The Boy from Rosario

The plays · Plate I

Getafe, 18 April 2007

Copa del Rey semi-final, first leg, the 29th minute. He is 19. From a pass on the touchline to the ball in the net: nine and a half seconds, fifty-five metres, thirteen touches, six men. The run, drawn instant by instant and measured from the broadcast.

Fig. 1 The goal, as broadcast

Source: FC Barcelona’s own upload, played from the club’s YouTube channel, main camera with the broadcast’s cut to the close camera at the halfway line. Watch it once, then read the study below it.

Fig. 2 The play, instant by instant

Plate I Eight instants, 9.5 seconds

Charcoal studies after the broadcast, main camera and the close follow-camera. Times are from the first touch, counted frame by frame in the club’s upload at 25 frames per second, and are good to about a quarter of a second where the broadcast cut between cameras. The red crayon marks the ball.

Fig. 3 The ground he covered

Attacking up the page. The red line is the ball; the ticks are touches, numbered; the letters are the instants of Plate I. Grey rings are Getafe players where each was beaten, the dotted ring is Eto’o. Positions are reconstructed from the pitch markings in the main-camera shots, so they are good to about three metres.

Table 1 Measured

First touch to the ball over the line9.5 sFrame by frame in the live broadcast at 30 fps: first touch at 0:03.85, ball over the line at 0:13.4. The club’s edit, cut differently round the close camera, gives 9.3 s. Published accounts say 10 to 12, counting from Xavi’s pass.
Ground covered with the ball≈ 55 mAlong the reconstructed path, from the first touch to the shot. ± 3 m.
Touches13By 90min’s count; one touch in the sprint is disputed, so 14 is also defensible.
Opponents beaten6Paredes, Nacho Pérez, Alexis Ruano, David Belenguer, Luis García in goal, David Cortés on the line.
Average speed with the ball≈ 6 m/s55 m over the 9.1 s from first touch to shot. About 22 km/h, with the ball, through six men.
Fastest stretch≈ 8 m/sTouches five to ten: about 25 m in 3 s, the two beaten men chasing.
The finishright foot · 4.5 m · 10°From roughly 4.5 m out and 20 m across, the open goal subtends about ten degrees. Lifted over the sliding Cortés.
Score2–0Barcelona won the leg 5–2 and lost the tie: Getafe won the return 4–0.

How this was made. The clip is the club’s. The drawings are charcoal studies after single frames of it, main camera and follow camera, with the poses, the positions and the ball kept where they were; the frames themselves are not reproduced. Every line, number and name on this page is drawn by the page, not by hand, from the measurements above. Names and the order of the beaten men follow Sky Sports’ account, but which figure is which is our reading of the footage, since no account says: Paredes by the number 3 on his shorts, Belenguer by his long fair hair, Alexis Ruano as the dark-haired man who slides. In that account Javier Paredes says of the first touch: “I could have fouled him at that point.” The touch count follows 90min’s frame-by-frame reading. The duration was counted frame by frame in two copies of the broadcast; the run’s length and the positions are our reconstruction from the pitch markings and carry the stated uncertainty.

Sources: FC Barcelona, the goal (YouTube) · FC Barcelona, 18 years on · Sky Sports, the run touch by touch · 90min, anatomy of the goal · The18, the Maradona comparison

Drawings by the site, after the broadcast; each clip comes from its rights holder’s own channel. An unofficial, non-commercial fan project, not affiliated with Lionel Messi or any club, league or federation. Spot a mistake? Email corrections@boyfromrosario.org.