What makes a goal "great"?

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Yewsman

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just watched Channel 5 highlights of the Championship and how they were raving about Wednesday's first goal by Reach. Basically he took a swing at the ball which fell to him and from 30 yards out it went in the top corner. In that situation how many times would he do that out of say 20? Probably once if that. So is that a great goal or just fortunate? Compare that with our first 3 goals today. All came from a great passing and movement and great finish by Leon. The fourth was probably a bit messy and I don't think anyone would argue that was "great".
Coutts goal against Reading, great strike into top corner and did come from a good movement but I was not sure if Leon laid it back or if it was a defender trying to clear.
Tony Currie's "quality goal" from a "quality player" against West Ham was individual skill.
What do others think makes a great goal.
 



Intelligence and/ or skill. Anything else is flukey. But I'll happily settle for a flukey goal If necessary.
 
Credit where it's due, the pigs first goal today was a great strike, fluke or not, but it matters not, anything they achieved today was overshadowed by reject Leon Clarke :)
 
The reach goal was superb.
At the time it was scored made it more superb because it tottally knocked villa off track.
Simular to us against pigs and the dirties.
Early goals give teams adrenaline and it shows.
Bastard reach.
 
You can appreciate a goal for many reasons but if it has the right timing, it can make almost any good goal great. Peschi's, Jags against Leeds and Duffy's against the neighbours spring to mind.
 
Villa were so bad today. There was so much space in their half. John Terry is so bad its a joke, he set up Reachs goal, and the only reason he is still playing must be some corruption involved with Mr Loyalty. Hope we absolutely muller them and stick it up Mr Loyaltys team.
 
Look at the Swindon away game last season. 'Pass, pass, pass'. So many players involved, covering a vast area of the pitch over a certain length of time means there's so many occassions the whole move can break down.

That was a 'great' goal. Reach's goal was down to one player with one kick. Good but not 'great'.
 
bornablade said:
That was a 'great' goal. Reach's goal was down to one player with one kick. Good but not 'great'.
Click to expand...


Would you say the same about Jags against Leeds or Brown against Wednesday?

Fair play to Reach it was a great goal and if it was Stevens (as an example) who'd hit it, we'd all be saying the same.
 
Thousands of goals are scored in hundreds of professional games around the world every week. Any goal for your team feels 'good', obviously, but a 'great' goal has to be better than your average strike. That said, 'great' isn't the highest ranking you could give a goal. An 'unbelievable goal', or 'world class' goal would have to be an even better example than what we would call 'great', in my opinion. Feel free to add any superlative you like and the relative type of goal you would expect to see matching such a description.

If you look on Youtube, you'll find loads of compilations of 'greatest goals in history', or similar titles. I've watched a few of these, mostly just to enjoy watching some class goals (after turning off the obnoxious music that inevitably seems to always accompany them), but some familiar patterns do come through.

Most of the goals on those compilations are made up of long range strikes, acrobatic volleys or individual runs.

Very few headed goals, even fewer team goals where the finish is a tap-in. This doesn't mean that the greatest goals in history are all of the above type, it means that in general, we don't value enough team efforts, and put too much emphasis on individual brilliance. Or perhaps just the people who make those videos, but the point stands.

Personally, those videos get boring after a while when you realise 80% of them are just a player pelting it from 30 yards out into the top corner. Scoring from that range is difficult, but if you get enough power on the ball and it's accurate enough, i'd say it's actually easier to score than many people realise. It takes a pretty superb goalkeeper to stop a ball when it's going into the top corner, even from long range.

However, Reach's goal was great, imo. It's taken first time on the volley and was unstoppable. We can say it was 'lucky', but then we'd just sound like bitter wednesdayites who are unwilling to give any credit to our quality, purely because of our rivalry. I say all that with the caveat, again, that 'great' really isn't the highest accolade you can give a goal. I would say there are probably a dozen or so goals every weekend which could be deemed 'great'.
 



It was a decent strike and it seemed to kill the game from Villa's point of view.
 
My Bury supporting mate was telling me how much of a donkey he was when we signed him too.

A good goal for me is when the attacker is resourceful and uses his initiative to unlock the defence and put it in the onion bag. Perfect example: Dean Saunders throw in goal infront of the kop.
 
