[TheCacti]

As someone who's played soccer and tennis for a decent portion of their life, I've experienced a fair share of memorable moments as a player, but nothing compares to one soccer/football match that I'd attended one night in Prague, Czech Republic.

It was a Champions League qualifier between SK Slavia Prague and Ajax Amsterdam in the late summer of 2007. Slavia had surprisingly pulled off a 1-0 win in the first leg in Amsterdam, and so all that stood between the club and its first ever Champions League appearance in its history was a tie or win, and they were playing in front of the home crowd.

The Evžena Rošického stadium is moderately sized and it even sold out. But still the old guard of Slavisti (faithful Slavia supporters) and their younger counterparts, including the ultras, were all packed together into the north stand, creating a vibrant and boisterous atmosphere, although never feeling dangerous. Everyone was feeling optimistic, but still anxious because the opponents, Ajax, were a formidable force and this team at the time contained the likes of Luiz Saurez, Jaap Stam, and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

Slavia had gone ahead 1-0 in the first half with a goal from Stanislav Vlček and sent the place completely mad. But Saurez equalized later on to keep everyone on the edge of their seat. Then on a breakaway late in the 2nd half, Vlček again slotted home to seal an impressive 2-1 win.

At the final whistle came a sea of joy that washed through nearly all people in the stadium, including players, staff, fans, and even vendors. It was pure euphoria. I saw what looked like a father with an arm around his son as they watched the players celebrate, and the older man looked like he was on the brink of tears. Everyone was turning to each other, offerings smiles, handshakes, and toasts to complete strangers. Mind you, Czech society is a relatively closed one, where strangers generally don't interact with each other, but it was impossible to subdue the good spirits on this night. I'd never experienced anything like it, and it was my best sporting moment as a fan.

From that night in Prague:


Here are the match highlights for those interested:

[Jay]

I'd say the final day of the Adelaide test match in the 2006/07 Ashes. The game was hurtling towards a draw, but the absolute legends of the game came together to pull off an amazing win.

I was there for the first few days but like most, thought the game was done and watched it unfold from home. Amazing scenes.

[mrpain]

For me, it was probably years ago when I attended my first soccer match live. It was my country VS Malaysia and I think it was the semi-final for the Asian Cup or something. Yes I'm talking about soccer.

It was 2-2 by full time and later on there was a penalty shoot-out. It was insane, everybody's scoring goals. Then it came down to my country's goalkeeper, Lionel Lewis, to make the final save to win the game.

The whole crowd was chanting 'SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!' and hell I me and my brother was too. Then I heard the sound of a leg kicking the ball which was followed by the sound of the ball hitting a chest. Everyone started jumping up and down the stadium including me and my brother. I had never felt happier at that time.

[02fishera]

The best moment as a supporter for me is without a doubt the 2010 Championship Play-Off Final between Blackpool and Cardiff City. Having been a Blackpool fan since the mid nineties, I could never have dreamt that the club would ever achieve not only promotion to the Premier League but also to hold their own against England's elite clubs. I remember the never ending nervousness the I felt in the week leading up to the final, I was positive that we were going to lose the tie having been the underdogs for not only the final but pretty much the entire season. (We were relegation favourites at the start of the season.)

The atmosphere around Wembley throughout the day was electric but the mood dropped at our end when Cardiff took an early lead before our then star man, Charlie Adam sent the Blackpool fans into raptures after equalizing with a perfectly struck free kick. Cardiff went back ahead minutes later, but we showed the resilience that we've become known for in England to pull ourselves level for a second time as Gary Taylor-Fletcher scrambled the ball into the Cardiff net. Then on the stroke of half time, veteran striker and modern day Blackpool legend Brett Ormerod bundled the ball past the Cardiff keeper to put us in front for the first time. The ref then blew for half time, thus ending the best 45 minutes of football I've ever seen.

The second half was a completely different story, Blackpool found themselves having to defend for much of the half as Cardiff pushed for an equalizer. Cardiff striker Michael Chopra struck the bar, but other than that, they didn't really look much like scoring as our defence stood strong, allowing us to grind out the win and promotion. As soon as the ref blew for full time, I found myself nearly blacking out with excitement amongst the 40,000 Blackpool fans at one end of the stadium whore were overcome with joy.

I spent much of the journey home in shock as I struggled to get my head around the fact that we'd made it to the Premier League. It was an achievement that I never thought I'd live to see fulfilled, especially when I consider than 10 years ago, I'd stood on a terrace at Barnet, watching us lose 7-0 and sinking to second from bottom from the lowest tier of the English League.

[Runey]

The Carolina Hurricanes winning the 2006 Stanley Cup, bringing North Carolina its first ever top flight professional sports championship.

[darthYENIK]

Of course I'm gonna go with the championships...

2002 World Series...

Going from 2 down in the series, to forcing a game 7, and winning. It was something special. I really bonded with my dad over that playoff run.

And of course, my all time favorite, 2007 Stanley Cup finals...

The Ducks went to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003. Then to the Western Conference Finals in 2006. But in the 2006-07 season, with Pronger playing with Niedermayer, and Selanne and a health J.S. Giguere, among others, it was almost not a question of will they win the Stanley Cup. Some are saying that this team was the best team ever. Or at least put up there with the best of them. As a fan, that entire season, I was never afraid that they would lose. They were so incredibly dominant. Offensively and especially defensively. When the shutdown line of Pahlsson, Rob Niedermayer, and Travis Moen were out there, it was damn near impossible to score. Not only did you have to go through them. But you had to go through two past Norris Trophy winners, and a goalie who once won the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) for the losing team.

I'm so f*cking excited for hockey to start back up, after watching that video.

[JOSEPH X]

Wow there's so many! But when Andy Cole sealed the victory it was the first time I ever cried at a sporting moment - it even brings a lump to my throat now. It was such a great and dramatic game too and coming back from the despair of being 2-0 down got to me. I even ran into the bedroom where my gf was on the phone, "Sh!t, look I'm crying!!" lol.



Working on the commonwealth games as a litter picker was another great one, met loads of athletes, had a great time and got paid!

[King Kapone]

Looking at how it's going so far, my favorite sports moment will come when the Eagles win a game.

[Icarus]

Mine is a Canadian moment from the Canadian Football League. Yeah, I know... bite me.

The game was the 97th Grey Cup (our equivalent to the SuperBowl) being held in Calgary with the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Montreal Alouettes. Saskatchewan practically dominated the game, but in the fourth quarter, Montreal came back to get the score 27-25 for the Roughriders in the last few minutes of the game. In the dying moments, in order to try edge out of the Roughriders, Damon Duval from the Alouettes decides to kick a 43-yard field goal to get three points on the board, but he missed (went wide on the right).

As this was pretty much the end of the game, Saskatchewan was sure they won, so they started partying and celebrating. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of flags on the field and it turns out Saskatchewan had too many men on the field, so a 10-yard penalty was assessed against them, allowing Duval to kick from the 33-yard line. This time, he makes it and Montreal wins the Grey Cup with a score of 28-27.

Saying Saskatchewan fans were pissed would be an understatement.

[Scifen]

One of my favorite moment in sports is when the New Orleans Saints won the NFC championship against the Minnesota Vikings, the game was so good to be true it almost felt scripted. It could have even been considered to be the actual Super Bowl game.

I sat at the edge of my seat the entire game, and I jumped for joy when the rookie Garrett Hartley split the uprights in overtime.



NFL game of the decade

[Senex Iunior]

The entire year was magical, especially in light of the fact that we had no more Manning. But the best was that second game against Florida with the OT win.



I couldn't have been prouder of any sports team, even if it had been the Lions pulling that upset; not even my Titans' Music City Miracle matched this. I despise the New England Patriots more than any sports franchise in any league in history, and to see their perfect season crushed in the final minutes of the Super Bowl before 114 million people...

This post has been edited by Senex Iunior on Thursday, Oct 13 2011, 00:11

[Sakuya]

QUOTE (Scifen @ Tuesday, Oct 11 2011, 13:12)

One of my favorite moment in sports is when the New Orleans Saints won the NFC championship against the Minnesota Vikings, the game was so good to be true it almost felt scripted. It could have even been considered to be the actual Super Bowl game. I sat at the edge of my seat the entire game... NFL game of the decade

Agreed, even though it was my team that lost. The Saints were simply a better team, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think they deserved it and their subsequent SB win.

This is my favorite sports moment in recent memory, and I'm not even an Eagles fan. The video doesn't do it justice, but I couldn't find a video of the complete comeback that wasn't overlain with some sh*tty song. I was pulling for the Eagles in the game, and they did pretty sh*tty for the first 3 and a half quarters, when in the last 7 and a half minutes, they staged a crazy comeback, which culminated with this:

You do not kick the ball to DeSean Jackson.

