Two Americans who will never be forgotten in English football are Clint Dempsey and John Harkes. Nothing is more memorable than scoring one of the goals of the season.
In 1990, John Harkes scored his first goal for Sheffield Wednesday and what a beauty it was. The 35 yard screamer ended up being the goal of the season. And to make matters even better, the goal was scored against legendary England goalkeeper Peter Shilton.
Then just this past Tuesday, Clint Dempsey scored an almost identical goal for Fulham against Stoke. Will this go down as the goal of the season? We’ll have to wait and see. But in the meantime, please enjoy both videos above. Just click the image to have the videos load.
Harkes’ goal was a thing of beauty, but Dempsey’s was better, marvelous!
did anyone happen to notice that the same play by play commentator called both American goals of the year. And how many years separate them, talk about irony.
Good catch Mickey. The commentator for both matches was Alan Parry.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Don’t forget Roy Wegerle’s goal which was much more skillful – in that Maradona runs round English team style.
Crappy youtube link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUaDs_55E4
I’d have Wegerle, harkes, Dempsey in that order – but they’re all good.
How about Wynalda in 94 World Cup? If nothing else but for sheer importance.
Harkes goal was also in one of the cup competitions. Wednesday LEGEND
Great goal by Dempsey….but you forgot about Figueroa’s strike, didn’t you?
Touche.
I don’t know who had the best goal, but Harkes had the best mullet.
Speaking of goals of the year (EPL), who had that monster free kick on THEIR side of the midfield that caught the keeper off his line a few weeks ago? I want to say it was someone from Sunderland?
@Jables
That was Maynor Figueroa of Wigan
Figgy @ Wigan — and the keeper wasn’t even that caught out… he just snuck it into a miniscule space over Sorensen.
I just can’t give Wynalda any props. Have you guys seen him on FFF? OMG what a snarky, smug dude. Nick seems so down to earth and visibly cringes every time Wynalda opens his mouth.
http://bit.ly/4shCrd
Has anyone noticed that Fox Soccer took down the HD ad with the location finder off of their website today? Does anyone know more about the launch date? Please advise. Thanks!
Josh, you can still find the Channel Finder at http://foxsoccer.channelfinder.net/start-v2.asp But yes, it looks like it’s been taken down from the FoxSoccer.com site.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Thanks, mate. Have you heard anything more on a launch date for the HD service? I hope it comes for this weekends fixtures.
Hi Josh, HD is going to be a while and definitely not this weekend. It’ll be rolled out throughout the year. First up may be one of the cable providers (Charter Cable) followed by DirecTV. But DirecTV may be anywhere from a few weeks from now up until March. It’s a moving target right now.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Wow! So much for January 2010! I wonder why they have been posting this during games and on their site? I am so tired of the grainy garbage I have been watching. Thanks again Gaffer!
Except for the distance,these 2 goals are not similar at all.
I am sure that I am not the only one who can see this.
Zzzzzz.
But they were great shots!
Not to mention this post was just cherry-picked off commenter Eric Altshule in this post:
http://www.epltalk.com/clint-dempsey-scores-goal-of-the-season-contender-video/14506#comments
Harkes versus Derby, Wegerle versus Leeds, Dempsey versus Stoke and Wynalda’s free kick versus Swizerland were all fantastic goals scored by America’s finest.
However, when talking about great goals and goals of importance scored by a USA international, there is always one name that springs to mind. Less we forget Paul Caligiuri for his 35 yard dipping effort for the USA in a must win 1990 World Cup qualifier away against Trinidad & Tobago. The goal is now more commonly referred to as “The shot heard round the World” and signified the beginning of a new dawn in the history of US soccer. Without Caligiuri’s goal, the USA would not have qualified for Italia 90 which in turn could have possibly forced FIFA to renege on their promise of awarding the USA host nation of the 1994 World Cup.
It is highly likely that the USA would have remained the back woodsmen of international soccer if it hadn’t of been for Paul Caligiuri’s goal.