Geoff
raises his arms in jubilation after his goal gives the Sounders their
first-ever playoff win in 1976, over the arch-rival
Vancouver
Whitecaps, no less. Sounders fans celebrate above, behind the goal.
1976:
Hurst, So Good
by Heather Johnson, WATN Editor
Little known fact: the
Sounders had not one, but two knights in their lineup in the 1970s. Of
course, only one (Bobby Moore) was actually a knight during his tenure
with the team. The second was Geoff
Hurst, who was awarded his Member of the Order of the British Empire
in 1998.
Hurst was one of those rare players who never had a bad season and was
respected by teammates and opponents alike. Born in 1941, Hurst played for
West Ham from 1958-1972, scoring 180 goals in 411 games, and named Player
of the Year three times. West Ham also won the FA Cup in 1964 and the
European Cup Winners Cup in 1965. From West Ham he moved on to Stoke City
where he scored 30 goals in 110 games. He played for West Bromwich Albion
in 1975 (statistics not available), before joining the Sounders
in 1976.
His international glory
was almost accidental: his first appearance for the England senior
national team was in February of 1966, and he was only inserted into the
lineup for the World Cup because of an injury to Jimmy Greaves. He made
the most of his opportunity, and played well enough that he stayed in the
lineup even after Greaves was able to return to action. Keeping Hurst
playing proved to be a good decision, as he would go on to score a
hat-trick in England’s controversial overtime win over Germany in the
finals. The controversy, incidentally, centers around Hurst’s second
goal, which hit the crossbar and bounced over (the Germans would disagree)
the goal line. But the goal counted, and Hurst is still the only player to
achieve a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
Unlike many players who
came over to the NASL from Europe to end their careers, Hurst rapidly
proved his worth, and became a valuable
member of the Sounder team. He was the team’s second-leading scorer,
helping the Sounders make it to the playoffs for the first time in their
brief history, with
8 goals and 4 assists in 23
regular season games, and 1 goal in the playoffs. More important than
Hurst’s numbers was his sense of timing: not only did he score the first
(in the home
opener against Portland) and the
last (in the playoffs
against Vancouver—some things never change) goals of the season, 5
of his 8 goals were game-winners.
After Seattle, Hurst
played a bit more (in Kuwait and with Cork Celtic) and then dabbled in
managing. He was briefly Player/Manager for Telford United, served as
assistant coach for England from 1977-1982, and managed Chelsea for two
years after that. Since then, Hurst has retired completely from soccer,
but has not completely dropped out of the public eye. In addition to his
1998 knighthood, his second goal in the 1966 World Cup final returned to
pop culture in the Chumbawamba song Geoff Hurst’s Goal and his
third goal from that game remains one of the most shown pieces of footage
ever on the BBC. He now makes public appearances as a motivational
speaker.
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/football/geoffhurstmartinpeters.htm
http://www.planetworldcup.com/LEGENDS/hurst.html
http://www.sportcartoons.co.uk/englandlegend12.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,989-99119,00.html
