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A corner kick into the net demonstrates the Magnus effect at its finest, but just how is this done? How does a player Bend It Like Beckham , as the famous movie title exhorts? Many players are very good at kicking the ball off center; that provides the bend or curve to the right or left. But players usually struggle with kicking the ball in precisely the right direction with the power needed to propel the ball where it needs to land—in the net. This type of corner kick is called an Olympic goal, or gól Olímpico . It was so named after a 1924 friendly soccer match between reigning Olympic champion Argentina and archrival Uruguay.

David Beckham is a former English soccer star who was famous for his ability to make the ball bend in midair.

Argentine striker Cesareo Onzari fired a corner kick that spun directly into the goal, and the play was forever dubbed gól Olímpico . Nearly 100 years later, very few players have managed the kick during a match. In 2012, US Women’s National team star Megan Rapinoe scored one by accident, meaning to place the ball a few yards in front of the goal so that her teammate could score. The kick curved left and actually went through the legs of an opposing team member, and then it bounced by Canada’s goalie and right into the net. That same year, French star Thierry Henry scored an Olympic goal in an MLS match. And in 2018, another Argentine, Angel di Maria, scored one for his French club side, Paris Saint-Germain.

CHAPTER 1 : FORCES THAT ACT ON A SOCCER BALL

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