For whatever reason, I found myself watching the Nottingham Forest-Chelsea English Premier League soccer match Saturday.
I have no affinity for either club, had no action on the match, and – really – was surprised I didn’t see Little John and Robin Hood running about the pitch what with its location and all.
Nevertheless, there I was watching the penultimate match of the season for both teams and grew further transfixed as I began to learn what was at stake.
Forest was battling to lock up EPL play again next year (a win or draw would do enough to ensure this) and Chelsea is keeping it’s UEFA Europa Conference League spot by finishing in sixth place.
To be clear, these clubs were in sixth and 17th place respectively entering the match.
If this was a game played in an American professional sports league, it would have been viewed – at least by Forest fans – as a meaningless match that likely would have seen their visitor’s fans infest their stadium.
In this instance, however, the Forest faithful were fully engaged and nearly toppled the field when Callum Hudson-Odoi scored a beautiful marker in the 74th minute to give Forest a 2-1 lead. Alas, it was short-lived as Chelsea scored twice within two minutes not even 10 minutes later.
Chelsea wound up winning 3-2 and kept alive it’s hopes of European play and Forest is still at risk of relegation (though it will take a massive swing in goal differential to get bumped).
How fun would it be to see late-season matchups like this with something similar at stake for our American teams?
Rather than the (fill-in-the-blank team) playing out the string with reserves or call-ups seeing the majority of action in the waning months of the regular season, they are fighting for their lives to stay in League A or qualifiy for the extra spoils of a continental or hemispherical championship?
I know, I know, as my buddy John U. Bacon continues to remind us: Greed is undefeated. It’s not likely to happen in my lifetime but, perhaps, for my grandchildren they’ll be able to maintain late-season interest through the finish?