A Goal to Remember

I love sports. But to be honest, there are only a handful of sporting "moments" in my lifetime that I will never forget - most of which have come from my beloved Kentucky Wildcats basketball team (Tony Delk's 4-point play in the 1996 championship game, and Cameron Mills's 3-pointer against Duke in the 1998 regional final are two biggies).

However, I added a moment to my list yesterday.

I understand if you don't enjoy soccer (or, football, to the rest of the world). As a teenager I despised the sport. Why? I can't really remember. Thankfully though, through the guidance of some dear friends in my early 20's - namely DJ Bass, Brian Phillips & Jamie Luttrell - I grew to love the "beautiful game".  For the past 5-6 years I have counted soccer second only to basketball.

Whether or not you follow the game, you've gotta love how yesterday's World Cup match between the United States and Algeria played out. It was a do or die match. Win, continue competing in the biggest sporting event in the world. Lose (or draw), go home.

Not only that, but there are multiple story lines that built into the drama of this match: USA's lack of success in the World Cup; the seeming irrelevance of the sport in America; Landon Donovan's journey; Bob Bradley's journey; the stolen goal against Slovenia; etc.  Any one of those story lines would have given this game weight worth watching.

But in the end, it was all about the goal. 

After 91 minutes of excruciating missed opportunity after missed opportunity after another stolen goal from the ref, the story-book ending actually happened.  And this is how it played out:



The goal certainly didn't win the World Cup - the US is likely a long way from even coming close to that sort of accomplishment - but with everything riding on this match, it felt pretty darn close.

I don't think I'll ever forget the scene that erupted in Eric & Julia Pickerill's apartment when the ball went into the net (and after a few moments of making sure the refs didn't call this one back, too).  Shouting, jumping, high-fiving, hugging jubilation.

When I asked Grayson later if he remembered watching the goal and what he thought about it, he said, "you scared me."  But then after a moment, he raised both hands in the air and said, "GOAL!"

Pure excitement.