One MONSTER Goal

This was posted on the Stanford Womens team thread on bigsoccer. This goal by Stanford's Lindsay Taylor was absolutely ridiculous, in a good way. Have a look ~



I don't watch a lot of womens' soccer, but I have watched a fair number of games from college to the Women's World Cup and Olympics. This is the best goal I have ever seen scored in women's soccer, and that includes comparing this to some killer strikes by Michelle Akers in her prime. Frankly, it is one of the nicest goals I have ever seen in ANY soccer.

Others have commented on LT's nice footwork before striking the ball. And of course, they are right, it was world class.

I am even more impressed by the strike itself, though. If you look closely at the video, you'll see (though not very well due to the distance and angle of the video) that she not only got tons of power on the ball, but it had a monster swerve as well. She "bent it like Beckham" right into the upper 90 from absolutely downtown. The 'keeper, who correctly was sliding over to her right post as LT was winding up to shoot, still had absolutely NO CHANCE despite cheating over as far as she did. A sublime strike, as nice as you will see anywhere in soccer at any level.

This goal reminds me a lot of the one Preki, playing for the USA Mens National Team used to beat mighty Brazil in the '98 Gold Cup. Preki put a similar move on his defender and then unleashes a swerving, dipping cannon-shot that the flying Taffarel could not touch. The swerve on LT's ball looked similar to what Preki put on his, though Preki's had a little more of a screwball-like dip.

Here is a video of Preki's goal. This is a longer version than what I posted on bigsoccer, and it shows Preki's shot from more than one angle.



The reverse angle shows the swerve/dip very nicely. LT hit a very similar ball, and from further out. Incredible.