This post has been edited by Sakuya on Thursday, Oct 13 2011, 01:20

[Vanilla Shake]

One of the most joyous occasions of my life was the winning touchdown for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. The wild-card Giants were up against Tom Brady and the undefeated New England Patriots, who had 17 wins. With 35 seconds left in the game, the score was 14-10 with NE on top. They had to get the TD. With it being a 4 point game, a field goal wouldn't give them the lead. It was accomplish this without making a mistake, or go home as losers. Eli Manning's pass to David Tyree who caught the ball with his helmet that helped to get us in position for the score was already posted. The excitement I felt immediately after this play made me feel as if I was there at the game, cheering on Big Blue from the stands and going absolutely crazy. New York won it all 17-14, while New England's much-predicted perfect season was snapped to 17-1 when they lost the game that mattered the most.

Happiest moment of my sports fan life.

[SweatyPa1ms]

Champions League Final 2005... AC Milan go 3 - 0 up before half time and Liverpool fight back to win it.

The best comeback of all time in football in my opinion. What ever Steven Gerrard said after his first goal is what won them the match. I'm not even a Liverpool supporter but this is just amazing and what football is all about.

edit: There was a great video of this on youtube but its been removed by UEFA because football is governed by morons .

This post has been edited by SweatyPa1ms on Friday, Oct 14 2011, 08:33

[Cuban Warlord]

My favorite sports moments of all time are as followed.

5. Cubs Vs. Marlins NLCS Game 6 " The Bartman Incidence" - Cubs outfielder getting foul ball stolen from him by a fan and they wound up losing the game and series.

4. Kobe scores 81 - 2006 against the Toronto Raptors

3. New York Giants defeat The Unbeatable New England Patriots and dashing their perfect season. - 2008 Superbowl XLII. The Giants had no chance according to experts and it was almost like David Vs Goliath.

2. US Womens Soccer World Cup 1999/2011 - An amazing game in 1999 where Brandi Chastaine kicked the GW PK to beat China. Then in 2011 a crazy win over Brazil and close loss to Japan in the Gold Cup Match.

1. "The Comeback" ALCS 2004 - The Red Sox were down 3 games to nil and after two walkoffs by David Ortiz and a Bloody Sock by pitcher Curt Schilling the Red Sox ended the curse of the bambino and won the franchises first title since 1918.

[hambones]

my favorite sports moment was being in the stadium for game 5 of the 2006 world series. i've been a cardinals fan my whole life and got to go to the game with my dad and my brother, we had amazing seats and got to see our team win it all. i still have my ticket from that game.

[TUBBSthezombie]

Its a tie for me...

Marshawn "Beastmode" Lynch's 67 yard touchdown run against the Saints in the play offs last year. Widely regarded as at least one of the top 5 runs in playoff and NFL history if not the top run in playoff history. The crowd in Qwest Field in Seattle was so loud that it registered on a richter scale outside the stadium. i believe it was a 3.2 or some thing around there. That play goes down as the best play in Seahawk history with ease





And also the Seahawks entire 2005 Season. One of the best teams in the league that year with the best offensive line in the league, the best corps of line backers, and the best running back/Full back duo. A remarkable season that unfortunately ended in agony for Hawks fans as they lost in Superbowl XL (40) possibly due to some spotty officiating.





And also the retirement of surefire Hall of Famer Left Tackle Walter Jones (a stalwart on that 2005 offensive line). Widely regarded around the NFL as the best Left Tackle to play the game, in Jones' 12 years he only gave up a sack on .04 percent of the snaps he took. Soft spoken, horribly unknown star that contributed to the Seahawks best seasons as an NFL franchise. The Seahawks made his number 71 the third number retired in Seahawk history after Hall of Fame Wide Receiver Steve Largent and their rabid fanbase known as the "12th Man".

[Notna]

When Finland won the world championship of ice hockey, this year, 2011. And it was even against Sweden, our nemesis! (I don't really know why is it so, I don't see anything bad in Sweden...)
It feels so amazing, after 16 years, it's again us!

As a player, in floorball, those moments when I've scored. Just great feeling.

[something_else]

The semi-final of the F.A. Vase as my home town team confirmed their place in the final at (the old) Wembley is definitely the best sporting event I've been at, closely followed by the final itself, even though we lost on the day.

Man Utd's 3-2 victory over Juventus in the 98/99 season and of course the final in Barcelona are up there as well. I still get goosebumps when I hear Clive Tyldesley's "and Solskjaer has won it!" line.

[Viperman]

Either my first British championship round win at deansmoor, 2008. or the introduction of riders infront of 20k spectators at the Munich supercross, 2007. Saying that, 2008 pont du vaux was epic too. Had too many surreal moments in my quadcross career to say for sure my favorite.