Time for some Footie Reflecton:

[robertmac43]

With the end of the 2019 season just around the corner and a lot of big games coming up across Europe I was thinking about some of my happiest footie fandom moments and some of the most depressing ones as well.

I thought I would open it up to the forum here:

1)What is your favourite Football Memory?
2) What is the most depressing moment you have felt as a fan?

Don't limit yourself to one if need be.

Click to read more...

 

[New Jersey]

1) Tuesday. (Seriously. That tops everything.)
2) When Crystal Palace equalized.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

1) iniesta 2009. Maxi vs Mexico 2006. 5-0 2011. There are many others

2) anytime losing to Chelsea/Madrid. 2014 wc final 2015 copa final 2016 copa final. f*** me.

 

[Evilo]

If it's all time :
1/ Trezguet's golden goal against Italy in the 00 final. The drama with Wiltord's equalizer at the 80th, followed by the Trezegol's rocket top corner. In a span of 10 minutes I went from depressed to ecstatic.
2/ Kostadinov. Houiller. 93. That was worse than losing a WC final on penalties to Italy.

 

[S E P H]

1. Winning the title at White Hart Lane. Arshavin's four goal game against Liverpool. Brasil getting absolutely destroyed in WC. Spain getting destroyed in the WC.

2. Man so many to count...

• CL against AC Milan
• CL Final against Barcelona which we should've won.
• CL against Monaco
• CL against Bayern where we lost on away goals.
• CL against Man United
• CL against Bayern (10-2 on agg) which had to be the lowest point for me.
• Chelsea's fluke CL run
• Having to see Mourinho win trophies.
• Lewandowski's entire career in a Polska uniform.

 

[Machinehead]

1)Tuesday

(Beating Brazil 7-1 is a respectable second)

2)The Gerrard slip

 

[Il Mediano]

1)

• Beating Barca last year is the first one that comes to mind. Don't think I'll ever forget that reaction from Manolas.
• Barca's CL 2011 final against United because it was the highest level of football I've ever witnessed in my life on such a big stage. As a fan of the game, that was the pinnacle. That side was unforgettable.
• The 2002 World Cup final when Ronaldo scored a brace. He'll always be my favorite player and I was so happy for him.
• Anytime Inter loses

2) Where to begin? I'm pretty immune to disappointment at this stage of my life.

• Dunno if it was depressing, but Totti's farewell speech at the Olimpico had me pretty choked up. I knew the club would never be the same.

 

[robertmac43]

• CL against Monaco

This one stings still. I was filled with so much hope after Rambo fired that second in...all for not

 

[JeffreyLFC]

1. Istanbul
2. Liverpool slipping away from the title in 2014

 

[kingsboy11]

1. It has to be Donovan's goal against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. I literally ran around my house screaming and then jumped on my dad. Another one would be going to the 2012 MLS Cup final in LA with the Galaxy winning. Such an awesome night and an awesome game.

2. October 10, 2017 USA loses to Trinidad and Tobago to miss out on the World Cup and it's not even close.

 

[Finnish your Czech]

1. City winning the title in the final seconds vs QPR

2. TFC losing in penalties to Tigres in the CONCACAF Champions League Final in 2018
Canada losing 8-1 to Honduras in final matchday of the third round of World Cup Qualification to not make the Hex.

 

[robertmac43]

1)

• Brighton winning promotion after just missing out on automatic promotion the year before and almost being relegated the campaign before that one.
• Arsenal winning the FA cup three times has been cool. Especially the Hull and Chelsea one's due to Ramsey's contributions .... I love that guy!
• Henry scoring on his return to the Gunners
• The team goal against Norwich - boggled my mind
• A little bit of recency bias; but this years derby win over Spurs was amazing and then to add to it Brighton doubles up Palace and Knocky scored a wonder goal
• I don't follow TFC as much as the Prem boys but I was still estatic when Jozy potted that MLS Cup winner.

2)

• Arsenal's round of 16 woes in CL were always painful.
• Arsenal CL finals , broke my young heart
• Ramsey leaving
• My dad lived in Ghana as a kid so we cheer for the national team as a family when Canada and Scotland are not there (lol sad point in itself). 2010 was painful to watch, I wish so bad that Gyan had not hit the cross bar!!
• Kind of goes against my first point but Brighton losing the title in 2017 after New Castle scored with that insanely fluky goal. Tough to be to sad though cause you know...PROMOTION
• Spurs winning against Ajax is a recent trauma
• TFC losing Concacaf finals after Leafs lost game 7.. Terrible night
• Canada Men's soccer.....

