F365's top 10 passes of recent years

Our Top Ten: Favourite Passes...

David Silva's pass through to Edin Dzeko at the weekend made us sigh with delight, and recall our favourite passes through the ages. It's dorky, but indulge us this one....

Forget all the nonsense surrounding football - it's the little things that keep us coming back, because that's what we love. Here are ten, but feel free to suggest your own...


10 - Guti, Real Madrid v Deportivo, 2010
In many ways, this pass sums up everything that should be brilliant about football. Real were 1-0 up against Deportivo and Guti - playing in his last season for the club - was put clean through on goal around 15 yards out with only the keeper to beat. The simple, sensible thing to do would be to lift over the onrushing keeper, or slot it past him, or even try to beat him with raw power. Guti did none of these things, and instead back-heeled - while running at full pelt, by the way - the ball straight into the path of Karim Benzema, who scored. Audacious, utterly unnecessary but completely brilliant.


9 - Frank de Boer to Dennis Bergkamp, Holland v Argentina, World Cup '98
In the last minute of a World Cup quarter-final poised at 1-1, you can be forgiven for backing off a left-back who is ten yards inside his own half. 'Save your legs.' 'Don't get caught out of position.' 'What can he possibly do from there?' But as Argentina found to their peril, Frank de Boer can actually do quite a lot from there, including ping it 60 yards onto someone's right foot. When one of the right feet milling around belongs to one Dennis Bergkamp, all of a sudden defending from the front starts to sound like more of a priority. Cue one perfect long pass, three touches of sheer majesty and 22 one-way tickets back to Argentina.


8 - David Silva to Edin Dzeko, Manchester City v Manchester United, 2011
I'm not a City fan. Never have been. Aside from living not far from Maine Road for a couple of years, I have no association with the club. Their results matter as much or as little to me as the other 19 clubs in the Premier League. However, I have recorded this pass - and this pass only - to watch whenever I'm feeling low, and need cheering up. It's the combination of nonchalance and technical perfection that makes this ball so beautiful to watch, as Silva controls and flicks the ball up in the same motion, then with an almost lackadaisical swing of that glorious left boot strokes it into Dzeko's path. Silva would've been well within his rights to tar and feather the Bosnian had he not scored, such was the brilliance of this ball. As distasteful as the amount of money City are splashing all over the place might be, it has brought Silva to these shores. Be thankful, mere mortals.


7 - Joe Cole to Didier Drogba, Chelsea v Valencia, Champions League, 2007
It's good that Joey Cole is getting a bit of attention in France - largely because he might show off a few more passes like this. The outside-of-the-foot effort is usually reserved for the poseur or the chronically one-footed, but I'll let Cole off on this occasion because of the brilliance of the ball. The great thing about this one is you can almost see the emotional rollercoaster the defender (I think it's Carlos Marchena, but happy to be corrected) goes on, initially thinking he can get there to intercept, but realising with every revolution of the ball that he has no chance. Lovely stuff.


6 - Adel Taarabt to Wayne Routledge, QPR v Coventry, 2011
And on a similar theme, Disco Adel plays in Routledge. If only he'd do more of this, and less huffing off to catch the bus.


5 - Tom Huddlestone to Gareth Bale, Spurs v Shakhtar Donetsk, UEFA Cup, 2009
Brilliant passes do not always result in goals, but you can hardly blame Tom Huddlestone in this case. It's all relatively simple really - Spurs win a free-kick in their right-back slot, THudd ambles up to the ball and absolutely crushes an incredible 70-yard pass right into the other corner of the pitch, right onto Gareth Bale's left foot. It was a pass that apparently had absolutely no respect for the laws of physics. A ridiculous but beautiful thing.


4 - Eric Cantona to Denis Irwin, Manchester United v Spurs, 1992
"It was a pass," says Eric Cantona to Eric Bishop, in the rather lovely film 'Looking For Eric', when asked about his favourite moment for United. Whether this really was Cantona's most treasured memory at Old Trafford, or simply a dramatic construct, we do not know, but his explanation in the film stands. "I knew how clever he (Irwin) was - left, right-footed. It came in a flash - I just flicked it with the outside of my foot, surprised everyone, he took it in his stride and my heart soared...Like an offering, to the great God of football." Quite so Eric, quite so.


3 - David Beckham to Ronaldo, Real Madrid v Zaragoza, 2006
For those that claim David Beckham was overrated, have a look at this cross and tell us which other England player of the last 40 years could pull that off.


2 - Xavi to his Barcelona teammates, Barcelona v everyone, 1998 to present
'I have to get one from Xavi in there somewhere,' I thought as I drew up the candidates for this list. But which one? I spent more time on YouTube than those who pay my wages would probably prefer, emitting noises like Meg Ryan after each delicious through ball, trying to narrow it down to one. And I couldn't. Perhaps it's a failing on my part, but I imagine this is what it feels like when a parent is asked to choose which of their children they like the best. Only my children are perfectly-placed through balls in Catalunya. In terms of importance, the pass through to Fernando Torres in the Euro 2008 final, or the cross to Messi in the 2009 Champions League final, would be the best, but I just can't pick one. Can you?


1 - Kaka to Hernan Crespo, AC Milan v Liverpool, Champions League final 2005
Simply one of the most perfect pieces of sport - not just football, sport. Because of the amount of variables in a sport like football, giving a pass just the right amount of weight is just the most phenomenally difficult thing to do. Time, pressure from opposition, positioning of your teammates...even the length of grass on the pitch. It takes an immense amount of skill and control to get things exactly right on the training pitch, never mind in arguably the biggest club game in the world.

However, that's what Kaka did, for the goal that looked like it had killed off Liverpool's chances in Istanbul. Not content with a beautiful pirouette to get away from his marker, Kaka stroked a pass through the Liverpool defence and past the despairing dive of Jamie Carragher to Hernan Crespo, who dinked it over Jerzy Dudek. Watch it again (and again, and again) and you'll notice that Crespo didn't have to adjust his stride pattern to poke the ball in. In some ways, it was a shame that the second half panned out as it did, because not enough people remember this piece of genuine footballing genius. Simply magnificent.

Forza Italia!Forza Milan! wrote:That Kaka pass was, for me, as magical and memorable as Baggio's run through Czechoslovakia at Italia'90.

Anti-Progress wrote:To be fair Guti could have had the top 10 all by himself.