Leeds 0 - 1 QPR: Inches
The equation was in almost perfect balance - Rudy Austin’s right foot + football + physics + gravity = goal. But one element was fractionally wrong. We’ll never know which.
I nearly saw the greatest goal I’ve ever seen in my life.
That it would have secured a draw would have been mostly irrelevant; the last minute spectacular just something to add to the telling. It was a moment - I’ve timed it at 1.2 seconds from the moment the ball left Rodolph Austin’s foot, to the moment it struck the bar - that could exist without context.
Since Tony Yeboah nearly broke the crossbar against Liverpool in 1995, nobody has really worried that it was scored in the 50th minute, or that Leeds won a mundane match 1-0. All they’re interested in is the goal: the paces Tony takes backwards and right, his body’s sudden shift forward, the mathematic beauty of the ball’s arc, a journey that silenced the crowd so it could better hear the crack as it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down. You replay it again and again, and don’t worry about the rest of the match.
So it was - or nearly was - with Rudy Austin’s effort on Saturday. I’ve defended Austin’s shooting before by pointing out that one day, when it works, he will do something truly awesome that none of us will ever forget. Until then he just has to keep trying. He had one go in the first half that curved tantalisingly away from the junction of crossbar and post, and given our shortage of goalscorers, and of goal creators, a ration of one piledriver blockbuster per half is not unreasonable.
And the last minute effort has given us a taste of what could be. It was more composed than Yeboah’s strike; the ball falls nearly as far, but Austin took it on his chest rather than volley it first time. Not unreasonable, given he was a good ten yards further out than Yeboah. I make it six steps that Austin takes as the ball bounces into space. The wondrous thing about Yeboah’s goal was how he sourced the energy for the strike despite moving backwards as the ball fell, he was like a wind up toy, whereas Rudy was bearing down on the ball, leaning forward the whole time, building forward momentum.
That’s why the shot, when it came, had a flatter trajectory. Yeboah was leaning back at the moment of impact, sending the ball high into the night and trusting gravity to bring it down at the right moment. Austin was more hunched, but then his shoulders are one of his trademarks, meaning the ball stayed low, but not quite low enough. Throughout its journey over the penalty area it seemed bound at any moment to take a sudden swerve upward, to change course and miss by disappointing yards; it never quite flew free. The equation was in almost perfect balance - Rudy Austin’s right foot + football + physics + gravity = goal. But one element was fractionally wrong. We’ll never know which.