Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee provided the assist for perhaps the goal of the 2024 edition of The Soccer Tournament so far. The ex-NFL man played a sensational cross from the right side of the field, which was curled in by CBS Sports Golazo’s Mike Grella in the first game of The Concafa.
This is the goal:
The goal was one of the biggest highlights of the game so far in Cary, NC and Grella thanked McAfee for his expert vision and execution.
“Pat McAfee, shout out to him for the assist because the ball for me was perfect,” Grella told his CBS Sports Golazo Network colleagues on Morning Footy. “I slipped in behind the midfielder who was covering me and I was far enough away from the right-back, or whatever you want to call it. I then saw it was Pat and I was concerned whether he would even be able to to play.” see me and then do it.
“I just gave a really loud, sharp shout and he looks up and chops at it like a pitching wedge so it stays in the air. The ball just floats there for an eternity and for me it was easy to hit it.” I put the left leg up there to give myself some balance and I have that shot in the vault and have been doing it my whole life.
“The ball was fantastic, all the boys were absolutely crazy and it was nice to be in that team atmosphere again. People probably don’t know it, but I played with Pat in 2003 for Region 1 ODP, which is actually a very high level. Pat He’s not like someone who just started playing football for PR; he used to be a footballer and is a pretty good player.”
The 2024 group stage on TST ended on Wednesday night with McAfee and Grella’s Concafa SC poised to advance to the knockouts thanks to their plus-five goal difference in beating Chad Johnson’s Nati SC.
“After the first game we were a disaster,” Grella added. “I’ve had a thousand calls from all different Pep Guardiolas – Nigel (Reo-Coker) was one of them – saying: ‘You guys are rubbish, you have to do this, you have to do that, what are you doing down there?’ ?’ And in the evening it was funny because it was completely quiet. There was nothing left: all the Pep Guardiolas left.”
A win against fellow CBS sports personality JJ Watt’s Burnley SC will keep McAfee and Grella in contention for the tournament’s total $1 million cash prize.
“Charlie, it’s a drag, dude,” Grella told former USMNT man and colleague Charlie Davies. “I said yesterday that it’s a young man’s game, and it is, man. It’s really difficult. The field is big. If you don’t have shape and you don’t work together, then there’s no way. In the morning session there were we were all over the place, very individualistic, doing our own thing Everyone had their own ideas and for the afternoon/evening session we were more organised, lots of communication and we were able to work together and we were able to move forward from that position it helped a lot at our play Charlie, it’s a grueller – make sure you’re super, super fit when you come next year.
