10. Luis Suarez - the Hand of God.
The world cup quarter finals threw together two of the dark horses for the tournament. The whole world seemingly took Ghana on as their adopted nation when their ide went out, willing on an African team in an African World Cup. Uruguay however were playing some excellent football, Diego Forlan was the catalyst in their side, playing just behind Luis Suarez he had been creating chances, as well as scoring for the team in Sky Blue.
With both teams playing a fast and exciting brand of football, this match had the potential to be a cracker, in an otherwise disappointing world cup, and boy did it deliver on that promise.
Sulley Muntari, almost sent home earlier on in the tournament after a bust-up with Ghana's Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac, had given his side the lead before Diego Forlan equalized with a viciously-swerving free-kick for his third goal of the finals.
As the game was seemingly heading towards a penalty shoot-out, Ghana piled on the pressure, and in the final few seconds, Ghanaian defender Dominic Adiyiah’s header seemed set to win the game and send Ghana through to the Semi-Finals.
But then Suarez stopped the ball with his hand, deliberate handball, a red-card offence. The referee blew up, awarded a penalty and sent the striker off. Ghana knew that the penalty would be the last kick of the game, and their star of the campaign, Asamoah Gyan stepped up to create history.
Unfortunately for Gyan his spot-kick crashed against the crossbar and away from the goal, the ref blew for full time and sent the game to the dreaded penalty shoot-out.
Meanwhile the camera showed a replay of Suarez walking down the tunel in tears at being sent off, which suddenly turned to ecstatic celebrations once he realised the penalty had been missed.
In the shoot-out, Gyan showed tremendous bottle in stepping up first and scoring his effort in the shoot-out, before Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was the hero, saving twice from John Mensah, the Sunderland centre-back, and Adiyiah, in the shoot-out.
Sebastian Abreu scored the winner with a delightful chipped penalty straight down the middle, the sort that if missed would have made him the villain, but Richard Kingson was left stranded in no-man’s land as the ball hit the back of the net.
The following scenes left the world in shock as Suarez was carried on the shoulders of the Uruguayans, celebrating as if he was the scorer of the winning goal, he later claimed that his was the “hand of God” which sent his country through to the Semi-finals, whist others claimed that the goal should have been awarded, in a similar fashion to how a penalty try is awarded in Rugby.
Debate has continued since as to whether it was a blatant act of Cheating, or whether it was a selfless act, with Suarez sacrificing himself, in order to give his country a chance to qualify.
Personally, if I was in the same position as Suarez, I guarantee that I would do the same, and if a player on a team I was supporting didn’t do it, I would be fuming.
9. Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid
After the greatest start of any coach in Real Madrid’s history, Jose Mourinho mustn’t have expected his brilliant Camp Nou record to come to an end in such a fashion.
Priding his sides on solid defence, Mourinho couldn’t believe his eyes as Barca waltzed through time and time again, on their way to an emphatic 5-0 victory.
Pre-game all the attention focused on the attacking talents on display, Barcelona with Messi, Villa, Iniesta, Xavi et al, and Real with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain (who missed the game with injury) and the new darling of the Bernabeu, Mesut Ozil (you know, that guy I tipped to be a star in my world cup preview blog).
It promised to be a close fought game, both teams with such attacking forces, backed up ably by solid holdng players in midfeld, in Busquets (probably a little harsh to call him a holding midfielder, as he has a lot more to offer, but is often overhadowed by his more esteeedcolleagues) and Sami Khedeira, another German youngster to impress in the World cup.
Both defences looked solid too, and back up by two of the best goalkeepers in Europe in Victor Valdes and Iker Casillas.
In reality though, it looked like men against boys, as Barcelona tore Madrid to pieces, inpossibly the most dominant footballing performance I have ever seen.
Leo Messi failed to score for the first time in 10 consecutive games, but his performance – along with the rest of the Barcelona team was sublime. The passing was so precise, the finishing deadly.
Xavi opened the scoring, with a briliant move involving Messi and Iniesta, before playing a magnificent pass to David Villa to cross for Pedro to tap in to make it 2-0.
Villa then scored a quick fire brace, both set up by Messi before substitute Jeffren finished off Bojan Krkic's cross to complete a miserable night for Mourinho's team. Jeffrén had been on the pitch only three minutes.
