Wednesday 15 January 2020

10 footballing moments that defined 2010s

Another decade has passed. 10 years older and none the wiser. Liverpool were 8th at the start of the decade and by the end of 2010s are European Champions, World Champions and  poised to be Premier League Champions. But this post is not about that. This is about 10 moments that were momentous, shocking and the defining moments of the decade. And to add a bit of fun, I have picked only one from each year.

2010 - Andres Iniesta wins the World Cup


It's hard to pick another moment in a World Cup year, other than the World Cup final. Spain winning the world cup for the first time in 2010 was the only worthwhile event in an otherwise dreadful tournament . Despite having a competitive league and some of the best clubs and players in the world, Spain had never managed to win the World Cup. They went into the tournament as European Champions and overwhelming favorites. If the Dutch gave us Total Football, Spain(specifically, Barcelona) made it fashionable. They lost their first group game 1-0 to Switzerland, but came back to win 2-0 against Honduras, 2-1 against 10 men Chile. They won 1-0 against Portugal in the round of 16 and then won 1-0 against Paraguay to set up a semi-final against Germany. A thumping Carlos Puyol header gave Spain another 1-0 win. The final, against Netherlands, resembled more of a wrestling match than a football game, not helped at all by Howard Webb, the match referee. Iniesta won the final in extra-time with a goal at minute 117. The fact that it were two catalans who scored the winning goals in the semi-finals and finals is a tad ironic, when one considers the separatist sentiments in Catalonia today.

Notable mentions:
Inter's Treble

2011 - Liverpool off their perch

For too long the red half of Merseyside prided on being the best team in England with 18 first division titles to their name. When Liverpool won their 18th title in 1990, United had 7. They were not even second on the list (Arsenal had 10 titles). Even the most optimistic of United fans would not have expected that United would ever catch up to Liverpool, never mind within two decades. Rooney, Chicharito and Berbatov guided United to their 19th title, in a season where their eternal rivals Liverpool might have gone into administration. Arsenal, who were the primary title challengers for United, ended up finishing 4th, while a late title charge from Chelsea was not enough to stop United from knocking Liverpool off their perch, although they were brought back to earth in 3-1 Champions league humbling by Barcelona.
Notable mentions:-
That goal from Wayne Rooney. Barcelona win Champions League and La Liga. The Blue moon rising- City win a trophy after 35 years.

2012 - Aguerooooooo!!

There might never be a moment as staggering as the Aguero goal to "snatch the title away from Manchester United in injury time". After starting the season in scorching form, beating Spurs 5-1 at White Hart Lane and United 6-1 at Old Trafford, City's form dipped in the second half. A late Mikel Arteta goal against Arsenal at the Emirates left City 8 points behind with 6 games to go. But a 1-0 loss for United at Wigan and 4-4 draw at home against Everton, meant that the deficit was only 3 points by the time the two Manchester rivals met in May. A Vincent Kompany header secured the 3 points and moved City above United on goal difference. United played Sunderland on the final day, while City hosted QPR. A Rooney goal was enough for the 3 points for United, while City, who led through a Zabaleta goal at half-time, were suddenly behind in the second half. Mancini threw Dzeko and Balotelli and City were playing with 4 strikers towards the end. A 91st minute header by Dzeko restored parity and gave some of the fans hope. City were "still alive" and a Nigel De Jong pass, laid on by "Balotelli and then Aguerooooooo". "I swear you will never see anything like that ever again.".
Notable mentions:-
Chelsea winning the Champions League, against all odds and defying all common sense,. Invincible Juventus - Unbeaten all through the season. Liverpool win the League Cup :P

2013 - Fergie's Time is up

Sir Alex Ferguson symbolized the Manchester United that I grew up watching. If ever there was a pantomime villain for a Liverpool fan, it was him. As much as I hated Manchester United, I could only admire the great teams that they had. Visiting teams would often wilt under the sheer willingness of Ferguson's United, one of the many reasons why they won games with some many late goals. 13 League titles, 2 Champions Leagues and countless other cups, Sir Alex is the second best Scottish manager the world has ever seen (nobody can be as good as Bill Shanks).

Notable mentions:
PSG win their first league title after the Qatari investment. Wigan Athletic win the FA Cup, in one of football's most romantic stories, Bayern become the first German club to win the treble.

