Top Sports Moments of 2019
Nothing in the world of entertainment invites partiality the way sports do. By nature, you have a rooting interest in any game or match you watch. As such, it can be difficult to separate the subjective from the objective when considering the quality of the year in sports. That said, both subjectively and objectively, it has been a fun year! The reason is that, though very few of my favorite teams and athletes won the major prizes, it was largely a year of new champions on the block. Who doesn't like to see dynasties crumble and new winners brought forth?
Rest assured, my personal opinion doesn't matter all that much in the context of this piece. I will do my best to take off my fan cap, and assume the role of the objective, uninvolved sports reporter.
First, several noteworthy events that just missed the list (in chronological order):
Clemson's National Championship rout of Bama indicates changing of the guard in college football
Zion Williamson dominates the basketball landscape
James Harden's 32 game 30-point plus streak
The Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks play an absurd 4 OT game
UNC and Duke (with Zion, this time) fight an epic Tobacco Road battle in the ACC Tournament
Auburn gets miracle escape in First Round of March Madness, goes on to reach first-ever Final Four
Most exciting Final Four in recent history sees 3 thrilling wire-to-wire games
Dirk Nowitski and Dwayne Wade get heroic sendoffs into retirement
Ajax's Cinderella run in the Champions League
Manchester City wins a 2nd-straight Premier League title despite a record-setting challenge by Liverpool
Marta's impassioned postmatch interview inspires future generations of female soccer players
Purdue dedicates ticket gate to deceased superfan Tyler Trent
Youth movement at the US Open: 15-year old Coco Gauff makes a stunning quarterfinal run, and 19-year old Bianca Andreescu upsets Serena for the title
The Washington Mystics win their first WNBA title
LSU ends Alabama's SEC West stranglehold, Coach Ed Orgeron yells "Roll Tide what?! F*** you!"
32-year old Lionel Messi wins his 6th Ballon d'Or
Champions League debutantes Atalanta qualify for knockout stages despite losing first three matches
Joe Burrow wins Heisman by largest margin ever
Now, the true top 10:
10. The NBA's foreign invasion
Thanks to the two-pronged domination by the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers over the last several years, much of the NBA's entertainment has been found in places outside of the playoffs. However, the 2018-19 NBA season was a wild ride from start to finish, accentuated by breathtaking play from a young Greek man, Giannis Antetokuonmpo and an even younger Serbian man, Luka Doncic. Both players led their teams to improved seasons (in the case of Antetokuonmpo, to a #1 seed in their conference) and scorched opponents, delighting fans in the meantime. This led the two to being named the NBA MVP and Rookie of the Year, respectively. It is the first time in history that both awards are held by foreign-born players, and it signals a bright, exciting future for the game.
9. Tottenham's wild run to the Champions League Final
If you pay an ounce of attention to Premier League soccer, you know that Tottenham Hotspur, like the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Lions, and any Cleveland sports team before them, are more famous for not winning than for winning, despite having many years of being a high-quality team. So the idea that the Spurs, as they're affectionately called, could win the most coveted trophy in club football in a season in which they didn't even come close to winning their own league, seemed ridiculous. Yet, it almost happened, thanks to a remarkable series of events in their Champions League performances. After maneuvering an unlikely escape from Group B at the end of 2018, Tottenham drew German stalwarts Borussia Dortmund in the Round of 16, and beat them soundly, playing some of their best football all season. They were rewarded with fellow English side Manchester City in the quarterfinals; the same City team that was coming off a record-breaking Premier League season (and would go on to win their 2nd consecutive Premier League in May), and was hunting for their first-ever Champions League title. After scoring a 1-0 upset of City in the first leg, Tottenham dug deep in a wild 2nd leg to advance to the semifinals, thanks to a late goal scored by a substitute and some last-second assistance from the Video Assistant Ref. Perhaps still basking in the glow and disbelief of their quarterfinal win, however, Spurs dropped their first semifinal match at home to a young Ajax side. On the return leg, Tottenham trailed 2-0 in Amsterdam (and 3-0 on aggregate) early in the 2nd half. Enter Lucas Moura; the oft-used Brazilian forward entered the match as a substitute and immediately scored two goals. Then, with virtually the last kick of the match, Moura added a 3rd to complete his hat-trick and to send Tottenham to their first-ever Champions League Final in absolutely stunning fashion. They would ultimately come short of glory, falling in a gritty Final to English rivals Liverpool, but I doubt many Tottenham Hotspur fans will forget the sights of the jumbotron in Manchester flashing "VAR: NO GOAL," or Lucas Moura's 3rd goal hitting the back of the net in Amsterdam, or since-fired manager Mauricio Pochettino running onto the field in tears.
