Sounders FC: Fucito Wins It.

(Nikon D3, Nikkor VR 200-400mm/f4.0 lens @ 240mm, ISO 800, 1/1600th sec.,f4.0)

Seattle Sounders FC Michael Fucito celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in the 92nd minute against Kansas City at Qwest Field in Seattle.

(Nikon D3, Nikkor VR 200-400mm/f4.0 lens @ 220mm, ISO 800, 1/1600th sec.,f4.0)

Fucito substituted late into the match, then scored when he took a quick throw-in from teammate Brad Evans and one-timed a low hard shot past the diving Kansas City goalkeeper.

(Nikon D3, Nikkor VR 200-400mm/f4.0 lens @ 240mm, ISO 800, 1/1600th sec.,f4.0)

One of the key components of a successful sports photo is a clean background. You can see in the first photo that the background is clean. It would have been a better frame if I would not have had to crop out his feet (it feels awkward the way it is currently cropped), but the background is better than in the third photo (directly above). The orange of the Home Depot sign, combined with the two photographers, seem to take away from the moment, and this is the second best frame of the series.

It was a great goal –  and while I shot 18 frames during the entire sequence with my Nikon 200-400mm zoom lens, only one frame “jumped out” as the one with the best combination of emotion, clean background and solid (while certainly not perfect), composition.