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Fro
May 13th, 2016, 9:39 PM
Which games that you watched live as they unfolded were the ones you'll never forget? A lot of these will naturally be of your home teams but give us your best neutral games as well. Mine:

1997 Masters - I don't remember any specific shots but I just remember the phenomenon of Tiger Woods and all the hype around the whole weekend. It was insane to have a 21-year old black golfer put on the most dominant performance in the history of the event. You could tell immediately he was going to change the game. Tiger Woods is the best and most memorable athlete of my lifetime. My dad's a big golf guy so I was watching all those classic major wins. There were so many that they kind of blend together, but the first one was unforgettable.

2003 ALCS Game 7 - I remember the game went so late (on a school night in high school) that I had to leave my friend's house where I was watching it and I listened to the Aaron Boone home run on the radio in my car. I remember exactly the intersection I was at when it happened. I knew it was coming and was resigned to defeat at that point (after the Sox blew the lead and it went to extras in the Bronx) but it was still crushing (even more crushing than the 18-1 Super Bowl).

2004 ALCS Game 7 - Redemption. This and game 4 of the World Series that year are both big ones but game 7 was the best. The feeling was unreal, we hadn't broken the curse yet but it felt like we did. I remember having this giddy almost feminine moment of embrace with a college buddy when Damon hit the grand slam. I was a freshman and everyone flooded out of the dorms when we sealed it. For the World Series win I actually didn't see the last inning or last out because I hopped on the subway and went to Fenway to partake in the riots. I was outside Fenway listening on the radio when the title was won.

2006 Rose Bowl - This game (Vince Young vs Matt Leinart/Reggie Bush) was insane. If you saw it you know. Just the most fun college football game I've ever seen. Also shout out to the 2007 Fiesta Bowl where Boise State won on the statue of liberty play in overtime.

2008 NBA Finals Game 6 - Like the 2004 WS final game, this is one where the celebration was more memorable than the game itself. More rioting.

Super Bowl 49 - Probably not a big surprise here. I'll put this one ahead of 2001 even though 2001 was more unbelievable because I wasn't nearly as invested in the Pats back then. This one was in the works for 10 years. Roller coaster of emotions with a miraculous ending.

You?

Morrison
May 13th, 2016, 10:08 PM
2001 NBA finals, game 1 - was so amped up for this first game. this was the first time I'd ever been truly invested in any professional sport. I'd of course watched and listened to plenty of Phillies games every summer, would be pissed every Sunday during the early fall when my parents wouldn't take me to the playground cause the Eagles game was coming on and watched plenty of flyers hockey, but this sixers team just captured me. I loved dikembe mutumbo and AI was well into being the best sports personality in the city, cementing his legacy during this game by breaking tyronn lue's ankles and stepping over him. still love watching that play.

week 10, 2010 NFL season @ the redskins - 2010 was a magical season for me, largely due to mike vick being insanely exciting on the field for us, with this game being the peak. i remember being out to dinner with a bunch of my friends from work as the game started and hearing about that first play bomb to djax that jist set the tone for the rest of the night. vick ending the night 20/28, 333 yards, 4 TDs, 8 carries, 80 yards, 2 TD's. monster performance that was a joy to watch.

miracle at the new meadowlands, week 15, 2010 NFL season - trailing the entire game and managing to come back and tie the game just before the end of regulation. djax back to return the punt and the giants actually kicking it to him. jackson bobbling the ball and still managing to save it and zip his way down the field, skirting the goal line until he was sure time had expired. absolutely insane ending.

Pablo Diablo
May 13th, 2016, 10:10 PM
That 2006 Rose Bowl game, I was by a friend's place. Not really a college football group but we put it on in the background. I completely agree with you that it was one of the most fun college games I've ever seen. Shame it technically never happened.

Kdestiny
May 13th, 2016, 10:29 PM
Two came to mind right away.

2010 NCAA Tournament. #9 Seed Northern Iowa defeats overall #1 seed Kansas.

This was during my first year of college when I started watching more college basketball. I had family go to UNI and I had always hated Kansas. The fact that this happened and that Ali hit that three at the end was sweet. One of very few times that I actually jumped out of my seat at home while watching.

