Sometimes the best sporting events don’t involve the top clubs fighting it out for a championship. In today’s match, West Ham were desperate for any points that they could salvage to stave off their (increasingly likely) relegation from the Premiership at the end of the season. [I have long thought that something like this would be a definite improvement for the smug cartels that make up U.S. sports. But I digress….] Spurs are in wonderful form right now: even though Keane was out, Berbatov is playing beautfully, Defoe shows hints of being a future Ronaldo, and Robinson is one of the very best keepers anywhere.
The match was an absolute classic. West Ham started out with a ferocious energy that startled Spurs and left the visitors 2-0 down at half time. But early in the second half, a pointless foul gave Spurs a penalty, and 12 minutes later they scored a second goal. West Ham looked broken, but they kept at it, denied Spurs time and time again, and fought back. So it was 2-2 with five minutes to play – plus a hefty chunk of extra time, due to an epidemic of heavy tackles. (The Hammers had six players booked.)
In the 85th minute, West Ham scored to go 3-2 up, but 4 minutes Berbatov equalized. Full time. The minutes of extra time ticked by, and it seemed that either club was capable of scoring, but couldn’t quite do it. Finally, just when I was thinking that the referee’s watch must have broken, West Ham threw everything into a final attack, Spurs won the ball and counter-attacked, the West Ham keeper blocked Defoe’s shot but couldn’t hold on to the ball, and Stalteri tapped it into the net. Whew! It was just like something out of a comic book.
And kudos to the producers of the Fox Soccer Channel, who realized what a gem this game was, and cancelled a couple of “classic football” shows in order to rebroadcast today’s match again.