A Day Late and a Goal Short; Derailment of the RailChickens

I have always been a passionate person.  A dancer, singer, athlete, photographer, artist...I've always put the best effort into everything I've done.  "Anything worth doing is worth doing well," always creeps into my mind when faced with the chance of doing something half-baked.  Sports has been a huge part of my life.  With two older brothers it was inevitable that the smell of pigskin, and the reverberating ring of a ref's whistle would permeate my existence.  When I encounter adversity, or see the struggles of others, my words of wisdom almost always include a sports analogy.  So how will I salve my conscience today?  With words from my father, a lifelong baseball player and fan:

     "It's always better to go down swinging."  

These words would calm me after striking out.  My father taught me that on a 3-2 pitch you grip the bat, lean on your back leg and swing with all of your might.  If you connect and the ball sails, run like the wind.  If you hear the thump in the mitt, know that it's alright to have given your all and failed.

If I were standing in Manchester United's locker room at Old Trafford, or in the same room at the Stade Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux, that is what I would tell the boys.

United seemed to be on their way to another semi-final after scoring in fantastic fashion in the 3rd, 7th, and 41st minutes.  This put them up 4-2 on aggregate, with an all-important away goal garnered in last week's 2-1 defeat in Munich.  But a costly goal in injury time just before the half put the agg at 4-3.  That gave Munich an away goal as well...one more and they would not only be even, but have two away goals to United's one.  Sports is a wicked woman.
After the half, a well-meaning and hard-charging young Rafael da Silva tackled the over-rated Franck Ribery...second yellow...adios.  With ten men, United played with their backs to the wall, never giving up.  Bayern's resident bitter, big-mouthed Arjen Robben, who's had a huge chip on his shoulder since being "adiosed" with the dishes by the busboys at Chez Bernabeu last summer, scored in the 74th minute, tying the agg at 4-4, with Bayern having the edge.  From then on BM played keep away, which is much easier to do when you're playing with an extra man.
Sir Alex was resolute about United's play and didn't mince words in his post-match interview:

"Bayern would never have got through [had it not been for the red card]," Sir Alex said.

"With 11 men, we would have had no problem. Rafael's a young boy, a bit inexperienced, but they got him sent off. The Bayern players went towards the referee. They’re like that."
Bayern also risked the wrath of Sir Alex by giving Wayne Rooney a stern test of his ankle injury, following the striker's surprise inclusion in United's starting line-up.
"We expected that and the referee’s got to handle that," added the boss. "But that wasn’t the key issue. I think the key issue was losing the goal just before half-time and then the young boy being sent off."
"I don't think the best team has won the tie, I think we played better tonight than they did.

"I don’t think anything’s been missing in our campaign, and I don’t think we were fatigued tonight. With them having the extra man, they made the ball work. We defended very well and it’s taken an exceptional goal to finish the tie. It was a tremendous hit by [Arjen] Robben.
"I think we’ve done well. Our performance tonight was excellent, it was a great performance. We were very unlucky tonight, very, very unlucky."

Just like my father, Sir Alex always puts my mind at ease.  I couldn't have summed up the match better myself.

Bordeaux.  Zut Alors!  MC Header himself, Marouane Chamakh, scored a brilliant goal before the half that put the Bordelaise on the road to recovering their 3-1 deficit suffered at the hands of their arch-rivals and Ligue 1 nemeses, Lyon.  All they needed was one more goal...they played harder than they've played all year.  They won 1-0, and lost 3-2 on agg.
So in one day, both of my teams crashed out of the Champions League...both abundantly outplayed the opposition but were a goal short.  I'm proud of both because they didn't lose from bad play, they went down swinging, and as my father would say, "you can't ask any more from a person than that!"

My shoulders are slumping right now as I listen to Bebo Norman's "Great Light of the World."  Oh how I need the Light to fill up my soul.
To help us all recover...a few photos:

Wazza is the epitome of the "Never Say Die" attitude at United

25 yard rocket unleashed by Darren Gibson, United 1-0

And 4 minutes later, a quintessential Ronny backheel by Nani, United 2-0

Followed by a quintessential Nani backflip (look at Wazza and Valencia's faces!)

Rafael (center) played brilliantly as all the Reds did tonight...but...

The BM Poopheads got him sent off...

Keep your head up, Rafael, you play for United!  We still love you!

 Et maintenant, quelques photos Chamcuff...

Cris (on ground) seems to be saying, "$%^&&@!!"

This is from the first leg...

 

"Chère Susanne, s'il vous plaît vous asseoir, vous êtes une distraction douce pour nous!"

Marouane and Wendel...raisin' the roof at the Chaban-Delmas!

The caption below this photo said, "Will there be more magic moments like this at the Chaban-Delmas?"  sniff...Chamcuff 4 life!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the wing-clippin' given to the Carolina RailHawks by the Charlotte Eagles last night.  The USL-2 Eagles smacked down their USL-1 counterparts 3-1 at Carolina, despite the absence of their star midfielder and captain, Chris Lemons (CRL7).  Hampered by a hammie strain suffered in their last win, the Wichita native is itching to take the pitch for the Eagles' USL-2 opener April 17th against the Charleston Battery.  

CRL7

And...my recovery is complete.  My teams are still in the Prem League and Ligue 1 title battles, and my Eagles are looking to top their silver medal in the USL-2 championship last year!

Glory Glory, Allez, Squawwwwk!