Show caption Carli Lloyd: World Cup hero. Photograph: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA Today Sports USA On the Fourth of July, the 10 most memorable goals in US soccer history From Paul Caligiuri’s game-clincher to Carli Lloyd’s superb strike from distance, we count down 10 great goals to celebrate on America’s special day Michael Lewis Mon 4 Jul 2016 05.00 EDT Share on Facebook

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With this being the Fourth of July holiday weekend, what better way for soccer fans to observe the United States’ 240th birthday but with a bang.

Presenting 10 special, memorable and influential goals scored by the US men’s and women’s national teams that could be celebrated with red, white and blue fireworks

1) Paul Caligiuri (1989)

In many respects, whatever you see in professional soccer and the US men’s national team today begins with this goal. If Caligiuri didn’t score in the 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Trinidad & Tobago in Port of Spain on 19 November 19 1989 and the Americans didn’t participate in Italia 90, history probably would have been altered.

The USA would have been ridiculed for failing to qualify for the World Cup in the cycle before it hosted one. American players wouldn’t have gotten an opportunity to show their wares to European scouts and coaches at Italia 90, giving many of them a chance to play in Europe. In other words, Caligiuri’s was a massive goal.

Caligiuri scored in the 31st minute at Hasely Crawford Stadium after Brian Williams upended John Harkes in midfield. Tab Ramos took the free kick, got a quick return pass and noticed an open Caligiuri in the middle. Caligiuri beat an opponent and lofted a high, looping shot over goalkeeper Michael Maurice for his second international goal.

“I know my abilities to take those kind of shots so I can strike the ball from distance with my left or right foot,” he told the Guardian last year. “So it’s a confidence level that you don’t think about. I’m confident I can take the shot. You just know you can so you do it. I know the distance. I knew it had to have some power on it. It couldn’t be a floating ball. It had to have some power with some dip on it.”

The USA went to Italy and have not missed a World Cup since as they try to qualify for its eighth consecutive competition at Russia 2018.

2) Landon Donovan (2010)

Talk about leaving it late for the most dramatic goal in USA history. With the USA on the verge playing their third draw at the 2010 World Cup, Landon Donovan gave four years of professional and personal frustration one swift kick of a lifetime. Donovan struck a minute into stoppage time to notch a 1-0 Group C win over Algeria, a result that not only propelled the US into the second round, but made the Americans group winners for the first time since the 1930 tournament, at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.

“I’ve been through a lot in the last four years, and I’m so glad it culminated this way,” said an emotional Donovan, who cried during a press conference. “It makes me believe in good in the world, and when you try to do things the right way, it’s good to see them get rewarded.”

The scoring sequence took 12 seconds. Goalkeeper Tim Howard saved a seven-yard header by Rafik Saifi and threw the ball to the right side to Donovan, who raced up the field unmarked. He found Jozy Altidore with a pass, and Altidore touched it to Clint Dempsey, who took a shot as keeper Rais M’Bolhi slid in to stop it. The ball rebounded to Donovan, who slotted it in from seven yards.

“The moment kind of slowed down for me,” Donovan said. “It’s a reaction. It’s good that it happened quickly. You don’t want too much time to think about it.”

3) Joe Gaetjens (1950)

For years, this goal was likely to be at the top of many observers’ list. It was the lone score of a World Cup match between one of the giants of the sport, as the underdog USA stunned the overwhelming favorites 1-0. None of the Americans were full-time players. Each player had a job, whether it was in construction, teaching or factories. Yet, the USA prevailed on a goal that was debated on whether Gaetjens, a US resident but not a citizen at the time, was trying to score.

During a World Cup reunion with teammate Harry Keough and Wilf Mannion in Belo Horizonte in 1987, Walter Bahr, the last surviving USA player, explained to me what transpired. Bahr walked his way through the sequence, starting with Frank McElvenny’s throw-in from the right side 35 yards out.

“I was playing left half-back,” Bahr said. “I came in for McElvenny’s throw-in. I dribbled the ball … maybe to here.”

Bahr stood 25 yards from the goal.

“I took a shot,” he said. “It was going to the far post. The goalkeeper had to move to his right to get the ball and somehow Joe Gaetjens came from that side and deflected it with his head.”

Past goalkeeper Bert Williams into the goal.

“We were happy to get off the field with maybe a 2-, 3- or 4-0 loss and to get a goal like that, we maybe awakened the sleeping giant,” Bahr said.

Gaetjens suffered a tragic fate, presumably dying in prison or was executed as a political prisoner in his native Haiti at the age of 40 in 1964.

The USA walked 40 years in the World Cup desert before Caligiuri’s heroics in Trinidad.

