Not even the Arsenal-Barca match last year (two teams that play the most open, positive, expansive, attractive football in the sport) could do more than foul, shoot long balls, go for set pieces and shut each other down. The 2005 final seems to be fluke in the modern era's endless insistence on anti-football. Good football can no longer succeed in the CL final. What amazed me was how Benitez managed to make Liverpool a little more interesting to watch than usual--at least in the first half. Liverpool really took it to Milan from the get-go. Milan deservedly won but, frankly, they were not impressive at all. Milan actually proved to be more boring than Liverpool --- except for a few moments when Kaka was allowed some space, and of course when the obnoxious Pippo scored. (It was a shoulder, not a handball--the goal was pure dum luck, the 2nd goal wasn't).

For posivite, exciting football, the UEFA cup final was far better this year. Sevilla and Espanyol had me glued to the screen throughout.

Anyway, much as I love several of Milan's players (incl. the great Maldini and esp. Kaka), they shouldn't have been in the CL this season anyway due to their role in the calciopoli scandal in Italy last year. And the sight of the utterly loathsome pondscum that is Silvio Berlusconi celebrating with that trophy in his hands was enuf to sicken everyone at the bar I was at.

10. The handshake line at the end of NHL playoff series.

9. Mid-season afternoon baseball games.

8. Watching an unhyped young player in any sport come out of nowhere and have a break-out season.

7. The second week of a Grand Slam tournament (tennis).

6. The peloton entering Paris in the final stage of the Tour de France.

5. A huge underdog win in a big tournament (World Cup, March Madness, etc.).

4. College football on sunny autumn days.

3. Watching a superstar pull off a play that leaves the players on both teams stunned.

2. Seeing a team you despise lose.

1. Overtime in game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Especially if you care about one of the teams.

PS - Nick Canepa is a clown.

All these soccer fans! Who actually know what they're talking about! How cool. Who knew you were here?

Stick around. You may get King more interested.

Here is my number one:

Being able to walk into any bar in the world and have the possibility of having a great time talking to a stranger who loves the same sport you do.

The Champions League final is a lot like The Big Game, or as some call it, the “Super Bowl.” One of the best matches I’ve ever seen was the Man U-Bayern final in 1999; one of the worst was the 0-0 snoozer between AC Milan and Juventus in 2003. You never know what you'll get. This year’s final was not riveting, but it was a decent game, and Liverpool made it interesting down the stretch.

Great game analysis in the letters.

Perhaps my number one thing in sports: Saturdays in the fall when there are so many good games you can barely keep up. (And I’ll put the vote back in for cheerleaders that Mikes took back. Go team!)

Also: “On June 2, the Denver Art Museum opens a summerlong exhibit of photographs of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig ... [offering] an intimate look at these American sporting heroes of the early 20th century and a reminder of the sorry state of courage in their game today.”

http://tinyurl.com/ysabwg

Nice piece on the blue-collar and immigrant roots of the game. Ruth and Gehrig arrive straight out of Dickens, lucky to survive childhood; Bonds emerges from the shadow of Mays' locker, diamonds on his shoes...

Yes, all the Italians know how to do is defend. Man-U knows that well for instance! Oh wait, they got there asses handed to them 3-0 by Milan! Before that, they beat the living crap out of Roma because we went to Old Trafford, with the lead, and played with three forwards up front, with basically only one defensive midfielder. Or you could take the Italian Cup final. We beat Inter at home 6 (six) to 2. I was at the flippin' stadium, and it didn't look to me like we were sitting on a 1-0 lead...

As for the handball, it really looks like a shoulder to me. I'm in Italy, so I didn't get the ESPN broadcast (and clearly nothing objective here), but my mom told me that there was one commentator who was railing against the ref for this call. She also said she thought he was an ex-liverpool player. Anyways, everyone is free to look at these things as they wish.

The stereotypes of Italian soccer grow tiresome. I guess we just don't play attacking soccer like Chelsea, Liverpool, Bolton et al.

Also, the pathetic defending often on display in the EPL doesn't constitue attacking soccer. It's called sucking. One (of the many) thing I do like about English soccer is the speed, and the lack of game interruption.

1. Taking your kid out to the store, and buying your own kid the first baseball glove. Then going home, showing how to put it on, how to stand sideways to throw, and rubbing baby oil on the glove, and wrapping it with rubber bands with a baseball inside.

2. Having your dad or mom take you out to the store to buy your first baseball glove, and as above.

[This is the only part of Norman Rockwell/Leave It To Beaver America which is really true, really good, never out of date.]

may not sit on goals as much as they used to (see World Cup, 2006, for a good reason that "stereotype" persists), but they sure flop the same. I think their flopping has gotten better, in fact. Don't remember who it was, but the guy who writhed around like he'd just burst his appendix, only to pop up 10 seconds later was priceless.

I checked out some references to the handball rule, and while there are some subtle differences in interpretation between different countries and different levels of the game (e.g children vs adults) the consensus seems to be that it must be DELIBERATE handball for a foul to occur, which generally means that the player did not try to avoid the ball hitting the hand/arm or that the player had the hand/arm in "an unnatural postition" or away from the body.

Hence, for example, a player jumping to head a ball with his/her arms spread would automatically be penalized if the ball hit them, even if he did not intend it. A player who has his arm held closely to the body who is hit on the shoulder by the ball is unlikely to be penalized.

Of course the outcome of numerous important soccer games is determined by controversial decisions as to whether a penalty should have been given. In the English premier leagues it is routine for managers (coaches) to say in their post game comments on a 1-0 defeat something like "the opponent's penalty should never have been given, and we had two good penalties disallowed, so in my mind we should have won 2-0. We wuz robbed."