Personal best
Today: Zito Madu, journalist and author of The Minotaur at Calle Lanza, shares a beautiful goal in the beautiful game.
Issue No. 532
Score Like an Egyptian
Zito Madu
Score Like an Egyptian
by Zito Madu
Let’s start on October 16, 2021, when Liverpool beat Watford 5-0. Liverpool has beaten Watford by that same exact scoreline before, and will again after that match; alongside the insignificance of the scoreline, Mohamed Salah wasn’t even the best player, as he had been a few seasons earlier when he scored four goals against the same opponent with Roberto Firmino scoring the fifth. But on that day, he did score a goal that I think represents the kind of player that he is.
In the 2021 match, Firmino scored a hat trick with Sadio Mané scoring one goal and Salah scoring the other. Salah’s goal came in the 54th minute with Liverpool already up three goals. In that context, this Salah goal wasn’t as important as his other match-winning goals or the goals against the best teams in the league. Watford were bad and were already badly beaten.
The sequence of play starts with Salah getting the ball on top of the right side of Watford’s box. He drives diagonally into the box towards Firmino who tries to pin his defender so Salah can play the ball to him, and the two can hopefully play a one-two—Firmino was a great striker, not because he was selfish with scoring goals like other great strikers, but because he was the opposite, and the perfect complement to Salah and Mané. Salah tries to pass the ball to Firmino but one of the two defenders between them intercepts and clears the ball. It lands to Cucho Hernández, who fails to properly control it, allowing Firmino to win the ball back.
Firmino then drives inside the box and passes it to the left to Salah who is also just inside the box. As soon as Salah settles the ball and looks up at the goal, there are four defenders surrounding him—two in front and two on his sides. The one on his left closes in, so Salah cuts the ball to the right. The one on the right and one of the ones in front join in, and now he’s completely trapped in a small circle. Firmino’s run has pulled the fourth defender away and more towards the center.
To get out of the trap of three, Salah does what so many young players are advised not to do. He steps on the ball. This unusual pause in the middle of the chaos allows the defender on the right’s momentum to push past Salah. Now there are only two, both on his left now. Salah pushes forward, leaving one of the defenders behind and, as he reaches the endline, he fakes either a cross or a shot with his right foot that makes the final defender go to ground to block it. Instead Salah cuts the ball back inside and to his left foot. Suddenly he has space, time, and the perfect shooting opportunity. At this point, James Milner, who is watching all of this unfold in the penalty arc, spreads out his hands, already celebrating the goal to come.
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