The victory for Barcelona was described by the Madrid coach as a "historically bad result" for his club – it was the worst defeat he has suffered in his career.
8. Graeme McDowell wins the US Open
Sunday June 20th, and the 40year wait for a British US Open championship was finaly over as Graeme McDowell won his inaugural major.
Going into the final days play McDowell was 3 shots behind leader Dustin Johnson, but was level after just two holes as Johnson imploded, on his way to becoming the first major winner from the UK since Paul Lawrie’s victory in the 1999 British Open.
McDowell's final round, a 3 over par 74, was the highest score by a US Open champion since Andy North's 74 at Oakland Hills in 1985 but he joins a list of illustrious names such as Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Tiger Woods as US Open winners at the iconic Pebble Beech course.
McDowells celebrations, with his father rushing onto the 18th green to hug him and celebrate the fine victory were even more special due to it being Fathers day, and what better present can any father want, than your sons first Major victory.
I think it’s fair to say that this will not be the final time G-Mac is mentioned in this review of the year.
7. England retaining the Ashes
Not since the 1986-7 tour have England retained the Ashes down under, the last attempt, a calamitous 5-0 whitewash to the Australians, but this time England believed they had a brilliant chance, and so it has proven, with Englands win in the famous boxing Day test at the MCG securing a 2-1 lead in the series, with one test to play.
The series started off poorly for England, Peter Siddle opened his series with a hat-trick on his birthday and Australia built up a strong first inning lead, in the second innings, Englands batsmen made amends, losing just one wicket, the captain Strauss in 152 overs as Alistair Cook made a mockery of those suggesting his position was under threat, with n excellent double century.
For the Aussies not to win after being in such a commanding position immediately ut them on the back foot, as was shown in the second test in Adelaide as Englands batsmen once again held the upper hand, scoring a mammoth 620-5, mainly aided by a fine 227 from Kevin Pietersen, after Englands attack had bowled Australia out for 245, after Michael Hussey had rescued them, after coming out to bat with the score 2/3.
On the final day tensions grew as it was clear that ad weather was on the way, but England managed to bowl out the Aussies just in time, as moments after what would have been lunch the heavens opened and play would have been undoubtedly abandoned for the day.
And so we went to Perth, where England knew a victory would see them retain the urn, but had to do without the services of Stuart Broad, who was sent home with injuries suffered in Melbourne, bringing a premature end to his tour.
Chris Tremlett was the man chosen to replace him, and responded to the call well, picking up 9 wickets in the match, but they were in vain, as Australia kept the series alive with a victory inspired by the recalled Mitchell Johnson.
And so with failing to ensure the Ashes were retained before Xmas, the series moved onto the MCG, Steven Finn was unlucky to find himself out of the team, despite being Englands top wicket taker, but the decision to bring in Tim Bresnan as a replacement was inspired, as the Yorkshire man bowled superbly, in conditions similar to his home ground, Headingly, and fittingly Bresnan was the man to take the wicket to secure retention of the Ashes, and spark raucous celebration from the large travelling Barmy Army.
6. England Vs Germany
After scraping through the group stages, this was the game that was going to kick-start Englands World Cup. Germany had been one of the best teams of the tournament so far, and England had been disappointing, but that was all going to change with this game…. Apparently.
Germany started off emphatically and took an early 2 goal lead with goals from World Cup veterans Miroslaw Klose and Lukas Podolski, but it was Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller, both in their first world cups, who were pulling the strings, along with Bastien Schwiensteiger in his new central midfield role.
Just before half-time Matthew Upson threw England a life-line by heading in from a James Milner cross, halving the deficit. The goal galvanized England, who threw men forward with a new sense of belief, suddenly the ball was laid back to Frank Lampard on the edge of the area, Lampard hit a lofted shot that hit the bar and bounced down several feet over the line, the country erupted in celebration, we had managed to claw our way back into it, the Germans looked deflated, surely there was only one winner from now on… But wait, play has continued, no-body could quite believe the gal hadn’t been given, and Germany were attacking.
In the second half, England naivety came to the fore, men were thrown forward in search of an equaliser, Lampard again hitting the bar, but Germany soaked up the pressure, and caught England on the counter attack twice, both of which Gareth Barry could have easily stoped by being a little more cynical.
There are no doubts that England were beaten by a better team on the day, but if that goal would’ve have been given it would have been a completely different game.
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