the Olympic goal that the Dallas goalkeeper denied him

It is one of Lionel Messi’s last remaining obsessions. This Monday, in the friendly against Dallas FC, La Pulga was about to break the matrix of his individual statistics: like so many times with the Argentine National Team, he tried to get the olympic goalthe only definition missing from his repertoire, but the Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Paes denied him twice.

He has already scored goals with his left foot, with his right, from a penalty, from a free kick, with his head, with his chest and even with his hand. He also did one of Chilean kicks, last year in France. He has 821 in total. But he is missing the Olympic one. And he looks for it all the time.

In freezing Dallas, there was one of those two mentioned that was very clear. It happened seven minutes into the game, when the local team was already winning 1-0 thanks to Jesús Ferreira’s goal. There was a corner kick from the right of the attack, ideal for the Rosario’s magical left foot to hit the ball.

And so it was… Messi put his arms on his hips waiting for the referee’s order and executed his shot almost perfectly. The goalkeeper retraced his steps and, just enough, half rejected the ball and the rebound, almost miraculously.

There may be a key fact for the world champion to have tried this in Dallas. According to an investigation by the Spanish newspaper El Paísthe climatic factor influences: The camber comes out best in winter, with low temperatures, low humidity and high atmospheric pressure.

His search had as its closest precedent the duel against Paraguay for the South American Qualifiers. Leo entered 7 minutes into the second half and almost achieved it. In a corner from the right corner of the attack, he did the logic: he kicked left-footed with a camber to the far post, and the ball “clanked” against the right pipe of goalkeeper Carlos Coronel. The image traveled the world.

It was similar to one he tried playing for Barcelona against Real Madrid, in a classic during a pandemic. His shot almost slipped behind one of the best in the world, Thibaut Courtois, who was surprised and surpassed at his two meters height by the power and curve taken by the ball driven by the Argentine.

With the shirt of Paris Saint Germain They didn’t let him flourish too much but he almost did last February against Toulouse: in that case the resource was to kick hard with a screw to the nearest post, looking for a deflection or failing that some damage to the other.

There is a video circulating in which you can see a compilation of many of those corner kicks in which Leo gambled to find the Olympian. Or at least make it difficult for rival goalkeepers, who have to be careful to desperately fly inside their fence and get the ball out. We will have to add tonight’s in Dallas…