jacquie ovalle scored a goal so good it made jenni hermoso faint

Here I was, sitting in my living room on a quiet Monday night in early March when Jacquie Ovalle decided, with mere hours left in the day, to score in an unforgettable and never-before-seen way. Why? As far as I can tell, simply because she can.

Nothing about this makes sense. Not only is it difficult to comprehend given the assumptions we all have about the natural laws of our world, but in hundreds of thousands—potentially millions—of minutes watching soccer, I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t know how you think to do something like this, let alone coordinate your body to pull it off.

I’m not alone, either. My entire skyline (what us cool kids call our Bluesky timeline) was blowing up. People who don’t watch or follow women’s soccer were gobsmacked. Some of the very best Soccer Explainers™, analysts and writers on the internet had nothing to say, except that they didn’t know what to say. Apart from those nerds (I can say that, I am one), superstar striker Jenni Hermoso had a similar experience, too.

In my favorite angle of the clip we’re treated to the full construction of the occurrence. Yes, The Occurrence. It cheapens what happens to simply refer to it as a goal. The occurrence was preceded by Hermoso finding space to whip a cross to the near post. Ovalle spotted the ball and began processing a series of calculations to determine if what she wanted to do was possible. I imagine that in order to plead her case she had to step out of time and space to argue with some ethereal being about whether or not she could disregard their rules for our universe just this once.

They were likely wary. A world with the complexities of billions of lives and millions of species has to have rules, and strict ones. Imagine if a bus just started floating into the sky. Chaos. Uncertainty. Terror. ‘No can do,’ they probably commanded. The stakes were simply too high. Ovalle laughed and did it anyway.

Hermoso watched as her teammate leapt backwards, throwing her body sideways and sort of donkey kicking into the air—except the movement was far more controlled than an animal also referred to as an ass could ever be. She popped the ball into the sky with her left heel and as she fell back towards the ground the ball floated over the keeper, dipped and plunged into the side netting. When the ball made contact with the net and Hermoso had placed the final puzzle piece of Ovalle’s creation, she hit the ground too.

Whether it’s largely considered true by others or not, Ovalle has been one of the best wingers in the world for a while now. Her nickname is ‘La Maga’, which translates to The Magician. After this goal, it’s quite obvious how she got it. Those who know how good she is instantly recognized this as yet another feat she’d schemed and executed simply because she could. Her combination of technical skill and physical ability is rare. Rarer is how she infuses all her talent—from the God-given to the meticulously honed—with belief deeper than oceans, and imagination unbothered by natural law.

The execution was so clean, clever and carefully crafted, though, that even those unfamiliar with her previous work knew that every movement was done with pure intention. No one could ever be that lucky. It would be like winning the lottery twice, then winning it again.

Recently I was asked what fuels my passion for this sport. Why I am so obsessed with it, and what about it compels me to dedicate so much of my time and effort to the game. It’s a big question to answer and, eventually, I fumbled my way to an answer. How do you describe passion? It’s a motivating emotion. It’s fuel, and that fuel is different for everyone, even people who share the same passion. If I had to answer the question all over again, I’d just show them this goal. (Apologies, Occurrence.)