The folks at MLSsoccer.com have deemed the August goal-battle between D.C. United and Real Salt Lake to be the best game of 2015, as voted on by their editorial staff. The game served as the high water mark for the Black and Red, as the 90 minute, six-goal affair accounted for almost 15% of their goals for the season, and was the last markings of consistent success for the team, as they scored five goals in their next eight league games, going 2-5-1.
Now that the obligatory cynicism is out of the way, let's get to why we're here, which was that game, which was a fun 90 minutes of soccer. It included a wonder-goal by Nick DeLeon and another from Taylor Kemp that was the cause for a lot of love that night. But there was a whole bunch more. You had an impressive long-distance strike from Kyle Beckerman, you had this Javier Morales pass to Abdoulie Mansally that led to another RSL goal:
Mansally's goal ended a furious exchange of five goals in fourteen minutes, and there almost certainly could have been more. And the funny part is that we haven't even discussed the dynamics of the game yet. D.C. had to come back after being down 2 barely past the 20 minute mark, scoring the next three to take the lead, and then the second half back and forth battle of one-upsmanship. Mansally's goal to cap that flurry tied things up at 4, and DeLeon's goal was the brace on the night, coming 17 minutes later after Perry Kitchen got the go-ahead goal.
Good times. Good times.