Player of the Week: Xabi Alonso

Filed in archive Player of the Week on January 10, 2006

Source: youtube
I swear this isn't a liverpool-only award, but for the second week in a row, I feel compelled to give it to a Red. Xabi Alonso, wonder-passer and now wonder-scorer, based on his performance in Liverpool's 3-5 victory at Luton in Sunday's FA Cup match.

Viewable here, Alonso managed to pot not one but two incredible goals from ridiculous distances. The first was a 40-meter strike that dipped just under the bar. Knowing Alonso's vision and ball control, it hads to be intentional. Second was his even more audacious 60-meter+ shot when Luton's keeper had come upfield to give his side additional options in the box at the end of the match. In fact, it was the keeper that Alonso jinked to get the shot in -- in his own half.

That shot, by the way, made one UK punter £25,000 on a 125-1 bet Alonso would score from his own half this year.