This Week in Football History: Beckham's physics defying assist

A pony-tailed Beckham in his Galactico days

David Beckham was almost unmatched when it came to pinging long passes around the pitch. Back in 2006, he played the most magnificent pass of his career. Adrian North reflects on this physics defying pass, which will go down as one of football's great assists.

February 14, 2006 - Real Madrid 4-0 Real Zaragoza, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu: The greatest assist ever?

The ever annoying question of "what is the best goal or best assist ever?" will of course be debated until the end of time. Take to any online forum with such a question and you will be met with a torrent of abuse telling you why Maradona's solo run against England is overrated or why Rooney's bicycle kick against Man City was lucky because he shinned it.

The question of "what is the best goal or assist you've ever seen live?" is more reasonable. The best goal I've ever witnessed at a game is Erik Edman's blast at Anfield for Spurs from 2005 or this goal some Peruvian bloke scored at a game I went to see in Cusco when he dribbled past something like seven players and chipped the keeper.

The best goal I've ever watched live on TV would lead to a pretty exhaustive list but fortunately for me the best assist I've ever watched live is a list of just one.

I was at my local gym one evening back on February 14, 2006, (I apparently had no Valentine date back in my early teenage years of 06) and while warming up on the treadmill switched the little mounted TV over to some secondary Sky Sports channel. Real Madrid v Real Zaragoza, only six minutes in and Madrid already held a 2-0 lead through brilliant strikes from Cicinho and Robinho.

At the time I had no idea that this was a Copa Del Rey semi-final or that Zaragoza had somehow beaten Madrid 6-1 in the first leg the week before. To me this was another run of the mill viewing of Galactico entertainment.

Entertainment that reached its peak after just ten minutes when David Beckham did this.

Over here in the United States, the name David Beckham is associated with Hollywood, Malibu, Tom Cruise and The Spice Girls long before he is mentioned in a sentence containing the word football. I often tell my mates that he really was a genuinely incredible player, and to prove my point I show them this video.

If any moment ever summed up the magnificence of David Beckham this is it. They say that no goal or pass is absolutely unique. For every rabona chip or outside of the boot banana pass, there is always someone who has pulled off something similar.

Except I have never seen a pass anything like this. Pause the clip right at 0:04 and you would think Beckham is trying to lob the keeper. Run it forward for to 0:06 and the ball has broken several laws of physics to travel right into Ronaldo's path, who makes a difficult finish look rather easy.

The context of this assist has largely been lost however. Anyone watching the clip may be confused as to why Ronaldo picks up the ball and races back to the centre circle after scoring Madrid's third goal in ten minutes.

This game was one of the craziest the Copa del Rey has ever seen as Madrid, attempting to overturn a 6-1 loss from the away leg scored three times in ten minutes, went 4-0 up after an hour, but despite battering Zaragoza's goal in the last half-hour couldn't quite complete the mother of all comebacks.

It perhaps testament to the talents of Beckham that this one pass has made most of us forget about the larger context of this moment.