People, me included, will always love the spectacular goals. If that strike weren't for Wednesday I'd watch it on repeat. Yes, it's a percentage game in some ways that if you let a player hit the ball from there enough times then one will go in. But so are most things from that perspective. It's not like Messi or Ronaldo skin three players for a fabulous solo goal every time they get the ball. Most of the time a defender wins out. They're special goals because the player beat the odds with a bit of vision, skill, or perfect technique.

Personally, I love a good team goal, or a good break. Either the ones with fifteen plus passes (like the Swindon away goal mentioned above), or the ones where it goes from one end to other in a heartbeat (like Sharp's goal against Bolton last year). The spectacular goals are fun to watch, it's when a team consistently produces team goals that you know you're watching quality football.
 
Yewsman said:
just watched Channel 5 highlights of the Championship and how they were raving about Wednesday's first goal by Reach. Basically he took a swing at the ball which fell to him and from 30 yards out it went in the top corner. In that situation how many times would he do that out of say 20? Probably once if that. So is that a great goal or just fortunate? Compare that with our first 3 goals today. All came from a great passing and movement and great finish by Leon. The fourth was probably a bit messy and I don't think anyone would argue that was "great".
Coutts goal against Reading, great strike into top corner and did come from a good movement but I was not sure if Leon laid it back or if it was a defender trying to clear.
Tony Currie's "quality goal" from a "quality player" against West Ham was individual skill.
What do others think makes a great goal.
Click to expand...

It’s a 4% chance of scoring for shots from outside the box....for me that’s just lucky if you score. Yeah some may have more skill, but it’s luck if 4 out of 100 attempts go in.

A quality goal is the 2nd we scored against Reading, that was pure brilliance, and the hat rick Clarke scored today. Quality passing and movement that set up a cross or pass within the box.

What’s great about us, and why we’re having so much success, is that we rarely shoot from outside the box, we keep working the ball and moving to get inside area or within an optimal crossing position.
 
Michael Vaughan tweeted this goal yesterday evening. 20 odd seconds after kick off. The build up was class, knock it about, send it back to the keeper, lump it, knock it down, smash it into the top corner. Brilliant finish.

I'd say that our 2nd and 3rd goals were better aesthetically, but as always, our 4th and their first all count the same.
 
I am relatively new to this, but I love a bounce buster, one that changes the entire game, breaks an old hex or takes a superior opponent by surprise. These are the most memorable. Maybe these are not the greatest technically. Maybe these are not the most spectacular goals. They are, however, the ones that last in my mind -- the first pair of goals at Wembley (Baxter assisted by Brayford and Scougs assisted by Murphy) opposite Hull, Che's magical pair of goals in the home leg opposite the Spurs, Duffy's bounce killer at this year's Steel City Derby. What I would add to the discussion above is that one way to measure the greatness of a goal is by the meaning of the goal (what was at stake, what the goal changed, why it stands out in memory, the meaning of the goal, not its technical merits).
 
Last edited:
JimPhipps said:
I am relatively new to this, but I love a bounce buster, one that changes the entire game, breaks an old hex or takes a superior opponent by surprise. These are the most memorable. Maybe these are not the greatest technically. Maybe these are not the most spectacular goals. They are, however, the ones that last in my mind -- the first pair of goals at Wembley (Baxter assisted by Brayford and Scougs assisted by Murphy) opposite Hull, Che's magical pair of goals in the home leg opposite the Spurs, Duffy's bounce killer at this year's Steel City Derby. What I would add to the discussion above is that one way to measure the greatness of a goal is by the meaning of the goal (what was at stake, what the goal changed, why it stands out in memory, the meaning of the goal, not its technical merits).
Click to expand...

I'm with Jim.

And, for the reasons he gives, one of my favourite ever Blades' goals remains Jags at home v Boro in the last Prem season. Right at the end, in front of the kop, great technical shot from distance, but more important than any of those factors it broke the "hex" by finally bringing us three points, several games in to what was already shaping up as a tough season.

Such a memorable goal, and re-enacted (or attempted) in Graves Pk and Millhouses Pk every weekend with my boys for years after, when they were little. Magic memries :)
 
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