h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

According to the entry - RC practices these free kicks regularly.

Why then was it about 5 years before he scored another one for Brazil. Flash forward to WC2002 versus China (or similar poor opposition), almighty thunderous kick heading straight (no bend whatsoever) at the goal, almost decapitating the chap on the end of the wall ...

Perhaps he's not all that he's cracked up to be with these bendy free kicks.

Nonetheless good entry, enjoyed it Lots of good detail and sciency stuff.

BBS

Bending it around the wall is spectacular, but risky. The odds are even a super skilled player will miss at least 5 out of six. Less risky, but probably more difficult is the 'dip'. Struck with venom bot massive top-spin to bring it down over the wall. All schoolkids love trying to bend it, but scooping is trickier. Roberto Baggio was the best scooper I ever saw, but I'd like to have seen some of the old timers use the lighter balls. All said Roberto Carlos's goal was truly unbelievable

Roberto Carlos is a confidence player. What I mean is that his performace seems to be directly related to the scoreline.

I watched Real Madrid - Osasuna at the Bernabau 3 weeks ago and at 0-0 he was making mistakes all over the place, overhit passes, misplaced tackles, shots flying into orbit etc. However towards the end of the game when Madrid were up 4-1 he started to produce his miracles...one particular pass comes to mind, from next to his left side corner flag, with no run up he smacked the ball with a lot of bend around the oncoming attacker straight to the right side of midfield in the opposition half perfectly into the path of Figo...absolutely unbelievable skill and vision - however at the start of the game he wasn't even close to performing such skills...not even a simple 1-2!