A moment of real inspiration is hard to come by. The factors that go into making your mind light up and burn with the energy of a new idea or realization are so enigmatic that people spend their entire lives searching for them; the driving thought being that eternal success has at its heart the ability to be constantly inspired. This chase is as present in soccer as it is in any other vocation.
There is no higher compliment in soccer than to say a team is playing inspired football, and for good reason. It means everything clicks, that each and every player on a team is seeing the game in a new way that strikes the perfect balance between different and understanding; the first touch always opens up into more promising space; the pass leads the receiver in the right direction, but still gives them options; going past a defender is not a meaningless act of vanity, but a genius shortcut; and the goals, the goals are absolutely stunning.
The thing is, while there certainly are ways of maintaining a discipline that nurtures inspiration, there is no real way to control inspiration completely; sometimes it just happens. Sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately, in soccer, when it does just happen it makes all of the times that it doesn’t pale in comparison.
The immediacy with which it can strike can be shocking (Philippe Coutinho showed us all just how much so last week against Stoke). Sometimes it involves a team suddenly clicking together as mentioned above. Other times it is a piece of individual inspiration that cracks open a game like a bolt of lightning, and that is what this video captures: pure individual inspiration, lightening in a bottle.
The creator of the video, HeilRJ, is absolutely prolific at producing quality videos that any soccer fan can enjoy, and if you haven’t checked out his YouTube channel, you totally should do that — like, right now — but this one in particular is one of his best ever.
Seeing the ball pushed to its absolute limits — to the point that I am half expecting it to come apart at the seams — brings me back to the first time I ever watched a cool skills video on YouTube. That’s a high that is incredibly hard to find in an age when I can see each and every goal, over and over again, until I’m sick of it just minutes after it’s been scored.
Seeing a video like this isn’t just entertaining; it’s inspirational.
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