This afternoon, at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time, Arsenal Football Club, a professional soccer team of whom I am both a fan and a supporter -- and, as some of their own "fans" have proven, there is a difference -- will play a UEFA Champions League match.
They will be at home, at the Emirates Stadium in North London, and will play Philips Sport Vereniging, or "Philips Sport Association," of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. (Eindhoven is in Brabant. Not "Holland." Saying someone from Brabant is for "Holland" is like calling a Scotsman "English" -- or a Texan a "Yankee.") That team was formed by Philips, the former electronics giant, which is now focused on health technology. Along with Ajax in Amsterdam and Feyenoord in Rotterdam, they are one of the "Big Three" of Dutch soccer, and were 2nd in the Dutch league, the Eredivisie, last season.
Arsenal made the Champions League every season from 1998-99 to 2016-17. They never won it, and only reached the Final once, in 2006. They got to the knockout stage every season from 2003-04 to 2016-17, but lost in the Round of 16 every season from 2010-11 onward. (The role that the officiating played in these defeats is a story for another time.)
To some fans, getting there every year was a great success. To others, getting there every year, but losing in this fashion, was a failure. And seeing other English teams -- Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and now Manchester City, with Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa having previously done so -- win it was considered unfortunate by the former group, and a grand humiliation by the latter.
And yet, once Arsène Wenger, the manager who built this achievement, and had also won 3 Premier League titles and a record 7 FA Cups, including 2 "Doubles" and the 2003-04 "Invincible" season, left in 2018, the latter group seemed to be just fine with missing the CL entirely, and reaching the Final of the secondary European tournament, the UEFA Europa League, under new manager Unai Emery.
Well, that Final was a disastrous loss to Chelsea, and the team's best player, Mesut Özil, could be seen yelling at Emery, "I swear to God, you are not a coach!" And he proved it the next season, giving Arsenal its worst start in memory. He was fired, replaced as a caretaker manager by former team star Freddie Ljungberg, until another former Arsenal star, Mikel Arteta, could be acquired. He took Arsenal to the 2020 FA Cup, and to a 2nd place finish last season, and into the CL this season.
And so, Arsenal will take the pitch today against PSV. It will be their 1st Champions League match since March 7, 2017, a 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich at the Emirates, completing a 10-2 aggregate loss, to then as now, the dominant team in Germany.
I would tell you what I wrote about it at the time, but, apparently, I wrote nothing about it at the time. Though I did write about Arsenal the day before, ripping the "Wenger Out Brigade," pointing out that he had spent a lot of money on "world-class players," and it hadn't worked. Therefore, in their "diseased minds," as I put it, it must be his fault, not the players', and certainly not the WOB's for giving in to their demands.
It's been 6 years, 6 months and 12 days. How long has that been?
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Here was Arsenal's starting XI: Goalkeeper David Ospina; right back Héctor Bellerín; centerbacks Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny; left back Nacho Monreal; midfielders Granit Xhaka, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey; right wing Theo Walcott; left wing Alexis Sánchez; and centre forward Olivier Giroud.
Substitutes who got into the game, all in the 72nd minute: Mesut Özil for Alexis, Francis Coquelin for Ramsey, and Lucas Pérez for Giroud. Listed as available substitutes, but not getting into the game: Goalkeeper Petr Čech, left back Kieran Gibbs, and centreback Gabriel Paulista.
Among those on the roster, but not listed for the game, due to injury, insufficient experience, or perhaps some other reason: Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez; centrebacks Per Mertesacker and Rob Holding; midfielders Santi Cazorla, Mohamed Elneny and Ainsley Maitland-Niles; and forwards Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi.
Of those 26 players, 6 1/2 years later, only 1 is still on the Arsenal roster: Elneny.
Let the record show that Arsenal were leading 1-0 (albeit trailing 5-2 on aggregate) on a goal by Walcott when Koscielny was sent off with a bogus red card in the 53rd minute, and that all 5 of Bayern's goals came after that.
This Arsenal team finished 5th in the Premier League, 18 points behind League winners Chelsea and 1 point behind 4th-place Liverpool, keeping them out of the 2018-19 Champions League. But they won the FA Cup, beating Chelsea in the Final. Real Madrid of Spain beat Juventus of Turin, Italy in the Champions League Final.
The titleholders in American sports were the Chicago Cubs in baseball (it still doesn't seem possible), the New England Patriots in football, the Cleveland Cavaliers in basketball, the Pittsburgh Penguins in hockey, and the Seattle Sounders were the holders of the MLS Cup. The WBA and the IBF recognized Anthony Joshua as the Heavyweight Champion of the World, while the WBC recognized Deontay Wilder.
Since then, the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals have won their 1st World Series, the Philadelphia Eagles their 1st NFL Championship since 1960, and the Kansas City Chiefs their 1st Super Bowl since 1970; the Toronto Raptors their 1st NBA Championship, and the Milwaukee Bucks their 1st since 1971; and the Washington Capitals, the St. Louis Blues and the Vegas Golden Knights their 1st Stanley Cups.
The Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers have opened new ballparks; the San Diego Chargers have moved to Los Angeles, and the Oakland Raiders have moved to Las Vegas; the Chargers, the Raiders, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Atlanta Falcons have opened new stadiums; the Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken have begun play; and those NHL expansion teams, the New York Islanders, the Arizona Coyotes, the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors have opened new arenas.
All the major league sports teams in the New York Tri-State Area have changed their manager or head coach at least once. As hard as it is to believe, the senior field boss in New York now is Aaron Boone of the Yankees, hired on December 4, 2017.
Duck Dynasty, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, The Americans, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Veep, Game of Thrones and Drunk History were still on the air.
And Queen Elizabeth II, Chuck Berry, Whitey Ford and Tom Seaver, among others, have since died.
March 7, 2017. Arsenal played a UEFA Champions League game. They have not played one since.
That ends today. Hopefully, in victory.