2011 World Series. Game 6. St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers.

In my favorite playoff match up ever in what may have been the craziest baseball game ever played. Down two with one strike until clinching the series for Texas, and then Freese hits a two run triple to tie it. Texas goes up two once again, last strike in a one run game and Lance Berkman of all people drives in a run. After that it's history... Freese works a full count and hits the game winner in the 11th and what might've been Joe Buck's only good call ever in channeling his father "we will see you... Tomorrow night."

I get chills just remembering these games.

OD50
May 14th, 2016, 5:12 AM
1994 soccer/football World Cup, Sweden vs. Bulgaria in the bronze match (4-0). It was an awesome summer and an awesome world cup from start to finish, and Sweden's greatest football triumph since the silver in 1958. I was 18 and was vacationing on Öland. We watched the match in a bar by the beach, drank beer like crazy and had the time of our lives while Sweden played a near perfect game. The match took place on July 16, 1994.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAQHwdiwse4

Only bad thing about being down south on Öland was that we didn't make it back home to Stockholm in time for the welcome celebration that happened on July 18.We had to watch it on a small shitty tv instead. The sun, beach, beer and girls made up for it somewhat though..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZgH_c9dqU

OD50
May 14th, 2016, 5:16 AM
In some ways the Sweden/Romania quarter-final match on July 10 was an even bigger moment. Probably the most tense sporting event in my lifetime, Sweden won after penalty shots. God damn that was exciting.. Score after full time was 2-2 and Sweden won 4-5 after penalties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brc8vldYPSY

It was a great moment, but honestly almost too exciting.

OD50
May 14th, 2016, 6:47 AM
And it's no big sporting event in itself but for me was probably the biggest; Challenge Cup 1991 in Solnahallen (the Solna Hall) and it was the first ever martial arts event I attended live. I was 15 at the time and had only been training for probably 5-6 months at the time so I was super stoked to see the "big boys" go at it. Challenge Cup used kind of a team format (similar to the old IFL MMA format for anyone that remembers). There was 5 weight classes and each gym/club had to have one fighter representing them in each weight class, from LW to HW. Can't remember exactly since it was 25 years ago and I can't find anything about the event online, but I think it was something like -65, -75, -85, -95 and +95 kilos.

Each weight-class had eight fighters from different clubs so you had to win three consecutive fights to win the weight-class for your club. This was a style vs. style event that precursed the UFC by two and a half+ years (this was in May 1991, UFC 1 was held in November 1993). It was only stand-up fighting though, no grappling, so it was more similar to K-1 (first K-1 event was in March, 1993) than MMA/UFC. For a teen that just started to train martial arts this was like attending the Super Bowl. Since then I've been to big K-1 and UFC events around the world with crowds of up to 30,000, but nothing was as exciting as that May night in 1991.

I had the poster from the event framed, think it's up in the attic.

MTR
May 14th, 2016, 9:07 AM
2011 Game 5 of the NL Divsion series between Cards and Phillies. Considered one of the best games ever by some. Awesome game.

2011 Game 6 of the World Series. Down to the last strike twice and the Cards won the game to force game 7 and went on to win the World Series.

1994 World Cup US vs Brazil. Brazil won that day but the US played a hell of a game

Those off the top of my head. I know I have a few more though I can add.

Mr. Boombastic
May 14th, 2016, 10:44 PM
Great Thread

The first that popped into my head:

1998 Eastern Conference Finals Bulls vs Pacers game 7- As a huge fan of the Jordan Era Bulls, this was the only time I remember being legitimately very nervous the were going to get knocked off the top of the mountain. The whole Bulls team was older and wore down at the end of the 2nd three peat. Pippen's back was messed up and Jordan couldnt hit a shot to save his life but they dominated the boards and played great D. Besides being an all time classic game, it is particularly memorable as we had a huge storm knock out the power to our house the night before so I watched the whole game on a tiny battery operated handheld tv with like a 3 inch screen. After the Bulls won, I remember running outside and reinacting the final minutes of game on my hoop outside by myself.

Honey_Badger
May 16th, 2016, 8:20 AM
Game 4 Western Conference Finals, 2002, Lakers versus Kings. Robert Horry nails the game winning buzzer beater after a forced rebound kick-out from Shaq. The shot revitalizes the Lakers, down 2-1 at the time, to another West Title. Incredible game.

