João Paulo’s golazo is SportsCenter’s top play

Given that it was just the second game of a MLS regular season that will include more than 400 of them, it’s hard to imagine that João Paulo’s 25-yard volley will stand up as the Goal of the Year. Still, it will be a deserving candidate.

In the shorter term, he can at least lay claim to having SportsCenter’s Play of the Night.

It was, to be sure, an absolute banger and quite possibly one of the most technically skilled goals in Seattle Sounders history. What’s equally amazing is how easy the Brazilian made it look as he softly controlled the attempted clearance and then hit a sort of sideways blast that gave Dayne St. Claire no chance at making the save.

Asked to explain what he was thinking when he saw João Paulo’s goal, Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer could only remark “Oh my god, he just did that.”