Instant Classic

Every year, there's always an important sporting event for MEN...yea real men (sounds machismo? :D), who likes soccer and stuff like that. This year is an odd year, so there's no big event like EURO or WORLD CUP going on....This year the Day is Champions League Final. The culmination of inter-club competition. Fortunately, this year the final brought up a great matchup between an established team with a solid nucleus in every position (AC Milan) and a team who is rich in history and still lives in the past (Liverpool). This is the year when old Liverpool follower who hasn't been following the team that much, came back to support the team again (like me..) just like the old days of Ian Rush, John Barnes, John Aldridge etc.

I haven't been experiencing this kind of day in Indonesia for a long time... In US the annual significant sporting party is the SUPERBOWL, I usually BBQ with lots of my friend while watching the finale of NFL season and its funny commercials on TV. A lot of times the games were snoozers, so there's not much suspense going on while watching the game.. nonetheless is a good fun when everybody came by and nongkrong...

What about this year's Champions League Final? I decided to go and watch the game with MT, VD, AG and AF...all of em are my Alpus friends. We were goin to watch the game at Kemang at first..but we didnt find a cozy place to watch...so we decided to watch it at AG's place. Me, AF, MT and VD rooted for Liverpool to win...VD is a big Liverpool fan, he came with his Milan Baros number 5 jersey. Meanwhile, AG is the only Milan fans between us. He got the first laugh after AC Milan scored 3 goals in the first half. I was so ready to go home at first, If I watched the game all by myself I would probably go to bed already. We decided to stay a bit longer, with a very itchy bit of hope.....that hope rose a bit when John Arne Riise gave a pinpoint cross for Gerrard to head at the top right corner of Dida's goal. Suddenly the stadium started to roar, the Liverpool fans gave their all to inject extra energy for their players who were still behind 1-3. Then, like 2 minutes later, Vladimir Smicer, the barely used Czech midfielder who is playing his final game with Liverpool gave a great farewell present with a long shot that just went in before Dida can reach the ball, 3-2. Me, VD, MT and AF were ecstatic at the possibility of an instant classic...can Liverpool make up the 3 goals deficit? yes, they can. 4 minutes after Smicer scored, Milan Baros somehow found himself in a penalty box through a counter attack and gave a nice backheel to Gerrard who was impended by Gattuso...it's a PENALTY!. We were still cautious, cause Liverpool does not really have a sure penalty taker. Gerrard has missed a few times, Riise tends to overshoot his penalties. Xabi Alonso was the one who took the penalty, Dida made a great save but Alonso was quick on the rebound and scored! 3-3! 3-3! ... a history is made!

Nothing much happened in 2nd half after that....no huge chance...There was a big chance for Milan at extra time though...it was in 116th minute when Shevchenko head the ball to Dudek's right, Dudek managed to block the header.....Shevchenko was ready to pound the rebound.. he shot from a very close range....luckily it hit Dudek at his wrist...the ball went up and didnt go in....what an anxious moment..

The game got to end in penalty kick....Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool GK) was ready with his bag of tricks. I think he has been reviewing the old clips of Liverpool's legendary GK named Grobelaar. He made several funny gestures during 1984 Champions League final against AS Roma to distract the penalty kicker. Dudek did this SKJ movement where he jumped and clapped the hands on the air when he anticipate the first kick....Serginho missed. Dudek then did this movement where he moved his hands right and left along with his shoulders, Pirlo Missed.....He then did several more funky movements and managed to make Shevchenko missed the 5th penalty and brought Liverpool to glory... LIVERPOOL THE CHAMPIONS!

What an instant classic! The only recent game in the world of sport than can come close to this was Superbowl in early 2000 when Tennessee Titans was driving to St. Louis Rams end zone... the score was 23-16 and Titans was in Rams 15 yds line and there's only 2 sec left, it means 1 more play... 1 more play to force extra time. Titans QB gave a short pass that was caught on Rams 5 yd line, the receiver tried to turn around and reach for the end zone, but he was stopped less then 1 yard before the end zone, just ONE YARD, GAME OVER....... the Titans came up justtttttt short of forcing the overtime...