Jun 16 2010 09:22 AM
Of course it doesn't matter if he meant it or not , he's certainly a great player and was brilliant for Inter Milan all season.
World Cup 2010: Did Maicon really mean to score Brazil's spectacular goal?
Did Maicon's goal against North Korea follow in the glorious tradition of Brazilian right-backs, or was it simply a con?
| When something is the talk of the watercooler it feels a little churlish to pour cold water over it. Yet the excitable chatter over Maicon's spectacular goal against North Korea has focused primarily on one simple question: did he really mean it? To some it is the great Maicon con, yet another example that the greatest trick Brazil ever pulled was to convince the world that joga bonito exists; others feel that if anyone can, Maicon can, and point out, not unreasonably, that there isn't exactly a lack of precedent for great World Cup goals by Brazilian right-backs. Maicon follows in the tradition of Carlos Alberto, Nelinho and Josimar (against both Northern Ireland and Poland). His strike also continues another rich World Cup tradition: did-he-mean-that goals, with Amarildo in the 1962 final, Gheorghe Hagi in 1994 and Ronaldinho in 2002 high on the list. There are others in club football, most notably Dennis Bergkamp's against Newcastle in 2002. Yet it's interesting to note that we presume intent only with the very best players; nobody, for example, seriously questions whether Spain's Ion Andoni Goikoetxea meant this goal against Germany in 1994. Had it been Hagi, we'd still be debating it now, wanting to believe it was deliberate. Never mind luck; great footballers also make their own judgment. Maicon's nationality and reputation – he has scored not dissimilar goals before – are the main things in his favour. Against that, he clearly looks into the centre rather than at the goal, and the fatal step taken by the goalkeeper Ri Myong-guk to leave a gap at the near post occurrs only after Maicon has committed himself to striking the ball. This is not to say he did not speculate on Myong-guk's movement, only that he is unlikely to have seen it. Anyone who has wheezed their way through park football knows the miserable feeling of chasing a ball that is goading you as it hurtles towards the goalline, of trying desperately to get your body round it to smack it across goal, only to shank it dismally out of play and fall over. Maicon's superior athleticism allowed him to get to the ball, and the explosiveness of his kicking action, both feet a long way off the floor, was always likely to get the easily influenced Jabulani ball to do something unusual. Was it a moment of genius that gave succour to a dismal World Cup, or is he making suckers of us all by taking credit for Dame Fortune's work? We can blather all we like by the watercooler, but only one man truly knows the answer. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSo9oRUxeMk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... korea-goal