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Pastimes : soccer fans -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: X Y Zebra who wrote (21)	5/27/1999 10:49:00 AM
From: George Papadopoulos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24

A miracle? British press says it was more than that By STEPHEN WADE AP Sports Writer LONDON (AP) -- A miracle? That's how at least one British newspaper described Manchester United's improbable 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the final of the European Champions Cup. ''The tabloid Daily Mail termed it ''football's equivalent of turning water into wine'' and judged the game ''the most dramatic night ever for British football'' as substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in second-half injury time. There was no shortage of hyperbole as another tabloid, The Daily Mirror, went so far as to describe the Wednesday triumph in a banner front-page headline as ''The greatest 2 minutes in the history of sport.'' ''Football? Bloody Hell'' read a headline in The Sun, quoting the first words from United coach Alex Ferguson -- being touted for knighthood -- after the team's first European Champions Cup title in 31 years. ''King of Europe'' said The Express, calling the victory the ''most dramatic comeback in football history.'' The quick-to-attack tabloids have been the fiercest critics of English soccer's recent lack of success. The game went into decline after all English clubs were banned from European soccer for five years when 39 people -- mostly Italian -- died in 1985 at Heysel Stadium in Brussels in rioting caused by English hooligans. On Thursday, the same tabloids declared English soccer the best in Europe. The French sports daily L'Equipe added, ''God is English.'' In large type, the Daily Mail set off a quote from Sir Bobby Charlton, the hero of England's 1966 World Cup-winning team and the leader of the last Man United team to win the Champions Cup (1968). ''After so long in the wilderness, we have something to show for being the best,'' Charlton said. The newspaper also summed up the Germans' fate: ''Bayern simply fell apart.'' The tabloids also put a predictable anti-German, jingoistic spin on several headlines, conjuring up images from World War II that always seem to surface when England plays Germany in any match. ''Our Subs Sink Germans'' bellowed The Sun. ''Two subs sent on, torpedoes away,'' added the Daily Mail. Not to be outdone, the Daily Star's front page blared ''Hunbelievable.'' Inside, the newspaper added: ''Super-Subs Sink Krauts.'' ''Manchester United and Alex Ferguson last night found their Holy Grail,'' began The Times' Page 1 story. The Daily Telegraph called the victory before 90,000 in Spain ''one of the most astonishing finales in European football.'' The Guardian summed it up this way. ''It was an astonishing setting to host the astonishing climax to an astounding season. Barcelona's (stadium) ... reduces the most resolute of spines to jelly. And that was before the kickoff.''