This is why sports are the best
What an end to the 2011-12 British Premier League season.
The task was simple for Manchester City: win at home (or at least mirror Manchester United’s result on the day), against a Queens Park Rangers that had not won on the road all season, and City would claim its first league title since 1968.
So of course Manchester City trailed 2-1 heading into stoppage time against QPR, which had played a man down since the 55 minute mark. But goals by Edin Dzeko Sergio Agüero, who tallied with only about a minute left, gave City the title.
Just the way everyone expected the final day to turn out.
“It was incredible – they deserved this,” Manchester City manager Robert Mancini told The Daily Mail. “To win like this is incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finale like this. We didn’t deserve to lose, we had a lot of chances and we deserved to win the game and the championship.
“It’s fantastic for the club and the supporters after 44 years. It’s been a crazy season and a crazy last minute. Five minutes from the end, I didn’t think we’d win this game. But we deserved to win this and deserved to win the title.”
Even if you are not a City fan (and we’re not) the excitement of those final minutes are what make sports so much fun. A lot of the time you think you know what is going to happen and things usually turn out the way everyone expects them to.
But every once in a while you get a three-point shot at the buzzer to temporarily salvage a playoff series, or an eighth-inning homerun against the greatest closer in baseball history, or a long pass down the sidelines to help send a game into double overtime.
And you get a game like today’s and it makes you glad that you invested the time to watch.
And we admit to feeling good for the Manchester City fans – we have a soft spot for a fan base that has waited for years, hoping for a title. They’ve been waiting and hoping for 44 years while watching rival Manchester United rack up league titles and Champions League trophies like crazy.
Plus, if every other long-suffering team in every other sport in the world wins a title, maybe it will finally be Cleveland’s turn.
Hey, after what we witnessed today, anything seems possible.
(Photo by Getty Images)
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