Masterpieces

After 118 minutes of last Tuesday's German cup quarter-final match between Schalke 04 and 1.FC Nuremberg, a fascinating, hard-fought and thrilling encounter was heading for penalties - cruel, but with time about to expire, it looked like a decisive, match-winning moment would elude the weary players and the nerve-wracked crowd. In the 119th minute, a 17 year-old schoolboy by the name of Julian Draxler changed all that. His glorious strike of the ball was worthy of winning any game of football. One set of fans were elated, the other devastated, yet all could admire the brilliance of the goal itself.

There are many aspects of the 'beautiful game' which make it just that. Flowing passing moves, mesmerising dribbles, impossible saves, even stoic defensive performances - they are all specialised areas of the art of football. Their beauty is often open to some subjectivity and different aficionados will appreciate different things. Yet there is something so straightforward about a wonder-goal. The simplicity is plain for all to see - a player strikes the ball and propels it into the net in spectacular fashion. It even looks easy, yet for the average person it is also almost impossible to recreate. It's a bit like a Van Gogh. A painting of a vase of sunflowers or an untidy bedroom - instantly recognisable, iconic pieces, surely within reach of anybody at first glance, but then look at the intricacies of the individual brush strokes and think again.  Curling a ball from 25 yards, while running forward, avoiding the challenges of brutal defenders, transferring enough energy to the ball to give a highly trained custodian of the goal absolutely no chance of saving it. An element of luck maybe, but a huge slice of skill too.

Art lovers queue to look at masterpieces in art gallery exhibitions. They remember the best paintings for years to come. Football fans love goals, and the great ones live in the memory for a long time. Just prior to writing this piece I watched Nuremberg beat Hamburg 2-0 in the Bundesliga. A penalty and a tap-in were celebrated at the time as though they were the greatest goals ever scored. The result will be remembered long after the goals themselves have been forgotten. On a week-to-week basis this is probably the norm for any football fan. But every once in a while there is a special strike. Something out of the ordinary that is either highly spectacular, highly significant or a combination of the two. Everybody has their favourites - for many present day Nuremberg fans, Jan Kristiansen's cup winning goal in extra-time of the 2007 final will be their personal number one. Even the defeated Stuttgart players and fans will remember this footballing moment.

That Nuremberg were on the wrong end of another great cup goal, should not detract from the quality or indeed longevity of the memory of Draxler's effort for Schalke. The significance may be more long-term than simply knocking 1.FCN out of the cup. Another young, exciting, and obviously very talented German footballer should set warning bells ringing in the international footballing arena too, as well as having agents, scouts and the media working themselves into a frenzy.

Personally, while 'gutted' at the defeat, it felt less heartbreaking to lose in this manner than through a penalty shoot-out (although at least if you get to that stage you still have a chance of winning). All that is left for a football fan on the 'wrong end' of such a moment, is to hope that their team do not leave it too long before they next score a goal so beautiful and significant that it might even over-shadow the game itself. We can all appreciate great goals against us, but we don't want to have to do it too often.