May 21, 2008: John Terry's Slip

May 21, 2008: The UEFA Champions League Final is held. For the 1st time, 2 English teams play each other in it. So, of course, the venue is… the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. As with the Super Bowl, the site is chosen years in advance, in the hopes that it will be a neutral site.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United and Frank Lampard of Chelsea traded goals in the 1st half. There were no more goals in the 2nd half or in extra time. The game went to penalties, with United's Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar facing Chelsea's Czech keeper Petr Čech.

United won the coin toss, and chose to kick first. Carlos Tevez made his kick, while Michael Ballack made his. Each goalie went in the correct direction, but neither could stop the shot. In the 2nd round, both Michael Carrick and Juliano Belletti -- brought on by Chelsea manager Avram Grant in the last minute of extra time, specifically to make him available for penalties -- successfully converted. This time, each goalie went in the wrong direction.

Cristiano tried to play a mind game with Čech, stopping short, and starting again, kicking to his own left. He outsmarted himself: Čech dove in the right direction, and knocked it away. Lampard converted, past van der Sar, going in the right direction, putting Chelsea up, 3-2. Owen Hargreaves and Ashley Cole each converted, despite each goalie getting a fingertip on it. It was 4-3 Chelsea.

In the 5th and last round of regular penalties, needing to convert to keep United alive, Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, a.k.a. Nani, converted, despite Čech going the right way. It was up to Chelsea's Captain, John Terry, already infamous for his racism and for the drunken abuse that he and Lampard had given stranded American tourists at an airport hotel after the 9/11 attacks -- but not yet having had an affair with the girlfriend of teammate Wayne Bridge -- to make Chelsea the Champions of Europe.

Ordinarily, the Luzhniki had artificial turf. In order to qualify as a host for a European tournament final, real grass had to be laid down. It was too newly laid down, and it was wet from the rain that fell throughout the game. Terry slipped as he made contact, and the ball glanced off the right goalpost. It was 4-4.

The penalties went to sudden death. Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, like many Brazilian players known by just his first name, another end-of-game, in-case-it-goes-to-penalties sub, kicked it down the middle, with Čech going to his left. Salomon Kalou sent van der Sar the wrong way, and it was 5-5.

Ryan Giggs kicked to his left, and Čech went the other way. It was 6-5, and it was up to Nicolas Anelka for Chelsea. He kicked to his left, and van der Sar saved it. United had won.

The already-knighted Sir Alex Ferguson

with the European Cup, a.k.a. "Ol' Big Ears"

Chelsea regard Terry as "Captain, Leader, Legend." But even after Chelsea finally won the Champions League in 2012, after spending so many of Roman Abramovich's petrodollars -- a Final that Terry missed due to injury -- the defining moment of his career isn't his bad behavior, on and off the pitch, but that slip in Moscow.

The Luzhniki, formerly the Lenin Stadium, joined the Olympic Stadiums of Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Munich and Athens, and London's original Wembley Stadium, as stadiums hosting an Olympic Games and a European Cup/Champions League Final. However, it did not join old Wembley and the Olympic Stadiums of Berlin, Rome and Munich as stadiums hosting an Olympics, a European Cup Final and a World Cup Final. The old stadium has been demolished and replaced, and it was the new Luzhniki Stadium that hosted the 2018 World Cup Final.

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May 21, 2008 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in progress, but no games were scheduled for this day. There was 1 game in the NBA Playoffs: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 89-85 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. Darrell Rasner pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Joba Chamberlain allowed 1 hit over the last 2 innings. Alex Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Derek Jeter went 0-for-3 with a walk, and had an RBI on a groundout.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 11-4 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Jair Jurrjens outpitched Mike Pelfrey. Chipper Jones bedeviled the Mets again, hitting a home run. So did Jeff Francoeur.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Nationals, 12-2 at Nationals Park in Washington. The Phils scored 6 runs in the 6th inning. Ryan Howard went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Both Pedro Feliz and Shane Victorino also had 3 hits including a home run. Jamie Moyer was the winning pitcher.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-1 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-2 at Coors Field in Denver. Omar Vizquel, the longtime superb shortstop for Cleveland, drives Ray Durham home with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 11-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 9-1 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum).

