ASotD: Flores vs. Columbus Crew

A sick volley from Jorge Flores of Chivas USA vs. Columbus Crew from May 31. About 25 seconds into video.

ASotD 5/31: Joao Moutinho

Check out this strike from 21 year old Sporting Lisbon captain Joao Moutinho.  Moutinho juggles twice before volleying goalwards, beating the hapless Georgian keeper.  Think Portugal has enough attacking weapons?

ASotD 5/30: David Villa

The situation:  March 26, key pre-Euro friendly between behemoths Spain and Italy tied at 0-0 in the 77th minute.  2006 FIFA world player of the year Fabio Cannavaro loops a lackadaisical clearing header to the corner of the box.  Gigi Buffon, the world's pre-eminent keeper, mans the net.  Enter David Villa to produce what is for my money the goal of the year...

ESPN Euro Announcing Teams

ESPN released its announcing teams today and it's great news.  See if you recognize an addition to the ESPN team...

Studio Team: Rece Davis, Rob Stone and Julie Foudy
Play by Play: Derek Rae and Adrian Healey
Analysts: Andy Gray, Tommy Smyth, and Robbie Mustoe
Reporter: Pedro Gomez

via awfulannouncing.com

Holy crap..Andy Gray!!!  How did ESPN get their hands on him?  Anyway, the improvement from the Dave O'Brien/Marcelo Balboa days of World Cup 2006 is vast.  This is probably the first time I have said this regarding their soccer coverage but, Kudos ESPN.

ASotD: Pogrebnyak vs. Serbia

UEFA Cup winners Zenit St. Petersburg's Pavel Pogrebnyak steps up on the international stage to blast home a delicious free kick vs. Serbia in a Euro 2008 warm-up for the Ruskis.  This even made SportsCenter's Top Plays.

Horrendous American Display at Wembley

The senior US squad fell to an uninspired English side 2-0 at Wembley today, with goals courtesy of captain John Terry (38') and obvious man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard (59').  Good to see Terry climb out of the massive hole he dug himself into at the Champions League final (see replay of the tragedy here).  Gerrard's goal made the American defense look amateurish, the Liverpudlian streaking onto a gorgeous throughball from Gareth Barry and slotting home past the whackness that is Brad Guzan with aplomb.  England coach Fabio Capello's choice to play Stevey-G on the left wing seems to have borne luscious fruit.  As a bonus, 33-year-old Becks looked very dangerous on set-piece situations, curling seriously sweet service onto Terry's cranium for the opening goal.  The MLS hasn't really done David any wrong so far.

Hardly any positive statement can characterize the Americans' showing, though.  Yet again, Bradley's Boys demonstrated they cannot possess the ball comfortably in the midfield, nor can they seem to muster up much creativity going on the offensive without our favorite California surfer-dude Landon Donovan (although his wave-riding bro Frankie Hejduk made a totally radical appearance in the second half, providing more attacking impetus than starter Steve Cherundolo).  Beasley didn't bring it at all, letting all of us down who thought he might be in somewhat inspired form after his goal in Rangers' recent Scottish cup triumph.  On the other side of midfield, Josh Wolff made a strong case for his own international retirement.  And Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clark never had the slightest chance against the dynamic duo of Lampard and Gerrard.

Check out the video for match highlights here at 101greatgoals.

ASotD 5/28: Bafetimbi Gomis

My first reaction upon seeing the French selection for Euro 2008 was, "Who is Bafetimbi Gomis?"  I thought Domenech was an idiot for picking the relatively unknown St. Etienne striker over the world-class Trezeguet and Cisse.  Now, I'm the idiot.  Gomis struck two absolute beauties in his debut call-up for Les Bleus including this one in the 60th minute: