Tore André Flo
December 26, 1999: For the 1st time, a team in English soccer's Premier League puts out a stating eleven (or "XI") made up entirely of non-British players. None from England, none from Wales, none from Scotland, and none from Northern Ireland.
The game was played on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, a traditional playing date for English soccer, at The Dell, home ground of Southampton Football Club. Southampton, the leading team in Hampshire, on the South Coast, hosted Chelsea F.C., of West London. It was Chelsea who had the all-foreign XI. (Looking back, it surprises a lot of people that it wasn't North London team Arsenal F.C. who did that.)
Chelsea's XI that day, selected by manager Gianluca Vialli, himself from Italy and a former star forward for Genoa team Sampdoria and Turin team Juventus: Ed De Goey (Netherlands); Albert Ferrer (Spain), Frank Leboeuf (France), Emerson Thome (Brazil), Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria); Dan Petrescu (Romania), Gabriele Ambrosetti (Italy), Roberto Di Matteo (Italy), Gus Poyet (Uruguay) and Didier Deschamps (France); Tore André Flo (Norway).
Flo scored in the 18th minute, and again in the 43rd. Kevin Davies pulled one back for "The Saints" in the 80th, but they could not find an equalizer. Chelsea held on to win, 2-1. It was the 2nd game in a run of 14 unbeaten for "The Blues" -- 7 wins and 7 draws -- and it helped them finish 5th in the Premier League, allowing them to qualify for the next season's UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League).
Southampton finished 15th that season. In 2001, they left The Dell, where they had played since 1898, and moved into the new St. Mary's Stadium.
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December 26, 1999 was a Sunday. The North London soccer team that I would one day support, Arsenal, went to the Midlands, and lost to Coventry City, 3-2 at Highfield Road.
Baseball was out of season. These NFL games were played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 34-17 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.
* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 13-10 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.
* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 22-0 at PSINet Stadium (now M&T Bank Stadium) in Baltimore.
* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Green Bay Packers, 29-10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
* The Tennessee Titans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 41-14 at the Adelphia Coliseum in Nashville.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Carolina Panthers, 30-20 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Cleveland Browns, 29-28 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field).
* The St. Louis Rams beat the Chicago Bears, 34-12 at the Trans World Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis. Along with the Chiefs, the Bears should have been a geographic rival for the former Los Angeles Rams, but neither rivalry ever caught on.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Arizona Cardinals, 37-14 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.
* The San Diego Chargers beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 23-20 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).
* The Washington Redskins beat the San Francisco 49ers, 26-20 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.
* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-14 at the Kingdome in Seattle. This was the Seahawks' last regular-season game at the Kingdome, after 24 seasons. They lost a Playoff game there to the Dolphins, 20-17 on January 9, 2000, and that was the last event there. The 'Hawks played the next 2 seasons at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium, while what's now known as Lumen Field was built on the site of the Kingdome, opening in 2002.
* The previous day, Christmas Day, the Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 17-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
* The day before that Christmas Eve, the New Orleans Saints beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-24 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* On the 27th, on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 38-31 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* And, in this period between the re-establishment of the Browns and the expansion of the Houston Texans, when there were 31 teams in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles had a bye week.
There were 10 games played in the NBA:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Chicago Bulls, 103-76 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Washington Wizards beat the Houston Rockets, 103-92 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* The Toronto Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 98-95 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Vince Carter led all scorers on the day, with 36 points for the Raptors.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Charlotte Hornets, 114-96 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 93-85 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 109-86 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 108-88 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.
* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Boston Celtics, 103-100 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 118-111 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 92-86 at the KeyArena in Seattle. Allen Iverson scored 34 for the Sixers.
And there were 8 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils played their rivalry to a 3-3 tie at Madison Square Garden.
* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Florida Panthers, 4-3 at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nolan Pratt scored just 27 seconds into overtime.
* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-3 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-2 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Nashville Predators beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.
* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the Staples Center. Yes, it hosted an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day. Jeremy Roenick scored with 1:42 left in overtime.
* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the San Jose Sharks, 1-0 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).
* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-0 at GM Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
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