In less than a month, 16 of Europe’s finest soccer teams will converge in Austria and Switzerland to compete for the title of European champions. To begin the countdown for this website, let’s take a trip down memory lane and have a look at one of the more significant moments in New Zealand’s soccer history.

Cast your mind back – not to 1982. No, that golden period in our history has been well talked about and publicised. Well, what else is there, you might be asking. The 2-2 draw by our under-strength All Whites team against Wales. The then world record 13-0 drubbing of Fiji in 1981. The 3-1 victory away at Georgia. All great results, but we won’t take a look at a result here, rather a moment.

The date was June 20, 2003. Lyon was the venue, Colombia the opposition, and the FIFA Confederations Cup was the tournament our All Whites were contesting. Having gone down 3-0 to Japan in the tournament opener, a win was essential for the All Whites to keep any chance of progressing alive. With players such as Nelsen, Killen, Vicelich, Coveny, Elliott and Hickey in the team, there was an air of belief.

As we all know, the All Whites went on to lose the match 3-1; that one goal, however, remains vividly in the memory. With the scores even after the first quarter, up stepped Football Kingz midfielder Raf de Gregorio. A clearance from the Colombian defence didn’t go as far as they would have liked, and instead fell to the feet of de Gregorio, about 35 yards out. He feigned a shot with his left foot and beat an oncoming defender, and then from around 25 yards, hit the ball with the outside of his right foot and curled it into the top right corner of the goal. The goalkeeper was unmoved and looked in awe as the ball sailed into his goal.

The 22,000-odd people who were at Stade Gerland that day had received their money’s worth with that strike, and been left with a lifelong memory. This famous stadium has seen many sporting events that will live long in the memory – Dynamo Kiev’s stunning 3-0 victory in the final of the 1986 Cup Winner’s Cup over Atletico Madrid, the tragic collapsing and subsequent death of Cameroon footballer Marc-Vivien Foe, and more recently the 47-3 thrashing the All Blacks handed their French counterparts a little under two years ago. However, as a one off moment, de Gregorio’s goal would be hard to top.

 Not only has the goal gone down in soccer folklore as arguably the greatest scored in Confederations Cup history, but it holds a special spot in the history of New Zealand sport too. People often talk about how they explicitly remember what they were doing when significant events have occurred. The heroics of Bert Sutcliffe and Bob Blair against South Africa in 1953, the shock gold medal run from Greek Konstantinos Kenteris in the 200m at Sydney 2000, and Scott Sattler’s tackle on Todd Byrne in the 2003 NRL grand final immediately spring to mind.

Raf de Gregorio’s goal is held in a similar light. Me personally, I vividly remember waking up that Saturday morning to watch the game, and literally knocking over my breakfast as my jaw dropped and I cheered excitedly at what I had seen. I knew then that I would take this memory to the grave with me. Where were you when this happened? Feel free to discuss not only this goal, but any others as well on the forum as the build up to Euro ’08 starts.

Will we see a goal like this at the upcoming tournament? Well, we’ll have to wait and see, but even if there is a goal half as stunning as de Gregorio’s, you will not want to miss it. Who knows, in years to come, we might be talking about a great goal scored in these championships. No doubt that de Gregorio’s goal inspired many people, and the world now waits to see if this can be reproduced in a month’s time.