European Cup Final

[arana peligrosa]

Does anyone watch these now ?. Last one I saw in it's entirety was Madrid and Leverkusen in 2002, just simply lost the enthusiasm in subsequent years but managed to keep track of bits and pieces from todays game.

Add to that it's too commercial these days (as with all other sports) and whatever occurs on the field sometimes comes a poor second to advertising saturation. Barcelona just had a 3 - 1 win to pick up another win but isn't the "champions" league for champions ? whereas teams that finish in third or fourth place in their respective leagues can now participate. How many times since this introduction have we seen teams win the main event when they're not even champions of their country, something about this has an odor to it.

Miss the old days when English teams such as Forest, Liverpool and Aston Villa would win the final game to be champions and simply by putting together a fine team without need for stupid money, investment, or the aforementioned commercial aspect of it all. For those of an age not to recall, between 1977 - 84 the competition was won by an English team every year expect one. I often wonder how Ipswich would have done in 81 -82 had it been us in the tourney instead of Villa, with that team of the time we could just have easily have made the final and gone on to win it. (as they did)

Best final ? - probably 2000 from a personal point of view

Worst final ? - 2005, the least said the better

Most memorable final ? - Probably 1999 even though all the excitement seem to occur in the last two minutes

Most forgettable final ? - Would say 2005 again but without any hint of bias, Bucharest and Barcelona in 1986 - it was abysmal

Best European Cup winning team ? - It's too easy to say this Barcelona team of now, so going to pick Milan 1989 or possibly Ajax from '71

[James Scharmann]

Sorry had to laugh reading this

Best Final 2000 Real Madrid 3 Valencia 0

Worst and Most Forgettable Final 2005 AC Milan 3 Liverpool 3

Sure you got your finals mixed up as I think the complete opposite to your statements

[arana peligrosa]

Sorry had to laugh reading this

Best Final 2000 Real Madrid 3 Valencia 0

Worst and Most Forgettable Final 2005 AC Milan 3 Liverpool 3

Sure you got your finals mixed up as I think the complete opposite to your statements

My favorite teams outside of Ipswich are Madrid and Everton, do I really need to paint a picture.

The latter was a horrendous experience that while enjoyable for the first 45 minutes degenerated into something approaching disbelief and more profanities than Nil By Mouth. Even to this day I don't know how Milan lost it - great for the neutrals - but sheer f**king horror when you're rooting for one team over the other only to see a defeat in such circumstances, I've done my best to erase it from memory

And Yes, needless to say Liverpool became "champions" of Europe, without even being champions of their own league..

As for 2000, Yes perhaps it wasn't the greatest final, perhaps it wasn't the most memorable final, but from a personal perspective it was a good year and Town's (then) recent play-off win over Barnsley made it all the better.

[marko69]

'79, Forest Malmo......, Trevor Francis diving header at back post. Great final.

But in recent times, sorry Saint, its 2005, AC v Liverpool. Most memorable for everyone I would think.