John Terry’s Tears
John Terry has had an enormously successful soccer career. He's the captain of Chelsea Football Club and the captain of the English national team.
Today came the moment that will define that career. It isn't one he's going to enjoy.
Terry missed the penalty kick that would have clinched the UEFA Champions League Final in Moscow, and Manchester United took advantage by winning the shootout 6-5 in sudden death.
With heavy rain falling, eight of the first nine shooters scored. The only miss came from the most unlikely source, as Cristiano Ronaldo ended the greatest season in recent memory with a terrible attempt.
That gave Terry a chance to end it, about a half-hour after he had made a phenomenal play to prevent Manchester United from scoring a winning goal.
However, his plant foot slipped on the wet grass and his kick sailed softly past the left post. Two rounds later, Edwin van der Sar saved a weak shot by Nicolas Anelka, giving United its second major championship in 10 days. Both titles - the English Premier League and the European Championship - came over Chelsea.
After Anelka's miss, both Ronaldo and Terry fell sobbing to the field - one in relief and one in agony. Players from both teams tried to console Terry, including Manchester United's Paul Scholes, his long-time England teammate, but he ended up weeping on manager Avram Grant's shoulder.
I'm not a fan of Terry or Chelsea, but this is tough. He was playing after dislocating his elbow on May 11, and he played an outstanding game, but he's only going to remember the helpless feeling of his foot sliding out from under him at the worst possible time.
Monday Wrap: Fulhamerica Stays Up
Fulham Football Club has been trying an odd experiment as they struggle to stay in the English Premier League - load the roster with Americans. Brian McBride is the team captain, Kasey Keller is the starting goalkeeper, Clint Dempsey is the leading scorer, plus Eddie Johnson and Carlos Bocanegra.
Until the last month, it wasn't working too well. Midway through the 38-game season, they slid into 19th place and stayed there for weeks. The bottom three teams out of 20 are relegated to the English Championship, and at one point, British bookies were giving 50-1 odds on them avoiding relegation.
On April 12, though, they won 1-0 at Reading. Not only was that just their fifth win in 34 games, it was their first victory away from Craven Cottage all season. A week later, they lost 2-0 to Liverpool, meaning that
to have any chance of staying in the first tier of English soccer, they'd have to win their last three games.
The "Great Escape" really started April 26 in Manchester. Playing at Manchester City, a team that had beaten Manchester United twice this season, Fulham fell behind 2-0 in the first 21 minutes. On the BBC, the announcers said they were now dead and relegated.
It was still 2-0 at halftime. After an hour. Then, after 70 minutes, Diomansy Kamara scored to make it 2-1. Nine minutes later, Danny Murphy tied the game at 2, and in the dying moments, Kamara scored again to win the game. A stunning road win against a very good team, but they still needed two more.
May 3 - home against Birmingham, one of the teams they were trying to send down to the Championship. Captain America (McBride) scored, Kasey Keller picked up a 2-0 shutout and Fulham were up to safety in 17th place for the first time in months. But it still wasn't over - they needed a third road victory on the last day of the season to stay up.
May 11 - at Portsmouth. Fulham had to be hoping that Pompey was focusing more on next Saturday's FA Cup Final than on this game.
Fulham: Day of Destiny (YouTube)
Keller played well in goal, but it was 0-0 with 15 minutes left and results elsewhere meant that Fulham knew they needed a win.
Jimmy Bullard swung in a free kick, Danny Murphy headed it home, and Fulhamerica will be staying with the big boys for another year.
On the other end of the table, the incredible Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 41st goal of the season to help Manchester United win the championship with a 2-0 win over Wigan. In an emotional moment, 119-year-old Ryan Giggs scored the clinching goal on the day that he tied Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 758 games for United.
So United finish two points ahead of Chelsea, but the Blues can get their revenge next week in the Champions League final in Moscow.
Pistons, Red Wings Rolling
Does anyone even want to bother with the rest of the Red Wings-Stars and Penguins-Flyers series? Let's just get to the Wings-Pens final, and see Chris Chelios playing the kid who could be his grandson, Sidney Crosby. Luckily for the Wings, they won't need Johan Franzen to beat Dallas, so he can rest his strange concussion syndrome and get ready for the finals.
As for the Pistons, losing Game 3 was no big deal. They always lose Game 3, and usually get blown out. You can't really expect this team to stay focused for three straight games, can you? Chauncey Billups getting hurt was a problem, of course, but Rodney Stuckey and Lindsey Hunter were more ready to step in than people realized. It also helps that Orlando isn't actually good.
So the Pistons are up 3-1, and Billups will have had almost a week to rest by the time Game 5 finally rolls around on Tuesday. They might not even want to play him - save him for a Game 6 or for Boston.
