The Greatest Game

Almost seven years ago to the day, I experienced the greatest sporting moment of my life.  And while I’m only 27 years old, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which this specific memory will not stand the test of time as one of the greatest sporting moments of my life, even when I’m way past sporting age.

It’s so special because of how intimately involved I was in the event - not in the actual play on the field - but in the months and months of build up to the epic day. I had spent the better part of the 4 months prior to this event serving practice fodder for one of the best teams in all of college soccer, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.  While I made it into a couple games that season, my most important role was to challenge the first team squad every single day in hopes that it would pay off for our team down the road.

So 7 years ago as I sat on the frigid bench in Columbus, Ohio and watched my teammates battling Stanford in the national semifinals, there was a substantial part of my heart and no shortage of my dreams invested in the result.

You can imagine my disappointment, then, when Stanford came out in the first half and put on a display of skill and savvy which we could only hope to emulate.  They were confident and collected, and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

In the 2nd half it was more of the same, and suddenly Stanford got another goal to put them up 2-0 with less than 15 minutes to play.

My heart sank with that 2nd goal.  But at the same time I had an understanding of just how momentous the ride had been.  “It’s been a great season”, I allowed myself to think.  Little did I know just how much was yet to come.

With ten minutes left in the match, David Testo spun around two defenders and shot speculatively from 25 yards.  It was a shot that at first screamed of desperation, or a flailing attempt to simply get something on goal.  Yet there was nothing desperate about the execution, as the ball rocketed towards the upper corner of the net to make it 2-1.

In the matter of seconds, we had life again, and the creeping suspicion that the magic sports phenomenon known as momentum was on our side. Our hypothesis less than two minutes later when we earned a free kick deep in Stanford territory.  The action that followed was dizzying: Crossing pass. Header off crossbar. Scrum in box. Half volley. Back of net. Ecstasy.

It took less than two minutes for our season to go from certain death to unbridled life.  It would take close to an hour afterwards, through 4 overtimes, before the result was settled.  It was then that Mike Gell made it past all the Cardinal defenders to slip the winning goal by the Stanford goalkeeper.

It’s hard to describe the euphoria which followed, or the quiet realization of every guy in the locker room that day of how very special the experience had been.  For that specific moment, the final which was yet ahead of us held little importance - for we had just been to the brink of elimination and somehow lived to tell about it.

Two days later we did play the final, and in considerably easier fashion, defeated Indiana 2-0 for UNC’s first men’s soccer national championship.

So, like I said, almost seven years ago to the day, I experienced the greatest sporting moment of my life.  And today, Elmar Bolowich and the UNC men’s soccer team is playing in its first final four match since that momentous day.  Their opponent is defending champion and ACC foe Wake Forest, a team that some are calling the best college squad in the last 10-15 years.

It looks like the Heels will be hard pressed to repeat the results of 2001 - or perhaps the stage is set for yet another ‘greatest moment ever’.