A different look at Feilhaber's goal

Last Friday, Sporting Kansas City beat FC Dallas 3-1 but the game was scoreless heading into the 64^th minute. Paulo Nagamura slid a pass to Benny Feilhaber but before he could shoot Benny was brought down by FC Dallas midfielder Ezequiel Cirigliano just outside of the box.

Thought running though Benny's mind? I can score from here. ©Thad Bell

"I had a couple free kicks in the first half that weren't so good," Feilhaber said after the match. "On one of them I told Zusi, ‘If this one's bad, you can have them the rest of the game.' And I didn't hit a good one in the first half. But when the free kick came up, I kind of begged him and said, ‘Zeus, I know what I told you, but can I have this one?' He kind of laughed at me, but I got my quota of one free kick goal a year."

"The wall was in its place but the wall was big, man they had some big guys on that team. I just noticed the goalie was trying to peak around the wall because the wall was so big," Benny explained at practice this week.

Feilhaber was not wrong, the wall was big. Je-Vaughn Watson 6' 1", Tesho Akindele 5' 11", Michel 6' 1", Walker Zimmerman 6' 3", Atiba Harris 6' "3 and Victor Uloa 5' 11" made for a large wall. Michael Barrios at 5' 4" joined the wall on the other end to add some width as well.

FC Dallas's homegrown keeper Jesse Gonzalez was no slouch in the height department, he is listed at 6' 4". Gonzalez was crouched down trying to see through the wall and that left a slice of goal a little more open.

"They had seven or eight guys in front of there so with goalie trying to peak a little bit I thought if I put it in a good spot I thought it would go in," Feilhaber explained.

Benny shoots and the wall begins to jump ©Thad Bell

The wall is at full height now but Benny slipped it around ©Thad Bell

The wall has started to realize they did not do their job ©Thad Bell

The ball is almost to the goal and the keeper has just started to dive. ©Thad Bell

The ball is in the goal and the keeper has missed it. ©Thad Bell

A closer look at the wall's faces. ©Thad Bell

From my perspective on the endline, (I was the photographer closest to the goal), it looked like the wall was not far enough to the left and it would not be hard for Feilhaber to curve a ball around the wall. I was in line with Benny, the end of the wall and just to the side of the goal. So I focused on the wall, hoped for some good reaction and that Benny would score. If he missed I would have been right in line for that shot.

As you can see, Benny did not miss, his shot slid around the wall, off the inside of the post and past a diving Gonzalez.

The result? More blue confetti...

In case you missed the video, here it is: