest altitude of any in the Republic, at 2680 metres, high enough indeed to land itself and its earnest, proud little club within fallout range of the Brazilian clubs’ longstanding efforts to restrict high-altitude competition in Copa Libertadores competition (a campaign frustrated at one point  by the brilliant p.r. ploy of  Bolivian president Evo Morales, who invited reporters to come watch him have a kickabout in the snows of the high reaches of his Andean nation, to suggest that even if pacy Brazilian fullbacks might get winded trying to bomb forward at such altitudes, he himself was hardly daunted by the task.)

Toluca, a small club in a bright red kit–they’re sometimes called the Diablos Rojos, Red Devils, and sometimes los choriceros, hot red peppers–has for some time sported a refreshing, intelligent, engaging, highly entertaining style of play, with amazing success considering their low-echelon status in a league perennially dominated by a few big clubs.  In overcoming the giant club Cruz Azul–Cruz Azul’s shirts bear the blue cross emblem of a huge cement company, and they are accordingly called La Maquina Cementera, and are historically the club of the employed industrial working classes; that is, those with actual jobs, not including peasants–this overachieving minnow Toluca has now won its ninth championship, thus surpassing Cruz Azul’s total of eight. (Though always a power, the maquina have been underachieving and won nothing for the past decade.)  

The only clubs to have won more titles are Chivas of Guadalajara with eleven and America of Mexico City with ten; but neither Chivas, the unofficial national club (they employ only Mexican players, and thus in effect represent everybody, that is, Mexicans of all classes and political persuasions), nor America, owned by the national television-monopoly conglomerate known as Televisa (Americanistas tend to represent the middle class and the political center), have been doing very well of late, and indeed neither of them even managed to quality for the eight-team liguilla from which Toluca now  justifiably emerges as campeon.

And so how did that intense long day in the bright high sun finally close?   Two relatively slow-motion extra-time periods.  Then a period of lie-down in  dappled sun-and-shade, and a regathering finally around the managers, Cruz Azul’s Galindo and Toluca’s Jose Manuel “Chepo” De la Torre (a decade before, the two had been teammates on a championship Chivas team); De la Torre could be seen absent-mindedly stroking the wounded head of his battered defender Cruz Alta, much as a mother strokes the head of a child, as he explained the strategy for kicks to be taken. And then those excruciating penalties, with not a miss through the first dozen, the whole building sequence narrated so wonderfully by Andres Cantor that if you don’t enjoy this two-part set of clips of that full narration, you probably don’t like football–or high drama:

That second clip also provides, at the end, just a taste of the emotion I mentioned coming in–the heady elixir in the air of an unforgettable day of football, celebration, excitement, pain, and tears of sorrow and joy. You’ll see Hernan Cristante, in tears, saluting the home fans, and the wonderfully skilled Brazilian-born midfielder Sinha, holding his child, in quiet tears as he’s interviewed; these are battle-hardened international veterans mind you, for the moment totally and quite movingly at one under the bright sun with the equally overjoyed, weeping supporters in their adopted footballing homeland. And then there’s an interview with Toluca coach Jose Manuel  “Chepo” de la Torre, also in tears.  Two years before to the day, De la Torre was celebrating another championship won by a team under his direction.  That day it was Chivas.   But as you will see, for De la Torre as for almost everybody fortunate enough to have been there (as well as for many of us who weren’t), this day it was totally Toluca.

(For the curious, here are two additional highlights clips, one for the first leg and one for the second leg of the final, up to ninety minutes; alas, on these two the announcer is perfectly fine, but is not  the great  Andres Cantor):

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

My, my. I note today that Sir Alex, with typically shrewd and devious application of more torque than a spin-bowler’s or curveball pitcher’s, has said that a draw with Real would be “a nice party–tea and biscuits with Ramon Calderon.” Now does that mean he does or doesn’t desire such a draw? Hmm.

I can’t help recalling–and who that saw them could ever forget–the knockout fixtures between United and Real in the springtime of 2003. Last night I saw that Ronaldo–the one who so terrorized and mesmerized United back then–now back in Sao Paulo and rather sadly struggling to regain fitness so as to play for Corinthians, sweating on the workout machines and looking about as close to his best form as, oh, Muhammad Ali is looking these days. So let’s admit, that was then, this is now.