8. The St. Louis Blues win their first Stanley Cup
NHL fans got the rare opportunity to watch back-to-back first-time champions. One year after Washington won their first Stanley Cup, it was St. Louis-- a city not exactly synonymous with hockey -- lifting Lord Stanley's Mug. The Blues put the punctuation mark on an exciting postseason run which included upsets of the Dallas Stars (who they eliminated in double overtime of Game 7), and the San Jose Sharks. Of course the most excitement really came in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, in which St. Louis redeemed themselves after blowing a chance to clinch the title on their home rink by winning on the road in Boston. The road upset sealed their first ever championship in club history, and that the win came over typical powerhouses Boston Bruins likely made the victory even sweeter for St. Louis. I know it was for this particular fan.
7. Another classic NCAA Women's Championship
For the second consecutive year, the women's college basketball title game was a thrilling, down-to-the-wire affair, played by two teams not named Connecticut. Many decry the lack of competitiveness in the women's game, but for one, three straight years of no UConn in the finals is a sign that the wealth is beginning to be spread around in college ball, and more pertinently for the viewer, results of the lack of parity often found in the Men's March Madness tournament is a very high-quality Final Four, as we've seen the last several years. 2019 was no different as Baylor sparred toe-to-toe with fellow number one seed, and defending national champions, Notre Dame in Tampa Bay. Ultimately the Lady Bears won their third title in school history, but not before some last minute heroics by Chloe Jackson and a reversal of fortune for Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbawale, who was last year's hero. The drama was another reminder of the growing quality of the sport and how its postseason is becoming consistent must-watch TV.
6. Djokovic and Federer battle to the end at Wimbledon
Seeing Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer play each other in a Wimbledon final is nothing new. Seeing Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer play a Wimbledon final in 2019 is nothing short of amazing. Given that the two greats, aged 32 and 38 respectively, have had obituaries written for their careers time and time again already, it was a terrific story just to see them on the court with everything on the line. But there was still a match to be played. And oh, what a match it was. Fed and the Djoker battled over the course of 5 hours, splitting the first four sets; both of Djokovic's wins came in sets that went to tiebreaks, and both of those tiebreak victories were late comebacks. The match went to a 5th set, and in a decade that saw 5th set scores of 70-68, and just last year, 24-22 at Wimbledon, this felt like yet another that could have gone on forever. Could have, that is, if not for the brand-new rule that mandated a tiebreak be played if 12-12 were reached. It looked like that rule might not even come into play, as Federer, with the full weight of the British crowd behind him, broke Djokovic's serve and held double Championship point at 8-7. But, two unforced errors and two Djoko screamers later, somehow the Serbian had fought back elimination AGAIN. And so it went, on to the dreaded 12-12 scoreline, and for the first time in history, Wimbledon ended in a tiebreak. Was there any doubt who was going to win the tiebreak? Of course not-- Djokovic won his third of the match and scrapped to a 16th Grand slam in absolutely remarkable fashion. It will take a long time for Federer and his fans to erase the memory of that one.
5. Virginia's epic redemption tale
Last year, Virginia's basketball team became the first team in March Madness history to lose to a 16-seed, a feat many claimed would never happen, and a place in history that nobody associated with the University of Virginia would ever have wished for. 388 days later, nearly the exact same Cavalier team took the court in Minneapolis with a chance to win the national championship. Already sounds like a storybook tale of redemption, right? But wait, the plot gets better: in the 2019 First Round of the tournament, Virginia-- again the ACC champions, again a 1 seed --trailed 16-seed Gardner Webb at halftime. Despite no doubt being plagued with nightmarish deja vu, this time the team dug deep and blew out their overmatched opponents in the second half. Two rounds later, 12-seed Oregon led Virginia by 3 with just 5 minutes remaining, but the Cavalier defense allowed just four points and zero baskets the rest of the game and closed out victory. On the verge of qualifying for the Final Four, Virginia stared down 47 points from Purdue guard Carsen Edwards, and a 3-point deficit with 5 seconds remaining. Then this happened, and they won in overtime. In the school's first Final Four appearance in 30+ years, they choked away a double-digit lead to debutantes Auburn, whose rapid succession of 3-pointers left UVA in a 2-point hole with half a second left. Surely, this was the end of the road, right? Not so, because this happened. So here the Cavaliers stood in the program's first-ever Final, with a chance to give their storybook run the perfect ending....and what happened? They won, of course, in a thrilling overtime game in which they trailed with less than 20 seconds left. How else would it have transpired? Virginia will forever be linked with one of the greatest upsets in the history of sport, but now you can't talk about that without also acknowledging the fact that just one season later, the Cavaliers were national champions. Sweet redemption.
