Drama on the pitch

I have played soccer my entire life, and always been a huge fan of the game. In my opinion, the World Cup is the greatest sporting event in the world, and when it comes around every four years, I am sure to watch as much of it as I can. However, the United States is not the best place to live if you want to watch world class soccer every year. The MLS has always been, and probably always will be (at least for the near future), a second class league in comparison to leagues in Europe, and even in South America. Former stars come play in the MLS after they have played out their prime years in Europe. Guys like David Beckham and Thierry Henry come to the United States to play because they can be stars here and make more money at the later stages of their careers than they would in Europe. And who could blame them really? Instead of being hassled endlessly by the soccer "hooligans" in Europe as their careers wind down, they can come here and make one final splash and earn one final paycheck before they ride off into retirement.
So I can't say that I am a follower of the MLS. However, a few years ago, ESPN started broadcasting English Premier League games in the United States, and I was thrilled for a few reasons. First, obviously, is that we would get to see what is probably the most popular soccer league in the country at least once or twice each week. Also, because of the time zone difference, the latest an EPL game will be on television is about 3:00 in the afternoon. Each Saturday morning though, there are games on nice and early to watch live right around the time I wake up. Instead of having to stay awake until 1:00 in the morning to watch an entire Diamondbacks game, I can watch EPL games nice and early when I am wide awake and don't feel like watching SportsCenter 300 times in a row.
Now the network chooses the games that will be broadcast, so each week we get different games. Most of them involve at least one of the top-flight teams like Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea, but I'm okay with that because I haven't followed the league closely enough to have a favorite team, I just enjoy watching the games. So paired with the Fox Soccer Channel, which will usually broadcast a live game or two each week as well, we get to watch a heck of a lot more live, world-class soccer than we did only a few years ago.
Over the course of this season, I became somewhat familiar with some of the teams, and who was at the top and the bottom of the standings. I knew this past Saturday was the final day of the season, and unlike professional leagues in the United States, there are no playoffs. The full season standings determine the champion. Going into the day, Manchester City was tied atop the standings with Manchester United, with Manchester City holding a significant lead in the tiebreaker (goal differential). Manchester City needed to have an equal or better result than Manchester United, and Man City was playing Queens Park Rangers (QPR), one of the teams at the bottom of the standings. It was expected that Manchester City would win somewhat handily and be crowned champion for the first time in 44 years. However, as sports seem to be more often than we expect, the result was far from a formality, and we got one of the most dramatic few minutes that I ever remember seeing, in any sport.
Manchester City got off to a good start, taking a 1-0 lead in the first half that it seemed as though they would be able to hold. QPR was getting nothing as far as a sustained attack, and Man City was in control. However, early in the second half, QPR mounted one of the few attacks they would have all day and evened the score at 1. As this was happening, Manchester United had gained a 1-0 lead in their game, and were in complete control. Man City caught a break when a QPR player was sent off with a red card, and QPR would play the rest of the match down one man. Despite this, Manchester City could still not create the breakthrough they needed, and QPR desperately defended and kept the score knotted at 1. Then, QPR was able to counter a Manchester City mistake, go down the field, and playing 10 against 11, get a goal to put them ahead 2-1. With Manchester United still leading 1-0 and in control of their game, Manchester City fans sat in stunned silence as the clock wound down, and their title chances were slipping away (think Red Sox fans prior to 2004 expecting the worst to happen against the Yankees when it mattered most).
Manchester United is the most decorated team in the English Premier League, and one of the best in the world, and they have been that way for decades. Manchester City was always the second tier team in Manchester, and Manchester United had the trophies to prove it. So, with Manchester United only minutes away from winning their game 1-0 and taking over the lead in the standings, Man City needed two goals to equal United's record, and win due to the tiebreaker.
It was at this point that sports proved once again to be the greatest, and most dramatic, soap opera we could ever imagine. As the minutes ticked away and the game entered stoppage time, Man City earned a corner kick and were able to tie the game at 2 with only about three minutes to play. The tie would still leave them in second place though, and Manchester United fans and players watched from the field they had just won on, and believed that the title was still theirs because Manchester City still needed a goal and didn't have much time to get one.
QPR kicked off, moved the ball down to Man City's end of the field, and the clock kept ticking. Man City earned a throw in, and as the clock continued to run, they came forward with everything they had (goalkeeper included). After a scurry outside the penalty area, Manchester City got the ball to a man named Sergio Aguero, he beat a defender about ten yards from goal and buried a shot in the back of the net with about one minute left in the season, and it was the 2004 Red Sox all over again. Down three games to none in the playoffs, nearing just another collapse, the Red Sox did the improbable and came back to win four straight games against the Yankees on their way to their first World Series title in almost 90 years.
After Aguero scored, the Man City players and fans went into a frenzy as Manchester United could only watch the final seconds tick away, and the title be snatched out from under them. After 44 years of playing second fiddle to the "big brothers," Manchester City had finally finished the season atop the Premiership and lifted the trophy. In five minutes, the mood in the stadium went from despair to elation, and the party began.
As a fan of neither team, I was able to watch this all happen with no loyalties toward either side, and just a simple appreciation for the history that had just been made before the eyes of the world. Soccer will always be bigger in Europe than it is in the United States, but at least for one day, one of the most thrilling climaxes in sports history stole the headlines from everything else in the sporting world. The underdog had come back from what seemed like the dead, and did it (literally) as the entire sports world watched it happen.

Daily Rangers Update: The puck drops for Game 1 with the New Jersey Devils in about 10 minutes at Madison Square Garden. The winner of the series goes on to play for the Stanley Cup, and the loser goes home. The Devils were the opponent in the conference finals back in 1994 when the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup since 1940, so maybe that is a good sign. If a repeat of 1994 is in order, then that means the next month will be a great time for Rangers fans. It starts tonight though, so a strong start to the series is the first step. Let's Go Rangers!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Winning one game out of every three is not the recipe for success in baseball. Last year the team got off to a slow start and finished the last few months strong, so hopefully that can happen again, because the first month and a half has been far from last season. Things don't get any easier tonight, as the Diamondbacks start a series in Los Angeles and the 2011 National League Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw is on the mound. No one is great every time out, so hopefully that time for Kershaw is tonight.
Daily Giants Update: Three undrafted free agents were signed today and rookie minicamp has begun. The season is still a long way from beginning, but at least the defending champions can find out a little bit about how their draft class looks in the coming weeks.