2014 - Marcanazo returns

It's hard to pick another moment in a World Cup year, other than the World Cup final. And yet Brazil's 7-1 semifinal loss to Germany is one such moment. 2014 was to be Brazil's year. This was the year that they buried the ghosts of 1950, the year people forget Marcanazo. Marcanazo was forgotten, but not the way everybody expected.
Brazil had failed to convince in the entire tournament. They topped Group A with 7 points thanks to some Neymar heroics, and then needed a penalty shootout against Chile to reach the last eight.
They seemed to have turned a corner in the Quarterfinals against Colombia, as they led 2-0 until the 80th minute. A James Rodriguez penalty cut the deficit to 2-1, but Brazil still looked like going through. An unfortunate injury to Neymar in 88th minute though, changed the nature of the win. Brazil had to face Germans without Neymar and their captain Thiago Silva, who was suspended.
The semi-final was nothing less than catastrophic for Brazil. Thomas "Ramdeuter" Muller scored the opening goal from Germany's first corner of the game in the 11th minute. Brazil tried to respond, but within a space of 6 first half minutes, let in 4 goals. The Brazilian defence was in shambles, with David Luiz, guilty in particular, caught napping at the halfway line when his team conceded the third goal. The first half ended with score 5-0 to the Germans. Germany added 2 more in the second half, with Oscar grabbing a glorified consolation in injury time. Brazilian fans were devastated and most of them couldn't hide their tears. Brazil ended up finishing fourth, losing the third-place playoff 3-0 to the Netherlands.
The defeat sent shock-waves all over the world, with ex-players, media and even the German players coming out in support of the Brazilian team, trying to protect them from more trauma. Also, Deigo Maradona was spotted singing a song mocking the Brazilian defeat.

Notable mentions:
Gerrard slip La Decima - Real Madrid finally win their 10th Champions League Germany win their first World Cup as a unified nation Atletico Madrid win the La Liga against the two best sides in the world Arsenal end their trophy drought.

2015 - Double Treble

A true treble is one of the rarest occasions in football, when one team manages to win the domestic league, domestic cup and European Cup. Only 8 clubs in Europe have managed to do that, Celtic(1967), Ajax (1972), Liverpool (1984), PSV (1988), Man United (1999), Barcelona(2009,2015), Inter (2010) and Bayern(2013). Of all the clubs, Barcelona are the only club to win the treble twice. The 2014-15 Barcelona side relied heavily on Messi, Neymar and Suarez, as the fabled MSN trio led Barcelona to a glory season. They had to fight it out though, as they won the league by one point against arch rivals Real Madrid on match day 37.
They won the Copa Del Rey final 3-1 against Athletic Bilbao, with Messi scoring an astonishing goal by dribbling past a number of players from the right flank.
They played a memorable Champions League campaign, which included a semi-final against Bayern Munich, in a repeat of the 2013 semi-final which they lost 7-0 on aggregate. The tie also marked the return of Pep Guardiola to Camp Nou for the first time as an opposing manager. Lionel Messi scored two wonder goals in the second half to win the first leg 3-0, as Barcelona won the tie 5-3 on aggregate to set up a final against Juventus. The final itself was a tense affair where they led 1-0 early in the first half thanks to a goal from Ivan Rakitic. Juve equalized at minute 55 via Alvaro Morata, the ex Madrista, before Suarez made it 2-1 in the 68th minute. It stayed like that till Neymar scored and secured the treble deep into added time.

Notable mentions:
Jose wins the third title with Chelsea. Chile win Copa America for the first time. The Golden generation of Ivory Coast win Africa Cup of Nations. Arsenal become the most successful club in FA Cup history. Jurgen Klopp becomes a Kop favorite.

2016 - Leicester's Fairy Tale

Leicester City had barely survived relegation in their first year back in the top flight. Nigel Pearson had staged a memorable comeback to save a team who were rooted to the bottom of the league. It was then, surprising when Leicester City sacked him and appointed Claudio Ranieri as the new manager for the 2015-16 season. The pundits predicted Leicester to get relegated and the bookmakers gave them a 5000-1 odds of winning the league. They lost a total of 3 matches all season. They topped the table at Christmas, before a Boxing day loss to Liverpool dropped them to second place. Leicester soon regained the top spot and did not relinquish it. They won at Etihad in Jan and that had people noticing them and giving them a chance. They lost at Emirates to Arsenal deep in second half stoppage time, and it seemed that it would spell the end for their title hopes.Arsenal being Arsenal, couldn't sustain a title challenge and on May 2, after a 2-2 draw between Spurs and Chelsea, Leicester won the league
The win had a phenomenal reaction, evicting responses from the British and Italian Prime Ministers, former Leicester players and managers. Heck, even I posted a status update on Facebook.

Notable mentions:
Pep joins City Portugal win Euros, their first ever major trophy.

2017 - Neymar's Transfer to PSG

The world was in shock when Neymar decided to leave Barcelona and join PSG. As much as the footballing wisdom behind the decision is questionable, the transfer shook the footballing world to the core. 222 million euros was a sum unheard of. The transfer spurred a chain reaction of events, wherein 100 million+ became the norm for attacking players. Teenage stars were attracting figures of 120 million and more, while defenders were costing 70 million euros. Liverpool's buy of Mo Salah for 35 million euros a month before Neymar transfer seemed like a steal. Football as we knew did not exist anymore.
Just like the birth of Christ divides modern history, the Neymar transfer divided footballing history into two eras, the one before transfer and the one after.