4. Nadal and Medvedev battle to the end at Arthur Ashe
If you're going to be the top Tennis moment from a year that saw thrilling storylines and matches in both the Women's and Men's game, including the aforementioned Wimbledon epic, you better be pretty remarkable. Fortunately, this match was pretty remarkable.
It wasn't supposed to be. U.S. Open favorites Djokovic and Federer had both bowed out early of the tournament, the former in large part due to a shoulder injury and the latter due to a shocking upset by unranked Grigor Dimitrov, neither having faced Rafael Nadal. As such, Nadal, the third member of the 'Golden Era of Tennis' triumvirate, was expected to waltz to his 19th Grand Slam title. Other than a short, exciting challenge by Marin Cilic in the 4th round and an even more brief (but still exciting) challenge by Matteo Berrettini in the Semifinals, Nadal largely did that. In the Final match, the Spaniard held a 2-set lead over a Grand Slam rookie, 23-year old Daniil Medvedev. There comes a moment in every Rafael Nadal victory where he absolutely takes over and you turn to whoever you're watching with and say "this match is done." For the record, at 2 sets to nil and 3 games to 1, it was at that point. Until it wasn't; out of nowhere, young Medvedev broke Nadal's serve back, then broke him again, and went on to force a 4th set. What initially seemed as some last hurrah by a plucky young player quickly gave way into something much more intense, as the Russian continued his battle into a 5-4 lead in the 4th set ,where he overcame a 40-0 deficit to break Nadal and force, incredibly, a 5th set. The commentators were beginning to remark on how they were seeing Rafa exhibit something they rarely had seen from him: fear. But when one of the greatest of all time roared out to 5-2 lead in the final set, it seemed that in fact he was now more locked in than ever, and was going to finish his opponent off once and for all in a short matter of time. Yet Medvedev still was not done; he won the next two games with the back against his wall, and when he held break point over Nadal at 5-4, it seemed to just about everyone, including yours truly, that this would be an epic comeback and collapse tale that we'd tell for years. There was one final twist of fate, though, as Nadal unleashed two forehand beauties to regain the lead, then at Championship point forced Medvedev to hit wide, meaning the Spaniard had finally, FINALLY finished off Grand Slam #19. Unsurprisingly, Nadal collapsed to the ground after the winning point and then wept through the trophy ceremony. A final that lacked the star power of Wimbledon's finale ended up providing the result everyone expected, but in a fashion that truly nobody could have predicted, nor can expect to happen again.
3. The Nationals Finish The Fight
What was it about first time champions in 2019 and winning their trophy in dramatic fashion? Indeed, just like their neighbors in Virginia as well as the St. Louis Blues, the Washington Nationals also secured their first ever trophy in club history in the climactic stages of the competition. The Nats' win was arguably more unlikely than the other two mentioned, however, for multiple reasons. For one, they were a wild-card entry into the playoffs and featured an inconsistent pitching rotation nearly the entire season. The Nats were long-shots even before considering the fact that they had a propensity for choking in the postseason. But this time, on the back of an impressive run through the National League, which included an upset in game 5 of the NLDS over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were heavy favorites, they reached the final series against the 2017 champions Houston Astros. After taking a stunning 2-0 lead, they lost all three games in Nationals Park leading most to believe the series was all but over. However, they bounced back in Houston in Game 6, and after trailing by two runs for almost the majority of Game 7, came alive late seven to win the World Series against all odds. 2019 was not only was the Nationals' first World Series title, it was the first time in history that a professional sports had won the title despite never winning at home. The visiting team won all seven games of the series; it's a feat unlikely to be duplicated and that aspect simply magnified one of the most exciting championship contests of the year.
2. A famous night at Anfield
If you thought Tottenham were the only club up to providing some wild Champions League drama, think again. There's a reason another Champions League fixture's highlight package was England's most-searched YouTube video in 2019. Liverpool had a wonderful 2018-19 season, but on the night of May 6, 2019, were likely feeling very sorry for themselves. The side had lost just one match all Premier League season, and had already shattered their club record for the most points in a year. Yet, thanks to Vincent Kompany's screaming winner that night, Manchester City were almost surely going to clinch the Premier League, again denying the Reds their first title in the Premier League era. What's more, even though Liverpool were still alive in the Champions League (only the most prestigious tournament in all of club football; not a bad consolation prize, that), uncharacteristically poor finishing and some pure Lionel Messi magic the week before had given Barcelona a 3-0 lead in the semifinal tie. What's more, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had announced they would be without star forwards Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino for the survival match. So, Liverpool entered Tuesday, May 7, with every reason to believe they would end a remarkable, record-setting season without any trophies.
