This conversation kinda already started in the "Toronto don't rob parkhurst" thread but I think it should have it's own. My personal vote is for Kevin Zavagnin's 40 yard blast. There were tons of great goals this year, houston has about 3 that I'd say are near the top. What do ya'll think?
Unfortunately, the best goal scored by an MLS player wasn't in league play and won't count (Klein's bike in second half stoppage time in the SuperLiga final). Zavagnin's is certainly worthy. Parkhurst's was a cool goal, but when you have so many good goals to choose from, I also factor in how meaningful the goal was and the importance of the game. A brilliant game-winning goal in a must-win game means more to me. So for that reason, Parkhurst's doesn't come to mind as my GOTY. Anybody have a recap of all GOTW winners to look through?
I think the goal of the year was Chris Klein's bicycle in the last minutes against Pachuca in the SuperLiga final. That was incredible. The quality of the shot, the timing of it, the stakes invovled, the incredibly long build up creating so much tension, etc.... It was awesome.
Top 3 I'd say were: - Ngwenya vs Chicago - Zavagnin vs Chivas? - Parkhurst vs Toronto Also Jaime Moreno vs Chicago, you can tell he meant to do it but it wasn't even in Goal of the Week! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZERsBbOtZ3Q
Yeah, Ngwenya vs Chicago will get my vote as well. That was just a mouth-dropper from beginning to end.
"Anybody have a recap of all GOTW winners to look through?" Any of the MLS sites - click on the Video/Audio menu (don't pull down the sub-menu, just click on the label for "Video/Audio") and just below the GOTW pop-up link is a pull-down of "2007 Winners." If you click on the GOTW link, you can look at winners from 2004-2006, also.
I'm a DCU fan, so you can accuse me of bias, but it was an amazing shot, with a difficulty - how the hell did the keeper miss it?! - that could have been a GOTW contender. Thanks for providing a link to it.
Ngwenya without a doubt ... I also liked Emilio's volley against TFC recently. Dichio's goal last weekend. Jozy's little self flick a few weeks ago. Other than that my memory is a little vague, but I recall Razov, Galindo, Gomez and Alvarez have all had really pretty goals
Voting is now open: http://web.mlsnet.com/mls/awards/2007/goal_of_the_year/ Seems like you can only choose 1 each
Sadly a lot of goals that I thought should have been GOTW weren't even in the weekly list of choices. Off the top of my head I can recall Wells Thompson had a great one, and Taylor Twellman had one that should have been there that wasn't. I know there were some others too. Oddly when a player scored twice, the lesser of the two goals was usually the one picked as a GOTW candidate. I'll have to browse through the list, but just going from memory the previously mentioned Ngwenya goal will be a top contender. I would say Blanco has two contenders as well--one against RSL and his freekick against Chivas. Altidore had an early season header that was pretty amazing, but I think a more likely pick would be the one later where he does some fancy dribbling to get around the defense first. Gbandi and Rolfe both had amazing long distance strikes (I would rate Zavagnin's goals lower since I don't think they were quite "in the corner" quality). Parkhurst's goal should be up there too. It was more than a simple "chip the keeper when he's waaay out" goal (like Andy Williams' and Ante Razov's goals earlier in the year). The keeper wasn't that far out, and still could've saved the goal if it had been any less well placed. (I'm not sure which of these goals made GOTW, since I haven't gone through the list yet.)
Zavagnin's was the best of the 3. I would have him, Blanco, and Parkhurst in my top ten for sure, as well as the great team goal Robbie Findley scored for the Galaxy @ Dallas.
I was just going from memory. Now that I take a look at it I see that Zavagnin's wk 17 goal was pretty much in the corner. I was probably remembering one of his other long range goals since he had a couple of those this year. However, after watching all three again, I still like Gbandi's wk 7 and Rolfe's wk 25 goals better.
OK, this is weird, possibly. At some point last week -- pretty sure it was Wednesday afternoon -- I was at the MLSNet site for a few minutes, and lo and behold there was a video link for the Sierra Mist Goals of the Year. I thought, "Oh wow, this is already out?" then clicked and watched. I was at work and kept getting interrupted, but this wasn't just a highlights reel -- it was a countdown. I recall that the Parkhurst goal was #1. Ngwenya was #2 or 3. I've since gone back to the MLS site, but I'm not seeing a link to the vid. Now, I'm not trying to sound wildly conspiratorial here. I'll just nuke this post if it turns out this video is still being spotlighted on the site somewhere and I'm just making some kind of dumb mistake. When I get back to work tomorrow I'll sift through my browser history and cache to see if I can find it. But in the meantime: Does anybody know what the heck I watched?
I wish they wouldn't limit it to GOTW winners because some weeks the choices are pretty lame, yet one of them has to win, and then the next week there are several great ones, but of course only 1 of them can win. So for GOTY you have some choices that shouldn't be in there and other goals that should be but aren't.
Yeah, they should more explicitly make that clear. Meanwhile, I really want to know what video I saw the other day. I'm trying not to feel suspicious, but I can't help it.