 

[robertmac43]

2. October 10, 2017 USA loses to Trinidad and Tobago to miss out on the World Cup and it's not even close.

My American roommate at Uni locked himself in his room and literally sobbed before drinking a large quantity of hard alcohol

 

[YNWA14]

1. So many moments...but I'll stick to Istanbul and Liverpool's improbable comeback wins over Dortmund and Barcelona. Hard to top those.

2. Netherlands losing in the WC final 2010. Heartbreaking. A combination of Henderson's red, Gerrard's slip and Suarez crying to end that 13/14 season also weighed very heavily on me.

 

[Live in the Now]

1. Tuesday. Nothing's going to top this. On an international level I loved it when the US beat Algeria. That was close.

2. Crystal Palace. Or when the US missed the World Cup. Drank a lot that night.

 

[Theokritos]

2. Netherlands losing in the WC final 2010. Heartbreaking.

That was one of my favorite moments. It would have been heartbreaking to me if that mediocre (but well-coached) team of thugs won a World Cup. I'm glad Spain stopped them.

On the other hand, Netherlands losing on penalties in 1998 and in 2000 was devastating.

 

[YNWA14]

That was one of my favorite moments. It would have been heartbreaking to me if that mediocre (but well-coached) team of thugs won a World Cup. I'm glad Spain stopped them.

On the other hand, Netherlands losing on penalties in 1998 and in 2000 was devastating.

To each their own. Personally I don't know how a 'true fan' of any team could watch them lose in the final of a World Cup, regardless of how they played, and count that among their favourite moments. Also calling that Netherlands team mediocre is certainly a take.

 

[Power Man]

1. A lot
2. A lot

 

[Corto]

1. Probably the win in the semi vs England in the 2018 WC.

2. Losing to Turkey in the 2008 EURO with a team that could've won it all, even with Eduardo injured. Getting scored in the last minute of extra time was gut-wrenching, I didn't even watch the pens because I was crushed, and I felt the boys were too - and the penalties were a horror show.

I'll do some more, first thing that pop to mind since I started truly watching football from international tournaments.

1990. Anti-football mostly, but still magical somehow. Cameroon.
1992. Denmark wins, Andersen's knee injury, Schmeichel, John Jensen.
1994. Stayed up waiting for 17-year old Ronaldo da Lima to play in game 3 of the group stage vs Sweden. He never came on. lol.... Said al Owairan goal vs Belgium. Best goal I've seen in a WC since Maradona.
1996. Our first big tournament, quarters vs Germany. Robbed by the ref. Mr Leif Sundell. F him.
1998. Second tournament, revenge vs Germany. Lost in the semis to Lillian Thuram's only 2 goals ever.
2000. Holland destroyed Serbia 6-0. Lost vs 10-man Italy and missed two pens.
2002. Sucked. Worst WC, South Korea pushed on by refs, Ballack-less Germany in the final.
2004. Greece. Yuck. Was hoping a great Czech team would win.
2006. Grosso, Zidane.
2008. The Turkey loss. Worst loss.
2010. De Jong. 9 years on I still don't understand how the ref missed it. Spain 1-0 everything. Boring actually.
2012. Mario "why always me" Balotelli.
2014. 7-1. Felt vindicated after Brazil beat us on a BS penalty call. Thank you, Germany.
2016. Worst EURO, bad format. Payet. Eder.
2018. Beat Argentina 3-0, beat England. Great. Lost in the final. Not great.

...

It's hard to compare club stuff for me. My team is West Ham, but I can't say I "live and breathe" West Ham, and I can't say I'm over the top if they win or super bummed if they lose.
Part of it is being a mid-table club (at best), the other part is I'm dislocated and never get to experience the stadium atmosphere.

 

[East Coast Bias]

1) The 1st all English Champs League Final

2) the 2nd all English Champs League Final

 

[Savi]

2014 wc final 2015 copa final 2016 copa final. **** me.

I'd rank the 2006 loss to Germany as worse than those Copa finals. That team was fantastic, imo the best Argentina team I've ever witnessed, they were the best team during that WC and should have won it all.

 

[Stray Wasp]

2. (Pain out of the way first). On TV: 1996 FA Cup final - Manchester United 1, Liverpool 0. When Newcastle blew the title that season, I was philosophical. Manchester United had bottled the 91/92 run-in against Leeds, but won the league the following season. Blackburn had fallen short in 93/94 before claiming the PL trophy the year after. My attitude was that NUFC's failure, although immensely disappointing, would be rectified in due course. Manchester United, after all, weren't a patch on the team they'd had in 93/94. Without Schmeichel and Cantona, their highly-touted kids wouldn't have come close to catching Keegan's side.

It was when Cantona won the Cup Final too, scoring the only goal of a dire game, that a sense of dread overcame me. Prior to that point only three teams had won the double during the whole 20th century. I told the mate I watched the game with, 'Now that this lot have won the double, teams will start to be frightened of them. They're not great, but opponents will treat them as though they are, and it'll be the making of them. Now Ferguson looks like a genius even though he isn't. With two trophyless seasons in a row Liverpool and Newcastle could have finished him, but they missed their chance.' (This is the bowdlerized version. At the time I was drunk, and roughly every second word was followed by an obscenity).

I proved dismally correct.

In the flesh: April 2003 - pretty much everything that followed Jenas putting NUFC 1-0 up against Manchester United. Robson's team surrendered its aspirations that day - not only for the game in question, but for the remainder of its life.

1. Moments that felt incredible at the time but proved to be soul-crushing false dawns.

On TV: April 1996, the moment Asprilla put NUFC 3-2 up at Anfield. I thought the English title was heading back to Tyneside.
In the flesh: April 2003 (TS Eliot was right - it is the cruellest month), the moment Jenas put NUFC 1-0 up at home to Manchester United. I thought the team was reviving for a grandstand finish that would pitch them properly into the title race.

Moments that time hasn't soured:

On TV: 17th September 1997, Newcastle United 3, Barcelona 2. Shearer injured, but Asprilla scores a hat-trick on the club's Champions League proper debut. My hopes of being able to celebrate a trophy with my father were never fulfilled. This was the closest the two of us came to being able to share the perfect footballing moment.

In the flesh: 20th April 2002, Newcastle United 3, Charlton Athletic 0. The victory left NUFC needing one point from four games to qualify for the Champions League again. With ten minutes left and the score at 2-0, Alan Shearer scored his 200th Premier League goal and the roof came off. My father had died 18 days before, and while that loss is irreplaceable, it was a great comfort to be able to attend the stadium where he'd watched his first game in the 1940s, in the same stand he'd formerly frequented, and laud a Geordie hero to equal Jackie Milburn, whose career my dad had the privilege of watching from beginning to end. Shearer had begun the season recovering from a second knee operation in twelve months. At 31, it had seemed he might be finished. Instead, here he was scoring his 19th league goal of the season and we had the chance to roar out our pride in him, not just for his goals, but for representing many of the best qualities Geordies like to see in ourselves.

I hope I live to see an even better Geordie footballer wearing the number nine shirt.

 

[S E P H]

This one stings still. I was filled with so much hope after Rambo fired that second in...all for not

I know I personally had a lot of hope that year too. I think there were some upsets, Arsenal finished 1st in their group, and we spent some money. We then proceeded not to respect Monaco by any stretch of the imagination due to Wenger's ancient logic and lost such an easy fixture.

The Bayern is the worst for me and that's me not even watching it either. I knew we would lose so I didn't have any hope, but put all the boiling tension from Gooners, to Wenger, to Kroenke, to the players, and everything else into a two game fixture and that was the worst I've ever seen Arsenal Football Club ever go through since like the 1970s and 80s (which I obviously didn't follow them at that time).

 

[Theokritos]

To each their own. Personally I don't know how a 'true fan' of any team could watch them lose in the final of a World Cup, regardless of how they played, and count that among their favourite moments. Also calling that Netherlands team mediocre is certainly a take.

I wouldn't label myself a "true fan".

Yeah, mediocre was a bit of an exaggeration.

 

[YNWA14]

I wouldn't label myself a "true fan".

Yeah, mediocre was a bit of an exaggeration.

The reason I have that in quotes is because I don't really think anyone else can really label what a fan should or should not feel toward their team, or that there's some kind of standard, cookie cutter way of supporting a team. Everyone has different viewpoints I just can't really wrap my head around that; I can see not wanting to win that way but to have it be one of your favourite moments as a fan of the team? Just bizarre to me is all.

That team had some really great players. Sneijder, Robben, van Persie, van der Vaart, van Bronckhorst (though aging was still quality), Kuyt, Stekelenburg and van Bommel (underrated player due to how much people hate him). Even de Jong and Heitinga were no slouches. I think the great quality of that team was a bit marred by the way they set up to play.