4) Michelle Akers (1991)

Before defining the defensive midfielder position for women, Akers was a scoring terror. She finished with 105 goals in 153 international appearances and none was more vital than the one she tallied in the first Women’s World Cup final in Guanzhou on 30 November 1991. Akers’ second goal of the match snapped a 1-1 draw in the 87th minute to lift the USA to a 2-1 win over Norway, and the women became the first American team to win a Fifa-sponsored tournament.

Akers intercepted a back pass from Norway’s Tina Svensson and ran in on goalkeeper Reidun Seth.

“Everyone on the team said their hearts were stopping, because they didn’t think I would ever shoot the ball,” Akers said at the time. “I was making sure I wouldn’t miss.”

Michelle Akers holds the trophy aloft. Photograph: Tommy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

The triumph established the Americans as a world power: they captured the 1999 and 2015 Women’s World Cups. They also have defined the Olympic women’s soccer tournament, earning gold medals in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 and silver in 2000. The USA has never finished below third in a Women’s World Cup or the Olympics.

5) Carli Lloyd (2015)

With the USA enjoying an incredible 3-0 lead over Japan in the 14th minute in the Women’s World Cup finals – thanks to a pair of goals of her own – Carli Lloyd was feeling good about herself. So good that she attempted to chip Japan goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori from midfield. Taking a pass from Lauren Holiday in midfield, Lloyd noticed that Kaihori was standing far out of the net, and audaciously struck a shot from 55 yards. The goalkeeper got her right hand to it, but the ball bounced once and off the left post and into the lower left corner for an astounding 4-0 margin in the 16th minute.

“If you’re feeling good mentally and physically, it comes down to instinct,” Lloyd said.It completed the fastest hat-trick in World Cup history – for men and women – as the Americans cruised to a 5-2 victory at BC Place in Vancouver.

Lloyd was named the Golden Ball winner. Her six goals tied her with Germany’s Celia Saskic for the tournament goal-scoring lead with six apiece.

“I call her my beast,” USA coach Jill Ellis said. “She is just unbelievable, a rock star. I am just so happy for her.”

It wasn’t the first time that Lloyd performed heroics in a final, having struck for the winning goals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold-medal matches. This one completed one of the most unique hat-tricks over three major tournaments.

6) Eric Wynalda (1994)

Wynalda almost didn’t get an opportunity to score the goal that helped the men to their first World Cup points in 44 years– because he was suffering from a bad case of the hives.

On the day of the Americans’ 1994 World Cup opener against Switzerland at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, Wynalda woke up with hives on his body. It was from drinking the wrong energy drink that he said was given to the team. He said he had an allergy to a pair of dyes – yellow No5 and red dye 40.

“We made a decision the morning of the game,” Wynalda said, adding that he showed USA coach Bora Miluntonovic the hives. “He said: ‘This is nothing. Day is your day.’ And he walked out. I said, OK. I took a cold shower, I put my sweats on.”

Wynalda said he “was uncomfortable” due to the hives. “It was like being covered with bee stings,” he added. “It was horrible.”

Trailing 1-0, the USA were awarded a free kick in the 45 minute after John Harkes was fouled by Ciri Sforza 28 yards out. Claudio Reyna, who usually took free kicks, had suffered a hamstring injury days prior, so the set piece was up for grabs. Wynalda was adamant he was taking it.

“Four guys were interested in taking it,” he said. “The first one was Harkes and I didn’t even listen to him. I grabbed the ball and I made sure I was the one who was going to take it. Marcelo [Balboa] wanted me to touch it to the side so he could hit it. At one point Tab [Ramos] said something along the line, ‘Are you sure? And that was his way of saying, ‘Push it to the side and let me hit it.’ I literally blanked them all.

“I had been taking free kicks [for FC Saarbrücken] in Germany. I had some success but I had never scored. I hit the post a bunch of times and I forced saves, but I had never scored. The lasting memory I had was Tab Ramos walking past me and saying: ‘Just put it on goal and don’t make us look stupid.’ That was the last thing I heard before I shot.”

Wynalda curled the ball into the upper left corner while goalkeeper Marco Pascolo leaped helplessly trying to stop the shot.

“It was the best goal I could ever score in a World Cup because of exactly where the ball went,” Wynalda said.

The Americans earned a point, their first in the World Cup since the 1-0 win over England in 1950. They next recorded a 2-1 win over Colombia that clinched a spot in the round of 16. Had they not drawn with the Swiss, the Americans might not have reached the second round and would have been the first host WC side that failed to get out of its group.

