Small talk can only reach so far. Instead the Fourth Official introduces you to a new category of posts: the covers. On the one hand, a great cover of a great song, on the other, a great cover of a great soccer move. Between them a similar re-appropriation of signature gestures, simple enough. And since this is the first of the series, you get three for the price of one!
“I Fought The Law”, from Bobby Fuller to The Clash.
Let’s start with the most obvious of comparisons. On the one hand we have Diego Armando Maradona, El Pibe, possibly the greatest player ever to have lived, scoring what has long been dubbed “the greatest goal ever.” Dribbling past half of the Queen’s team, Maradona fought the law, in the strictest of ways: cocaine, his refusal to join a big European club, his hand of God, his friendship with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Most of the time, the law did win. Now take Messi’s incredibly similar goal against Getafe. The same path, the same fake to pass the keeper, the same diabolical left foot. Yet Messi fights another kind of law: the law of the records and those of physics. No one expected Maradona’s goal to be so well re-interpreted. Faster, stronger, louder, Messi adds the distortion, wins and adds “I guess my race is run.”
Maradona's:
Messi's:
“The Man Who Sold The World”, from David Bowie to Nirvana.
Van Basten’s goal is exceptional. From an impossible angle, the Dutchman volleys the ball in the opposite corner, lobbing the goalkeeper. An extraordinary feat only matched by Van Basten’s impressive personal prizes: three Ballons d’Or, best scorer for the Euro 1988, for the Italian Serie A (x2), for the Dutch Eredivisie (x4) and for the Champion’s League. Yet few remember Marco as an all time great. A truly blasé persona, Marco was thought to have died alone, a long long time ago, but with this volley he only answers: “I never lost control.” Youri Djorkaeff, with a prize list opposite of Van Basten’s (the two most prestigious collective rewards, the World and Euro Cup) brought us the 90s version: forget the simple volley; try the bent oblique grungy bicycle kick. On a grey Lombard afternoon, the melancholy is only greater, but the result remains: the ball in the top corner, a beautiful ballad in itself.
Van Basten's
Djorkaeff's:
“Ghost Town” from The Specials to Kode9 & The Spaceape.
The repeated step over is nowadays a classic. Even right backs can pull it off with confidence. But do you remember the good old days when it only meant samba? When it only meant that you left your opponent staring at nothing while you blissfully pass him? Denilson surely does. Maybe the last of the Brazilians to be all fun and no work*, the winger had a mitigated career full of unfulfilled promises. Here is an example of what he did best, the step over in question, full of rhythm, anticipation horns and playfulness. Mancini on the other hand shows us the institutionalization of the step over: no longer joyful, it’s become mechanic; the jerseys turn from orange and yellow to black and white; the action concludes itself by a cold missile and not a silky pass; the field itself is depopulated. No sound, just a hint of it.
Denilson's (starting at 1:24)
Mancini's:
TFO
*Some argue, and probably rightly so that the last Brazilian generation to be fully all fun and no work was that of Zico’s and Socrates’.
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