Europe’s dramatic comeback in last weekend’s Ryder
Cup has has the sporting commentariat reaching for the superlatives. One of them was the claim that this was one
of the biggest comebacks in sporting history.
Big claim.
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Luke Donald tee's off as that fightback is about to start... |
In truth, Europe’s fightback was always a distinct possibility,
given that the European golfers had not performed to their own high standards
during the Foursomes & Fourballs.
What was a surprise was how much certain members of the US
team crumbled, in the same way that the European golfers crumbled in 1999 at
the infamous Brookline Ryder Cup.
So, if the “Miracle
of Medenah” is not the most remarkable comeback in sport, then what is? Liverpool’s own Miracle in Istanbul is often touted as one of the great
fightbacks, often overshadowing one from Manchester United’s back catalogue. In the European Cup semi final in 1999 they
had drawn 1-1 in the home leg against Juventus.
At the Stadio Dele Alpe Juventus went 2-0 up very early on in the second
leg and were looking to be in the ominous form that they were in when they won
this competition three years earlier.
Manchester Utd clawed their way back into the game and nabbed a vital
away goal through a Roy Keane header.
This broke the Juventus spell as the began to fade out of the game as
Manchester Utd took more of a grip, levelling the game with a Yorke goal 11
minutes before half time and then going on to get a winner with 6 minutes left
through Cole.
The Autumn of 1999
saw another, much more improbable fightback when France
came from 24-10 to beat New
Zealand 43-31 and reach the Fourth Rugby
World Cup final. New Zealand were heavy favourites for this
tournament, including most of the side that lost to South Africa in 1995, including
Lomu and Mertens, as well as new find Christian Cullen. However France
turned things around early in the second half to not only beat New Zealand but also sowed some seeds of doubt
in the minds of New Zealand
rugby players – it was a hex that was only banished with last years win.
Snooker has seen
two monumental comebacks that should be considered. Stephen Hendry’s comeback from 14-8 down to
win 18-14 in the 1992 World Championships is considered one of the great
comebacks, but overshadows another.
People forget that in the famous “Black Ball final” of 1985, Steve Davis
whitewashed Denis Taylor in the afternoon session on the first day 8-0 before Taylor took 7 out of the
8 frames in the evening session.
The granddaddy of
comebacks has to be the Rumble In The Jungle, the legendary boxing fight
between George Foreman & Muhammed Ali that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire
in October 1974. Ali had come back from
his ban and lost to Joe Frazer in 1971.
Frazer then lost to George Foreman, who then demolished Ken Norton. Ali and Foreman agreed to the fight, with
Foreman the strong favourite. As early
as the second round, Alli resorted to his “rope a dope” tactics – designed to
tire Foreman. To the watching media,
this looked like madness, but as the fight entered the fourth round Foreman
began to look tired. Ali pounced in the eighth
round to set the seal on a remarkable comeback.
Europe’s comeback
last week was not in the same league because the Ryder Cup was generally though
to be nip and tuck anyway, and that Europe
could not possibly have played as badly again as they had done over the first
two days. That’s not to take anything
away from a huge achievement, especially on enemy territory.
