Cheeky lobs, dragbacks and a special from a Spanish veteran – they’re all in our weekly round-up of our favourite goals from around the world.
Raul (Schalke v Werder Bremen)
The former Real Madrid and Spain veteran has enjoyed a fine time of it in Germany, which proves one or or both of (a) he’s nearly back to his best, or (b) the Bundesliga is a good bit weaker than La Liga.
The 34-year-old scored a hat-trick against Werder Bremen at the weekend and this was the pick of them: our favourite bit was Raul’s goal-hungry charge into the penalty area after playing the initial ball out to the left wing, which you’ll see in the replays (just skip through to about 1.25 in the video below).
There’s even talk of a return to the national team after David Villa’s injury, which should be of interest to Irish supporters with Euro 2012 on their minds. However, we think we know who we’d rather face – Raul used to be very good, and may still be very good, but he’s no Villa.
Bryan Ruiz (Fulham v Bolton)
We’ve picked this one out as much for Clint Dempsey’s defence-splitting pass as the cheeky finish from Ruiz, which heaped further humiliation on Bolton Wanderers and their used-to-be-promising Irish manager Owen Coyle.
The scooped lob over Jussi Jaaskelainen was perfectly executed by Ruiz. Had it gone wrong he would have been left looking fairly silly, although given that he decided to have Bryan on the back of his shirt, he looks fairly silly already.
Grant Holt (Norwich v Everton)
It’s fair to say Grant Holt has been one of the surprise success stories this season. A largely unconsidered burly front man from the largely unconsidered Norwich, Holt has made everyone sit up and notice. By doing things like dragbacks followed by millimetre-perfect finishes in off the post.
Sejad Salihovic (Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin)
There’s been plenty of craft in the other entries so far, but this one from Bosnian Sejad Salihovic is a classic, no frills, brute force belter of a shot into the top corner. The ‘keeper didn’t stand a chance.
James Morrison (West Brom v Blackburn)
Morrison’s not exactly prolfic, but when he does score they tend to be things of beauty, such as his cracker against Man United last season. The technique for this volley is simply tremendous considering the height he had to raise his right leg to get a decent connection. The result was spectacular.
Skip forward to about 0.25 in the video below and mute the video to spare yourself the horror of the awful backing track.
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