Maxi Rodríguez de Argentina en el Mundial de Alemania 2006. Maxi, autor del tanto, destacó: "Son cosas que se dan en el momento, siempre digo eso, que Juampi no es de cambiar de frente, siempre lo hablábamos. That’s the volley of a man who knows he’s timed everything else perfectly and thinks there’s no other option but to trust his body to get it right again.When discussing Harry Kane’s record-breaking goalscoring exploits in 2017, much was made of the fact that, in the time the England man has scored six hat-tricks, no other Premier League player scored more than one.We can only assume Sanchez is cursing God, both for restricting him to a mere 6ft 1in and for ensuring that fact of his anatomy would betray him when it mattered most.Without that goal, Rodriguez might just have been another cog in a brilliant but frustrating Argentina machine.Maybe he knows it even earlier when substitute Lionel Messi puts his fresh legs to use and carries the ball forward into the Mexican half of the pitch.The idea of time standing still is an exaggeration, of course, but speed of thinking and speed of movement can give the air of a slow-mo highlights montage in real time.This was a team that many feel should have won the World Cup in 2006, having scored another of the goals of the tournament when Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a 24-pass move against Serbia & Montenegro, a game in which Rodriguez scored his first two tournament goals but was happy to let his colleagues take the plaudits.That’s not to say the wide midfielder wasn’t talented, but the class which flowed through the team – Juan Román Riquelme pulling the strings, Sorin creating from deep, Hernan Crespo supported by Javier Saviola and Carlos Tevez in attack, a teenage Messi and fellow ‘New Maradona’ Pablo Aimar available from the bench – meant his was a name which might have been forgotten amid the headline-grabbers.Until he took matters into his own hands and grabbed the headlines himself.That performance was capped off by the long-range thunderbolt you see above, again the type of goal you get from a player who just knows the ball is about to hit the back of the net.First up was a treble against Birmingham, which ended a four-month streak without a goal for the Argentine. 1:06. este gol no tiene palabras para describirlo, por la jugada, el movimiento, la pegada, y el momento! un golaso de otro planeta..... mardicion de gol! “Son cosas que se dan en el momento, siempre digo eso, que Juampi no es de cambiar de frente, siempre lo hablábamos.
Not at his defenders, surely, who would have needed superhuman powers to deal with any part of the move.But for time to stand still twice, both times for the same player, in extra-time of a World Cup knockout game, no less, requires something special.The ball can pass onrushing defenders before they have time to figure out their bearings, or the movement of an attacker can leave them tackling thin air and scratching their heads.It was the same at Liverpool, where Rodriguez arrived in January 2010, shortly after his 29th birthday.Sometimes we’ll even use it for a chip, often from deep, which seems almost statuesque at its peak before deciding it’s time to drop below the crossbar.Rodriguez knows he’s going to score from the moment the ball leaves the boot of captain Juan Pablo Sorin.How else could you explain the confidence of the chest control, taking the first hang of his teammate’s crossfield pass and instantly turning it into a second?In 2006, at the end of a long night in Leipzig, Maxi Rodriguez provided just that.How else could you explain the purposeful run from deep, which begins long before Sorín receives the ball but seems to come from a place of knowing where the left-back will eventually send it?He might even know when he slips in his own half, almost causing him to fail to collect a pass from Lionel Scaloni, before regaining his footing and playing Messi into space on the halfway line.And then the shot, with his weaker foot, no less. México empata 1-1 frente a Argentina, candidato al título, en la busca del tan ansiado quinto juego. Minuto 98. Si bien no pudo levantar el máximo trofeo a nivel Mayor (sí en Juveniles), Maxi Rodríguez supo inscribir su nombre en páginas importantes de la Selección.