Yankees-Tigers Rained Out: Millions Cheer
No one actually wanted to watch that game yesterday, did they? Derek Jeter hitting cleanup with a pink bat might have been entertaining, but the first two games of the series were atrocious. Neither team can field, but they make up for it by not being able to pitch, either. These teams are spending a combined $330 million on their rosters, and they might be able to put together one decent pitching staff between them. Wang's fine, and maybe Verlander, Rasner and Bonderman will come around by the time Pettitte, Rogers and Mussina run out of Geritol. The bullpen would be all New York, unless you wanted Todd Jones to pitch mop-up innings. He's certainly not getting any crucial time ahead of Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain and, as much as it pains me to say it, Kyle Farnsworth.
Big Brown Has A New Supporting Cast
For the first time since Citation in 1948 - Chris Chelios and Gary Sheffield's rookie seasons - the Kentucky Derby winner has scared all of his opponents off the Triple Crown trail. Big Brown is the only Derby horse headed to the Preakness. Recapturetheglory was the only other one under consideration, and he got sick.
This makes sense. After all, with the death of Eight Belles, there's not a single horse left that could come within 10 lengths of Big Brown, so why not find an easier spot than the Preakness. If you really believe your horse can still challenge him - Colonel John and/or Pyro come to mind - give him a breather and bring him back for the Belmont.
Of the new challengers in the Preakness, the one that stands out is Behindatthebar. He ran a nice race in the Lexington, and looks like he can make the adjustment from poly to dirt. I haven't run all the numbers, but at this point, he appears to be the only one that I can see challenging Big Brown.
Monday Wrap: Wednesday’s Weekend
Wednesday Survive
Years from now, people will look at the final standings for the 2007-08 English Championship and say "Sheffield Wednesday finished 16th? What a dull season that must have been."
Little do they know.
The Owls beat Norwich 4-1 on Sunday, thanks to a pair of Deon Burton goals, but the season was never as safe as 16th place sounds. Wednesday lost their first six games, and looked doomed in early March, but picked up four wins and seven draws in their last 12 matches to save themselves from League One.
Marvin Williams is a Punk
This photo isn't misleading - Williams' foul on Rondo in Game 7 of the Celtics-Hawks series was really that bad. The game was a blowout, so there was no reason for a hard foul, much less one that could have seriously injured Rondo.
After the game, Williams said he didn't even think he should have been ejected, and that he and Rondo are friends. Right.
Given the violence of the foul and the fact that it came in a situation where the Hawks knew their season was over, I want to see the NBA come down hard on this guy. First ten games of next season at a minimum. I know that Rondo wasn't seriously hurt, but that's just a lucky break.
By the way, taking Marvin Williams over Chris Paul is almost as dumb as taking Darko Milicic over Chris Bosh.
Almost.
Jacque Jones: Tiger Legend
The Tigers just released Jacque Jones, probably because he's hitting .163 with one homer. Jones was supposed to fill the one hole in the lineup - leftfield - but that turned out to be a complete failure.
So now what? Jim Leyland promised drastic changes starting today, and this has to be step one. Step two, at least for today, is Gary Sheffield moving to left field. That's not going to work too well - his arm might fall off the first time he tries to throw to the plate.
With Jones gone, I think they are going to have to bite the bullet and put Brandon Inge back into the everyday lineup. Guillen goes back to 1B, Inge plays 3B and Cabrera goes to LF. No, Cabrera in left won't be pretty, but someone has to play LF. It's a rule.
Multiple Major Winners
No, this isn't about Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, and while it is a post about horse racing, it isn't about Eight Belles. That's the next post.
This is about the concept of "majors" in horse racing. It's an idea introduced by Richard Sowers in his book The Abstract Primer of Thoroughbred Racing. He tried to provide a level playing field for comparing eras by picking the 110 biggest North American races of every year since 1946. You can't compare earnings or Grade I wins, because those number have changed drastically over the years, but if you pick the biggest 110 races, then it becomes meaningful to compare Willie Shoemaker's 16 majors in 1954 to Jerry Bailey's 19 in 2003.
The book only covers the years from 1946 to 2003, so I'm trying to fill in the data for the last few years. So far, I've figured out the list of majors for 2004-2008, and I've figured out the winners for 2007 and the first four-plus months of 2008.
Until Saturday, no horse had won two majors this year, which is unusual. Last year, Rags to Riches had already won three by Derby Day, and Invasor and Scat Daddy had two each.
The streak's over, though. Three horses won majors at Churchill Downs on Saturday, and it was the second of the year for all of them. Intangaroo won the Humana Distaff after winning the Santa Monica Handicap in February, Einstein added the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic to the Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap, and Big Brown has now won the Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby.
