Bad knee or not, I think Clint's goal in WC 2002 was the best goal scored by an American in a World Cup. It was just pure class on a great feed from JOB. No one in the world could have made it look easier. It also put us through to the next round. Clint has probably scored more truly great goals (including club) than any other American actually, and some of them were in Europe. He scored an amazing volley earlier this year. The guy has a lot of talent. Lazy or not he will always be one of my favorite USMNT players.
Super goal by Wynalda. But --- it was indoors. No wind, no humidity, no insects. The only WC game to ever be played indoors.
By changing his tune, it looks like CrewPens actually learned something today. LOL! For that reason alone, this thread is a success. And CrewPens, you really know how to put the 'suck' in 'success'!
If I'm correct (and there's a first time for everything), the Teflon roof saw four World Cup matches: U.S.A. - Switzerland (1-1) Romania - Switzerland (1-4) Sweden - Russia (3-1) Brazil - Sweden (1-1) That Brazil - Sweden game was the only points dropped by the South Americans in the whole tournament. I seem to remember a ball going into the crowd and a fan grabbing it, pulling out a pen, signing the ball, and throwing it back onto the field - all with the camera on him. Great, spur of the moment stuff. KD
Jeff Agoos scored his free kick goal against Costa Rica in the 2002 Gold Cup. You can see it at minute 2:00 on the video link that I posted on the first page of this thread.
So, what's your point?...are you trying to discredit the goal or suggest he couldn't do it elsewhere? (hint: he did*) *he scored almost the exact same goal the very next year in the Copa America (against Chile?...whomever it was against, maybe Bolivia?, we won 2-1) in Uruguay. [I'm not so inclined to look at the moment, but there's probably a Youtube video up of that as well...in fact, I know for certain that Zathras (TurkishZath ? at Youtube) posted a video he created called "Wynalda's Way" that includes both of these goals....sadly the Aerosmith "walk this way" music was stripped out of it by the copyright police ...along with the bits of commentary that had been left in] Edit...OK, I took a moment and found the link... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TIanG77z68"]YouTube - Waldo's Way (Eric Wynalda)[/ame] Near the end of the video...right about 4:24...you see the goal I'm talking about...it was against Chile and Eric scored both goals in that game for the US (the first goal was shown just before the freekick goal...ie sandwiched between the Switzerland freekick goal and the Chile freekick goal...the three goals occur between 4:14 and 4:26)
Not discrediting it at all. The discussion was about the "best of all time" by a nat player. I personally do not rate that goal as the "best of all time" because it was indoors. It still was a great goal of immense importance. Scoring a direct kick outdoors requires overcoming more obstacles - wind and humidity mainly.
So you consider the freekick against Chile the "best of all time" ("by a nat player") then, right?...it's the exact same kick except outdoors in Paysandu, Uruguay.
That's a great goal. From I can tell it looks like it had a very late break that the goalkeeper had no time to respond to. If you re-read the thread you will see that I am not the one who picked the best nat goal (of any type) of all time. To me, they are all good. But if I were to pick one NOW, and I can only choose among those I have seen, I like Mathis' World Cup goal the best because of how easy he made it look, and how important it turned out to be. Perhaps if I had seen Joe Gaetjen's goal in 1950, I would pick that one instead. Picking the best direct kick goal of all-time, is very difficult because they all "look alike". The deciding difference would be the importance. In that respect Wynalda's WC was the most important, with Mathis' WCQ goal in Honduras second. But as I said before, I personally think that a direct kick goal indoors is not as difficult as one outdoors.
No problem. I wasn't saying that it was definitively the "best ever" either (just using the terminology in the posts), but if pressed I'd probably have to say that it was...(imo)* My intention was to dispel any hint of a notion that Wynalda's goal was some "one in a lifetime" sort of "lucky" strike on goal...granted, he only did it twice (that I know of), but he did do it more than once. (the same with any notion that his goal in the WC counts less because it was indoors, and maybe he couldn't do it with all the factors mentioned outdoors...he did it outdoors too) *I've mentioned before, but not for a while...that freekick goal against Switzerland was the first ever goal in the first ever USMNT game I watched.