In Day 2 of the club’s 2011 Goal of the Year tournament, Marco Pappa redeemed his first day loss as his top seeded goal, the “Hat Trick Clincher” at Real Salt Lake on September 28 easily moved past Orr Barouch’s late strike at Vancouver on August 7. With the victory, Pappa’s strike at RSL will tak on the winner of Thursday’s encounter between #2 Dominic Oduro (August 21 vs. TFC) and #3 Diego Chaves (April 9 at Seattle) in the Nowak Bracket Final to be played next Thursday, November 10.
2011 FIRE GOTY - Day 4 - Which goal was better?
TODAY’S MATCHUP:
We move to the Armas Bracket as #2 Sebastian Grazzini’s equalizer in last month’s Capital Comeback (10/15 @ DC) goes up against #3 Marco Pappa’s right footed jaunt to start his hat trick (9/28 @ RSL).
One of two Grazzini entries in the tournament, the Argentine’s stoppage time equalizer at DC United came on the heels of a 90th minute penalty Dwayne De Rosario that put the hosts ahead 1-0 and had the Fire completely out of the playoffs. Following the marker, the team pushed numbers up the field and grabbed the tying goal as Patrick Nyarko sent in a cross from the right which fell for Gonzalo Segares, the Costa Rican international pushed it back to Grazzini who one-timed past the flat-footed Bill Hamid to take things level. The Fire’s midseason signing followed up the strike with his patented Cumbia celebration, though even with a point, the team would have still been out of the postseason… We all know what happened next and yes, that goal is included later in the tournament.
For the third straight day, Marco Pappa puts another entry on the line. This time it’s the first goal of his hat trick performance at Real Salt Lake. Having not bagged a goal since his equalizer in a 1-1 draw vs. New York on June 26, Pappa might have been the last of your predictions to strike first at RSL. Even more unlikely perhaps is that the goal came from his less favored right foot. The goal came quickly as Nyarko put the ball back in from a throw, Paladini touched it into space for Pappa who one-timed the effort from the top of the 18 to the opposite side netting to bag his first goal in three months and first of three on the night.
Vote for your favorite goal by 11:59pm CT tonight at the poll to the right.
Click here to view the updated 2011 Chicago Fire Goal of the Year bracket or download as a PDF. Visit our 2011 Goal of the Year page here.
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