It was a wild final 10 minutes at Qwest Field, and nothing captures the fleeting moments of Saturday night's Cascadia Cup matchup between the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps better than Eric Hassli's 85th minute wonder-goal. Just moments earlier -- no, really, moments; as in seconds -- Osvaldo Alonso had broken a tie and given the Sounders their first lead of the game. Alonso's goal came just a few minutes after Mauro Rosales knotted the score at one with a goal of his own. In the span of just about three minutes, the Sounders went from trailing, 1-0, to leading the Whitecaps, 2-1.
And then Hassli struck -- and what a strike it was. Alonso's poor touch in the box left the ball at Hassli's feet, giving him enough space to turn, flick the ball to himself and unleash a wicked volley that Kasey Keller was powerless to stop. It was an upper-90 shot from a tough angle that no keeper was stopping. And it's probably the goal of the year.
I'm not sure whether to feel bad because of the draw or take solace in the fact that Hassli's goal was incredible and there was no way Keller was stopping it. And with three goals in just about five minutes of play from the 80th minute on, the game itself went from grating and boring to wildly entertaining.
Nope, I don't feel better. Not at all.