Kaoru Mitoma v Wolves voted WAB Brighton Goal of the Season 2023-24

It may have been mentioned a few times in the past, but Karou Mitoma wrote a university thesis on dribbling. And Mitoma put his research to good use when scoring away at Wolves to win WAB Brighton Goal of the Season 2023-24.

Mitoma studied for a physical education degree at the University of Tsukuba. He analysed dribbling skills, determined what could make him more effective at running with the ball and then put it into practice.

“I learned that the good players weren’t looking at the ball,” Mitoma revealed when talking about his thesis to The Athletic.

“They would look ahead, trap the ball without looking down at their feet. That was the difference. I am conscious of shifting the opponent’s centre of gravity. If I can move the opponent’s body, I win.”

“I was one of the better dribblers at that time, but not exceptional.” But by the end of his degree, Mitoma concluded: “The power of my characteristic dribbling has doubled.”

And it was a power which Wolves had no answer to on the second weekend of the Premier League season when the Albion went to Molineux.

Mitoma picked the ball up virtually on the halfway line, way out on the left flank. There were four, five, six Gold shirts between him and Jose Sa in the Wolves net. Scoring from such a position seemed unlikely bordering on impossible.

Unless of course your name is Mitoma. The Japanese Bullet Train made his way towards Sa, increasing in pace as he went to glide past four Wolves players as if they were not there.

One opponent tried to kick Mitoma from behind. Another attempted to cut across and wipe him out. Nothing though worked.

Within seven seconds, Mitoma finds himself one-on-one with Sa. He guided the ball into the bottom corner before being taken down by the advancing Wolves goalkeeper.

Mitoma went onto describe the goal against Wolves as his favourite so far for Brighton when speaking to the Premier League’s YouTube channel the following month.

“There was space in front of me and the opposing centre-back was on the right, so there was a big space. I thought I could create a one-on-one situation at that moment, so I accelerated.”

“I was just going to keep running around and I changed the rhythm a bit. I decided to go for the goal the moment I passed the first opposing player.”

With a touch of the Diego Maradona for Argentina against England at the 1986 World Cup (not the one fisted past Peter Shilton) about it, Mitoma against Wolves subsequently racked up over 50 percent of the vote to take his first WAB Brighton Goal of the Season award.

It bettered the second place his volley in the FA Cup against Liverpool had to settle for in 2022-23. Julio Enciso won the award deservedly for his 30 yard rocket against Manchester City at the Amex; a strike also good enough to earn Enciso both the official Premier League Goal of the Season and Match of the Day Goal of the Season.

Runner up for 2023-24 was the late winner Joao Pedro plundered in the 1-0 Europa League win over Marseille, a goal which sent the Albion into the round of 16 as group winners.

Brighton had struggled to break down a Marseille outfit who had taken gamesmanship to a whole new level in an attempt to secure the goalless draw they needed to secure top spot.

It look like it was going to work too until the clock ticked onto 88 when intricate passing from Adam Lallana and Pascal Gross worked the ball through a gap for Pedro to latch onto in the box.

Some quick Brazilian feet later and the Brazilian forward picked out the top corner with a stunning finish, causing the Amex to go wild.

Pedro ended up in amongst the crowd in the East Stand Lower with De Zerbi in a similar boat the opposite side of the ground after jumping into the West Lower. A top quality goal to provide an unforgettable moment in Brighton history.

Pervis Estupinan had two nominations for WAB Goal of the Season 2023-24. The second was his powerful volley at Stoke City in the FA Cup.

The first happened little over a week earlier when Estupinan provided the third goal in the 4-2 rout of Spurs. It is that strike which takes third place.

An unstoppable effort from 25 yards picked out the top corner not long after Estupinan had been introduced as a second half substitute on his comeback from nearly two months out injured.

WeAreBrighton.com Brighton Goal of the Season 2023-24 – The Results

• Kaoru Mitoma v Wolves (A) – 50.55%
• Joao Pedro v Marseille (H) – 20.58%
• Pervis Estupinan v Spurs (H) – 14.15%
• Pascal Gross v Manchester United (A) – 7.53%
• Danny Welbeck v Roma (H) – 5.14%
• Pervis Estupinan v Stoke City (A) – 2.02%

Previous Winners: Julio Enciso (2023), Enock Mwepu (2022), Danny Welbeck (2021), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (2020), Anthony Knockaert (2019), Jose Izquierdo (2018), Steve Sidwell (2017), Jiri Skalak (2016) Rohan Ince (2015), Jake Forster-Caskey (2014), Craig Mackail-Smith (2013), Inigo Calderon (2012), Liam Bridcutt (2011), Gary Dicker (2010).