14 Times Lionel Messi Showed Something NEW to the World

Messi, oh brilliant! Gas from the ground, Messi! We just wanted to see the net bulge. Sensational! It's barely been twice tonight, that is absolutely brilliant. Messi, oh! Absolutely astounding! I'd argue that Guzak could have got a little closer to it. But when you're up against Lionel Messi, you're up against the very best. It's extraordinary. It's exquisite. It's enthralling. So plenty more to come. There's how you can get involved. Messi, oh! Messi! It belongs, sprint, galaxy all together. And we are living in absolute, astonishing, jaw-dropping genius from Lionel. Three players inside a telephone box and he don't care. He emasculates them individually, collectively. Let's see again. And the same result! And the best player on the planet fires Barcelona ahead. The second attempt, Messi's offside. He's offside. Ball's offside. It's a showboating here, isn't there? Look at Messi. Here's Alves. Oh, what a finish! Coming across his body and bang! Not an easy technique to perfect but he did it quite superbly. Kevin, don't they make it look easy? Honestly, the pass from Messi. I was saying, look how compact they are. And you'll see it from the shot again. Messi comes short and gets it in place. A first-time ball with the outside of his foot. Oh, there's three of them. Look at this. There was three there. He beat all three of the A's. Amazing. The amazing Messi has just scored one of the best goals you're ever going to see in a cup final. Absolutely superb. And this is the genius of the little man. Oh, he's just unbelievable. How do you stop him? And you think three of them around him. He's not going to get past the ball. He does. Then he takes on the fourth, comes inside and scores it at the near post. He's just incredible. I don't think we've ever seen or ever will see anything like Lionel Messi again. During the 2015 Copa del Rey final, Lionel Messi demonstrated the skills that make him the best footballer on the planet with his first goal of the match. After receiving the ball just past midfield, Messi goes from virtually zero to 19.5 miles an hour in just 2.7 seconds. That's an acceleration on par with an American football speedster, NFL All-Pro Jamal Charles. And Messi does it with the ball at his feet. But as three defenders trap him on the sideline, each coming within six feet of the ball, Messi begins to decelerate. This allows him to make three short, controlled touches, effectively beating the Bilbao players in just 1.2 seconds. As he enters the box, Messi uses an inside-out move to open up more than five feet of space. This gives him just enough room to rip a 48-mile-per-hour near post shot that misses the keeper's outstretched hand by less than six inches. In a span of just over 11 seconds, in a possession that covered nearly 60 yards, the ball was more than two feet away from Messi just twice. And for a grand total of less than two seconds. And the finish was just as spectacular as the dribble. To fit the ball in a window that small, from 14 yards away, Messi's lateral aim couldn't be off by more than three-fourths of a single degree. That means if Messi's point of contact on the ball shifted left or right by just 1.5 millimeters, he misses. That's a margin of error about the width of a blade of grass. And the incredible precision Messi showed on this goal is why in La Liga this season, Messi converted on his shots at a rate 21% higher than the average forward. For ESPN Sports Science, I'm Jon Brinkus.