Fifty years ago this week, the United Soccer Association title was decided in a 6-5 thriller. The teams in action were even more remarkable than the scorelineIt happened so suddenly that the Washington Whips goalkeeper Bobby Clark didn’t know what hit him. Los Angeles Wolves full-back Bobby Thomson drove in a dangerous cross that deflected off a defender’s leg, past Clark and into the goal. And just like that, the first and only United Soccer Association championship game was over. “It was the first time I had ever been involved in a sudden-death finish to a game and the finality was numbing,” Clark says five decades later. The Wolves celebrated their achievement while the Whips tried to figure out what...
History tends to forget that Britain’s last victor in the Wimbledon women’s tournament lost her first two semi-finalsFirst you have to suffer. The unspoken rule for any British hopeful striving to scratch the nation’s itch at Wimbledon is that the journey is never complete until they have dragged themselves off a deflated Centre Court at the end of their semi-final debut with sympathetic applause ringing in their ears, their bottom lip quivering and that lump in their throat threatening to spill on to the grass, guilty only of daring to think it would be different this time. Related: Venus Williams into Wimbledon final with smooth defeat of Johanna Konta Related: Johanna Konta: quiet Sydney schoolgirl always had focus of a...
A Royal Birkdale scorcher saw a teenage Spaniard make a run for glory, a qualifier endure 121 mishaps and the stories amass on the Lancashire RivieraBritain sweltered in record temperatures during the summer of 1976. Office workers cavorted in the fountains of Trafalgar Square. Fire swept across Surrey heathland. Snow machines were deployed to spray melting Cumbrian roads. West Yorkshire police officers were ordered on health grounds not to wear ties between 6am and 10pm. The Automobile Association reported a record number of overheating engines. At the Henley Regatta, gentlemen were permitted to take off their jackets for the first time in 137 years. Even the EEC’s butter mountain began to melt. Metaphorically speaking, that is, with dairy cattle slaughtered...
After their first World Series title in 108 years, the built-to-last Cubs appeared on the brink of a dynasty. This year it’s been back to black in WrigleyvilleThe Cubs are back. After flipping 107 years of history a season ago by winning the organization’s first World Series title since 1908, disappointment and losing have returned to the North Side of Chicago. Entering this season, the reigning champs had 4-to-1 odds to repeat as champs according to Las Vegas sports books and were consensus favorites to take the National League’s Central Division. They were the reigning champs, young and had their entire core returning. While anything can happen in the postseason – just ask the Nationals – and it may be...
Male and female players get equal prize money at tennis majors and the world hasn’t imploded. Doing the same in golf would help the gameEqual pay for equal play. The phrase has been made popular thanks to the US women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay and treatment with their male counterparts.Those who argue against parity say it’s a matter of simple economics: male sports tend to generate more revenue, therefore men should make more than women. It’s an argument that makes sense in some cases (of course, the pay gap could be mitigated if the media covered women’s sports more generously, but that’s an argument for another day.) Related: Atthaya Thitikul, 14, becomes youngest player to win on Ladies...