But, as the old saying goes, there's something about European nights in Anfield. Playing probably the most talented team in the World? Trailing 3-0? Missing two star players and having another injured during the course of the match? None of these factors seemed to dampen the spirits of Liverpool fans one bit, especially after backup striker Divock Origi dinked in an early goal. Though the score remained just 1-0 at halftime-- and truthfully, could have been worse for Liverpool --the shred of hope was enough for a raucous crowd. 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, who came on at halftime for the injured Andy Robertson, buried a cross into the net. 2-0. Two minutes later, Wijnaldum rose seemingly 10 feet into the sky to head another cross into the net. 3-0. Liverpool had, against all odds, equalized the tie and Anfield was shaking. There was no question everyone in the stadium believed Liverpool would win at that point, but after the 15 minutes of fury ended without another goal, the match settled down for 20 minutes or so, and in fact, Barcelona were the ones who came closest to putting the fixture away for good. But with just 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Liverpool-born defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, just 20 years old, took everybody on the field by surprise except for Origi, who buried his teammate's quickly-taken corner into the top of the net, commencing pandemonium. Shorthanded Liverpool were ahead of mighty Barcelona 4-0 on the night, and had not only climbed out of a seemingly insurmountable hole, but were burying their opponents in it. It's hard to pick the most iconic lasting image from an amazing night in Champions League history: fans sobbing and hugging. Former Liverpool players Luis Suarez and Phillippe Coutinho, who had left for seemingly greener pastures in Barcelona, looking absolutely shellshocked. Messi, perhaps the greatest player of all time, exiting the sea of red in the stadium with a look of sheer disgust. The entire Liverpool team gathered in front of the Kop Stand, belting their hymn "You'll Never Walk Alone" in unison with their fans. But perhaps the most symbolic was provided by somebody not even involved in the match: the injured Salah, who beamed from beneath his famous curly moptop while sporting a black t-shirt with three simple words: NEVER GIVE UP.
1. The US Women conquer the World
How does a team who boasts the deepest talent pool in the World, holds the trophy from the last World Cup, and enters the 2019 World Cup as favorites to repeat still end up being the most remarkable story in sports? By demolishing all competitors to the throne, capturing the spirit (and ire) of a partisan nation, and offering zero apologies for any of it.
Nobody thought that the USA, ranked #1 in the World, would do anything in their World Cup debut but beat Thailand handily. Yet, likely few could have predicted the final scoreline, a record-setting 13-0 rout, nor the postmatch reaction, a cavalcade of cries from pundits and everyday fans alike that the US women should have stopped scoring, or stopped even trying to attack, or CERTAINLY stop celebrating when they did score. At first, the women on the team seemed concerned with how they may have been perceived, with many players explaining that they were not intending disrespect to Thailand, but merely celebrating scoring in a World Cup; moreover, they argued, wouldn't it be more disrespectful to not treat them like an opponent worth celebrating a victory over? But this would be the last time the team seemed to give any f--ks about what people thought of them, for this was just Part 1 of a series titled "USWNT Kicks Ass, Everyone Gets Mad, USWNT Don't Care." Next an old Megan Rapinoe quote, in which she criticized President Trump and mentioned they would not visit the White House if invited, resurfaced amidst cries of lack of patriotism and pleas for her to focus on soccer, not politics. Rapinoe (with some of her teammates) doubled down on her comments, then scored 4 goals in the next two matches. Pundits theorized that USA's ugly win over Spain was a lucky one, and that as they had gotten too big for their britches, hosts France would end their run in the quarterfinals. Instead, the US bossed France around while Rapinoe struck an iconic pose. The France performance inspired British media figure and well-known twat Piers Morgan to tweet his excitement for England to beat the US in the semis and shut them up once and for all; instead, the Americans won again, while Alex Morgan sipped tea at the Brits. The next match up was the Final, and it was a cracker of a match, but was there any doubt the US would beat the debutante Netherlands? They did, with a second-half performance worthy of the best team in the world. They stood on the podium as Queens of the World for the second consecutive tournament, and when all the confetti cleared, nobody could say a damn thing.
I can't wait to see what 2020 has in store for us. Like most years before it, it sure has a tough act to follow!