Two goals of equal quality can end up remembered very differently, and the difference is often where the cameras were. Coverage decides what a viewer is able to appreciate.
The main camera flattens distance and angle
Most soccer is watched from a high side position near the halfway line, which compresses depth and makes the field look shallower than it is.
A shot from thirty yards and one from twenty look similar from there, and the effort required to reach the goal is hard to read.
Which is why long-range goals gain enormously from a behind-the-goal angle, where the distance the ball travels becomes visible rather than inferred.
Some finishes only make sense from a low position
A goal scored into a narrow gap between the goalkeeper and the near post looks routine from above, because the aperture is invisible at that angle.
From a low camera at the byline the gap is obvious, and the same finish reads as a precise strike into a space barely wider than the ball.
Broadcasts that carry those positions produce highlight packages where technique is legible, and those goals accumulate reputation accordingly.
Replay availability determines whether a goal gets studied
A production with many cameras can show a goal four ways within a minute, and each pass through builds the viewer's understanding of what happened.
A match covered by a handful of positions offers one replay from a similar angle to the live shot, which adds almost nothing.
Goals from lower-profile competitions therefore enter the record undescribed, and the argument for their quality has to be made without evidence.
Crowd reaction is captured or lost by microphone placement
Effects microphones along the touchline pick up the strike and the immediate noise, while the fuller roar of a stadium needs positions higher in the stands.
A goal with thin audio reads as smaller regardless of the images, because the viewer's sense of significance is partly auditory.
Directors who hold on the wide shot with strong crowd sound produce sequences that feel important, and importance is what gets a goal remembered.
American coverage has changed what gets seen
Domestic soccer broadcasts here now carry camera counts that were once reserved for major finals, including behind-goal and elevated tactical positions.
That increases the chance that a goal scored in a regular league match is captured in a way that lets its quality be appreciated later.
Which means the pool of goals available to become famous is wider than it was, limited now by audience attention rather than by what the cameras managed to record.