Back then, certainly, Real were no opponent to be dispelled with mind games. But have things really changed that drastically? One can but wonder. And for that matter, with the extra incentive provided them by a good deal of recent embarrassment, amplified now by the Ramos appointment, one also can’t help feeling that by February Real may come to represent an altogether more formidable opponent than they’ve seemed of late.

Given the history, then, I feel that for anybody connected with United to suggest Real would represent a desirable draw would be a definite case of tempting fate. What if it turns out that Rooney gets himself suspended today for having succumbed to red-mist-itis against Aalborg? He is the heart and the engine, and without him United are not the same club.

Their present Ronaldo is the world’s fanciest show-pony, but his temperamental flaws may represent an even greater danger than Rooney’s–since even at the worst of times, Rooney is all about pulling his club through on his back, whereas C. Ronaldo, I am sorry to have to say, has never really been about anything but himself.

The soul of the “old” United, I always felt, was Keane, and without a presence of that proportion (keeping in mind that not even Keane, actually outplayed by Makelele in those fixtures, was enough to singlehandedly conquer Real by sheer force of will back in ’03 as he’d done a few years earlier against Juve), as well as now perhaps also without Rooney,

I would not fancy United’s chances rolling into the casa of the old–or for that matter the new–Real. So if I were a United fan, I would worry that asking the heavens for a knockout draw with Real Madrid might turn out to be case of wishing for something that comes back to haunt. Though, like any United fan I suppose, I’d also hope to hell I was wrong about that anxiety…were I a United fan, that is!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Tom Clark looks at the Top 5 Goals from each set of World Cup Qualifiers (last weekend and midweek), focusing specifically on CONCACAF and CONMEBOL matches.

Goals of the Weekend October 11/12 ’08

Could anyone not agree the Johan Gourcuff cannon shot for France vs. Romania, a 35-yard bolt off the bottom of the bar, was the best goal in last weekend’s weekend’s round of European qualifiers?

Tied for second I’d put Kuba  Blaszczykowski (Poland) tricking the frantically advancing  Czech keeper Petr Cech with a cute chip. 

Third, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar,  aptly nicknamed “The Hunter” (Netherlands), for his left footed drive across the face of the goal vs. Iceland.  (Is Huntelaar the best Dutch striker not yet playing his club football in Madrid or London?)

In truth it was a wonderful round for goals in the qualifiers (this rarely happens, most qualifiers being lumpen affairs), but apart from Gourcuff’s, I think the weekend’s true beauties were in the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL games, so you may not see them unless you go looking for them. 

And you can do that by going to 101GreatGoals.com and calling them up: I won’t link specific clips here because you’ll have more fun searching on your own among the several available versions of each goal posted on that useful site. 

Here are my top 5 from the Americas, with a tie for fifth:

l.  Carlos Costly, Honduras vs. Canada.  This swerving howitzer blast  into the top right corner from distance proved costly indeed for the Canadians, finishing them off for the night and also finishing off their South Africa chances.

2. Ronald Garcia, Bolivia, vs. Peru.  Another powerful  and deadly strike from distance, nailing Peru to the bottom of the table in theeliminatorias.  The announcer on one video clip goes crazy, justifiably.

3. Ricardo Fuller (Jamaica) vs. Mexico.  This one, ghosted in from way out, and the only goal of the match, ruined Sven Eriksson’s night.  Fuller is Jamaica’s best player, and already making a reputation in the Premiership after a sweet goal  for Stoke against Bolton in his debut; since then he’s scored in  just about every game in which he’s been healthy (that’s three so far). 

4. Salvador Cabanas (Paraguay) vs. Colombia. This one, scored early (9″) and again the only goal of the night, silenced Colombia for good.  Arguably Cabanas (who plays his domestic football in the Mexican league)  is currently the strongest striker now playing in the Americas–looks like a bull, runs like a deer, has the touch of a pianist and scares everybody.  When he was hurt for six weeks this year his club (America of Mexico City) didn’t win a match.  His first week back, he put in two, the only two goals in a clasico  against Cruz Azul.

