If you’re anything like me, you were fascinated by Gustav Svensson’s goal on Sunday. Not just because the Swedish midfielder scored, again, from about 30 yards out, but because something seemed weird about the flight of the ball. Somewhat counter-intuitively to what we know about physics, it actually seemed to be rising as it approached Sean Johnson’s goal.
Turns out, that’s exactly what it was doing and LevyFilms’ footage of the goal shows how that was possible.
Even in slow motion, the ball appears to almost levitate above the turf. But if we slow it down frame-by-frame, we can actually see ball strike the turf at the :23-mark. From there, it rises at least a foot and helps explain why despite not being particularly well placed that Johnson is unable to stop it.