I think it was more that the swerve on that shot was insane. It swung a good 4-5 yards after entering the box.
I'm now on the hook for match threads. Hopefully until August. So is the rule no more than 48 hrs before kickoff?
No no. In fact our last thread-starter, the honorable @yossarian, perhaps set the standard for quick thread starts, often <<24hrs after the last match. IMHO, there is no harm in doing that. (Although I'm sure there are people around here who can find something!) Otherwise what ends up happening is that you end up discussing the next match in the previous match's thread which seems odd.
I've only watched it a few times. Yes there's some serious swerve, but for arguably the best shot-stopper in the world, he looked a bit wanting. I've seen lesser goalies do a better job of correcting their initial mistake, even when their weight is all going in the wrong direction. It was a wickedly good shot, even if there was some luck involved. So I'm not sure he was gonna save it, but he should've gotten closer IMO. Anyway, my original point was that his whole 90' performance wasn't a problem, but the way this one shot got past him really was the defining moment of his day.
He could see how he sliced the ball but planted his foot too early Everyone makes mistakes but xhaka clearly hit through the ball which always causes a slice effect
Northbank needs to watch the best of Wasim and Waqar to see just how devastating unexpected late movement can be.
That Roberto Carlos free kick against France in the Tournoi de France in the leadup to the 98 WC (OMG, more than 20 years ago, I geez I'm old).
There's been a few ex-pros, including Paul Robinson, who basically said he could've done better. Whatever... that's debatable. What seems undebatable is that it was the single most important defensive moment by United, in terms of allowing us to get that opening goal and never really looking back. And the most important offensive moments by United, which has been duly noted and which also allowed us to own this match, were the 2X they hit the woodwork (Lukaku's being the biggest shocker).
Yeah, that strike is forever indelled in my brain. What a run up! What curl! And with late 90's balls which weren't as light as today's are AFAIK.
He didn't slice the ball, it had no spin, the ball knuckled. As a high school catcher who caught a knuckleballer, I can attest that knuckleballs are not easy to judge.
He put his foot through it and finished in a way that surely is obvious? Otherwise everyone would shoot like that
The last replay on the clip below shows that there is almost no spin on the ball, the ball knuckled. In the Roberto Carlos clip above you can see the spin on the ball that makes it swerve. A lot of players do shoot like Xhaka did, but not many get as much movement as he did on this shot. https://www.nbcsports.com/video/arsenals-granit-xhaka-strikes-v-man-united