Was Steve Ralston's Free Kick Goal the Best MLS Goal of All-Time?

I'm stunned and shocked that you're pimping a player who isn't a Billiken, Tom.

Oh wait, lookee here:

Steve Ralston. DOB: 6/14/74. City of Birth: St. Louis, Mo.

Close enough, eh? Do you realize soccer is played outside SL?

 

I think the best MLS goal of all time was Wolde Harris Bike last year that wasn't credited

 

Not sure if it is the best MLS goal of all time, but I have NEVER seen a ball placed more in the upper 90 than Steve's goal.

NEVER.

EVER.

Have you? Prove it.

 

Wolyniec's goal last year was the best I ever saw. No idea how he didn't win goal of the year. Ralston's free kick was pretty, though.

 

Best placed MLS free kick ever. So -- [Corporate Sonsor here] Goal of the Week honors for Ralston.

 

Woly's one-touch left-footed blast last year gets my vote for best MLS goal ever.

But it looks like Ralston may win goal of the week...

 

Watching it again on the MLS site was interesting with the Chicago feed. They sound almost matter of fact when they first announce it. But I loved the comment when they show it from behind Ralston, "this is the kind of thing you dream of doing"

Best MLS goal of all time? How about Beto's midfield chip?

 

Ralston's was a great goal, but the best of all-time? Not by a long-shot - wouldn't even put it in the top ten.

 

possibly the best placed free kick goal ever.

it skims off the post, so it's as far left as it could have gone. I guess technically, it could have been an inch higher and skimmed off the crossbar too..but holy ********ing wow that was great.

 

i would give best goal to balboas bicycle

 

best free kick goal, quite possibly

mathis' ridiculous 1 v 6 run would get my vote.

 

I'm wondering if there's an MLS goalie who could have stopped it. We have great goalies in MLS but I don't think anyone could have stopped it.

 

Or when Etch dropped it directly into the net from a corner kick. I was impressed.

 

You must be really fun on poker night. Can't take a little teasing?

 

Straight up, Doc. That was the best goal I've seen in an MLS match and one of the best I've seen period. The distance from goal. The height of the ball when it was struck. The placement in the top corner. It was breathtaking. It was magic.

I can only think of two better goals I've seen live. One was Maradona's mazey dribble through the English defense in '86 in Mexico. The other was a Manuel Negrete side volley for Mexico that included an aerial give-and-go with Hugo Sanchez, also in '86.

What was even more amazing about Wolde's bike is that afterwards he bore the official, Noel Kenny I think, no malice for not awarding it.

 

Great goal, no doubt about it. Plus I love the Loo. But gots to say it may not even be the best free kick goal ever.

I remember a free kick that Stoichkov hit like a bullet for the Fire against D.C. United once in the driving rain. Kubik touched it to him. That was the time when Stoichkov saluted Bob Bradley.

Etch had some great free kicks that would dip like no other shot in MLS history.

I'm sure Mathis produced some candidates, as did Kubik and Cienfuegos.

Josh Wolff had an absolute bomb for the Fire against the MetroStars. Musta been from 35 years out. I think Howard was in goal. In the same game, Howard made probably the penalty save of all time on Wolff.

 

Free kicks like Ralston's are amazing displays of skill and concentration, a little bit like holing a 40 foot putt on an undulating green with the Masters on the line. Fantastic odds, pressure, etc. and Steve's was as good as I've ever seen, including some of the bombs with the funny ball in Euro 04.

BUT, a free kick is, at bottom, an individual, single action. Marvelous but perhaps less amazing than something done in the run of play, with defenders all around with malice in their hearts be it Maradona's run that took out five or six defenders or Woldinho's golazo that wasn't (until we saw the replay) Plus there is the teamwork and buildup that leads to the actual strike.

And I agree about Wolde's graciousness after the fact, equally impressive. May he prosper near the Arctic Circle.

JIM DDOW

 

It was an excellent goal. But Wolyniec's goal last year was the best goal I've seen live, at any level. Though Zidane's goal in the Champions League final a few years ago is a very close second. [Probably the only time these two players will ever be mentioned in the same entry]

It's a travesty that Wolyniec's didn't get goal of the year, especially behind the impressive, but not breathtaking, effort that won.