Southampton, having been in the top two of the Championship since literally the opening day and outright top since almost as long as that, found themselves (as expected) playing catch up on Monday night. West Ham did the business in their home game to give themselves a 3 point lead, meanwhile Cardiff spawned a late winner to keep hot on the heels of the top two, just a point back in third.
Nigel Adkins' side had Leicester standing in their way and, with a sad inevitability that probably hurt more for how expected it was, capitulated for the second home game in a row. The 0-2 defeat gave Leicester the double over Saints, just as Bristol City achieved with their late December win at the former fortress. They have now lost more home games in the last month than they did in the entirety of 2011. Awesome.
In the light of what I now expect to be a painful slow slide down the table into the dreaded play-offs or even worse, I hereby dedicate this column to two of the biggest chokes ever seen in football. I figure this might make me feel a bit better, at least other teams have felt this pain.
To kick off the hall of shame, we'll go for AC Milan in 2005. Liverpool reached the Champions League final that year on a combination of against the odds underdog spirit and the irresistible drive of captain Gerrard. The tactics employed by Rafa Benitez throughout the knockout rounds had been simple - throw the kitchen sink at the opponent for the first twenty minutes, nick a goal, and then defend it for all your life is worth. It worked against Juventus, it worked against Chelsea...it didn't get a chance to work in the final against Milan. The legendary Paulo Maldini's 2nd minute goal gave Milan the lead and from there they asserted their superiority in an almost cruel manner. Hernan Crespo's sumptuous finish on the stroke of half time from one of the most beautiful assists you'll ever see was, as Andy Gray simply stated, 'game over'. Liverpool receive, and deserve, huge credit for their incredible fightback, a crazy spell of 3 goals in six minutes that had the Rossoneri in disarray. People tend to focus on the spirit of Liverpool and the masterful leadership of Stevie G but this column is about chokers and my word did Milan choke. No team in professional football should throw away a 3 goal lead, certainly not in a mere 6 minutes, and never when they are in such complete control. It was one of the greatest games I've ever seen, but let's be very clear...AC Milan, you choked.
Arsenal also felt the pain of an inexplicable cup final defeat to Liverpool, the Owen Final of 2001 in which they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, plus there have been many memorable cup upsets in which defeat seemed impossible. Spurs against City in 2004 for example, 3-0 up against ten men, losing 4-3 in the end. That's in just one game though, half a game even.
Some teams have made it their mission to throw away months of good work over a few short weeks of choky goodness. Although I was too young to witness it first hand, the first one that springs to mind is Liverpool (them again) but on this occasion they were the ones with the questionable testicular fortitude. Requiring nothing worse than a 1 goal defeat to opponents Arsenal to seal the Championship, they managed to concede a second in the dying moments which incredibly won the title for George Graham's men. It's probably the greatest ever finish to an English top division season, but again I'd blame the losers for choking more than applaud the victors for their feat.
If we're talking throwing away titles though, there can really be no imitations here, we have to go for the real deal. Step forward Newcastle United, 1996. The Magpies under Kevin Keegan played some utterly exhilarating football, glorious attacking flair allied with a gung-ho attitude towards defending, they instantly became everyone's second favourite team and you'd be hard pressed to find any neutral who did not want them to win the league. They were cruising to it, too. 12 points clear after Christmas, it should have been a procession. Manchester United had other ideas, spurred on by the genius of Eric Cantona who was unplayable that season, Newcastle still just had to keep ticking on and not panic. The most famous defeat was the 4-3 'and Collymore has won it' classic - probably the fastest game I've ever watched, it felt like it was over in ten minutes - but the real choke acts came against Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest. United got their noses in front with a win at St James Park, you know who getting the only goal, and Kevin Keegan never really recovered.
It was actually painful to watch, the stress famously getting to KK with an ill-advised outburst to the Sky cameras after weeks of the nerves becoming increasingly plain to see, pervading the entire club from fans to manager to playing staff. The Toon Army have never been close since, and this is surely one of the costliest choke acts in Premier League history.
Well, this was supposed to make me feel better - it can happen to even the finest teams, I mean if the Milan of Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Kaka, Crespo and Inzaghi can choke then it's no disgrace for Fonte, Hammond, Lallana, and Lambert. To be honest though, all this has done is proved how often things go painfully wrong in football, and I feel like I'm in for a long 3 months!
Hopefully this did not bring up too many nasty memories, and I know I've missed plenty (Arsenal every March; Brazil 98; Scotland full stop) but let me know of your 'favourite' choke acts, maybe sharing is good...
No comments:
Post a Comment