It was very hard to select a winner, since so many good videos were submitted, from volleys to free kicks to bicycle kicks. A lot of quality. So first we narrowed it down to the top ten videos listed below:
In the end though, Rivaldo's bicycle kick goal for Barcelona against Valencia proved to be the top video submission. It was Rivaldo's third goal of the game, completing the hattrick, and the goal put Barcelona into the Champions League the next season and was scored in the dying minutes of the game.
Two other goals were close, Guti's back heel was just pure genius, and Van Basten's volley was incredible. And of course Messi, with his maze run just like his idol, was hard to pass up. And Iniesta, well his was a big goal too, but not bicycle kick.
How do you choose between Guti's back heel and a scorpion kick? How do you choose between two game winners: Rivaldo's bicycle kick versus Valencia and Iniesta's versus Chelsea? It was tough.
Then there were a lot of compilation videos, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Ronaldinho, to Zidane to the Egyptian Zidane, but we thought we'd go with a pure goal rather than a collection of moves or highlights.
We took a lot of factors into consideration before choosing the winner. The meaning and importance of the game, how unique was the move or goal, what point in the game did the goal come, was it a team goal or an individual goal, has someone scored a goal like that before or has the goal ever been duplicated. For example, we had the Messi Maradona imitation as a submission. In truth, it was hard not to choose any video with Messi in it.
It's no wonder that most of the videos submitted were of current, former, or at one time candidates for FIFA World Player of the Year, from Messi to Cristiano to Iniesta to Ronaldinho. And it's no surprise that Barcelona had the most submissions, if you include Ronaldinho, Messi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, and Rivaldo. Dutch side Ajax had two of the highest quality clips, with Ibrahimovic and Van Basten both scoring remarkable goals. All in all, we think we made the right choice, as Rivaldo's goal was en epic game winner in a 3-2 match.
Below are some of the other videos that stood out to us. Please scroll down and take a look. We really appreciate all those who participated and submitted a video.
Look out for our next contest in the next few weeks. Thanks.
Sent in by: Mohit Kataria
Former Serbian international Dragan Stojkovic, now the manager of Japanese club Nagoya Grampus, showed his skill in the J-league match against Yokohama Marinos. At the end of the game a Marinos player was injured and the goalkeeper kicked the ball away to halt the game. Stojkovic first timed the ball back on the volley and it found its way into the goal after a bounce.
Sent in by: Angel Ibanez
Luis Landin, when he played for Cruz Azul, scores off a scorpion. Which is basically a frontwards bicycle kick, where you score with the heel. Landin now plays in the MLS for the Houston Dynamo.
Sent in by: Raphael Miller
Steven Gerrard volley from way out.
Sent in by: Mark Cox
Kazmierczak scores with an outside of the foot standing volley.
Sent in by: Vincenzo Pipitone
Ibrahimovic over the head back heel of some kind goal.
Sent in by: Vincenzo Pipitone
Ronaldo, the Brazilian, makes a defender fall down.
Sent in by: Jaime Osorio
Roberto Carlos defies geometry, physics and maybe gravity.
Sent in by: Willya Mek
The passion and emotion of the beautiful game is summed up in this video. Big time goals. Comebacks. Game winners.
Sent in by: Caleb Gray
The legend of Lionel Messi. He's amazingly fast with the ball, and stops and starts like nobody else.
Sent in by: Ryan 'Fozzy' Fawcett
Ronaldinho chests the ball to himself and then pulls off a bike.
Sent in by: Matt Smith
Guti's amazing backheel.
Sent in by: Alex Sauln
Cinematic compilation of the 2008-2009 English Premier League season.
Sent in by: Max Ashley
Excellent team goal finished off by Chris Cohen of Nottingham Forest. How many passes did you count?
Sent in by: Mohit Kataria
Crazy bending free kick.
Sent in by: Mike Burke
Ibrahimovic dribbles through nearly the whole opposing team when he played for Ajax.
Sent in by: William Verrett
Five strange goals.
Sent in by: Branden Aasen
A bunch of awesome trick free kicks, some from old games and some from more recent ones, but all pretty genius.
Sent in by: Mark Johnson
Grafite finishes off a dribbling run by scoring with a teasing heel pass.
Sent in by: Kevin Henington
Rivaldo scores a bicycle and puts Barcelona into the Champions League the next year.
Sent in by: Peyton Atteloney
Andres Iniesta's game winner against Chelsea in the Champions League, goal put Barcelona in the final.
Sent in by: Vlado Blagoyevich
Messi versus Maradona.
Sent in by: Billy Ogbara
Cristiano Ronaldo smashes home a goal from nearly forty yards away for Machester United.
Sent in by: Kevin Chung
Finger soccer. Yes, finger soccer.
Sent in by: Andre Pegeron
Dragan Stojkovic on a series of maze runs.
Sent in by: Andrew Winner
Van Basten with an incredible volley. The keeper had no chance.
The World's No. 1 Soccer Skills DVD Learn the skills and gain the confidence to succeed in the game with Coerver Coaching’s Make Your Move DVD system! Built around our unique and highly effective Pyramid of Player Development. Buy Yours Here