5. (Tie.) Hensy Munoz (Cuba) vs. USA.  This sinking volley over the American keeper Tim Howard was a real beauty, saving a little face for the Cubans in a sad 6-1 loss in the Yankees’ house (after a pretty bad week for the Cuban team, including two well-publicized player defections; the Cubans just can’t seem to come to America without losing athletes these days; haven’t they heard about the credit crunch?) 

Also: Robinho (Brazil) vs. Venezuela.  He makes millions whereas Hensy makes nothing, but let’s take nothing away from this lad for his money-bags: the goal, a fusillade released on the run after a cut inside to his right from 30 yards out, was very pretty. 

Goals of the Midweek Matches, October 15

Again, if you’re a European fan, you’ve probably seen the majority of the highlight goals from this night’s round of Euroqualifiers, so let me not linger unduly. One might argue the virtues of several stellar candidates for top honors here.  Piotr Trochowski’s first international goal for Germany to disappoint Wales 1-0, a fizzing missile from distance after a neat twist and cut, will probably get many votes. 

As will Andres Iniesta’s first-half equalizer in Spain’s 2-1 defeat of Belgium, set up by a Cesc Fabregas interception and pass and completed by some nice stutter-step footwork by Iniesta to dummy the keeper before an impossible-angle finish, moving Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque to superlatives later: “all of us in the dressing room thought it was the best goal of the season” (Iniesta himself was more modest: “nice goal, but I can do better”). 

Another precise tight-angle finish from the left, after one nifty move to lose two defenders and another to mystify Finnish keeper Jussi Jaskelainen, qualify Andrei Arshavin’s goal for Russia for similarly high ranking.  And let’s not forget the two terrific England goals against Belarus: Steven Gerrard’s lethal 30-yard drive into the far corner, on the run; and Wayne Rooney’s second of the night to clinch the win, lifted over the keeper after a brilliant feint and displaying a pure scorer’s instincts (Rooney’s post-game comment, “it’s probably the best I’ve ever played for England to be honest,” was no exaggeration–which is saying something, given Rooney’s performance in Euro 2004 before being injured). 

Honorable mention is also deserved by Milos Krasic of Serbia (vs. Austria) for a lovely strike from outside right twisting away from the keeper into the left corner: impressive.

And then to those sweet goals from the other half of the world, which, again, you may have missed. My top five:

l. Ali Gerba, Canada vs. Mexico, starting Eriksson off on another difficult night with a nicely weighted and lofted lob over shocked keeper Osvaldo Sanchez. 

2. Fabian Orellana, Chile vs. Argentina: this one deserves honors not only for the end-to-end quality of the move that preceded it (eight players touching the ball in a rapid, dynamic buildup of the kind usually associated with the other side in this contest) but for the youthful debutant Orellana’s cool and poised finish: a perfectly constructed goal stealing a page out of the albiceleste‘s own book, delighting a great crowd in Santiago and  securing Chile’s first-ever international victory over Argentina. 

3. Luton Shelton, Jamaica, the only goal in a surprising 1-0 win over Honduras in Kingston that kept the home side’s forlorn hope for qualification alive: dragged across the goal at a difficult angle from the right corner, satisfying work indeed.

4. Russell Latapy, Trinidad & Tobago, a quick-reaction low volley up the middle by the 40-year-old journeyman who plies his trade at club level in the SPL (for Falkirk), proving that maybe age doesn’t really matter all that much.  (Well, one can always dream.)

5. Vicente Matias Vuoso, Mexico, a strong header across the goal off a Giovanni Dos Santos center to save a 2-2 draw for Eriksson’s Mexico side against Canada.  Coincidentally, though the talented Argentine native Vuoso, who plays for Santos Laguna in Mexico,  adopted Mexican nationality (at Eriksson’s behest) only a few months ago, this will have to qualify as the sole goal of the night scored by a player born in Argentina.

But to make up for that deficit, and also because of its quality, before closing I ought to mention
one final sweet goal of the week that occurred not  in the qualifiers, but in club play: 

Alfredo “Chango” Moreno, the Argentine striker of club America (Mexico City) vs. Puebla, earning his club a 1-1 draw with a score that  must be seen to be believed.  This goal might be called orchestral: it includes a spectacular gambeta-cum-stepover, leaving two defenders stupefied, a quick blind pivot and beautiful shot from distance off the underside of the bar.   It’s the goal of the season so far!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News