@Augustus hoop: I agree but remember the Puskas award generally goes to a goal that can grab the attention of a wider audience and not just football fans.

@Augustus hoop: I don’t really understand why it matters whether someone ‘meant it’ or not with a goal. The unknown mental states of a scorer have nothing to do with it surely? And what else would he be trying to do anyway? Put it out for a goal kick?

@Augustus hoop: I was thinking of a way to say exactly that without being excoriated by the comment section. Agree entirely.

@PJ Connolly: looked like he was flicking it forward to set himself to then score. If anything, you could say this was a fortunate miscontrolling of the ball.
Whether someone means to do something is EVERYTHING in terms of how good something was, otherwise it’s a lottery.

@Augustus hoop: Ah c’mon lads, luck or not it was a cracker and imagine something like that happening in a big game and you are there. You’d be talking about it forever. A real Kev Mc 2011 moment.

@Eoin Finnega: agree. Looked great but I think he was trying to flick it in front of himself on the run and got lucky. Ronaldo’s overhead against June the goal of the season by a mile. Brilliance at the highest level -v- A-league fluke…

@Eoin Finnega: That’s a weird approach. If it means ‘everything’, then it’s a fact that noone but a scorer knows how good any goal is as you’re making it 100% subjective and the subjectivity is based entirely on one person’s mental states. Which you can never know! What if Zidane was trying to put his volley in the other corner in the CL final and he mishit it? What difference would it make to the goal?

Even on your intention based goal evaluation method though. How does it look like he’s trying to control the ball? It flew into the top corner. He’s a professional footballer. What’s more likely? A professional footballer miscontrolling so wildly that it would probably land about 40-50 yards away, or a professional footballer facing a goal and kicking a ball into it?

Just enjoy goals!

@EBurton: Ronaldo was trying to control it so he could head it in while lying on his back and he just got lucky that his miscontrol went in.

@PJ Connolly: spoken like you have never played the game in your life.
Anyone who has played at u11 level can tell within a good estimate as to whether someone means something. Body shape, part of the foot that strikes the ball, etc all tells what the players intention was.
Sport is all about speed, strength and skill – swinging your leg and hoping for the best is not sport, it’s just kicking something.

@PJ Connolly: oh, and in terms of miscontrolling, the guy is trying to control it on the run and instead of knocking it just in front of him, he catches it full on and it loops up over the keeper.
When running on to a ball and trying to control it with your heel (which is not an everyday occurrence) it is quite easy to get it wrong. Had h connected with it as I believe he intended it would have been about an inch or two further down his foot which would have knocked the ball into his path.
That is the margin between controlling and miscontrolling – an inch or two.