February 23, 2008: Arsenal Football Club and Birmingham City F.C. play to a 2-2 draw at St. Andrew's Stadium in Birmingham, in England's West Midlands.
James McFadden put "Brum" up 1-0 in the 28th minute. Theo Walcott scored twice in 5 minutes for Arsenal, early in the 2nd half. But, in stoppage time, referee Mike Dean, already known to treat the North London team unfairly, gave yellow cards to Arsenal defenders William Gallas and Bacary Sagna, and awarded Birmingham a penalty it didn't deserve. McFadden converted it, and they walked away with a draw they didn't deserve.
On the other hand, Arsenal should have scored more than 3 goals against Birmingham City, who finished in 19th out of 20 places, and were deservedly relegated. They should have done so because Birmingham received a straight red card in only the 3rd minute of the game, when Dean sent Martin Taylor off, and played over 90 minutes down to 10 men.
What could Taylor have done, in only the 3rd minute, against Arsenal, to get Dean to send him off? He broke the leg of Arsenal forward Eduard da Silva with a tackle.
Two days short of his 25th birthday, Eduardo, like many soccer players native to Brazil known by just his first name, had played for Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia at age 16. Since he had not yet played for the Brazilian national team, he applied for Croatian citizenship, got it, and played for their national team. So he became known as "The Crozilian."
Between 2001 and 2007, 6 seasons, he helped Dinamo win Croatia's league twice and its national cup 3 times, winning both, "The Double," in 2007. In 2006 and 2007, he was named that league's player of the year. That led Arsenal to spend £7.5 million on him, in the hope that he could be the team's next great striker, as they had just lost Thierry Henry to FC Barcelona. He scored 12 goals in his 1st 31 games. At the time of his injury, Arsenal led the Premier League by 3 points over defending Champions Manchester United.
But Eduardo was out for the season. The draw in which he was injured began a PL string of 8 games where Arsenal won only 1, drew 5, and lost 2, to Chelsea and Manchester United, in each case by a 2-1 score. This earned them 8 of a possible 24 points. Despite snapping out of it and winning their last 4, Arsenal ended up in 3rd place, 4 behind United and 2 behind Chelsea. Ever since, Arsenal fans have seen Eduardo's injury as the reason they failed to win the League that season.
Eduardo did not return to action for almost a full year, until February 16, 2009, when Arsenal defeated Cardiff City 4-0 at the Emirates Stadium, in a 4th Round Replay of the FA Cup, after a 0-0 draw with them in Cardiff. He scored the opening goal from open play, and scored another on a penalty.
When the score of this game was 3-0, the camera focused on Dave Jones, the manager who had miraculously taken Cardiff to the previous season's FA Cup Final, losing to Portsmouth. Seeing the dream die in front of him, announcer John Motson said, "There stands… a lugubrious character."
Arsenal fans were ecstatic over Eduardo's return. But it was a false dawn: He was never the same again. It wasn't just that his speed was gone, it was that he could never finish off his attacks. The assault had left him, literally, intimidated. He only scored another 8 goals for Arsenal, and was sold after the 2009-10 season.
He played for Croatia in Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup. He went to Eastern Europe, helping Shakhtar Donetsk win 4 Ukrainian league titles, and Legia Warsaw to win Poland's Double in 2018. After that season, he retired. He goes down in history as a "What if?" story.
And Martin Taylor? He played in England's Football League from 1997 to 2013, mostly with Blackbrn Rovers and Birmingham City. No team outside England ever wanted him. Not because he was a dirty player, but because he was a bad one.
*
February 23, 2008 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 7 games in the NBA:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 102-91 at the Izod Center at the Meadowlands. Richard Jefferson scored 36 points.
* The Washington Wizards beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 110-95 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat, 101-96 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Denver Nuggets, 115-109 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the New Orleans Hornets, 98-89 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Atlanta Hawks, 100-94 at the Delta Center (then named the EnergySolutions Arena) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-95 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles, in what was officially a home game for the Clippers.
And there were 11 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.
* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 4-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark. I was at this game.
* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-0 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. Olli Jokinen scored the winning goal with 1:16 left in overtime.
* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 6-3 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators, 6-3 at the Sommet Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-1 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at the Civic Arena (then known as the Mellon Arena) in Pittsburgh. Daniel Alfredsson scored the winning goal with just 4 seconds left in overtime.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-5 at the Staples Center (hosting an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day). Patrick Sharp scored the winning goal with 3:12 left in overtime.
* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at GM Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
* And the St. Louis Blues, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Colorado Avalanche, the Phoenix Coyotes, the San Jose Sharks, the Anaheim Ducks and the Minnesota Wild were not scheduled.
No comments:
Post a Comment