There was also Mauricio Cienfuegos passing the ball to Ante Razov. LAG to Chicago as a Western Conference team. Which could only happen in and All Star Game setting, MLS gifts the soccer world.
I can't vote for this, but it's among my tops of any foul and response in MLS (Ricardo Clark's kick to Pescadito is up there tough). AS with most people, all of my favs are about my team: 5-4 comeback vs LA, best free kick ever in MLS by Dero against LA, Beckham vs. Q, Ball headbutt by Lenhart on LA's keeper... I'm noticing a trend here. Outside of my team, it's bad things that happen to LAG. I guess the worst thing to happen would have been loosing to DC in the championship in 96 and 99, so I'll go with those. Runner up is the entire 2017 year for LAG.
I was at that game...at that moment we knew we needed a upgrade at keeper when we moved to MLS... Was it Eric Hasili who got his 2nd yellow fir Vancouver for taking off his shirt after scoring a goal? Good times.
Clint Mathis's kick in the 2009 MLS Cup shootout. Between the strike itself and his body language before and after I just like how you get the feeling the outcome was never in doubt in this or any universe.
While perhaps not the best goal in MLS history, if watching the league closely back then, this run and finish from Mathis was the first "highlight reel" type of goal that gets sent around the globe for all soccer aficionados to enjoy. Which of course Don and MLS HQ was over the Moon! Free media traction. Jeez MLS HQ, it's almost like good footy sells itself!
Oh SHIT! That's right! His bicycle kick against Columbus there in 2000 that went in over the carbon copy kick he attempted versus Colombia at USA'94. That bicycle kick attempt by Balboa that Pele called "the greatest goal that never was".
A few involving the MetroStars/Red Bulls: * John Wolyniec's wonder goal (and really, any time Woly scored since many of us figured in some universe, we could too) * Bob Bradley, Eddie Gaven, and Tim Howard work the goofy MLS rule about a GK-only sub. And Rob Stone almost passed out when Gaven scored the winner. Side note: Gaven is still just 33 years old. He's been retired seven years but could have 4-5 more to play if that USOC injury hadn't derailed him.
One more (for now). It was kind of fun to watch TFC struggle at the start of their inaugural season given how strong their fans came on to the rest of us, but it was also really fun to watch what happened when Danny Dichio finally scored their first goal and the infamous seat cushion scenario unfolded. This field-level angle shows how fun and cathartic it must have been to be at the game.
Here is an excerpt from a Soccer America article of Eric Wynalda's inaugural season and scoring the first MLS goal during in the inaugural game between the San Jose Clash and DC United on April 6th, 1996. He is talking about how he use to go to my family's restaurant in San Jose in 1996.
Cheatin' Bob! In keeping with the rule that it not involve my favorite team, I think the 2003 playoff SJ comeback from down 0-4 on aggregate was my favorite. There are several others - Frei's save in MLS Cup 2016, J. Martinez breaking the season goal record in 2018, and that spectacle of Zlatan's first game & goals. And simple moments like Steve Zakuani's return in 2012. I'm also very satisfied to see teams salt away a championship after being clearly the best team through the year, though I'm sure many don't find find these games so exciting. So I enjoyed MLS Cup wins by Columbus in 2008, and Toronto in 2017. But yeah, down 0-4 and coming back to win the series? That's my favorite.
The 96 Cup Final was amazing, and that was when I had no doubt the league would thrive. It was in Foxboro, and it had rained hard for 3-4 days straight. It was a torrential downpour all day long, and within 30 seconds of getting out of my car i was soaked all the way through. Still, something like 34,000 people showed up, including several busloads from DC. Many of them were Salvadoran and Bolivian and we had a great time. Fans from all over the league were there and it was a very festive atmosphere. The game itself was pretty good too, with Eddie Pope scoring the winner in sudden death! LOL! That incident was the precursor to my Heckler Hall of Fame moment! The Metros next game after that was in Foxboro and I was using a friend's tix, right behind the visitor bench. The Metros were getting ready to make a sub, so I yelled out to the assistant who was talking with the 4th official, "Hey, you better make sure he's on the list!" The assistant got all red in the face, started yelling that he was going to call security and have my f@&^ing a$$ thrown out of there, etc. News flash: When you play in someone else's stadium, almost everyone there wants to see your team lose! I found out later that the guy who was supposed to do the game day roster for the previous game and forgot Mathis was fired, so I guess the other assistant was a little bit touchy...
2009 SuperDraft. Long after the players the league brought to the draft, near the end of a very long and grueling 60 pick slog, the Chicago Fire selected Richard Jata with the 58th pick. He was in the room. He went to the podium. He brought the house down. http://gocamels.blogspot.com/2009/01/here-it-is-richard-jata-draft-speech.html One of my images from the aftermath
People forget they threw away a 2-0 lead the following year. As great as the comeback was against LA, I thought their MLS Cup win over Chicago that year was one of the greatest MLS Cups as a neutral. What a great day for soccer, and what a great, riveting, game it was.
It's why we can't have nice things. The one redeeming thing about it was that it happened against DC United on national TV. But it was an inevitable use. Gansler has bent the intent of the rule earlier by moving Tony Meola into the field for an injured player after all three normal subs and putting Bo Oshoniyi in goal. It restored KC to 11 players, but while Tony had played as a striker in his youth days, he wasn't an MLS level field player. But Bradley dispensed with the formalities and forced the league to change the well-meaning rule.
One of my favorite photos is from about half an hour after the game. It's a shot roughly from the corner of the field. Most of the signage was gone, but Pat Onstad's gloves were alone on the field (they obviously had failed him). One of my very few regrets were not going and picking them up. I like that photo better the run of Jewsbury absolutely giving it up in celebration right in front of me.
Speaking of the draft, who was it that thought they had arranged for the league to send him to NY, only for the ping-pong balls to send him to Columbus, and the photos showed how unhappy he was?