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Second Thoughts
When Saturday Comes
|January 2018
Roberto Baggio’s penalty in 1994, Holland’s double disappointment in the 1970s, Bayern’s late 1999 heartache – defeated finalists have created some of the game’s most enduring images, to which players at all levels can relate
As captain it was my job to go up and col-lect the cup. I may have been 12, but I knew when I was being patronised. We hadn’t come close to winning the Eastleigh District League Cup final, yet here I was, being presented with the fair play award. This was no doubt dreamed up as some kind of consolation prize to ease the disappointment of defeat in a big game. Losing 8-0 was bad enough, but if I needed consoling it was after having to lift that thing in front of a congregation of parents which included my own.
Yes, you get a day out and a medal when you reach a final, but when you’ve built up a runners-up collection like mine you start considering semi-final defeat as a blessing in disguise, something you can forget about. Between 1991 and 2005 I played in six cup finals. I’m yet to win one, so I cringe when I hear pundits harping on about nobody remembering the losers in a cup final. The losers are all I tend to remember.
This story is from the January 2018 edition of When Saturday Comes.
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