This one's pure joy. It’s definitely not the most important thing to ever happen in Crew SC history, but wow, what a moment. How can you watch this video clip without laughing and smiling?
And now, a correction. When I wrote about this earlier when casting my ten votes in the first phase of this process, I conflated my text conversation with team ops man Tucker Walther with a conversation I had with someone else who also got news of the goal second-hand. I’ve since found the actual text conversation with Tucker from the Crew locker room, which, with Tucker’s blessing, I put in a Notebook in 2010.
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On the night Hesmer scored, I was about to enter a church to see my friend JenJennyJennifer get married. Since I had lost the radio signal in the second half on my way to Cincinnati, I texted Tucker to find out the final score. Here was our conversation…
Me: “At wedding. What was final. We were down two one last I saw.”
Tucker: “2-2. Won’t believe the final. Hesmer scored to tie after 90th minute.”
Me: “Get. The. [Bleep]. Out.”
Tucker: “Ran from our goal on a corner, settles a bouncing ball, and scores on TFC. Amazing.”
Me: “Holy [bleep]. Tell Will I said congrats on finally passing Danny (O’Rourke) on all-time goal scoring list.”
Tucker: “He says not tough when you can actually kick a soccer ball.”
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When I talked directly to William a few days later, he said, “It just fell to my feet and I found a way not to mess it up. It was like the world stopped for a moment.”
I was also treated to Duncan Oughton and Brian Carroll each doing their best Hesmer impersonation, whereby they brought an imaginary ball down, did 15 bajillion stutter steps, and then kicked the ball into an imaginary goal.
“I think Duncan and BC are just a little jealous that I showed more composure than they would have,” Hesmer said.
Anyway, for added context that added to the joyousness, to that point in their history, Toronto FC had been winless against Columbus in ten tries. They finally appeared to have that elusive first victory in the bag, only to have it snatched away by the visiting goalkeeper scoring a stoppage time equalizer. The winless streak grew to 11. It was one of the ultimate #LOLTFC moments and it’s a legendary goal in Black & Gold lore.
