Friday Five ... what's on Adam's list this week? Source: FOX SPORTS
It is worth remembering why we actually like this sport. For the moments. The performances. The incredible. The implausible. The unmissable.
We all have our own opinions on what was great, and was just fair to middling.
That’s the beauty of this sport. Thanks to the sheer volume of human interest in it, almost every hour of every day, something happens in a pocket of Earth that, for those witnessing it, or involved in it, is the greatest thing that’s ever happened.
For others, it was just part of another football match, if we knew it existed at all.
Below, I’ve listed five moments that made me shake my head in 2012.
It wouldn’t be football if there wasn’t debate.
Please, have your say!
Peerless Pirlo
This year’s edition of the European Championships had its usual share of drama and class, the latter helped no end by an Italian who at 33 years of age, should be preparing for retirement, not making others think about it.
Yes, Andreas Iniesta won player of the tournament, and fair enough as the central part of the title winners, but Andrea Pirlo merely floated about the pitch for the Azzuri, dictating play and reminding once more that you don’t need to be a Hawaiian ironman to be good at football.
He nearly won the whole thing for them had it not been for the striker-less Spanish machine coming up with more complete football in the final.
Still, the way Pirlo got them there is ingrained in the memory, especially one moment.
Behind in a penalty shootout against England and disaster looming if he doesn’t get it right, Pirlo dinks it down the middle, and leaves it to England, typically, to crumble. So cool!
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man United | 19 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 46 |
| 2 | Man City | 19 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 18 | 39 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 18 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 20 | 35 |
| 4 | Tottenham | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 33 |
| 5 | Everton | 19 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 9 | 33 |
| 6 | West Brom | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 33 |
| 7 | Arsenal | 18 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 14 | 30 |
| 8 | Stoke | 19 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 28 |
| 9 | Swansea | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 25 |
| 10 | Liverpool | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 25 |
| 11 | Norwich | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | -8 | 25 |
| 12 | West Ham | 18 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 23 |
| 13 | Sunderland | 19 | 5 | 7 | 7 | -4 | 22 |
| 14 | Fulham | 19 | 5 | 6 | 8 | -5 | 21 |
| 15 | Newcastle | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | -7 | 20 |
| 16 | Aston Villa | 19 | 4 | 6 | 9 | -21 | 18 |
| 17 | Southampton | 18 | 4 | 4 | 10 | -11 | 16 |
| 18 | Wigan | 19 | 4 | 3 | 12 | -16 | 15 |
| 19 | Reading | 19 | 1 | 7 | 11 | -16 | 10 |
| 20 | QPR | 19 | 1 | 7 | 11 | -17 | 10 |
Lionel Messi
91 goals? In one year?
It helps Messi that he is surrounded by genius at Barcelona. But he’s like the driver in a Formula One team. Sure, you can have the best mechanics and designers, but if the driver is no good, the whole thing is pointless.
And he does it the right way.
Teams try to stop him, legally or otherwise, and on the odd occasion (Chelsea, Champions League semi-final) it works; and even then they need luck.
He doesn’t roll about on the deck as if he’s covered in tar on a bed of feathers trying to look like a chicken. He make defenders look like geese.
So to do what he did 91 times is justifiably astonishing, but entirely believable.
Given what he does, he makes you want to watch. And given how he does it, he makes you want to tell your kids to watch.
The final day
It was just meant to happen, otherwise no way in the world it could have.
After being five points down with four games to go, it was a miracle it even got to the last day.
Then the last minute.
QPR, of course, played the most important part. Joey Barton, and his usual meltdown antics, cast perfectly as the villain. City fans in tears as time ticked.
Then to those crazy two minutes, Dzeko, Aguero, disbelief to joy in Manchester, joy to disbelief in the away terrace – and on the pitch- in Sunderland.
Unlike no other day.
Suncorp miracle - the sequel
The grand final itself wasn’t all that great in a technical, I wanna see tiki taka and/or a nine-goal thriller sense.
Grand final’s aren’t that. Drama is required. Drama was provided in Hitchcockian portions.
Brisbane and Perth went at each other valiantly for 90 minutes, and Glory thought their plan to nullify had done its job and an unlikely championship was heading west.
Then Besart Berisha popped up - once, brilliantly, then twice, controversially, and pandemonium enveloped Suncorp Stadium once more.
Ange Postecoglou, who days later was off to Melbourne Victory, had coached a team to a fourth national championship – in all four deciders.
Sure, some have not forgiven for what happened late on. None there on the night have forgotten.
A-League hits adolescense
It was more than just three sprinkles of super-stardom. Sure helped, but it has been across the board improvement on the back of that that’s made this season better than ever.
The speed of the games, particularly early in contests, has ramped up.
To pick one moment out of it - cit has to be 35,000 at Allianz Stadium when Emile Heskey scored, Alessandro Del Piero scored and young players like Craig Goodwin shone. It was a joy to watch.
Hardened rugby league types, parochial AFL types and everyone in between took notice.
Dangerous to say just halfway through, but it feels like the season the A-League grew up.
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