Among jockeys, Edgar Prado and Rafael Bejarano have won three each, while Richard Dutrow picked up his third training win of the year with Big Brown. Last year, Garrett Gomez was the leading rider with 12, while Todd Pletcher had an exceptional 19 training wins. This year, they each have one.
The World’s Game
There was a massively important soccer game in England this week, and I got the result I wanted. No, I'm not talking about either Champions League semifinal - this was much bigger than that.
On Monday, West Bromwich Albion got an 84th-minute goal to draw 1-1 with Southampton. That moved WBA into a tie for first place in the English Championship with one game to go, but more importantly, it left Southampton in 22nd place.
Despite the name, the Championship is the second-highest league in England, and WBA's draw means they have virtually guaranteed that they will be one of the three teams promoted to the Premier League, but I don't care about that - I'm concerned with the other end of the standings. The bottom three teams get relegated to League One, which is a disaster for a team in many ways.
With one game left, Colchester and Scunthorpe are already gone, but there are still five teams that could end up in the last relegation spot. The reason I care so much is that one of those teams is my beloved Sheffield Wednesday.
- 18. Blackpool - 53 pts (-5)
- 19. Coventry - 53 pts (-9)
- 20. Sheffield Wednesday - 52 pts (-4)
- 21. Leicester - 51 pts (-3)
- 22. Southampton - 51 pts (-17)
The number in parenthesis is the team's goal difference, which serves as the tiebreaker, and is the main reason that Southamption is in so much trouble.
It is pretty simple for Wednesday. If they beat Norwich on Sunday, they stay in the Championship. Norwich doesn't have anything to play for - they are firmly stuck in the middle of the pack - so the Owls have a pretty good chance. By the way, Norwich is the Canaries - this is not the fiercest match-up ever.
If Wednesday and Norwich draw, the only way they could be eliminated is if Blackpool gets at least a draw against Watford, Coventry gets at least a draw at Charlton, Leicester wins at Stoke and Southampton wins against Sheffield United. Stoke needs a point to clinch automatic promotion to the Premier League, so they aren't likely to roll over at home, and Sheffield United and Watford are both trying to get into the four-team playoff that decides the last promotion spot.
Even if Wednesday loses, they are still safe unless Leicester gets a draw at Stoke and Southampton beats Sheffield United. Staying in the Championship is huge, but I'd really rather that Wednesday didn't have to rely on Sheffield United to do it. We'd never hear the end of it from the United fans.
The last week has also set up an incredible finish at the top of the English league system. On Saturday, Chelesa beat Manchester United to move into a tie for first place with two games left in the Premier League season. On Tuesday, Man U. bounced back by beating Barcelona to advance to the final of the European Champions League - a tournament made up of the top teams from each country.
Guess who United is playing in the final? That's right - they are playing Chelsea. The Blues knocked out Liverpool in a thrilling semifinal on Wednesday, winning the second leg 3-2 in extra time. The go-ahead goal was scored by Frank Lampard on a penalty kick. Lampard had missed the weekend game against Manchester United after the death of his mother, and he collapsed to the ground after scoring the goal, crying and kissing the black armband he was wearing. When he finally regained his composure, with the help of his teammates, he blew a kiss to his father, who was in the crowd.
So, in the next three weeks, Chelsea and Manchester United will decide the two biggest club competitions in world soccer. No team has won the Euro-English double since Man U. did it in 1998-99, and that was a point when England didn't have the best domestic league in the world. Barcelona won a Euro-Spanish double three years ago and Bayern Munich did Euro-Germany in 2001, but I'd argue that if either team does it this season, it would be the most impressive double since AC Milan won the Champions League (destroying Barcelona 4-0 in the final) and the Italian Serie A in 1994.
Speaking of Barcelona and Milan, they are both facing major humiliations in the next few days. On Sunday, Milan plays Internazionale Milano, their hated city rivals. If Inter wins the game, they would clinch the Serie A title in a way that would be devastating to Milan fans.
(And yes, it is AC Milan and Internazionale Milano. Milan was founded by ex-pat Englishmen, while Inter was founded by Italians. Same reason that the oldest team in Italy is called Genoa instead of Genova.)
If letting Inter clinch would be bad for Milan, it would be nothing compared to what faces Barcelona next week. Real Madrid can clinch Spain's La Liga this weekend, which would set the stage for an old Spanish tradition. If a team clinches the league title with games left to play, their next opponent is expected to form a guard of honor before the game and applaud as the new champions take the field.
Asking Barcelona to do that for Real Madrid would be like asking Ohio State to clap Michigan onto the field in Columbus, or asking the Giants to do it for the Dodgers.
The MLS season has started in the United States, but I'm failing to pay any attention. I cheer for D.C. United, but not actively until the playoffs start this fall.