Guys, get real. If you are willing to believe that this footage is “real,” I have land to sell you. Cheap, so you can make your money back quick!!
To have done what the video purports, he would have to have hit the precise location on the goal frame that is directly opposite him, so that the ball is striking perpendicular to the frame and coming back directly to him; notice he doesn’t move. Further, he has to have hit the ball with essentially no spin, since any spin would either send the ball to the sides, or cause it to pop up or bounce downward. There has to be essentially no breeze, since that would force the ball off target. And you will notice that the ball doesn’t approach the crossbar the same way each time; on at least one occasion (the last) he strikes a rising shot that still hits the bar and comes right back to him, contrasting with the arcing shots from his prior attempts.
No. Not even Ronaldinho is that good. And folks, Ronaldinho is a good player, but he isn’t by any means the best player on the planet; he just markets better because of his buck teeth and goofy smile.
My wild assed guess is that his first shot hit the crossbar and came back to him, a fluke, and they decided that would be more amazing to film than him hitting the target spot on first shot; but it might have been a scripted thing all along. But it wasn’t “real.”
The camera zooms out for the duration of the crossbar shots - perfect for editing without showing the joins.
It’s inspired by the basketball commercial mentioned earlier - the whole thing is obviously stage managed, but the fixed camera position swings it for em.
I don’t doubt that somebody with the skills that Ronaldinho has could hit the crossbar three times in a row if he wanted. The true bounce back is harder to swallow.
I remember back in 1980 or 81 an interview with Kent Nilsson on Calgary TV. Nilsson was a Swedish hockey player of immense talent who played for the Flames. At the end of the interview, which was on the ice, Nilsson lined up 5 pucks on the blueline and said he’d hit the crossbar with a slap shot. He nailed it on the first try - a slap shot not a wrist shot.
For some reason the sound it makes when it hits the crossbar sounds really fake. Also it’s almost exactly the same each time. Then again suppose if it were hitting approximately the same spot, it would make the same sound.
You guys keep talking about the camera zooming out as being fishy. Umm… what should he do. Zoom all the way in and then perfectly track the ball from his foot to the crossbar and back? THAT would be fishy. Yeah it’s probably easier to fake as a wide shot like that, but that’s pretty much the only way it could show it.
What say ye about my point that it’s equally fishy that he’d lie that it was real and that he meant to do it. It’d be kinda like Lance Armstrong doing some fake unbelieveable bicycle trick and then in (unrelated) interview honestly taking credit for it. Some of you might say, I’m sure he’ll take any hype he can get. But really a) he doesn’t need it and b) he’d look SO bad if he were proven lying by one of the possibly hundreds of people who worked on the commercial.
For more on ronaldinho, watch this Best Of clip. Especially the set kick (?) about 30sec in with the CRAZY curve.
Well I thought it was unlikely but from this obituary for George Best :
“In the early days Best applied himself to honing his natural talent with a dedication that flatly contradicted his later reputation for skimping on training. As a child, he practised kicking a tennis ball against doorknobs until he had mastered striking them dead-centre, the precondition for the ball returning to him rather than flying off at an angle. Later on, he would aim to hit the crossbar at least nine times out of ten from the penalty spot, then from 20 yards, then 30 and then 40 before repeating the process with his weaker left foot until it became as reliable as his right.”
I have no doubt that Ronaldinho could hit the woodwork from a dead spot kick outside the top of the penalty area at will. I doubt he can do it from a volley, and that he can do it so that it comes directly back to him no matter what angle it takes to the bar, which is what must have happened in the purported video.
To put this into context for non-soccer fans, check out this volley by one of the best strikers of a ball in the game- Wayne Rooney.
As the commentators’ reaction suggests, that’s about as good as a volley gets in real life. Ronaldinho’s level of accuracy would have to be so much higher that I can’t believe it’s not digital trickery.
I just rewatched the footage carefully and I noticed that he did have to adjust where he was standing to catch the ball. It seemed like he mostly had to move forward or backward to be in the right place; I couldn’t tell if he moved much from side to side.
I really don’t know if he could do that shot repeatedly like that, but maybe.
Faked.
If you were to want a faked kick to look real you would have him ‘adjust’.
I realize games are different, but 1) if he was that good why not just set him up ala volley ball? and 2) goals are much bigger than bar sweet spots.
This demonstration would require him to kick in line perfectly perpendicular to the goal, hit the square bar on a horizontal plane to within probably a 1/4 of an inch and have just the right velocity with no spin. And all this has to happen at the same time, 4x in a row from a dribble shot at that distance. I don’t think so.
