* The concept of aiming for the top half of the goal made no sense to Rik de Saedeleer, who played for Racing Mechelen and Belgium in the 1940s. He knew that mathematically it reduced the likelihood of success. “If you aim for the top corner, you increase your chances of missing the target because you can hit it wide or you can hit it high,” he said in a biography of him (Rik De Saedeleer). “It’s simple math: at least if you hit it along the ground, you can’t hit it too low. But you can hit it too high.”