Joy and pain, those paired gut-level responses, were on full display over 90-plus minutes yesterday at fabled Wembley Stadium in London.
Oxford United and Wycombe Wanderers played in the English Football League (EFL) League One playoff final, hoping to join auto-promoted Coventry City and Rotherham United in the English League Championship, the second tier of professional football in the UK.
Despite being on the wrong side of the possession statistics and chasing the game for the better part of
the 90, Wycombe rode left back and captain Joe Jacobson's 79th-minute penalty conversion to a 2-1 win and promotion to the Championship. Despite having been in continuous existence since the club's founding in 1887, Wycombe has never before risen this high in the EFL professional pyramid.
And that's barely half the story. Wycombe's got character, for sure, but they've got characters, as well. Manager Gareth Ainsworth looks for all the world like an aging rocker. Because he is. Ainsworth is the frontman for The Cold Blooded Hearts, and rescheduled several practices this season in order to make room in his schedule for gigs. On the sideline at Wembley yesterday, he sported a monochromatic jeans/shirt combo, unbuttoned insouciantly, over a pair of deep red boots covered in some kind of exotic animal skin. You'll dig this cover from the Hearts, recorded in 2016:
While Ainsworth cuts a unique figure in the modern professional coaching ranks, he barely ranks as Wycombe's most interesting cat. 38 year-old striker Adebayo Akinfenwa is known as the strongest footballer in the world. The veteran can play - he's scored 226 goals over 717 appearances in all competitions, toiling mostly at the lower levels of the English game. In that respect, he's a little like Crash Davis. Physically, though, he's nothing of the sort. Akinfenwa carries roughly 300 pounds on his 6'1" frame. He bears a resemblance - facially and physically - to former Viking John Randle. And he's still effective, scoring 10 goals in 36 games this season. He enjoyed the win:
Must-Watch Bolt of Joy: Adebayo Akinfenwa 38-year old cult hero wins promotion to the Championship (tier below Premier League) with miracle minnows Wycombe. Akinfenwa has been rejected and derided throughout his career. His words tonight will give you Life pic.twitter.com/OZ2xgEhlnA
— roger bennett (@rogbennett) July 13, 2020
At the final whistle, players from both teams fell to the ground, Wycombe in joyous relief and Oxford in gutted despair. In such moments we find humanity in its flawed, grasping range. That's gonna have to carry us through for a while, it seems.
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10 comments:
I thought the title was a reference to today’s Tuberville-Session primary.
"Janie Jones" didn't make The Clash 37, but it probably should have.
As I finished typing that comment after looking up the Clash post, I hit Publish and "London Calling" instantly came on the local OBX radio station. Life's little oddities.
And yes, FM radio. The Sound 99.1 is actually a worthy listen.
And as I was looking at a shirt someone left down here with a tiger on it that’s very very similar to Jerry’s Tiger guitar image, I said exactly that... and three seconds later Shakedown Street came on the radio. Weird day.
There's a local city councilman here who once thought it was clever to describe FM radio to me as "fucking magic". I thought it was rather stupid, but after Whitney's experiences today perhaps I should reconsider.
Do you believe in magic? Or Magik?
Is it a Hanshin Tiger?
We’ll test out the magic. Wouldn’t mind hearing some Wilco...
Teedge - If you are deliberating whether/how many times to watch Money Plane, I'm happy to give you a full review.
Based on the reaction on my twitter feed, I cannot believe I haven’t watched it 6-9 times already.
Happy to elaborate, but 2 brief selling points (and really that might be all you need):
1. Kelsey Grammar serving up a quintuple decker ham sandwich as the antagonist
2. All three Lawrence bothers (Joey, Matt, Andy) prominently involved in front of and behind the camera.
I had the distinct feeling that everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing.
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