May 15, 2010: Chelsea's Tainted Double

John Terry (left) and Frank Lampard lift the Cup

May 15, 2010: The FA Cup Final is held at the new Wembley Stadium in London. West London team Chelsea Football Club become the 7th English club to “do the Double,” winning both the Premier League and the FA Cup in the same season.

They defeat Portsmouth, the Hampshire team already in administration and relegation. The (then) richest team in the country had been held to a standstill for nearly an hour by a bankrupt one, before luck turned: Didier Drogba, the big forward from Africa's Ivory Coast, scored in the 59th minute.

Carlo Ancelotti, who had both played on and managed a European Cup winner at AC Milan, had led Chelsea to both English domestic titles. Prince William, as President of the Football Association, handed the FA Cup to Chelsea's Captain, centreback John Terry.

Terry was a despicable individual, leading others. On September 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks, he and midfielder Frank Lampard drunkenly insulted American tourists at a hotel on the grounds of London's Heathrow Airport, stranded there because restrictions meant they couldn't yet fly home. A hotel manager stated: "They were utterly disgusting. They just didn't seem to care about what had happened."

Terry was cited for racist remarks on several occasions. In 2009, he had an affair with French model Vanessa Perroncel, then the girlfriend of teammate Wayne Bridge, breaking them up. In 2010, in their 1st game against each other after the revelation of the scandal, Bridge, then playing for Manchester City, shook hands with every Chelsea player except Terry.

In addition, many players for Chelsea, during the 2003-2022 ownership of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, were guilty of "diving" in the penalty area, so that referees would award them penalties. Drogba was the worst of the lot: He even, after leaving Chelsea and playing for Turkish team Galatasaray, dove against Arsenal FC in a preseason friendly. Other Chelsea players noted for diving include Arjen Robben, Michael Ballack, and Juan Mata.

Other Chelsea players were guilty of dirty tackles: Branislav Ivanović, José Bosingwa, Nemanja Matić, Raul Meireles, Ramires (Santos do Nascimento). So Chelsea were unworthy champions.

It's not just the players, it's the fans. Chelsea's hooligans, including their main "firm," the Chelsea Headhunters, have long been associated with England's far right, with the National Front, the UK Independence Party and the British National Party (the NF, the UKIP and the BNP). Infamously, after a Champions League match with Paris Saint-Germain on February 17, 2015, they pushed a black PSG fan off a Metro train, and sang, to the tune of Little Peggy March's "I Will Follow Him," "We're racist, we're racist, we're racist, and that's the way we like it, we like it, we like it!"

Funny thing: Despite their team's success over the last dozen years or so, their hooligans weren't very good at fighting. They usually get their heads handed to them by the big English firms. Fellow Londoners West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur have firms that routinely beat them, and tough guys from Newcastle and Leeds tend to "run" them as well.

So what the Chelsea lads do is find a pub about a mile from the ground, wreck the place, scare a few women and old men inside, then go on their mobile phones and "claim a result," asking where the other team's famous firm was. This usually doesn't end well.

Prior to Abramovich buying the team in 2003: This was Chelsea's major trophy record: They had won the old Football League Division One in 1955; the FA Cup in 1970, 1997 and 2000; the Football League Cup in 1965 and 1998; and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (which no longer exists) in 1971 and 1998.

After "The Mad Russian" bought them, and started pumping his billions into the club, they won Premier League and the League Cup in 2005; the League again in 2006; both domestic cups, the FA Cup and the League Cup, in 2007; the FA Cup in 2009; The Double, the League and the FA Cup, in 2010; the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League in 2012; the UEFA Europa League in 2013; the League and the League Cup in 2015; the League again in 2017; the FA Cup again in 2018; the Europa League again in 2019; and the Champions League again in 2021.

