Thursday 26 June 2014

Which is more difficult a volley in the World Cup Final or a volley in a kids kick about down the park?

If Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar were on the edge of the penalty area and the ball bounced up nicely they would volley it high into the roof of the net without a second thought as they don't have to retrieve the ball from a thicket of nettles and their only focus is to score a goal.
 
It is a lot more complicated down the park with a pile of coats or jumpers for goalposts.
If you kicked into the imaginary net where Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar had scored, some players would have said the ball would have gone over the bar or around the post or both!
So you first had to bring the volley both in and down a bit.
 
Those in the know would also give the keeper hope and the perfect goal was not hit too hard so that the keeper still had a 30% chance to get his finger tips to it and decide that goalkeeping was fun and would stay in goal for the remainder of the game and not take your precious position out on the pitch. It also meant the ball would not go too far a distance to be retrieved.
 
If you blasted the ball and you had no nets, the beaten keeper - hands on hips, would extract some revenge by looking at where the ball had landed, some 100 yards away and then look at you and spit out;

“You can get that!”

You always had to give him hope so that he would not trudge off disconsolate with his ball.
This was an incredible skill to master – technique, psychology, and diplomacy, all in one volley.

Now that's talent!

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