On the free kick in question....in that moment the keeper was piss poor, just as the defense were.
I was not commenting on the entire career of all those defenders and keeper or commenting upon them in the general as a collective unit.
I watched Parkes play for about 10 years myself and I know he was USUALLY a very good keeper.
I have put the operative word in caps.
But please don't tell me that he wasn't piss poor in that instant, cause he was.
So I am not making the slight that any of you guys think I am....not doing that at all in fact.
Believe me Vanzandt, Johnny took a mean free kick, not the most elegant player, but very usefull..
I don't doubt that at all, just a poor example.
And the argument i quoted above....every fantastic goal can be considered a defensive error...take two examples (not free kicks): Maradonna's goal against England and the famous Saudi Arabia goal against Belgium at the 1994 free kick...one could argumentthat a "good" i.e. cynical defender would have fouled these players and there would never have been a fantastic goal...
I know where you are coming from but I personally don't buy into that argument at all. I think you look at a goal from a balanced perspective and ask yourself how much was down to great attacking play and how much was down to error and you have a pretty firm answer on certain goals.
I don't think there is any argument for saying that Maradona's goal was due to defensive frailty/errors. I think that argument would be so laughably poor that it would not even be worth arguing with anyone who was postulating it.
And the same can be said with many, many goals one way or the other.