Voting has opened for MLS’s Goal of the Year and there are plenty of worthy candidates.
Major League Soccer, Goal Of The Year: A Little Shea Salinas Love
There’s something to love for everyone. There are great individual performances, numerous strikes from distance, some pretty volleys and lots and lots of Sounders.
Unfortunately, this is just a compilation of the 30 Goal of the Week winners. Many of those were not necessarily the best goals of the week, but were the ones scored by the teams with the most support (ie Sounders).
I realize there’s also a write-in option, but I’m not about to look up every goal scored this season and I certainly didn’t keep detailed notes.
With that caveat, I thought one goal was heads and shoulders above the rest. Shea Salinas' goal against the Houston Dynamo in Week 10 was just a remarkable individual effort. He starts it by winning a ball near midfield, makes a clever pass, continues his run, beats the defender to the ball in the corner and then finishes it with a side-footed ship inside the near post. It really has just about everything you could want.
None of the Save of the Year candidates really got me going, but I think you almost have to give it to Eddie Gaven for his save in the Week 30. The Crew midfielder was an injury replacement for William Hesmer and was seriously tested once by, you guessed it, Shea Salinas. I doubt it will happen, but that sure would be poetic for Salinas to be involved in both.
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