The goal against France

In July 1997, France hosted a championship with four very strong teams, in preparation for the World Cup the following year. The participating countries were: France, Italy, Brazil, England. The opening match of the tournament was between France and Brazil, which would be finalists for the World Cup the following year, and it was in this match that Roberto Carlos impressed the world with a foul goal that still impresses physicists. Brazil came from the conquest of the fourth championship in the United States, with Ronaldo young and in great phase besides Romário also playing a lot and would use that tournament in preparation for the Copa America dispute after a week. While the French did not even compete in the World Cup in 1994, however, they were anxious to be the host country for the 1998 World Cup. Roberto Carlos had just finished his first season as a Real Madrid player and had accumulated two titles, Spanish Super Cup and La Liga. The young man had even won the bronze medal with the national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The Brazilian team, led by Zagallo, started the game by putting pressure on the French and had two great opportunities before opening the scoring. In the 32nd minute of the first half, the short Romário suffered an intermediate foul, in which Roberto adjusted with care. Despite being 35 meters from the goal defended by Barthez, the defender gave a lot of distance and sent a trivela bomb, at 103 km / h, which made a curve never seen before (even by the TV camera that lost part of the ball's trajectory ), whipping capriciously on the post before entering, leaving the French goalkeeper completely unresponsive. France would tie the game in the second half but the repercussion of the game would be over that goal by Roberto Carlos.After more than 2 decades of this goal, which often becomes the target of physicists' study, Roberto Carlos says: “To tell you the truth, I don't even know how I scored that goal” and adds, “it was a beautiful goal, the result of many years of training and hard work, which allowed me to hit that kick and make this goal so remarkable in my career ”. In fact, this goal marked the career of the former player, who said in a relaxed tone, never to have tried to shoot like that again, because he knew he would not get it right. The ex-lateral still points out, “somebody will one day score a beautiful goal similar to mine. It may take time, but it will happen ”. However, the scientific community disagrees with the author of this painting. One of the most famous studies on this goal was done by the French Guillaume Dupeux, Anne Le Goff, David Quéré and Christophe Clanet and published in a scientific newspaper in September 2010. They say that Roberto Carlos's kick could even be reproduced, if done the calculations and using the same distance and force, which would be very unlikely to say the least. The renowned Brazilian physicist Dr. José Fernando Fontanari points out that, even with physics explaining the curve, due to factors such as strength, angle of Roberto's foot, etc. The kick can be classified as miraculous. In addition, he cites a study in which he indicates that if the ball did not reach the post and the net, it would remain on a spiral path.