I saw the highlights of the Celtic game that Martin mentioned earlier and thought that both goals were magnificent and demonstrated why football is a wonderful sport.
The first was, as David Pleat said in the commentary, one of the finest examples of patient build up he’d ever seen. Celtic probed for an opening, found none and played it back – several times they did this, and I could sense the Celtic crowd fighting their normal reaction to groan when the ball’s played backwards as they appreciated what was going on.
Ahead of the defenders, pushed up to the half-way line, your couldn’t see but just knew that the midfield and attack were moving all over the place to find some free space; when the goal came, it was when the ball was played to super Henrik who’d pulled wide. From here, a neat piece of skill to get it onto his right foot, then a superb cross to Liam Miller.
It was a microcosm of football – it was a perfect team goal, where the training ground drills pay off and people’s games get understood by team-mates. But it was also made possible by a moment of individual skill, and a moment of weakness from the previously well-organised defence.
The second goal was much more route-one, but showed why the tactic can be equally pleasing – the goal ‘moment’ could be contained in a single breath – Sutton throws it down the line to Larsson, who take three defenders with him, and Sutton races to fill the space vacated; will Larsson look up and see him? He does, and floats a lovely ball right to where Sutton is arriving. You could see what going to happen (helpfully, Sutton’s run was directly in line with the TV gantry position at Parkhead) and started to wonder – will he do it? He did. Magic football.