International friendlies may be silly, they may be pointless and they may serve very little purpose aside from making some money. But every now and then they turn out be something more. Saturday's game between the Seattle Sounders and Tottenham Hotspur was one of those times.
It started with Xander Bailey fulfilling his wish by actually playing for the Seattle Sounders. Bailey started, got to kick off, exchanged a couple passes with Clint Dempsey and fired a shot at former United States international Brad Friedel. Fans held up No. 45 signs all around the stadium, ECS even put together a tifo for him and afterward he got to thank the fans along with his new teammates. It was all cool enough to make SportsCenter's Top 10.
That was great from a humanity perspective.
But the game also had a legitimately awesome soccer moment, too. With the game tied 1-1, Osvaldo Alonso found himself with just a little bit of space and let rip from about 35 yards. The ball ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar and into the back of the net.
That was named SportsCenter's Top Play. All in all, not a bad day of fun for the 56,000 or so that showed up.