Okay? But they don't do it in other sports. If someone makes a good 50 yard run in the Super Bowl, fans don't automatically think its better than a 60 yard run in the first game of the season. I guess its just the American in me. I know the World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet, but I'm not disillusioned by its magnitude. Other goals in other competitions can still be bigger and better.
How? We finished last in 1998 and were pretty bad in 2006, and yet we kept trucking along as a soccer nation. What would happen if we finished last in WC Qualifying? Or were even "pretty bad" in a Honduras 2005 sort of way? As I said, if McBride doesn't score that goal then we're basically Canada. Nothing that happens in the World Cup -- and the shit really hit the fan for us in 98, by the way -- can compare to that.
it's the WORLD. CUP. the world stage. nothing, at all, is bigger. i really dont know how to explain it. you either get it, or you dont.
World Cup Qualifying is also the WORLD. CUP. And we don't get to the part where we play on the world stage without qualifying heroics. If McBride, Ramos and Caligiuri don't score those goals, US soccer as we know it dies. No MLS. No SUM. No ESPN contracts. That's what "existential" means. None of our WC Final goals, with the possible exception of McBride's against Mexico, have meant as much to the development of the game.
Agreed. Key qualification-clinching goals are just as important as World Cup goals. You don't have a chance at the latter without the former.
You guys didn't get the memo . WC Qualifying is now easy. I mean,we've always been in the World Cup,right? to infinity.
this discussion is slightly swaying away from the topic. reminder: Mathis' WC'02 goal IS (without a doubt) one of the biggest goals of US Soccer history.
Not really. Where you rank Mathis's goal in terms of significance appears to be affected by whether or not you believe any World Cup goal is better than all others.
You can't make such a definitive statement because it's not so cut and dry. Who would argue for McBride's '98 goal over a great WC qualifying goal?
Hmmmmm, true. But how you rate World Cup goals compared to non-World Cup goals still has an effect on where you put Mathis' goal.