Notable mentions:
Barcelona comeback from a 4-0 first leg deficit to win 6-1 against PSG. Real Madrid become the first team to defend the Champions League in the modern era.

2018 - A crazy World Cup in Russia

The 2018 World Cup was one the craziest, if not the craziest, in recent times. There were a string of upsets, close games and lots of goals. This tournament belonged to the underdogs as the big names failed to impress. Italy, Netherlands and Chile failed to qualify for the main tournament, while the likes of Argentina and Germany, finalists in the last editions, failed to convince in the group stage. Argentina were held to a 1-1 draw by minnows Iceland, before being thrashed 3-0 by Croatia. Only a close 2-1 win against Nigeria helped the qualify for the knockouts, where they were soundly beaten 4-3 by France. Germany had their troubles too. They lost their first game 1-0 against Mexico. The second game against Sweden was a close encounter, where they were trailing 1-0 after the first half. A goal from Marco Rues and late injury time winner from Toni Kroos secured a win for Germany. But they lost 2-0 to South Korea and finished bottom of the group.
One of the other favorites, Spain, lost in the Round of 16 to hosts Russia on  penalties. Meanwhile, England managed to reach the Quarter-finals after winning a penalty shootout against Colombia. Read that again. England won a penalty shoot-out.
Belgium were on the brink of elimination against Japan, trailing 2-0 with 20 minutes to go, before staging a monumental comeback to win 3-2 in normal time, the winner coming in the 90th minute after a counterattack from a Japanese corner.
Brazil were knocked out by Belgium in the Quarter-finals, losing 2-1, while France beat Uruguay 2-0 to set up a semi-final against Belgium. England and Croatia played the other semi-final, which England led from minute 5 thanks to Kieran Trippier. Ivan Perisic equalized in minute 68 and it remained 1-1 at full-time. Mandzukic scored in the 109th minute to give Croatia the lead and help them to reach their maiden world cup final.
France won their semi against Belgium 1-0 thanks to a goal from Samuel Umtiti. The final was a very eventful affair. Mandzukic scored an own goal in the 18th minute to open the scoring before Perisic equalized for Croatia in the 29th minute. Greizman gave France the lead from the spot after VAR assisted handball call against Croatia and the first half ended with the score 2-1.
Paul Pogba added an insurance goal in the 59th minute before Kylian Mbappe added a fourth in the 65th minute. Mbappe became only the second teenager after Pele to score in a World Cup final. There was even time for Hugo Loris to let one in four minute later as he kicked the ball straight back to an onrushing Mandzukic. The game finished 4-2 to France as they became the World Champions for the second time.

Notable mentions:
VVD to Liverpool, becomes the most expensive defender. Barcelona collapse against Roma - throw away a 3 goal lead. Real Madrid win their third successive Champions League City's Centurions. Ronaldo's transfer.

2019 - Corner Taken Quickly

Barcelona arrived into their semi-final second leg against Liverpool with a 3-0 lead from the first leg. The entire eleven players who started the game were rested over the weekend with the league already won. Liverpool on the other hand were bruised, starting without 2 of their fabled front three. The front three that started were Shaqiri, Origi and Mane. The game seemed a lost cause and few believed that a comeback was even possible. Jurgen Klopp told his players that "it's almost impossible, but because it's you guys I believe it's possible."
What happened over the next 90 minutes is the greatest comeback in European football, after Istanbul 2005. Forget Roma 2018, or Barcelona themselves in 2017, this was momentous. Divock Origi, the man who many thought was surplus to the needs at Anfield, scored in the 7th minute to give the Scousers hope. But it took a string of good saves from Alisson and some poor finishing from Barcelona to keep the game 1-0 at half time. Andy Robertson was subbed off with injury and on came Gigi Wijnaldum, the Barcelona slayer. He scored twice at minute 54 and 56 to level the tie. Barcelona did not know what hit them and they were all over the place. However the moment of the match was yet to come. When the ball rolled out for a corner for Liverpool in the 79th minute, Trent Alexander-Arnold saw the Barcelona defense napping and quickly found Divock Origi ,who finished smartly to give Liverpool the lead for the first time in the tie. They held on to dump Barcelona out and book a place in the final in Madrid, which they would eventually win. The post match celebrations and the rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" would eventually be one of the best moments Anfield had witnessed all decade.

Notable mentions:
Domestic Treble for Manchester City. Messi wins the sixth Balon d'Or. Liverpool win the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup.

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