Carles Puyol embodies all of the characteristics of a defender you fear: he’s strong, he’s aggressive, he’s got hair to put Tarzan to shame, he just might be an animal of a man. You are used to him scoring goals off of set pieces, but that’s about it when it comes to Carles Puyol skills. He’ll pass around the back like all world-class center-backs do. He’ll have the odd long ball forward. But you won’t see him flying up the wing taking on defenders, or sitting atop the 18 ripping shots into the top corner. He’s a defender’s defender, one of the best to ever do it.
So when I saw the Carles Puyol skills you are about to see in the video below, I was stunned. Puyol, #5, looks like he is the boss of Spain’s midfield. For those who don’t understand, that means Carles Puyol looks like the most talented player in a midfield that might be the best off all time in international football.
Carles Puyol, people. Carles Puyol.
That was one of the best assists the World Cup has ever seen; the roulette, the lay-off pass, the scampering run down the wing, and of course the lay-off header down to Fernando "He-was-good-back-then" Torres. There are players of double Puyol’s technical ability that dream of doing all of that in a single run of play; it’s absolutely unheard of.
This video can actually help us all out this holiday season. We are all going to be mingling with freinds and family that we may or may not want to mingle with. It's just the way it goes. So, if you ever run out of small talk, dial up a little football converstation and work Carles Puyol into the mix.
I can imagine it now, I’ll be at a holiday party and I’ll say to some random guy that the best assist I’ve ever seen at a World Cup was made by Carles Puyol, and I have the clip to prove it. As I am showing him the above clip, a Real Madrid fan eavesdropping on our conversation looks over towards us not believing what he’s hearing…
…and the world as he knows it falls apart around him.
Imagination is a beautiful thing.
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