Top 5 best Peter Drury goal calls

Peter Drury’s top 5 goal calls are some of the most hallowed in the recent history of the sport.

He has history calling the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FIFA World Cup and more. Frankly, he is always in the conversation for the best soccer commentator for English-language broadcasts. For American fans of soccer, he is now the voice of the Premier League on NBC Sports, taking over for Arlo White.

Therefore, it could be a challenge to nail down some of his best calls. So much of it circles around the moment than the goal itself.

Any goal called by Drury is special. Olivier Giroud scored a circus header against Leicester City in the 2017/18 season opener. The goal was the last one in a 4-3 thriller. Peter Drury called it as “a game of margins, a game of thrills.” That just about sums up the sport, especially when it comes down to the best players scoring the best goals. Drury was right, it was drama from day one.

However, the poetic mastermind that is Peter Drury pulls out his best content when the biggest moment is at stake. Previously, he called games in the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup. Certainly there are breathless and dramatic moments in each of those competitions each season.

Fortunately for soccer fans, Drury finds himself calling seemingly every major moment.

Here are Peter Drury’s top 5 goal calls during a vaunted career behind the microphone.

Peter Drury’s top 5 goal calls

5. Aguero! Staggering, just staggering.

For good reason, Sergio Aguero’s stoppage time winner against QPR is thought of as a Martin Tyler moment. The elongated Agueroooooo is perhaps the most famous goal call in the history of the Premier League.

However, Peter Drury’s voice also does wonders in laying out the significance of the Argentine’s goal. If anything, Drury, like so many other fans and pundits, could not believe what they were seeing from Manchester City. As Peter Drury put it, the moment was simply staggering. Not only was it Manchester City’s first top flight title since 1968, but the Citizens unseated their rival with one of the most dramatic finishes to a league season in history.

4. England win on penalties! History in itself.

Something about England and penalties just does not add up. When Colombia pushed the English to the brink in the round of 16 during the 2018 World Cup, many assumed the worst.

However, Peter Drury summed it up. For this new team, new territory. It was an incredibly young England squad that eventually finished fourth at the World Cup. Peter Drury’s call of surprise likely followed the sentiment back home in England. The nation simply does not win penalty shootouts.

In many ways, the win cast aside the demons of Euro 2004, Euro 96 and especially the 1990 World Cup. Those fears reappeared in Euro 2020. However, Peter Drury’s call of England’s win over Colombia welcomed a new generation of hope for England during international tournaments.

3. What a goal! And, what a time, what a place, what a player!

The other goals on this list have massive implications on the line. Titles, advancing, trophies, many are tournaments where each game matters. Derbies are much the same way, as the passion drives intensity for 90 minutes.

Consequently, there was no better time and no better place to score a goal as miraculous as Wayne Rooney’s overhead kick against Manchester City in 2011. This goal deserves to be in the top 5 best Peter Drury goal calls simply due to the quality of the strike. Peter Drury, like millions of fans watching worldwide, could not believe the Englishman got his right boot up that high. Plus, he struck it so sweetly into the top corner that Old Trafford entered a frenzy.

Drury’s call adds to the moment in which Nani lifts up Rooney who stands among the great players to wear Manchester United’s famous red kit.

2. Goal for South Africa, goal for ALL Africa!

African nations always produce some of the best fan atmospheres at the World Cup. For countries like Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon or the Ivory Coast, the World Cup is less a tournament as it is a celebration.

Therefore, when the 2010 World Cup became Africa’s first time hosting the world’s biggest sporting event, the opener between South Africa and Mexico held a special importance. Not only was it South Africa’s party, but it was a chance for all of Africa to show itself to the world.

In the 55th minute of that opener, Siphiwe Tshabalala scored an absolute gem to send Soccer City into pandemonium. Peter Drury captured the moment from Africa’s perspective in such a way that allowed fans to understand what it meant for the continent. Plus, the quality of the goal made it one of the best goals at the entire tournament.

1. Manolas, a Greek god in Rome!

There are seldom moments in the sport as shocking as FC Barcelona’s collapse against Roma. In the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League, Barcelona defeated the Italian side 4-1 in Spain before traveling to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Capping off Roma’s remarkable 3-0 comeback win was Kostas Manolas, a man who immortalized himself in Italian and European soccer.

For that moment, Manolas’ header truly turned him into “a Greek god in Rome.” It remains one of the biggest comebacks over a two-legged tie in the history of the Champions League. Plus, to do it as an underdog to one of the competition’s favorites made it one of the best moments in recent Champions League memory.

Peter Drury could not describe it in a better way. In a moment where people could not put words together as to what was happening in Rome, Drury simply said the unthinkable unfolded before our eyes. Roma, battered in the first leg, rose from its ruins as Drury proclaimed, to reach the Champions League semifinals.