Defying the Laws of Physics: Gol Olímpico and Roberto Carlos

This past weekend, the US Men’s National Team took on Panama in an international friendly. As my friends and I were watching the game, the goal by Michael Bradley in the 27th minute immediately took over the room. At first glance, everyone, even some players on the field, was perplexed. We had thought that either the goalkeeper or Jozy Altidore had deflected it in, but upon further review we realized that Bradley had put it in straight off of the corner kick. This realization was baffling. We could not stop repeating the play for minutes, and continued talking about it for nearly a half hour. I had never seen a “Gol Olímpico” live. All of the discussion got me interested in researching the phenomena a little more, so I took out my computer and began surfing the net.

For the next hour or so I found myself reading articles and watching videos of goals like Bradley’s. I was truly in awe. Galeano states in Soccer in Sun and Shadow that Cesáreo Onzari was “the first in soccer history to score a goal that way,” after he did it in a friendly match between Argentina and Uruguay  on October 2nd, 1924. However, according to various sources Onzari was not, in fact, the first player to do so. The goal was made legal by the International Football Assocation Board on June 15th, 1924, and Billy Alston of Scotland was actually the first player to make it a reality two months later on August 21st. However, it was Onzari’s strike that was dubbed with the name “Gol Olímpico,” because the opposing team (Uruguay) had just won the gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. After the game, Onzari himself admitted that he was in astonishment when he saw the ball in the back of the net. In an interview, Onzari once said, “Maybe the keeper got out of the wrong side of the bed that day or there were players blocking his path, because I never scored a goal like that again.”

As I continued researching, I came across a few facts that particularly grabbed my attention. To begin, Juan Alvarez of Colombia scored eight Olympic goals out of his 35 total goals in six seasons. In fact, he even did it twice in one game against Cúcuta Deportivo in 1976! Former German footballer Bernd Nickel once scored an Olympic Goal from the left corner with the outside of his left foot. This feat was repeated by a few players after him as well, most notably Roberto Carlos who is known for his superb goals that defied the laws of physics. The first Olympic Goal to actually take place in the Olympics was in 2012 when Megan Rapinoe scored for the US Women’s National Team against Canada in the semi-final match that they would go on to win.

When I was coming to the end of my research, I came across a video titled “Roberto Carlos Impossible Soccer Goal Explained.” Although this video was not the same as the Gol Olímpico, it was just as if not more eye-opening. As Carlos ran down the left side of the field at full speed, he proceeded to volley a bouncing ball across his body into the upper right corner of the net. Some people claim that this goal is the most improbable goal ever to be scored for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Carlos shot the ball from an angle of less than one degree in front of the net! On top of this, the goalie was in position and simply needed to lift one of his arms in order to mathematically eliminate the goal. To top it off, Carlos had to kick the ball at a ridiculously high speed in order for it to get by the keeper, and he did so. The ball travelled 29 meters in 0.93 seconds at a speed of 112.26 km/h, or roughly 70 miles per hour!

Bradley’s goal on Sunday, like all of the other Goles Olímpicos, was jaw-dropping. Over 90 years has gone by since Alston and Onzari shocked the world, and yet the goal still amazes all who witness it.