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Jasmine Aikey’s INSANE goal!
The internet is full of clips of Argentine great Lionel Messi making impossible goals.
But what about Stanford’s Jamine Aikey’s impossible goal against Saint Mary’s on Sunday afternoon?
It was a game breaker (and a heart breaker for Saint Mary’s).
It was the 71st minute. Stanford was trailing 1-0 after dominating play and taking 9 previous unsuccessful corner kicks. Jasmine Aikey took a bunch of those prior corners, driving the ball past the goal mouth to allow a teammate to head or body the ball into the goal. Those corners were well taken and were high percentage options for a corner, but none produced a goal.
With Saint Mary’s bunker defense doing its thing, the pressure was on Stanford.
Stanford set up to take its 10th corner. This time, Aikey tried something different – an unassisted corner kick that looped over the keeper’s head and curved into the far upper corner of the goal box. The keeper reached to get a hand on it, but there was nothing to do. It was in, and Stanford had momentum to score two more goals and win the game.
Now I know that this has been done before and will be done again. And, I presume, Aikey practiced shots like this. But it is a low percentage choice for a corner, primarily because of the extremely low margin for error.
The kick is taken from very close to the goal line, so unless there is a favorable wind, the only way it can go unassisted into the goal is to “bend it like Beckham.” That’s what Aikey did. But think about extremely low margin for error.
The kick is taken from the sideline with a horrible angle – it should curve into the upper corner of the far end of the goal box, more than halfway across the pitch.
If it’s too high, it will pass over the goal box harmlessly.
If it’s too low, it will be blocked by defensive players or caught by the keeper.
If the angle is wrong by a degree or two, forget it.
If the ball curves too much or too little, sorry.
If the ball is kicked too softly or too aggressively, no chance.
Sophomore striker Aikey already had demonstrated a gift for free kicks from other portions of the field. Last season, Aikey, with a tough outside the box angle, buried a twenty-yard free kick to score a key goal against Washington State. Caterina Macario, the most prolific goal scorer in Stanford history, had this free kick gift (but I cannot recall Macario ever scoring on an unassisted corner kick). This season, Aikey leads the team with 3 goals in 4 games.
More to come, and Aikey is just one of a gaggle of goal scoring players (Maya Doms, Andrea Kitahata, Lumi Kostmayer, Samantha Williams, and (if she’s recovered from the ACL) Allie Montoya. In the first four games, nine different Stanford players have scored one or more goals.
