2015 OaM Awards: Goal of the Year

Mike Grella only scored 10 goals for the New York Red Bulls in 2015, but it feels like more because almost every one of them was a season highlight. When it came time to choose Goal of the Year candidates, Once A Metro couldn't see past the Grella highlight reel, and most of the discussion of those we overlooked was about other goals Grella had scored.

From the four examples of Grella's exemplary year in red-and-white offered up as nominees, 36% of you chose this one:

The fastest goal ever scored in MLS history. It was also a system goal: Grella was in position to wreak havoc on Philadelphia's lazy kick-off routine because he was chasing the ball from the whistle - as required by RBNY's spin on the edicts of RalfBall.

That same tendency was exploited by Columbus a few weeks later, when the Crew scored the fastest goal in MLS playoff history (in the ninth second of the game). And then Columbus fell victim to history at the worst possible moment of the season, conceding the fastest goal in MLS Cup history to Portland Timbers (27 seconds into the match), en route to becoming the first home team to lose the league's post-season prize since New England Revolution in 2002. (A record bolstered by the fact that MLS only switched to awarding home field advantage to one of the finalists in 2012.)

It was a good year for fastest goals in MLS. But Mike Grella scored the fastest of them all. Seven seconds from kick-off to celebration.

Congrats, Mike. Thanks for a truly memorable year, and for scoring the OaM 2015 RBNY Goal of the Year.