Saturday Dispatch Gutsy striker showstopper

FOOTBALL, like any other sport, has a propensity to leave one breathless, especially when players turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

One of the most difficult forms of play to perfect is the bicycle kick, an action which sees a player with his back to the goal becoming airborne to whip a ball over his head with a swivel of his feet to score past a crowded goalmouth. If done well it is sheer elegance. These types of manoeuvres are exciting to watch and impossible to forget.

An unlikely “hero” appeared this week in the form of Baroka FC’s Oscarine Masuluke who pulled off a jaw-dropping bicycle kick, snatching a late 1-1 draw against the fancied Orlando Pirates. He knocked the wind out of Pirates’ sails and sent his team into gyrating celebration.

The goal came in the dying seconds of injury time as the player – on a call by coach Kgoloko Thobejane for one final push – raced from his own goal to the opposition’s 18-metre area and delivered, what can only be described as a moment of pure brilliance.

What sets Masuluke’s goal apart from the rest is that he is a goalkeeper and these type of sorties are usually performed by strikers.

There have been many spectacular strikes by the world’s top players. Who can forget those of football luminaries such as French international Youri Djorkaeff for Inter against Roma in 1997 or Klaus Fischer’s Goal of the Century in 1977 for West Germany against Switzerland. Also impossible to forget was Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s clinical finish against England; Brazilian Rivaldo’s 90th-minute piece of magic for Barcelona against Valencia in 2001; and Wayne Rooney’s top drawer effort for Manchester United in the Manchester City derby five years ago.

And the football world certainly took note when Bafana Bafana midfielder Hlompho Kekana’s scored against Cameroon in an African Nations Cup qualifier – it was nominated for Fifa’s Puskas Award for Goal of the Year.

Then South Africa’s domestic league was again thrust into the international limelight courtesy of Masuluke.

To their credit the British press, usually the harshest critics of the game, saluted a little known player who hails from rural Limpopo.

We may never see a repeat of such a feat by the gangling Masuluke, but a nation hankering for some kind of relevance on the international front, this spectacular finish was one to savour.

The player is one of Baroka’s particularly competitive players “and likes winning”, we are told. He shows that we all have something special in us, if only we would just go for it.