The heck with Spurs’ home defeat of Liverpool. Or Chelsea’s 5-0 demolition of Sunderland, for that matter. In the eyes of the NY Times’ George Vecsey, the former Metro Stars’ home playoff tilt with Houston this afternoon affords another opportunity to consider what Peter’s less antagonistic brother calls “one of my favorite man-bites-dog events”, to wit, rookie Red Bull goalkeeper Danny Cepero scoring on a 81 yard free kick against Columbus earlier this month.
Pressed into duty with two days™ notice on Oct. 18, Cepero had a 2-1 lead in the 83rd minute. Given a direct kick, he lined up the ball on the left side, about 25 yards upfield, motioning his teammates to move forward, and he let fly. From three-quarters of the field away, he saw the ball take a high bounce over the Columbus keeper, also a backup, then he saw a flutter in the cords of the net. Cepero™s vision was so obscured that he did not see the ball go in, but he received a context clue when teammates rushed upfield and hugged him.
œI expected it to happen on this field, assistant coach Des McAleenan said, referring to the artificial turf. œThat is carpet over concrete. It just happened to be Danny.
Since that stunning moment, Cepero has received messages from strangers from as far away as Croatia and Cyprus as well as from old friends, but no endorsements and no re-creation of the kick, straight down Broadway, for the Letterman show. At least not yet.