For any sports fan with a pulse
however, on Sunday soccer was on the forefront of the sports landscape as one
of the most thrilling league finals of all time occurred while many Americans
were just beginning their day (college students anyway, 10 a .m. is early…).
For those with their heads stuck
regrettably in the sand, Manchester City
defeated Queens Park Rangers in the final game of the 38-week English Premier
League season 3-2 to hang on to first place and the championship. And while
this doesn’t exactly scream “must watch,” allow the following paragraphs to
explain just how magical of a Sunday afternoon it was in Manchester ,
England .
Entering the game, Manchester
City was tied with local rival
Manchester United for first place with 86 points. City held the tiebreaker,
however, based on goal differential. With this edge, all City needed to do was
beat lowly QPR, who was fighting its own battle of avoiding relegation from Britain ’s
top league. A win for City meant a championship, and for its tortured fan base,
the first such success since 1968. By tortured, imagine being a Red Sox fan
prior to 2004. A
Tampa Bay Rays fan prior to 2008. A
Cleveland sports fan ever. You get
the point. A win for Queens Park
assured their permanence in the Premier League.
If it’s juicy storylines you want, consider
this: Queens Park
head coach Mark Hughes was fired by Manchester
City midseason in December of 2009
after only 18 months at the helm. The firing was considered by many soccer
pundits as unreasonable and several Queens
Park players spoke about how they
saw this game as an opportunity for Hughes to exact revenge on his former team.
Meanwhile, Queens
Park held the worst road record in
the Premier league, while Manchester City
had the best home record, winning 18 of its 19 games with one tie. City had not
lost a game at home since 2010.
When the match started, each team’s
game plan was evident. QPR held all 11 of its players behind the ball at all times,
rarely even crossing midfield if they didn’t have possession. Meanwhile, City
pushed its men forward, yearning for a goal, and a lead that they thought would
be sufficient in stifling any QPR confidence and assuring a title clinch.
The statistics matched the styles.
City would eventually total an astounding 44 shots, while maintaining
possession for an equally unrealistic 81 percent of the game. To put that in
perspective, imagine the New England Patriots keeping the ball on offense for
more than three entire quarters of an NFL game.
The contest became target practice
for City, and in the 39th minute, their efforts paid off in an interesting
fashion. Keeping with the story line theme, City midfielder Yaya Toure suffered
an injury around the 34th minute that saw him limping around as City head coach
Roberto Mancini sorted out who to substitute him for. However, an obviously
impaired Toure never requested to come off the field, and Mancini didn’t sub
him out, at least not immediately. This decision by Mancini would be the first
of several that directly aided City’s efforts, and the way Mancini pulled the
strings in crunch time cannot be applauded enough.
When the 39th minute rolled around,
it was Toure who somehow hobbled into the penalty area and assisted City’s
first goal, a strike by defender Pablo Zabaleta, who, oh by the way, had not
scored a single goal in any competition the entire season. At halftime the
score was 1-0 and City seemed in complete control.
Fast
forward now to the second half when seemingly everything started happening at
once. In the 48th minute, City defender Joleon Lescott horribly misplayed a
routine header 40 yards
from his own net, allowing QPR forward Djibril Cisse an easy goal, and more
importantly, a 1-1 tie.
With
Manchester United holding a 1-0 lead in their final match, happening at nearly
the same exact time, City knew that a tie would do them no good. The usually
effervescent City crowd was now silent, and doubt began to creep in if their
title hopes would once again be lost in some dramatic fashion (Think “Curse of
Bartman” for the Cubs in 2003).
The drama
continued. In the 54th minute, all hell broke loose when QPR’s Joey Barton and
City’s Carlos Tevez clashed on the edge of the Rangers’ penalty area. After a
chat between the head referee and linesman, Barton was correctly given a red
card for elbowing Tevez seemingly out of no where. A frustrated Barton then
kicked City forward Sergio Aguero before being escorted off of the field in a
mad loss of composure.
The theater
only intensified after the expulsion of Barton, as an invigorated City began a
barrage on goal. Shot after shot either went wide or was saved by QPR
goalkeeper Patrick Kenny, playing one of the best games of his career. City’s
attack culminated in a point blank shot by Aguero that Kenny somehow reached
back and grabbed just as the ball was even with the goal line. The score
remained tied at one, and what happened next would send the game into a
whirlwind.
In the 66th
minute QPR managed only their second legitimate attempt on goal, and midfielder
Jamie Mackey scored a header on a fast break to take an impossible 2-1 lead.
With the QPR visitor section screaming in jubilation, a teenage City fan was
shown on camera crying in desperation at the score line, seemingly forgetting
there were still 30 minutes left in the game. For an American comparison,
imagine crying when your favorite football team falls behind ten points midway
through the third quarter. Giving and taking emotions with every minute, there’s
a reason soccer is called “the beautiful game”.
This is
when Mancini made the first of two crucial changes that would turn the game
around. Down a goal, Mancini immediately inserted forward Edin Dzeko, a
talented substitute who had already scored 13 goals for City, in the 69th
minute.
With City
sending more and more shots on goal but without a positive result, Mancini then
made his final substitution, subbing in temperamental striker Mario Balotelli
seven minutes after Dzeko.
From the
75th minute on, QPR, playing with 10 men, began using everyone as a defender,
allowing City to possess the ball unchallenged as close as 30 yards from the Rangers’ net. For
yet another stateside comparison, the game looked oddly like a hockey power
play, with QPR playing down a man basically sitting back only trying to clear
the ball as far away as possible. Except in hockey, a typical power play is two
minutes long. This power play lasted 30 minutes.
Yet up
until the 90th minute, City had still not been able to break down QPR’s wall of
defense. After the fourth official added five long minutes of stoppage time due
to the amount spent sending off Barton, City turned the pulse-pounding final
match into a Hollywood story.
In the 92nd
minute, Mancini’s second substitute, Dzeko, strongly netted a corner kick with
an open header, sending the stadium into a frenzy. However, the clock continued
to tick, and City still needed a goal to take the lead and to turn their
glimpse of hope into a first place finish in the Premier League. Before the
amazed announcers, not to mention QPR, could catch their breath, City was back
on the attack. With the crowd chanting like the Romans in the time of
gladiators, Mancini’s final substitute, Balotelli, managed to control and turn
the ball in one motion 18 yards
from goal and pushed a neat pass to a cutting Aguero, who took one touch and
then blasted a shot left of Kenny’s outstretched hand into the back of the net.
3-2 City
in the 94th minute.
There are
no American comparisons needed to explain the finality of City’s inspiring
comeback. The story truly tells itself. And if you aren’t a soccer fan, perhaps
Sunday’s events are enough of a nudge for you to seek out “the beautiful game.”
Highlights here
No comments:
Post a Comment