What's right of what's left us

I was grasping sports in an era, where passion grew with every game, loyalty surged bonds beyond value, the virtue of each and every goal/ wicket/ smash, and the accumulation to its eventual success and the attributes towards it has little words, more meaning and invariable expressions to describe than the accumulation of records being shattered once in a fortnight.

I will not divulge further into three most profound, rich managers who have stamped their own space in the history of British football, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes. For some reason pretty much unknown to most of us not involved directly with the game, there is no limpidity on how some of the transfers may have transacted.  And yet, there is sanctity on how some of us religiously follow one particular club.

Following the spectacular EPL from 2001(that’s where the fondness of football grew in every teenager of my time), there was a barrage of players of whom I was a big fan of. Robert Pires, Gianfranco Zola, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer , to name a few.  Then sprung, as everyone is very well aware now, a certain 16-year old Toffee, Wayne Mark Rooney, who breaks Arsenal’s unbeaten run in the season with a 90^th minute goal. Clearly, that was on his resume when Sir Alex Ferguson paid more than 27m euros in the hopes to revamping his quality striking attack. Here are a series of sequence of how that goal developed from a match-winner to a quality strike, and finally, a goal, which highlighted the maturity at the tender age of 16 years, that Wayne Rooney actually was.

Sequence 1. Everton trailing 2-1, Lauren(Arsenal) heads it forward towards the mid-field region, Wiltord (Arsenal) missed his header, Hibbert(Everton) heads it away to Gravesen(Everton), who instantly lobs it ahead, vying for Tomasz Radzinski’s (Everton) partner, Rooney. It’s the 90^th minute, just for the record and Arsenal rest on their laurels, completely unaware of the fact that they are about to be stunned.

Sequence 2. Between Lauren and Cambpell as the center backs, Wayne controls it with his right foot, turns fantastically and looks to curl it in, the sensationalism of the shot lies will start with this sequence. If you intend to bend a ball from five feet away, you need the elevation and momentum along with it. Rooney is on the move; Campbell decides to act fast between waiving off Kevin Campbell and blocking Rooney’s shot.  Just about less than five feet from Sol Campbell, who would surely not fathom a strike from five feet out, was back-peddling, from a striker around half his age.

 Sequence 3. Sol Campbell stuck his leg out horizontally. He looks up, not for more than half a second, but Rooney reckoned that’s enough to carry out the bend. The laws of the game require all defenders to be at least 10 yards from the ball on a free kick, so using a wall placed the minimum distance away certainly reduces the amount of available goal at which the shooter can aim. There is no ball-hanging, sorry wall-hanging around here and only Campbell remains the impediment. Rooney looks up for a second, sizes his chances and curls it in.

Sequence 4. Here is a basic comparison on how tough Rooney's actually is.

With an image of a standard Beckham free-kick beauty above, explaining Rooney’s goal becomes clear later. Beckham has momentum, the elevation to go over the wall with the ten-yard distance between him and the wall. Also, he has ample time on his side to pick out his spot, this generally used to happen in every free-kick taker of those times. Only one man stands on top of the ball, and most of the times, he tends to be an expert at that.

Here is Wayne Rooney’s position, before he curls it over Campbell.  Do notice, the striker, defender and the keeper are in one straight line and Rooney bends it, right over him

Rooney’s on the charge, with a couple of neat touches from a Gravesen high ball, he drags the ball to outside the 25-yard region, he looks up and he goes for it, with Campbell trying to close down the gap between him and Rooney, his leg sticks out, which means, when Rooney’s shot is on, the distance between him and Campbell reduces, as the ball has to climb over his leg, beat his right shoulder and then curl in towards the goal. Here is how.

Sequence 5: Seaman was having a rough season anyways, and he was caught completely off guard here. Even the best of the keepers would not anticipate a striker, bending a ball right over the defender who is guarding him. Even though Sol Campbell could have closed him down, he also had to vouch for Kevin Campbell (who had no clue that the emergence of Rooney from this goal would bring the curtains down on his own Toffee career), as Lauren was lurking around aimlessly in the left flank.

Tied up alone between Kevin Campbell and Rooney, Sol shifts focus to the unexpected Wayne onslaught

Sequence 6: The shot is on, it flies over Campbell’s leg and Seaman hasn’t moved until the ball travels halfway, by the time his hand looks to reach to his right-hand side; the ball had already kissed the under-side of the post and tucked itself inside the net. The commentators are shocked, can’t get enough of their praises of Wayne Rooney and Goodison Park had just recorded the highest ever decibel record in a long, long time. Rooney runs, as straight as possible and punches his right fist out with a leap, reaches out the fans who are celebrating, grasping the magnitude of this goal and it took a 16-year old in the entire league to put an end to Arsenal’s run. There is a scramble as every team-mate wants a hand at him, Wayne allows it and then sticks his head out, probably to yell out, ‘Here I am, right in the big stage’.

Tony Hibbert,seen clutching onto the swelled chest of Wayne Rooney in the aftermath of the sentimental emotions

The temple bell “Remember the name, Wayne Rooney” sowed the seeds to embark him on a mission to propel him to great heights. After re-pledging his prophecy with Sir Alex, Wayne Rooney will now take on the bigger responsibility of captaining England.

He’s one of the last remaining goal-scorers built on the likes  of his former temparemental skipper, Roy Keane. His positions on the field has changed since he joined Manchester United. But then even when Paul Scholes started off as a goal-scoring mid-fielder, with time he now holds back in the mid-field. He has surely had certain embarrassing situations during his time( a dive to end Arsenal’s run, publicly stating his intentions for the cash-buffed Man City) but which talented footballer has not?  He pledged back, came and now still commands the same respect among everyone. Rooney is a brawny one and stylish in his own way. His visionary crosses from the flanks, volleys from outside the box and sublime chips over the keeper are attributes of a typical striker, but Rooney makes up even for his ability to pull back a lost ball, hold midfield and dictate the terms at will.

The era, famously erred by the Keane-Vierra rivalry has gone by, it would never ignite the passion in me to watch football the same way again. Wayne Rooney is probably the last battle-scarred wonder-kid of that phase who still graces the game and occasionally potrays that certain kind of post-2000 legacy, of the dying players of that particular genre, which sadly, has already left us.