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?

UEFA Champions League - FC Schalke 04

You may have read references on this site comparing the goal nets of today to trampolines, but it's a metaphor to describe nets stretched square and so taut they cannot retain the ball. No club actually installed trampolines for goal nets. Except Schalke...

In the mid 70's they rigged a system to suspend the goal nets at the Parkstadion by installing a full goal-sized frame behind the goals and attaching the nets to the frame with trampoline springs.

You can guess at the aesthetic affect...

UEFA Champions League - Olympiacos FC

Of all this year's Champions League participants, Olympiacos provides one of the most colourful recent History of Goal Nets.

Their nets were suspended from A-frames like Arsenal's in the mid 60's -



 Then they went all Argentina 78 by painting the bottom of the posts black


Then, keeping the black bands, they ditched the A-frames for Continental D's.

UEFA Champions League - GNK Dinamo Zagreb

While the Blues currently boast one of Europe's more elaborate systems for suspending the goal nets - the nets are on the field while the stanchions are behind the boards on the blue-covered running track -




The nets at the Maksimir used to be suspended by compact D's, as when Dinamo became the first Yugoslav side to win a European title in 1967.




For a better look at the Maksimir Stadion's Continental D's, check out the thrilling semi-final of the 1976 European Championships.



Don't these D's look like the old ones at Hillsborough?

UEFA Champions League - FC Porto

Continuing this season's Champions League participants' History of Goal Nets with the 1987 champions, FC Porto.

On their way to that 1987 title, The Dragons edged out their 2012 Group A opponents Dynamo Kyiv, firing a double into the Continental D's at the old Estadio das Antas.




Three years earlier Porto won the Cup Winners Cup, coming from 0-2 behind to sweep past Shakhtar Donetsk in the quarter-finals.

But these are incidentals, a mere introduction to the 1984 Antas architecure, these stellar L-supports on steroids.

A-list A-frames - Swansea City FC

To celebrate The Swans excellent start to the new season, here's a clip of their new manager in his pomp



And here's a clip of the glory days in front of A-frames at the old Vetch Field

UEFA European Championships - Sweden 1992 to Poland / Ukraine 2012

Much has changed in the game in the 20 years between Sweden in 1992 and Poland-Ukraine in 2012.

But from Brolin in 1992



To Balotelli in 2012


The goal nets have stayed the same.