It was a one-time, bending ball into the upper right corner of the net that Thiago Almada scored against FC Cincinnati on Saturday, Aug. 13. The ball was so beautiful that it garnered league-wide attention and beat out 56 other MLS goals scored in Week 25 to earn MLS Goal of the Week presented by AT&T.
The golazo was voted on by fans on the official MLS Twitter account. Almada's curler earned 33 percent of the vote over Sebas Ferreira (Houston Dynamo), Danny Hoesen (Austin FC) and Lorenzo Insigne (Toronto FC).
The goal opened the scoring in what resulted in a 2-2 draw at TQL Stadium. Almada not only scored but was also credited with an assist on Atlanta's second goal of the match -- the equalizer scored by Andrew Gutman that also was recognized by the league (Gutman's goal was no. 20,000 in MLS history). The performance was Almada's third match of the season with both a goal and an assist. Only two MLS players have recorded more than Almada this season, Sebastián Driussi (Austin FC) and Lucas Zelarayán (Columbus Crew).
The strike is exactly the kind of quality that head coach Gonzalo Pineda expected from the designated player.
"More than his goal -- because his goal is shining, it's excellent, it's a fantastic goal for sure -- is the effort, the willingness to play. He was always open to play. He's not afraid of playing the ball in tough areas, and that's what we love about Thiago. He does a lot of effort on and off the ball to be successful and for the team to be successful. That's what we want. At times, he will score goals. At times, he will assist. He wants to score goals and assists, but his workload is always very high. And that's what we saw when we were scouting Thiago. When I start to see Thiago a little bit on film, and I think that's the level that he should be in every game."
Watch Thiago Almada's goal:
