Favorite Moments in Sports

Surprising we don't have this one yet.

So what are some of yours? I'll start off with some footage of Ari Vatanen and navigator Terry Harryman in the 1983 Manx Rally.

Rally notes are weird to understand, but all you really need to know is that the driver doesn't have the course memorized, and that the navigators notes tell him what is coming up ahead. Also, every time you hear the man say "maybe" it means he's not confident in his notes. He hasn't really had time to verify, so the driver isn't getting very good notes.

I know it's old, and filmed on a potato, but I think the driving was fantastic. Especially considering the lack of knowledge and fighting a flat tire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ubdVZP1oV8

Best game: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-h...4-Cardinals-23

Best moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4YvkD95Iwk

Jordan's flu game.

Eli Manning & Los Gigantes beating the undefeated Patriots in the SB.

Sammy Sosa breaking the HR record.

Kerry Woods 22Ks.

Secretariat's 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes.

Zenyatta's insane comeback in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Anything involving Tim Howard during the World Cup.

The Giants beating the New England Patriots in a Superbowl after a pretty impressive winning streak.

Brazil losing very badly in 2014 World Cup and their subsequent tears. xD

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...psc49cc462.jpg

After years - and now 10 years since - of near misses, maybes, what ifs, oh well next years, the one time we actually smurfing did it. Grossly undermatched and one of the poorest teams we've put out in a long time, 3-0 down at half time and my soul has been destroyed. And then. And then. Just once, just that one time, something incredible, and the word incredible does not do it justice, something incredible happened. And when it was all said and done I finally got to experience something beautiful in sport. Probably never will again.

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Originally Posted by sharkythesharkdogg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ubdVZP1oV8

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That's pretty amazing considering the puncture and the amount of understeer for the smallest of right turns. I'd be troutting myself going into corners like that at that speed.


As far as my favourite moments in sport, it's simple. First, let me take you to May 3rd, 2003, where in the Premier League the talk was all about whether Manchester United would win their 'easy' game with Charlton and Arsenal would slip up to hand United the title (they would, and they did), a whole 92 places below them in the football league pyramid, in Division 4, there was a - broadly speaking - uncared-for game taking place at The Vetch in Swansea between Swansea themselves and Hull City.

For Hull, it was a dead rubber - they were sitting safely mid-table in 13th place and had nothing to play for, it being the last game of the season. For the Swans, they were in serious, serious trouble. They were in 22nd place, and just one point clear of relegation from the football league, and essentially an exit from professional football. In order to stay up, they had to beat Hull. If they lost, or tied, they would have to rely on 23rd-placed Exeter City losing to Southend United (they won, 1-0). The club was in financial turmoil, and had recently been sold for £1, with over £800,000 of debt outstanding. Players had been laid off, and the club couldn't even pay the electricity bill. Relegation meant nothing less than the likely winding-up and extinction of a 100 year old football club. The stakes couldn't be higher - they had to win against a club placed 9 positions above them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIkFuYD9Q2g#t=58

A 4-2 win with a hat-trick from James Thomas secured our place in league football (at the expense of Exeter, who would not recover from that relegation for at least another five years). Some memorable faces in that game - namely Roberto Martinez, who would go on to be one of Swansea's most influential characters and is now manager of Heath's very own Everton, Alan Tate, who still plays for the club (though it would be safe to say his best days are now well past him), and one Leon Britton, who has aged like a 1966 Bordeaux, and whom we will see more of in a moment.


8 years later...

I wasn't at the aforementioned game but there was no chance I was missing this one. After having one foot, one arm and an ear in the grave in 2003, we battled our way up the divisions, winning the (*cough* LDV Vans) Football League Trophy along the way, until in 2011 the club found itself in the Championship playoff final. It hadn't been easy. The first leg of the semi-final involved a trip to sleeping giants Nottingham Forest, where our full-back Neil Taylor had the poor fortune of getting himself sent off within the first two minutes and leaving us to see out the rest of the game with ten men. We persevered to a 0-0 draw.

The second leg resulted in a 3-1 win, thanks to a rare goal from now-club-legend Leon Britton. The final at Wembley beckoned. Once again, Swansea City were on the precipice - but this time it was one of a very different kind. Three men had made the journey from bottom-division strife to the gates to the promised land - one who now finds himself sitting in the managerial hotseat at the club, and two others who had played in 'The Hull Game' almost a decade previously. I was sitting just behind the goal in the Swansea end. Apologies for the beyond-potato quality, that is pretty much all there is on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQkXtw7vucI

A 4-2 win with a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair secured our place in the Premier League. We went in 3-0 up at half time, before Reading pulled it back to 3-2 thanks to some sloppy defending. Sinclair then wrapped it up from the penalty spot a bit later while I was underneath the stands making use of the bathroom facilities (a curse that has followed me on more occasions than I would like to count). The shot that hit the post and subsequent block by Garry Monk at around 4:54 was my biggest heart-in-my mouth moment in football. I went home on the minibus with the local crew in almost complete silence for most of the trip, partly due to our disbelief at what had just happened and partly because we were just so drained mentally and physically from the day. Nothing will ever top it (unless one day I get to see them win the Champions League), but I'll always remember that everything that happens now can be traced back to a muggy Saturday at The Vetch all those years ago.

I have a very fond and vivid memory of my Dad pulling me out of bed to watch Mark McGwire break the single-season home run record in '98. I was only 7 years old but it's one of my greatest sports memories.

Other highlights:

- Syracuse Orange winning the NCAA championship in '03
- Going to my first NFL game (Minnesota Vikings at Buffalo Bills)
- Federer vs Nadal 2008 Wimbledon Final, considered by many to be the greatest tennis match of all time
- Chris Cole vs Chris Chann in this game of SKATE
- Various moments during my own time playing varsity Tennis and Volleyball in high school. Some really fun games of intramural Volleyball in college.

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Originally Posted by Colonel Angus

Jordan's flu game.

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I remember this vividly. I could not fathom how it was humanly possible.

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Originally Posted by Colonel Angus

Eli Manning & Los Gigantes beating the undefeated Patriots in the SB.

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Originally Posted by Shiny

The Giants beating the New England Patriots in a Superbowl after a pretty impressive winning streak.

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This was the first Superbowl after my Dad passed away. He was a huge Giants fan and it's just typical that he missed it! We used to watch the Superbowl together every year so it was a bittersweet night for me.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

After years - and now 10 years since - of near misses, maybes, what ifs, oh well next years, the one time we actually smurfing did it. Grossly undermatched and one of the poorest teams we've put out in a long time, 3-0 down at half time and my soul has been destroyed. And then. And then. Just once, just that one time, something incredible, and the word incredible does not do it justice, something incredible happened. And when it was all said and done I finally got to experience something beautiful in sport. Probably never will again.

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Even as a Man Utd fan I can concede this was a special night. You had to rely on penalties to win so I still regard our 99 win as better ;)

Speaking of which...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC_f9CB1Pmg

Since this is a good thread so far, and since my aforementioned moments have a special place in my heart, I'm going to go into more detail.

Secretariat's 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes

Everyone knew he was going to win this thing, but no one could have predicted the mockery he was about to make of the field. By the end of the race he was over 1/16 of a mile ahead of the rest of the horses and he set a distance record - 1 1/2 miles in 2:24 flat - that no horse has yet to come even close to. Later analysis showed that he was accelerating the entire time, running each section of the race faster than the last. What really tops this off is the fact that it was Secretariat's third race in a month (most modern thoroughbreds race about once a month) and that the 1 1/2 mile long Belmont Stakes is one of the longest and most grueling races in American flat racing.

A true legend and one of the greatest athletes of all time, regardless of species.

(Video set to the Rudy soundtrack for optimum goosebumps)





Zenyatta's insane comeback in the Breeders' Cup Classic

People already knew Zenyatta was good when she went into the Classic, which is essentially the Super Bowl of American horse racing. The question was how good - although undefeated, she had never raced against horses of this caliber, nor had she raced against male horses before (most male thoroughbreds are faster and stronger than female ones so they typically race separately.) Zenyatta's response was to feint the first two thirds of the race, idling in a leisurely last place, before stomping all the boys into the dust in the last few moments. It was an insane move by any standard but doing it against an all-star field was truly incredible.

She almost repeated in the next year's Classic but ultimately lost by a nose. That was her only career loss - she won 19 of 20 starts and easily earned the nickname she still holds, "The Queen of Racing".

That's all really cool, Pike, I never hear anything about American horse racing over here. That first one reminds me of the legendary Shergar in the 1981 Epsom Derby. Starting at a price of 10/11, which is as close to an absolute dead certainty as you can get in a race with 18 horses running (the second favourite was 7-1), he ran the first two-thirds of the race at a canter in 3rd place, before suddenly lighting up a rocket and finishing ten lengths ahead, which is still a record. Of course, he's even more legendary for getting horsenapped and never seen again a few years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpIzPuiDN60


My favourite race, though, is Desert Orchid winning the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup. A bit of exposition first, for the uninitiated.

Seeing as we're using American football comparisons, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the Superbowl of British, nay, all jump racing. The Grand National may be more famous, but mostly features older horses by owners wanting them to go out in a blaze of glory. Desert Orchid was a popular grey racehorse, who had turned up on the scene and had started winning some big races in the years coming up to this race. In 1989, he was entered into the Gold Cup race. Now, this race is a long one - 3 miles and 2 furlongs - where Desert Orchid had only really raced 2 mile courses up until this point. Many thought he would struggle to get the stamina. To make things worse, in the days leading up to and during the race, it had been chucking it down with heavy rain, wind and snow all over the course, pretty much turning it into a bog. Dessie hated running in the mud.

The race started and Desert Orchid, as he always liked doing, ran straight to the front. He was amongst the leaders for the whole race, but as it came to the last four or five fences he started to tire. The only other horses in contention at this late stage were eventual third-placed Charter Party and Yahoo, who loved nothing more than running in muddy ground. As it came to the last few fences you could see he was absolutely exhausted, but was still holding it alongside Yahoo. But as they came to the final stretch, just when it looked like he had nothing left, seeing the finishing post made him somehow pull something from somewhere and catch up to Yahoo to win the race. It was incredible. I've put two videos of the same thing, mainly because the commentary in the second is brilliant (same bloke from the video above). Still get chills every time I watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCuIVn6egM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYInjUE4P5I

Well I have to say I did rather enjoy last night's astonishing comeback in the Seahawks v. Packers NFL game.

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

Well I have to say I did rather enjoy last night's astonishing comeback in the Seahawks v. Packers NFL game.

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I was hoping for a suicide bombing. I hate both teams....

Here's a famous clip from the 2004 Evo Street Fighter 3rd Strike Tournament.

You have Daigo Umehara playing as Ken and Justin Wong playing as Chun-Li. The guys are playing best out of three fights. The fights themselves are also the best out of three. The fun begins at around the 1:20 mark. Wong closes out a strong second round of the first fight, and takes a pretty convincing lead in the third round.

The points to know for anyone not up on fighting games.

A lot of fighting games make the player take some damage if they block attacks. So if your character is low on life, it's a common tactic for the other player to get you in a position where you have to block, and then use a powerful move to chip away at your life bar. Not too many fighting games offer a parrying function, and 3rd Strike does. This parrying option lets you deflect the blow for no damage. The catch is that must hit the correct button input at the correct time for every hit of the opponents attack. If you miss, you're wide open. Parrying a few hits to set up your own attack is pretty good, but this is something else.

Under the pressure of playing in front of a crowd, playing for money, with basically no life bar, and being shut down the whole round Daigo manages to predict and then parry an entire super move, and immediately set up his own combo take out Wong. It might not be the most amazing thing, but it helped put fighting game tournaments on the map, and as a fighting game fan I've always enjoyed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnEWSO6NrQo

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

he's even more legendary for getting horsenapped and never seen again a few years later.

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Weirdly, on my third birthday, my Dad surprised me by getting me a horse. It was certainly a step up from a train set the year before but I didn't question it at the time. Mum thought it was impractical keeping a horse in our shed so she just chopped it up and made a stew that lasted four months. Not the greatest stew she ever made but it was a damn sight better than her Xiang Xiang Panda Surprise that she made in 2007.

Despite my love of rugby and football, it's actually cricket that has the most memorable moments in sport for me.

Pretty much any of the times New Zealand has beaten Australia in an ODI, but notably the time that Bond took 5-25 in the VB series. We repeatedly beat them that series and it felt great.

However, Nathan Astle's superfast double century takes that cake for me. We didn't even win. But damn, he was having fun smashing England around the park. He was basically picking his shots, everything he hit was hit beautifully and the cricket ball flew so often... it was amazing to watch, especially as a massive Astle fan.

For rugby, the World Cup, probably.

For football, breaking Chelsea's unbeaten run and O'Shea's goals in general. ;)