Stephanie Roche is through to the final three of this year’s Fifa Puskas Award

RobYourBuilder

IRELAND’S STEPHANIE ROCHE has beaten off competition from some of the world’s best footballers to make the final three of the Puskas Award.

The 25-year-old striker was nominated for Fifa’s goal of the year prize earlier this month thanks to an incredible volley she scored for Peamount United in the Women’s National League last October.

Public online voting closed this afternoon and, backed by a strong Twitter campaign, Roche was named alongside James Rodriguez and Robin van Persie in the final three.

They will travel to Zurich for the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony on 12 January, when the winner will be announced. If Roche wins, she will be both the first Irish player and the first female footballer to do so.

http://thescore.thejournal.ie/stephanie-roche-puskas-award-final-three-1809512-Dec2014/?utm_source=facebook_short

Not only is it the first time an Irish person has made it to the final, it's the first time a woman has ever made it to the final too. An amazing achievement.

Here's the goal in question. Scored a few of these myself, back in the day.

Beautiful goal and hopefully she can win the top prize. You can vote for her goal to win here; http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/puskas-award/index.html

It's a FIFA competition. Vote rigging is a FIFA tradition. Vote early and often!

suicide_circus

Goal and a half

4zn76tysfajdxp

The other goals were better, to be honest.

catallus

She kicked the football very nicely.

bucketybuck

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

Scored a few of these myself, back in the day.

So have I, you'll see goals like that in park games or at indoor soccer up and down the country. Which is why I won't vote for it.

Do that against truly world class defenders like some of the other goals and then come back to me.

My name is URL

I'm surprised she made the list of finalists considering the names of other players nominated and the amount of fanboys they and their clubs have.

Just goes to show how class people thought the goal was.

lertsnim

The token woman in the final three. She hasn't a hope in hell of winning that.

fran17

I have a feeling she will win it also

DeadHand

Kenya Putrid Potassium wrote: »

The other goals were better, to be honest.

Plus, they were scored against infinitely better defences.

Mars Bar

lertsnim wrote: »

The token woman in the final three. She hasn't a hope in hell of winning that.

Token? She's the first ever!

My name is URL

bucketybuck wrote: »

Do that against truly world class defenders like some of the other goals and then come back to me.

Why would Peamount United ladies be playing against world class defenders?

Goals aren't judged on whether they could be scored against better or weaker opposition, they're judged on how they were scored.

'then come back to me' :rolleyes:

ballsymchugh

nothing like after hours to take the goal down a few pegs.

jesus wept.

RobYourBuilder

I genuinely think that it's the best goal of the three. I also think that she will scoop up the award.

Its Only Ray Parlour

My name is URL wrote: »

Why would Peamount United ladies be playing against world class defenders?

Goals aren't judged on whether they could be scored against better or weaker opposition, they're judged on how they were scored.

'then come back to me' :rolleyes:

You're completely missing the point. If Stephanie Roche was against world class opponents, she wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to score that goal - the marking and closing down was awful, they pretty much allowed the play to unfold and gave them room to pass and shoot.

That being said, her technique and control was brilliant and that's one of the reasons why I voted for her, the other reason is my bias.

RobYourBuilder

Its Only Ray Parlour wrote: »

You're completely missing the point. If Stephanie Roche was against world class opponents, she wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to score that goal - the marking and closing down was awful, they pretty much allowed the play to unfold and gave them room to pass and shoot.

That being said, her technique and control was brilliant and that's one of the reasons why I voted for her, the other reason is my bias.

Arguably the greatest goal of all time, Maradonas second against England in '86, could also be put down to some shambolic defending.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

DeadHand

Taken from wikipedia in relation to the criteria for the Puska awards:

The importance of the match should be taken into account (objective — limited to "A" international teams, confederation championships and national top-division club matches: the more important the goal, the better).

How important was that match she scored in? I ask because the stand was empty.

Venus In Furs

My name is URL wrote: »

I'm surprised she made the list of finalists considering the names of other players nominated and the amount of fanboys they and their clubs have.

Just goes to show how class people thought the goal was.

Exactly. She was playing for Peamount United and the two other goals were by Dutch and Colombian internationals who play for two of the biggest domestic teams in the world... yet still dismissal of it!

My name is URL

Its Only Ray Parlour wrote: »

You're completely missing the point. If Stephanie Roche was against world class opponents

I'm not missing the point. Mine is that she wasn't playing against world class players, nor is she or her team 'world class' so saying that she couldn't have done it or wouldn't have gotten the chance to do it against 'world class' players is moot.

It was Peamount United vs Wexford Youth.. nobody is under the illusion that the same would have happened if it was Peamount United vs Barcelona

It is what it is.

Micky Dolenz

If only there was a soccer ball forum.

To Elland Back

Technically, it was an excellent goal.

Ol' Donie

What a brilliant goal.

Bang, Bill!!

Dempsey

Going by the logic here, a tap in vs Barcelona would be a better goal than Roches.

bucketybuck

Dempsey wrote: »

Going by the logic here, a tap in vs Barcelona would be a better goal than Roches.

Going by the logic here, my screamer from indoor soccer should be nominated for the Puskas award.

