The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I watched the Heat - Indiana game on Tuesday night and saw two amazing plays that I was sure would make ESPN's Top 10 - LeBron's bounce pass to himself off the backboard and the 90ft alley oop pass from Wade to LeBron.  The alley oop was incredible, the best basketball play I've seen this year. 

I knew this would be the number 1 play on ESPN's top 10, and it was.......however, it was only the 2nd best play of the day, because there was a "best of the best" play that topped it. 

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney scores a winning goal against Man City in the 77th minute on a stunning bicycle kick.  Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the video; but ESPN is still showing it on today's top 10.  If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to make the effort.  You may never see a better goal. 

The bicycle kick is overrated.  Granted that Rooney's was a very nice one and it was at an opportune time for Man U which made it more impressive, but I've actually seen 13 year old girls pull off this feet.  It's not nearly as spectacular as people make it out to be.  ESPN made such a big deal of it because they don't know a thing about soccer.  I don't want to sound like I'm dissing Rooney, because I actually like the guy for the most part, but he does sometimes get too much credit for what he does.  He's always around the goal and gets plenty of chances to make big plays.  He pretty much blew a couple plays in that game earlier and was being dogged a bit by the announcers right before that goal for not having a bigger impact.  No question the goal made up for his earlier play, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as ESPN was making it out to be, at least not to me.  The announcers made it sound like it was the greatest goal ever and ESPN picked up on that.

"May never see a better goal" is a huge stretch unless of course you don't watch Eureopean soccer.  Watch a few games and you'll be amazed at what these guys can do with their feet.

Rooney's goal was ridiculous.  By far the best play I've seen in a long time.  Say what you want about soccer, you gotta appreciate what he did on that play.

I can't find the ESPN top 10 on their site to save my life.  Care to linky-link?

Seriously Pappy, you are downplaying scoring a goal on a bicycle kick? I played soccer for years (into college even) and it is not an easy thing to do. Yes I've seen people pull it off, but it was more luck on their part than skill. I've seen more people look like a fool trying it than be successful.

I saw it pulled off by 13 year old girls when my daughter played.  I saw a fairly good one in a rec indoor soccer game that my daughter played in about 2 weeks ago.

I'm not saying it's easy, I'm just saying it's over rated.  It really isn't as difficult or as uncommon as you might imagine.  There's usually about 1 attempt a game in the European league that my wife and I watch fairly regularly.  Granted that most aren't as good as Rooney's was, but his was simply the best "bicycle" seen in a while, it's certainly NOT the best goal I've seen lately.

How many of those "one attempt a game" are successful at scoring? How many are even on target? How many miss the ball completely?

I'm sure you can find Rooney's goal on YouTube.  I can't get to YouTube's site from work, but if I remember when I get home I'll see if I can find it.  Or were you looking for the top 10 and not Rooney's goal?

Few are successful at scoring, most are pretty much on target, I can't remember a bicycle kick that was missed entirely by someone in the European league.

In between two defenders on a high cross.  Yeah, anyone could to that. ::)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1K7am5WnAQ

That was a pretty hellacious kick by Rooney...

You people obviously don't watch much soccer.

I admittedly don't watch much soccer, but I am fairly sure that no average joe schmoe soccer player can kick a ball MOVING above his head AND score.  I'd bet 99 times out of 100, if you even make contact, you'd send it over the crossbar.

Ok, so because your average Joe Schmoe soccer player can't do it, it's the best goal ever?  C'mon.  I'm telling you that 100% of the guys in the European league can do it.  5% of them can probably do it as well as Rooney.  His just happened to come in a game between Man U and Man City recently which makes it more memorable but there have literally been dozens of these types of goals scored in the last couple of years and that's just goals.  The bicycle kick is not just used by forwards, pretty much anyone other than maybe the goalie will attempt one from time to time for various reasons.  Just because Rooney's happened to be for a goal doesn't really mean that it was any more difficult to pull off than any of the others attempted.  I saw Clint Dempsey try a bicycle kick after his PK was blocked a couple days ago and he had no time to prepare for the shot, he just reacted.  He got his foot on it, but it was off target.  Had he made that shot it would have been twice as difficult as Rooney's was as he had plenty of time to line up the shot.

I saw a kid in his 20's do almost the same thing as Rooney about 3 weeks ago playing an indoor soccer game in Richardson Texas.  He scored a goal on a bicycle kick and an indoor goal is MUCH smaller than an outdoor goal.  The ball was not played across at the speed that Rooney's goal was, but still he bicycled it into the goal as well as Rooney did.  This was a recreational indoor soccer game just a couple weeks ago.  We started calling the kid Man U after he did it as a joke.  It's pure coincidence that Rooney did it a few weeks later for Man U.  We all got a big laugh out of that.

^^ I said "average Joe Schmoe soccer player."  Not average Joe Schmoe.  Big difference.

The point isn't how awesome the kick was, but that it scored a goal.  And the game-winner at that.  Plus the height of the ball at the point which it was kicked plays a factor in my opinion as well.  I'm not saying that its an impossible kick.  I'm saying that its not every day that you see it score, in that manner, and to win a huge game.

It was a great play.

Noted.

Why is it more amazing that it scored a goal over any other bicycle kick?  Rooney was just trying to get it on frame and it happened to be placed perfectly.  Do you know how many times Rooney has probably attempted that kick in practice?  Thousands of times.  I just saw a very similar kick in a US Mens practice game.  It's on YouTube as well I believe.  I'll find it.

