Sure, friends, we can make a joke about this being the best goal of 2017 here. And it indisputably is. (Barring some fresh, undiscovered YouTube video lurking out there of a double backflip bicycle kick from a kid from Sri Lanka—or anywhere.) But let’s be honest: people arbitrarily decided that December 31st was the end of our empirical journey around the sun, the number 2017 refers to a Jesus-specific date, and not everyone is a God botherer. What’s real, though, is that Giroud scored this amazing goal and it just so happened to land on today.
(Hot take: New Years obviously should be at the peak of the summer solstice, because that’s an astronomically significant point in Earth time.)
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Anyway—stupid holiday aside—I hope you can smear the champagne burn off your eyes to see this goal, because it truly is one of the more spectacular goals you have seen in a good long minute. Giroud receives a cross from Alexis Sanchez after a beautiful buildup (U.S., you can see here) with the counterattack and he works magic with it.
The cross caught Giroud in a position a little ahead of the ball, but he decided in a split-second to reach his foot back, tendril-like, to slap the ball with the side of his foot, which miraculously results in the ball hitting perfect top bar to bounce in. It’s really impossible to cook up a more magnificent goal.
![](https://i.imgur.com/IRawpGN.gif)
A high bar to set for the next 365 days, when it will be 2018 years after ‘when Jesus was born.’ Happy New Year, or whatever.