5 of the best – Quick Free Kicks

By: Rob | February 18th, 2010

   

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Arsene Wenger got a bit upset last night, after a quick free-kick (above) taken by Porto saw his side beaten in the Champions League. The quick free-kick is always a bit controversial, when they come off, they are nearly always memorable, flash-point moments.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with them – at the end of the day, the other team has committed a foul, why should you have to wait for them to be ready for you? If its advantageous, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to take them quickly.

So to celebrate them, here are four more of the most memorable (i.e the first four that came to mind, feel free to link to some more in the comments) quick free kicks.

Thierry Henry vs Chelsea

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Shoe was on the other foot for Arsene Wenger, when Thierry Henry took this Free-kick quickly, to help Arsenal to a 2-2 draw against Chelsea.

Ryan Giggs Vs Lille

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Another Champions League one – Lille were so enraged by the cheek of Giggs’ quick free-kick that they immediately kicked the ball out of play and walked off the pitch, threatning a match abandonment. They were eventually talked back on, but lost 1-0. Man United would go on to be beaten by Milan in the semi-final.

Figueroa vs Stoke

Best goal scored this season so far, as Figueroa quickly runs onto a free kick in his own half catching absolutely everyone unaware. Incredible strike.

David Beckham Vs Blackburn

Master of free kicks caught Brad Friedel miles off his line with this quickly taken effort.

Some Related Premier League Posts:

Category: 5 Reasons Why, Arsenal

   

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Comments  

• Martin |  February 18th, 2010 at 2:57 pm

  
  
  

  In all of your examples, though, the teams had all or virtually all of their defenders behind the ball. In the Arsenal match, there were zero defenders behind the ball and the keeper was still walking back to his net.

  

• alan |  February 19th, 2010 at 9:20 am

  
  
  

  sorry martin it makes no difference, fabianski was wrong for giving up the ball and turning his back, u learn that in under 14′ hence no other player really had shit to say, because it is legit. it is arsenal’s duty to get players behind the ball and the keeper should have held it, that was all arsenal.

  

• Martin |  February 19th, 2010 at 10:52 am

  
  
  

  so “the keeper should have held it” even though the referee demands the ball back? Really? That’s what we want to encourage?

  I would say that players probably don’t give the referees enough respect as it is (hence the FA’s “Respect” campaign), the last thing we need to be doing is blaming players for following a command given to them by the ref — “sorry, it was your fault because you should have known the referee was going to screw your team, and thus you should have just punted the ball into the upper deck even though the referee was asking for the ball back.” Fantastic, thoughtful stuff there, Alan.

  

• Dustin |  February 20th, 2010 at 3:33 am

  
  
  

  Well Hindsight is 20/20 the referee was just trying to prevent a situation where he would have to card the keeper. He’s delt with that a million times so he just ask for the ball and passed it back. You can say “Well he shouldn’t have done that” as if you expect him to see backwards and forwards through time. Really isn’t fair to blame the referee for that, especially when he did his job correctly according to the Laws of the Game.

  

• Chrystal Luttmer |  April 27th, 2010 at 10:26 pm

  
  
  

  I see a great improvement in your writing, I’d love to get in touch. Keep up the great work! Your writing is very inspirational for someone who is new to this type of stuff.