Rooney Bicycles His Way Into History

By GABRIELE MARCOTTI

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European Pressphoto Agency

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney prepares for a bicycle kick to lift his squad over its crosstown rival Saturday.

By now, you've probably seen the clip.

With 12 minutes to go in Saturday's Manchester Derby between United and City, tied at 1-1, Nani crosses the ball into the penalty area. Wayne Rooney turns his back toward the goal, launches his body into mid-air, twists it so that it's parallel to the ground and unleashes a fierce right-footed overhead kick, which rockets into the back of the net. Mr. Rooney was practically upside down when he hit it.

On the heels of Wayne Rooney's spectacular soccer goal, WSJ's Matt Futterman looks at some of the most celebrated goals in the sport's history.

The overhead kick is perhaps the most iconic image on the soccer pitch. When done properly, as in Mr. Rooney's case, it's a feat of precision, coordination, athleticism and power. And, like many things of beauty, we're not 100% sure of its genesis. Many soccer historians credit a Chilean named Ramón Unzaga for first unveiling it in 1914, which is why it is also known as a "Chilena." Folks in neighboring Peru also claim its paternity, telling tales of a dockworker in the port of Callao first pulling it off in an impromptu match against British sailors around the same time. (Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa is among the most noted proponents of this theory.)

While these may be the fathers of the overhead kick, it was the Brazilian Leonidas, in the 1930s, and, a decade later, the Italian defender Carlo Parola who truly popularized it and supplied the feat with its common nickname: bicycle kick. (Unlike the others, Mr. Parola routinely used it as a means of defending.) And it was none other than Pelé who became so identified with the move that some call it a "Pelé kick." Not coincidentally, when Pelé starred in the 1981 film "Victory," director John Huston had him score the decisive goal with an overhead kick.

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Associated Press

The bicycle kick, sometimes known as a Chilena or a Pelé kick, might soon need another nickname: the Rooney.

That brings us back to Mr. Rooney. If context makes such athletic highlights more memorable, he picked the right day. His goal gave United a 2-1 victory, cementing it at the top of the Premier League table and effectively knocking crosstown rival City out of the title race. Mr. Rooney had been lackluster until then, just as he has been unimpressive all season long. It was only his sixth goal of the campaign—last year he had 33—and he's on pace for his worst scoring season since joining United as a teenager in 2004. Breaking the slump in such an emphatic way only made it sweeter.

The goal instantly prompted debate. Where does it rank among the all-time greats? Was it really as difficult as it appeared? The answer to the first question is, of course, purely subjective. But the second raises an interesting issue. If we're discussing difficulty of execution, then the ability to replicate the action is critical. Otherwise, it's the equivalent of a middle-aged accountant making a half-court shot between quarters in an NBA game: It's nice, maybe even spectacular, but more indicative of luck than skill.

"You practice it in training and nine times out of 10, the ball can go anywhere," Mr. Rooney said after the match. "This time I hit it sweetly, and it went into the top corner."

Mr. Rooney doesn't score many such goals—few do—and he was being somewhat modest. Even attempting a bicycle kick requires a rare blend of physical athleticism and mental confidence, mainly because those who try it and whiff look really, really silly.

Once a player's in mid-air, he still needs to execute and hit the ball cleanly. This is why Mr. Rooney's feat stands out. Because he was literally off the ground, there was no leverage, which makes striking the ball with power and accuracy even more difficult. Most overhead kicks sacrifice power for accuracy, but not this one. Mr. Rooney smacked the ball so hard that it bee-lined into the top corner.

Purists and pedants will, no doubt, point out how Mr. Rooney's overhead kick would have been more difficult to execute if the ball had been coming at more of an angle, making it tougher to judge its flight. Plus, he didn't hit it cleanly with the top of his boot, as players are taught to do, but rather with the lower part of his shinpad.

But this is serious nit-picking. Mr. Rooney's goal remains a thing of rare beauty and, just as important, it may end up playing a crucial role in securing United's 19th English league title. That's more than enough.

The Forbidden Word in Naples

In 1984, when Diego Maradona arrived in Naples for a then-record fee of $7.5 million, he was hailed as a Messiah. He also played like one, helping Napoli win its only two Serie A titles at a time when the Italian league was probably the best in the world. To this day, nearly 20 years after his departure, there are homemade shrines and murals to the Argentine superstar in the port city's back alleys.

Since then, times have been tough, with Napoli's bankruptcy and relegation from Serie A. Now, though, the club is back to the big-time, conjuring up memories of the days when 80,000-plus fans flocked to the San Paolo stadium to bask in Mr. Maradona's reflected glory. Today's heroes are the spiky-haired Slovak midfielder Marek Hamsik and the Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, Serie A's leading scorer. Then there's the man who comes closest to mimicking El Diego: Ezequiel Lavezzi, a sprightly Argentine forward from the wrong side of the tracks who boasts a gun tattoo on his waist and, as a teenager, briefly walked away from professional soccer to work in a body shop. The trio was devastating Saturday in Napoli's 2-0 road victory over Roma, keeping Napoli within three points of league-leading A.C. Milan.

In maintaining Neapolitan tradition, players and officials are still superstitious. They refuse to even mention the word "scudetto," the name for the Italian championship. Coach Walter Mazzarri refers to it as "that thing," and after Sunday's win, Mr. Cavani explicitly admitted that he did not "want to say that word, under any circumstances." Pretty soon, he might not have much of a choice.