7) Abby Wambach (2004)

The importance of Wambach’s extra-time goal against Brazil in the 2004 Athens Olympics gold-medal match was twofold. It gave the Americans their first major international title since the 1999 Women’s World Cup after falling short at the 2000 Summer Games (silver medal) and the 2003 Women’s World Cup (third place). It also allowed the Fab Five – Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain – one last moment of glory after a 2-1 extra-time win over Brazil at Karaiskaki Stadium.

“There are only a few times in your life when you get to write the final chapter the way you want,” said Hamm, who was retiring from international soccer along with Foudy and Fawcett.

Wambach headed in from a Lilly corner kick in the 112th minute as the USA earned its second Olympic gold medal to go with the 1996 victory. The Fab Five also won world championships in 1991 and 1999.

“I didn’t want to be miserable for the next 40 years of my life I told Abby,” Foudy said. “I thanked her.”

After playing two 120-minute matches within 72 hours, Wambach might have been close behind. She overcame exhaustion, leaping high in the air to beat Monica and head the ball past goalkeeper Andreia for her fourth tournament goal and 18th in her last 20 international matches.

“I think we all know who deserved to win today,” Wambach said. “There’s no other outcome that’s what’s possible for us. We believed it was something that was meant to be.”

Eleven years later as a role player, Wambach, who finished with a record 184 international goals, was in a similar position. This time her younger teammates paid her back as Wambach won her long elusive world championship at the 2015 Women’s World Cup before retiring.

8) Brandi Chastain (1999)

Everybody knows the Chastain’s story of how she converted the tournament-winning penalty kick against China in the Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl – and celebrated by taking off her jersey. But if it wasn’t for Chastain’s equalizing goal in the quarterfinal for the ages against Germany in Landover, Maryland on 1 July 1999, the Chastain and her teammates probably would not have been in position to win the tournament.

It was the worst of all possible scenarios with the game barely five minutes old. Standing just outside the top right side of the penalty area, Chastain passed the ball back to goalkeeper Briana Scurry. However, there was one slight problem. Scurry had moved yards out of the net and took a step to her left while Chastain passed to her right and into the net for a 1-0 Germany lead.

Had the USA lost and been eliminated, Chastain could have been declared the goat and denied an opportunity to be a heroine.

“It gave me an extra boost to do something than I would do for the team and do something that would put us over the top,” Chastain said.

She certainly did, heading home the equalizer off a Mia Hamm corner kick in the 49th minute to knot the match at 2-2. Seizing the moment, Chastain laid on her back looking to the heavens. “Thank God I was in the right spot,” she said.

Defender Joy Fawcett headed in Shannon MacMillan’s corner kick in the 66th minute for what proved to be the 66-minute game winner. Nine days later, Chastain converted her historic PK against China.

9) Brian McBride (2002)

It seemed like every time we turned around, McBride scored big-time goals.

A perfect example was during 2002 World Cup qualifying and the competition itself. He scored a spectacular sliding goal, with the USA a man down due to an Eddie Lewis red card against Guatemala in a 1-0 qualifying win. He added what proved to be the third and winning goal in the Americans’ 3-2 victory over Portugal in their World Cup opener.

But McBride’s top goal was the first score in important dos a cero game against Mexico in the round of 16.

Claudio Reyna made a 40-yard run down the side, crossing the ball to Josh Wolff, who was close to the goal line. Wolff, who didn’t look before flicking it back to an open McBride. The striker fired home a hard, right-footed shot in the eighth minute.

Brian McBride celebrates his goal against Mexico in Jeonju. Photograph: Elise Amendola/AP

“I knew there was an opportunity for me to get the ball. It was on a lay back like that,” he said.

The Americans needed that goal. El Tri dominated the match and possession about two-thirds of the time. Landon Donovan added an insurance goal in the 65th minute.

The win was significant because the game was played at a neutral ground between two teams that usually prevailed at home against each other. It also went a long way in establishing the USA as the top dog in Concacaf.

10) Michael Orozco (2012)

You might be wondering why a goal from a friendly would make this list. Given the Americans’ problems in Mexico City over the decades, it gave the visitors hope and a win in future World Cup qualifiers.

The USA had suffered much frustration and many embarrassing defeats in the Mexico capital for decades (1-19-2 as of today) until August 2012. That’s when the second-half sub and defender struck in the 80th minute of a 1-0 win at Azteca.

The goal was doubly significant for Orozco.

“This means a lot to me because my parents are Mexican, but I was born in the US,” he said. “But since day one I’ve chose to defend the US and I’ve done it with honor and a lot of respect to the country. One thing that gives me the strength is that my family is always beside me.”

Orozco was one of three second-half substitutes that teamed up for the goal.

Brek Shea beat his man down the left side, slipping a pass to Terrence Boyd, who back-heeled a pass to Orozco, standing in front of the net. The defender slotted the ball past goalkeeper Guillmero Ochoa.