Clive Plasma
May 16th, 2016, 8:43 AM
When Watford scored this last minute goal against Leicester in 2013 in the Playoff semi-final. I just remember watching it thinking how ridiculous it was. It was 2-2 on aggregate, if Leicester scored they got through to the final... they had a penalty with 2 minutes of injury time left... and this happened...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFq59OTn-NQ

I also went to the West Ham play-off final, my mate had a spare season ticket all season so I went to every single game. Then it got to the final and I couldn't believe how invested I was in a team I previously couldn't care about. In the last few minutes when the goal went in, I was bundled down about 5 rows of seats in a state of absolute euphoria.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzKiw87IT5c

Finally... fucking Southgate...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izCKtubriis

Kneeneighbor
May 16th, 2016, 2:37 PM
1991 World Series Game 6


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQksDqxG36s


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRD2IbYFf7o

MikeHunt
May 16th, 2016, 4:53 PM
Scottish cup final 2002, best game of football I ever attended. 90th min winner against your biggest rivals! Beautiful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfRwwY3kWkA

Helicopter Sunday!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7qlGbd12pg

James McFadden's goal against France.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmtB7rBs3M

Every single time England get knocked out the world cup or European championships on penalties.

Seeing Bolt sprint at the commonwealth games was really special but not so much his performance but just seeing him and 50,000 eyes being on him.

I'll include wrestling as well attending wrestlemania 30 and seeing Daniel Bryan win the world title was so special for me, having watched him for years going from the indies to wwe champion was beautiful.

Simmo Fortyone
May 16th, 2016, 6:40 PM
Anzac Day 2009. Biggest regular season game in the AFL. Over 84,000 in attendance. Essendon hadn't beaten Collingwood in it since 2005. Down by 26 goals with about 10 minutes to go and the rain starting to fall, it seemed as though this game would slip away as well. But then two quick goals brought the margin down to 14 points (goal is worth 6, behind is worth 1) and the game was back in the balance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8T2cW1V6XY

The biggest comeback in AFL history. Essendon were down by 69 points in the second quarter, and came back in one of the highest scoring games of all time. Absolutely surreal game to be at, and even watching the highlights 15 years later I still can't believe they won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnWay8S8xqI

2004, and Essendon were on the decline after years at the top. James Hird had had a horror week, facing criticism that he was past it and should retire, and copping a massive fine for criticising umpires in the media. This was a make-or-break game for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atEncDmL97o

Don't care much for either of these teams, but the finish to this game was amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVHDjCKGc4

Also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAZqCJHuuus

Simmo Fortyone
May 16th, 2016, 6:42 PM
If you weren't absolutely stunned by this when it happened, then you're probably a massive cunt


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-urnlaJpOA

Fro
May 16th, 2016, 7:29 PM
2005 Masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRCjJi_uDp8
This shot was on the 16th hole on Sunday and Tiger went on to win in a playoff vs Chris DiMarco.

Dream-Evil
May 18th, 2016, 5:17 AM
Anzac Day 2009. Biggest regular season game in the AFL. Over 84,000 in attendance. Essendon hadn't beaten Collingwood in it since 2005. Down by 26 goals with about 10 minutes to go and the rain starting to fall, it seemed as though this game would slip away as well. But then two quick goals brought the margin down to 14 points (goal is worth 6, behind is worth 1) and the game was back in the balance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8T2cW1V6XY

The biggest comeback in AFL history. Essendon were down by 69 points in the second quarter, and came back in one of the highest scoring games of all time. Absolutely surreal game to be at, and even watching the highlights 15 years later I still can't believe they won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnWay8S8xqI

2004, and Essendon were on the decline after years at the top. James Hird had had a horror week, facing criticism that he was past it and should retire, and copping a massive fine for criticising umpires in the media. This was a make-or-break game for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atEncDmL97o

Don't care much for either of these teams, but the finish to this game was amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVHDjCKGc4

Also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAZqCJHuuus

Your first three immediately came to mind. "ZAHARAKIS. ZAAAHAARAKIS" I get chills every time I watch that.

Also Michael Bevan's 4 off the last ball against the West Indies back in '96 was a good'un. I know there's been heaps like it, but that one stayed with me.