101 Great Goals - Antonin Panenka

Can a penalty be a great goal? It can be, when it's the greatest penalty ever taken.

For all it's audacity and courage, it's worth considering the aesthetic effect the Belgrade Continental D's which smothered the shot, have played in making this penalty so memorable.




Compare and contrast with the following Panenka penalties:

ZIDANE



Zidane's penalty, 5 minutes into the 2006 World Cup final is certainly audacious, but has the ball not striking net reduced it's impact on the collective memory?

PIRLO



Much of the commentary resulting from Pirlo's peerless kick focused on Joe Hart sprawled on his backside rather than the kick itself. Might this have something to do with the ball hitting the net like a ball against a wall in training?

FA Cup Special - Manchester City v Leeds Utd

This weekend's fifth round of the Cup has Man City and Leeds squaring up to one another at Etihad.

In respect of the aesthetic value-add goal nets can bring to the game, Etihad's black, almost invisible nets are among the worst around.



This wasn't always the case at City. They used to LOVE their goal nets.

Nearly 40 years ago the sides met at Maine Road in the old First Division. Similar to the way City responded to Euro 76 by installing Continental D's, so after the West Germany World Cup they found a way to follow the free-hanging fashion while keeping their A-frames, and went for the hybrid design.

A-list A-frames - Nottingham Forest

Looking at Forest's History of Goal Nets it was hoped the installation of the Continental D's would coincide with Cloughie's arrival in 1975, or winning the League in 1978, or winning the European Cup in 1979 and further demonstrate the talismanic importance of changing the goals (see Manchester United).




But Forest didn't install the Continental D's until the 1980-81 season, AFTER their second European Cup win against Hamburg. Indeed, the Continental D's could be seen as a herald for a downturn in fortune for Forest, much as they were for Liverpool some ten years later.

Prior to the D's a proud set of A-listers stood at either end of the City Ground, bearing witness to Cloughie and his glory years.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Mick Channon and Colin Bell

Everybody knows Czechoslovakia won Euro 76 with still the most audacious penalty kick of all time.

But who remembers Czechoslovakia's first game in qualifying for that tournament was a 3-0 defeat at Wembley, with two headers rebounding off the stanchions at Wembley?

Great headers, first by Mick Channon, then Colin Bell.

UEFA European Championships - Yugoslavia 1976

Antonin Panenka's audacious penalty kick in the final may have become the defining image of the 1976 tournament, and without question, Belgrade's stylish Continental D's inspired copycats everywhere, from Manchester City to Subbuteo.

But the Czech's victory over favourites Holland in the semis in the rain at Zagreb is the game everybody remembers...



 Check out those little D's; they're like Sheffield Wednesday's

Goalnets, Ball Retention and the Aesthetic of Scoring Goals - Two Penalties

Two famous, decisive, near-identical penalties, 34 years apart.

One penalty is retained by the goalnets, while the other is repelled.



Is the Abreu penalty, which rebounds out before the goalkeeper has even got back to his feet, somehow lacking in the aesthetic of the decisive?

Does Panenka's kick, which floats past Sepp Maier and stays past Sepp Maier, better serve the occasion?

Which do you prefer?