Update: Here it is (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6060504&categoryid=2378529)

No it doesn't happen that often, but I wouldn't call it a huge game either.  It was just a league game.  The only thing special about the game was that it was against Man City who is a big rival.  It's the equivalent of a regular season Steelers/Ravens game or something along those lines.  It was a great play and certainly worthy as the best of the top 10 plays of the week, but it's wasn't one of the greatest goals of all time.

I was a little surprised at how dismissive Pappy was regarding what I consider to be a great play; but I can understand his reaction.  There's a lot of hyperbole around the goal, and it's probably over the top to call it one the greatest goal of all time, but I'm still impressed.  I watch less soccer now, but I've watched quite a bit in the past.  This isn't the first time I've seen a bicycle kick go in, but I can't dismiss it as something that players can routinely execute.  Maybe I'm impressed because I consider Rooney to be kind of squat and think, and I didn't expect him to show that kind of athleticism.  (5'10 180lbs ?)

To add to the hyperbole - Alex Ferguson said Wayne Rooney’s goal was "the greatest strike he had seen in 25 years at Old Trafford".  - http://www.sportsnewscaster.com/watch-wayne-rooney-goal-vs-manchester-city-premiere-league-video/12188/

This is what I'm talking about, he's making it more than it really is.  It's a very nice goal, I'm not trying to take that away from Rooney, but that's all it is, a very nice goal.  If you watch European soccer on a regular basis, you see a great goal about once a week.  No, they're not all bicycle kicks, but bicycle kicks are just more showy.  They really don't require that much more skill than a lot of other kicks.  Have you ever seen someone "bend" a ball around a keeper?  In my personal opinion that's MUCH more difficult to do.  You don't see 13 year old girls do that.  You don't see indoor rec players do that.  You ONLY see guys at the top of the European leagues do that.

Just look at Rooney's reaction to the goal from that article. “I saw it coming over and I thought, ‘Why not?’ Nine times out of 10 they go into the stand,".  He's admitting right there that there was a bit of luck involved, but that give him 10 chances at it, he'll put one on goal.  It's a 1 in 10 shot , maybe a 1 in a 100 goal, but not a 1 in a million.  That's all I'm saying.

Personally, I can bend a ball easier than bicycle kick. Granted, I can't bend it exceptionally well or I would have been a higher level player. Maybe some of that has to do with my stature though.

I've played soccer most of my life and I have never seen a bicycle kick goal in a game that I participated in.  Pappy, if you don't think it was all that great, that's your opinion, but you are in the minority here.

You're correct, it's only my opinion.

However I do watch European soccer on a regular basis.  I have 4 kids that have played from the time they were about 4.  3 of them received college soccer scholarships.  My son is currently a senior playing on an NAIA team in Missouri.  I have watched sons and daughters of friends play at every level of soccer including pro.  We used to go watch the Dallas Stars a couple times a year when they were good.  It wasn't uncommon for my wife and I to watch about a dozen games in a day during tournaments when all our kids were playing.

I have watched a LOT of soccer in the last 15 years and I've seen a couple bicycle kick goals in games.  None that I participated in, but ones that my kids participated in.  I've seen several more on TV, including this one by Rooney that I was watching and at least 1 in the last world cup that I remember which was a much bigger stage than this one.

I never said it wasn't all that great, simply that it was being over hyped.  It was a very nice goal by a very good player that just happened a few days ago.  6 months from now there will be a new greatest goal of all time.  I remember a few months ago it was the Clint Dempsey goal where he chipped the keeper that was being touted as the greatest goal.  I get tired of seeing the greatest goal every 6 months.

I don't think anyone ever said it was the greatest goal of all time, just the top play of the day on espn.

Here's almost the exact same goal from relative unknown Dax McCarty in a US Men's National team practice game.  Notice how there are a few claps and applause, but no one goes nuts, not even Dax.  If the bicycle kick goal is so amazing, why isn't everyone just in awe?  I dare say this goal is nearly as impressive as Rooney's, but since it's McCarty and the USMNT and a practice game instead of Rooney and Man U and the Premiere League, it's not even on anyone's radar.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6060504&categoryid=2378529

I think it's time to let it go.

Fausto and I were swapping youtube links back and forth today and debating the D-Wade alley oop pass. I thought the fullcourt baseball throw was very nice, but nowhere near the "greatest pass in the history of the NBA"...as debated yesterday on SportsNation on ESPN. I sent Fau video clips of Pistol Pete Maravich highlights, and he sent me back a top-10 D-Wade highlights video.

(aside... I love Wade,don't get me wrong, I just wish he'd lose the whole "fall seven times, stand up eight" mentality, because that shit's a career longevity killer.)

That pass was great, but the only really impressive part of it was the strength of the throw. It's not like LeBron caught it at the rim and flushed it, he went up and got it where it was coming in and then adjusted and made the layup.

I bet I could pick out at least a half dozen "amazing passes" each from the following list of PGs that I'd consider better:

Pistol Pete
Magic Johnson
Isiah Thomas
Steve Nash (can't leave my homey out of this game)

I would consider that short list to be the 4 greatest passers I've ever seen in the NBA...and in that order. Dudes who were freakin' magicians with the rock. The halfcourt bounce passing, no-looking, wrap-arounding, between the legging, behind the backing, point guard Maestros of my generation.

(and yeah, I know I left guys like Stockton, Big O, etc... off the list. Sue me.)