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May 15, 2010, like all FA Cup Final days, was a Saturday. There were 6 games in North America's soccer league, Major League Soccer:

* The New York Red Bulls lost to the Seattle Sounders, 1-0 at Red Bull Arena (now Sports Illustrated Stadium) in Harrison, New Jersey. I was at this game. Colombian forward Fredy Montero scored the winning goal in the 85th minute.

* The New England Revolution and the San Jose Earthquakes played to a draw, 0-0 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Philadelphia Union and FC Dallas played to a draw, 1-1 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

* The Colorado Rapids beat D.C. United, 1-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Rapids went on to win the MLS Cup that season.

* The Columbus Crew beat Los Angeles team Chivas USA, 1-0 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

* The Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City) and the Chicago Fire played to a draw, 2-2 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark (now Legends Field) in Kansas City, Kansas.

* And the LA Galaxy and Toronto FC played to a draw, 0-0 at the Home Depot Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California.

American football was out of season. The NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs were between rounds. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-1 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte was the winning pitcher. Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Florida Marlins, 7-5 at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. David Wright hit a home run for the Mets.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 6-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Ricky Romero pitches a 5-hit shutout.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Ramón Ramírez walked Ramón Santiago with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-6 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Colorado Rockies swept a doubleheader from the Washington Nationals, 6-2 and 4-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 4-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 12-3 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

February 25, 2007: Abou Diaby Kicks John Terry

February 25, 2007: The Final of the Football League Cup -- then known as the Carling Cup for sponsorship reasons -- is held at the Millennium Stadium (now the Principality Stadium) in Cardiff, Wales between London clubs Arsenal F.C. and Chelsea F.C.

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger started 2 of his usual starters, Kolo Touré and Cesc Fàbregas. Otherwise, he started his younger players, who had gotten the team through the tournament to this point. In contrast, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho started his usual starting 11.

Arsenal took an early lead on Theo Walcott's goal, his 1st of what would be 108 for the club. But Didier Drogba, Chelsea's diving forward, scored twice to give Chelsea a 2-1 win.

The game is remembered for a moment in the 57th minute, in which Arsenal's Abou Diaby went for the ball, and instead mistakenly kicked Chelsea's despicable Captain John Terry in the face, knocking him out. Diaby, born in Paris of Ivorian descent, is black; Terry had already been accused of racism, and there would be more such incidents in his career. So the moment was seen as symbolic by anti-racism activists in soccer.

The referee was Howard Webb, considered by some English soccer fans to be one of the best in the business, and by others as one of the worst. He recognized that it was an accident, not an intentional foul, and did not give Diaby a card. He did, however, give straight red cards to Arsenal's Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor, and Chelsea's Mikel John Obi, for a fight in stoppage time.

I didn't think Diaby was a good player, but he remains beloved by Arsenal fans for this one act. Which was an accident: If he'd tried it on purpose, he would have missed. (The other player in the photograph is Julio Baptista, whom Arsenal had gotten on loan from Real Madrid, and had scored 2 goals against arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur in the Semifinal.)

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February 25, 2007 was a Sunday. Baseball and American football were out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat their arch-rivals, the New York Knicks, 101-92 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. Vince Carter scored 40 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Atlanta Hawks, 115-106 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta. Amar'e Stoudamire led all scorers with 43 points, and also had 16 rebounds.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Orlando Magic, 97-93 at the Amway Arena in Orlando.

* The Miami Heat beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 86-81 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Detroit Pistons beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bulls, 95-93 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Indiana Pacers, 110-93 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis. Kevin Martin scored 35 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Washington Wizards, 98-94 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 102-85 at the Oracle Arena (as the arena at the Oakland Coliseum complex was then known). The Warriors consider the Lakers their arch-rival, but not vice versa.

And there were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Jere Lehtinen scored the winning goal with 43 seconds left in overtime.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 in a shootout at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the United Center in Chicago. The Blues consider the Blackhawks their arch-rival, but not vice versa.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1 at the Xcel Energy Center (now the Grand Casino Arena) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.