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Thursday 22 May 2008

That pass by Wayne Rooney


Now altogether now, "we hate the long ball game," but sometimes it can be effective, and indeed beautiful.

Did you see the "long pass of the decade" this morning by Wayne Rooney in the Champions League Final. The highest level of football on the planet.

Wayne, from Liverpool, chased down a Chelsea player around his own box. He tackled him using his great physique and paced away with the ball.

Flying, he looked up and hit the ball 70 yards, (is that an exaggeration?), at speed, over the two Chelsea defenders who turned to see the ball land on Ronaldo's left boot just inside the box.
Ronaldo made haste and delivered a great ball for Tevez, who missed a sitter, and the ball broke to Michael Carrick, who missed another sitter. It should have been 2-0 and game over.

But that ball from Rooney. I watched it over and over. Seeing the distance, the defenders and the delivery.

Who said the long ball game isn't beautiful? Sometimes it clearly is, even at the highest level.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

barca before they went galactico used a diagonal long ball that was pretty and effective.

for me, the problem isn`t the long ball per se, but rather when a team stops trusting its midfield and just belts it from the back and hope something good happens. which doesn`t sound like what mr rooney was doing. he saw an opportunity, and had the skill to make it happen.

one of the great things about footy is that you can play in different ways.

clayton

Eamonn said...

Hi Clayton how are things up there.

Agree there are many ways to play, but occasionally the long ball can be the sweetest pass of all, much like the very long shot!

Mind you I wouldn't trust the United midfield against muscle men from Chelsea. I reckon if Chelsea had put Essien in midfield Chelsea would have monstered it even more.

Did enjoy Ronaldo waltzing passed Essien, no easy task, but he made it look so easy on occasions

Anonymous said...

Come on Eamonn, missing a sitter? How about some credit to Petr Cech who made two outstanding saves, firstly to deny Tevez's diving header and then to recover and palm away Carrick's follow up? Granted, Carrick maybe should have scored - but that's why these 'keepers are paid the big bucks.....I wouldn't say it was a sitter....if that was the case every penalty ever taken should be classed in the same bracket and we all saw what happened there!