Slicemeister

Voted for her. Was the goal any good? ;-)

KERSPLAT!

Thread here in the Soccer forum

Micky Dolenz

After a bit of discussion we have decided to leave this run for a while, an Irish sports person has done something extraordinary and people should know about it.

So, can I only vote via facebook or what's the craic?

KERSPLAT!

http://m.fifa.com/ballon-dor/puskas-award/index.html

You can vote here

Holsten

Good goal but the others are pretty much similar, with the added pressure of being during the World Cup Finals.

What was this match? A league match with 7 teams?

I'd go with Van Perise.

miggins

Great skill great goal!

Duckworth_Luas

You win the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and score a wonder goal and still After Hours complains!

Bicycle kick I presume?

razorblunt

Great goal but the other two are better, with James being the pick for me.

cranks

Anyone notice that the sound of the crowd reaction is much more understated on the vid link supplied by FIFA? Odd.

Technically excellent goal

stimpson

All this talk of world class defenders and yet there's van Persie on his todd right in front of the goal.







Fing about Arsenal is, they always try an' walk it in.

SEPT 23 1989

Stephanie can only score against whats put in front of her

She will win this award

anncoates

Voted for her because It would be nice to see her win and Peamount are near me even though I wouldn't say it's necessarily a much better goal than the others.

A goal at any level can be appreciated on its own merits though without having to trot out the blindingly obvious barstooler drivel about what level she's playing at.

Witchie

She is the first Irish person up for the award and the first woman to make it to the top 3 so for me she is a winner already but really hope she can make history for a 3 time.

She is the 2nd highest trending item on fifa.com news after the competition itself. RVP and James are 7th and 8th so whether they are translating to actual votes or not, she is garnering a lot of attention.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

You win the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and score a wonder goal and still After Hours complains!

Bicycle kick I presume?

Lets hope the Peamount team doctor doesn't come out ten years later with any damaging confessions.

The_Valeyard

Voted. Fair play to her.

Venus In Furs

Holsten wrote: »

Good goal but the others are pretty much similar, with the added pressure of being during the World Cup Finals.

What was this match? A league match with 7 teams?

I'd go with Van Perise.

But Van Persie and Rodriguez are world-class players - yet her goal has ended up alongside theirs in this particular contest; how can't people see that achievement in and of itself?

Macavity.

It's a FIFA competition. Vote rigging is a FIFA tradition. Vote early and often!

It's a great goal and a fantastic achievement. However, it is not the best goal out of the nominees and therefore didn't get my vote. It irritates me when people ask people to vote for her - leaving aside the unfairness of that, it's insulting to her. If she wins, did she do it on merit? Big question mark over that now, to be honest.

Macavity.

anncoates wrote: »

Voted for her because It would be nice to see her win and Peamount are near me even though I wouldn't say it's necessarily a much better goal than the others.

Jesus Christ.

Jarrod

First things first, fair play to Roche, fantastic achievement and I really hope she wins.

Now, I obviously don't want to belittle the goal (everything about it was fantastic) but surely there should be a minimum level at which the match is played to qualify for the award. I mean if I brought a video camera to a different Sunday league game every week for the season I'd be fairly certain I'd find at least one goal better than some of the nominations there. From matches I've played in alone, I've seen better goals than Costa's and Ibrahimovic's.

Anyway, don't want to put a downer on it (and I considered not posting the second bit) but I think the minumum standard should be that the goal is scored in a professional match.

Having said all that - Vote Roche #1!

Micky Dolenz

Everything is relative.

KERSPLAT!

Macavity. wrote: »

It's a great goal and a fantastic achievement. However, it is not the best goal out of the nominees and therefore didn't get my vote. It irritates me when people ask people to vote for her - leaving aside the unfairness of that, it's insulting to her. If she wins, did she do it on merit? Big question mark over that now, to be honest.

In your opinion.

That's why there is a vote, it's subjective.

anncoates

Macavity. wrote: »

Jesus Christ.

My post wasn't that good, to be fair.

Macavity.

anncoates wrote: »

My post wasn't that good, to be fair.

It certainly wasn't.

dirkmeister

Macavity. wrote: »

It irritates me when people ask people to vote for her - leaving aside the unfairness of that, it's insulting to her. If she wins, did she do it on merit? Big question mark over that now, to be honest.

This.

However, you're probably going to run the risk of being called a "begrudger" if you think RVP or James scored better goals.

If her goal was the best, then vote for her. Just because she's Irish or a woman shouldn't influence your vote.

It was a cracking finish, but I'd vote for RVP as the Dutch were in a bit of a pickle up to that goal, 1-0 down to the World champions who had threatened to go 2 up.

Macavity.

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

In your opinion.

That's why there is a vote, it's subjective.

Be pedantic if you want about the phrasing of words, ignore the main point made in my post.

anncoates

Macavity. wrote: »

It certainly wasn't.

Like Steph, I can only respond to the limited canvas that surrounds me.

Macavity.

dirkmeister wrote: »

If her goal was the best, then vote for her. Just because she's Irish or a woman shouldn't influence your vote.

This asking for votes carry on is something that is now commonplace thanks to social media. People on Facebook asking you to vote for them in competitions - pathetic. Not something to be encouraged.