Some players are blessed with such amazing born talent that they don’t even need to practice. All that they need to do is just to enter the arena and where they hit the straps soon.
Former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni used to be an expert in this. Tales of him going to a shooting range after skipping the team’s optional practice session and then sending the fielders on a leather hunt the very next day is very much is part of the cricket lore.
Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri almost did an MS Dhoni last week, though in a football ground.
Appearing for his Chicago Fire franchise in the Major League Soccer (MLS), Shaqiri converted a free kick with consummate ease against CF Montreal in the match held at Soldier Field.
Replica of training routine
Shaqiri, who joined the MLS club last season after ending his short stint with Ligue 1 club FC Lyon, replicated a routine from training ground which sent the crowd into rhapsody.
The goal, which came in the 33rd minute of the match was the third for the team and it literally killed the match as a contest.
Brian Gutierrez had given the home the side an early lead in the 9th minute as Maren Haile-Selassie pumped in the second goal two minutes later.
Shaqiri, the ex-Liverpool winger, then stepped in and applied the finishing touches with a stunner of free kick.
What surprised everyone was the manner in which the free-kick was converted.
The 31-year-old sold a dummy to Haile-Selassie, who had scored the team’s second goal. The latter relayed it to Shaqiri, who then fired from an improved angle past a bewildered Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois, who had no chance of stopping it.
Shaqiri with the free kick routine straight off the training ground 😱
Before his switch to MLS, during his three-year stint with Liverpool in the Premier League, Shaqiri was the designated free-kick taker for the Reds even usurping established names like Trent Alexander-Arnold, who used to excel in that role.
Silencing critics
There were some critics who pointed out as to why Shaqiri could never do such miracles in the top tier of English football.
But overall, his free kick stunner was much appreciated with adjectives like “Shaq attack”, “Big Shaq”, “The Swiss Magician” coming up on Twitter.
There were some who even think that Shaqiri’s goal could possibly be a contender for Weekly Puskas honour!
For the records, Shaqiri’s goal helped Chicago register their fourth win from the last five games.
It was his fourth strike from 17 games this season and inarguably the best so far.
Having plied his trade with some of the best European clubs like Liverpool, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, Shaqiri’s big-money move to MLS was criticised by many football pundits, who believed he should have stayed in Europe instead of searching greener pastures in the MLS.
But going by the way Shaqiri has been performing in MLS, he seems to have made his critics eat their words.
And goals like the one against Montreal just proves that he has really set Chicago and MLS on fire!
