Best Sporting achievement ever

[Aus Fox]

11 minutes ago, davieG said:

Especially when you considered England have never won it.

 

Wiki

 

The European Championship is one of the major competitive international football tournaments, first played in 1960. The finals stage of the tournament takes place every four years, with a qualifying competition beforehand. The 15th staging of the finals took place in France in 2016, with an upcoming 16th tournament to be held across Europe in 2020.

The England national football team first attempted to qualify for the finals of the tournament in 1964, having declined to enter in 1960. They first qualified in 1968, and have since participated in the finals on nine occasions (with an upcoming tenth appearance in 2020) – including in 1996, when they were the host nation and thus did not need to qualify.^[1][2][3]

England's best performances at the finals were a third-place finish in Italy in 1968, when only four teams competed, and a semi-final on home soil in 1996, when they lost to Germany on penalties.^[4] The team has reached the quarter-finals on two other occasions, losing to host nation Portugal on penalties in 2004 and to Italy in Ukraine in 2012, also on penalties.^[5][6][7] They were eliminated in the round of 16 by Iceland in France in 2016. On the other four occasions (1980, 1988, 1992 and 2000), they did not progress beyond the group stages

Euro 96 was and always will be the greatest of all football tournaments. The football was great, the atmosphere was great, the music was amazing at the time everything was a buzz from the first kick to the last.

What a time to be a football fan!

[purpleronnie]

19 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Euro 96 was and always will be the greatest of all football tournaments. The football was great, the atmosphere was great, the music was amazing at the time everything was a buzz from the first kick to the last.

What a time to be a football fan!

And a reflection on the country as a whole, a very optimistic time.

[Thefox81]

49 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Euro 96 was and always will be the greatest of all football tournaments. The football was great, the atmosphere was great, the music was amazing at the time everything was a buzz from the first kick to the last.

What a time to be a football fan!

My first ever England game as a 15 year old was when we hammered the Dutch 4-1 with all of their stars. I was hooked and still am. Been too many tournaments since and the amount of countries ive visited through qualifiers and friendlies is staggering.

[rachhere]

The 5000-1 story will forever be the best story for me. However, having been there to witness the final in person, I would also have to pitch Andy Murray and Team GB winning the Davis Cup. In order to win the cup, they had notch up twelve match wins over the course of the four ties that they played, with Andy playing in eleven of those winning matches (I think 3 in doubles, the rest in singles, all played over best of 5 set matches). Thinking of the tie against France in particular, just how hard he had to dig to get through and win three matches in three days. That final lob to win the trophy in Belgium was just incredible - will never forget that moment. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

On 29/03/2020 at 19:39, Izzy said:

The answer is obvs us winning the PL but outside of that I'd say the Miracle at Medina Ryder Cup in 2012.

 

At one stage Europe were trailing 10-4 then won the last two Saturday four ball matches with Poulter unbelievably birdying his last 5 holes to make it 10-6

 

Even then the US were still massive favorites but somehow Europe not only retained the cup but miraculously won it.

 

That final day is probably the best sporting drama and achievement I've ever seen and like the equivalent of being 4-0 down away at halftime and coming back to win 4-5

 

Idk how a whole continent beating one little country can be classed as a big achievement 

[Izzy]

7 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Idk how a whole continent beating one little country can be classed as a big achievement 

Because there are 30 million registered golfers in the US and only 5m in Europe.

 

The US tour is much richer and more competitive than the European Tour and US golfers tend to dominate the World Rankings.

 

Europe may be a 'whole continent' but outside of GB&I it's very much a minority sport in most of Europe.

 

[The Horse's Mouth]

7 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Because there are 30 million registered golfers in the US and only 5m in Europe.

 

The US tour is much richer and more competitive than the European Tour and US golfers tend to dominate the World Rankings.

 

Europe may be a 'whole continent' but outside of GB&I it's very much a minority sport in most of Europe.

 

Still a whole continent mate, the little US being beaten by 44 countries doesn't really stand out to me personally 

[Izzy]

3 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Still a whole continent mate, the little US being beaten by 44 countries doesn't really stand out to me personally 

Fair enough but the 2012 European team was actually only represented by 6 countries (6 players from UK, 2 from Spain, 1 Belgium, 1 German, 1 Sweden, 1 Italian)

 

You could equally argue that the US is made up of 55 counties (states) and the population of European counties combined that actually play golf is probably less than that of the US.

 

Anyway, I guess you're not going to be convinced 

[ozleicester]

On 31/03/2020 at 18:37, Facecloth said:

Were the other Dad's running through treacle? 

be honest... social distancing meant you were all running in different directions and anyway its school... everybody wins

[Nick]

1 hour ago, rachhere said:

The 5000-1 story will forever be the best story for me. However, having been there to witness the final in person, I would also have to pitch Andy Murray and Team GB winning the Davis Cup. In order to win the cup, they had notch up twelve match wins over the course of the four ties that they played, with Andy playing in eleven of those winning matches (I think 3 in doubles, the rest in singles, all played over best of 5 set matches). Thinking of the tie against France in particular, just how hard he had to dig to get through and win three matches in three days. That final lob to win the trophy in Belgium was just incredible - will never forget that moment. 

Rach. Andy Murray simply can’t be at the centre of any story that should be raised in this thread. And if he can, then there should be rules made against this immediately.

[The Horse's Mouth]

Andy Mugray get a grip

[rachhere]

5 hours ago, Swan Lesta said:

Rach. Andy Murray simply can’t be at the centre of any story that should be raised in this thread. And if he can, then there should be rules made against this immediately.

 

5 hours ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Andy Mugray get a grip

brb, off to the tennis thread to round up a support squad

[UpTheLeagueFox]

You can make a good case for a number of sporting things being 'the greatest achievement'.

Equally you can do the same for 'the greatest story'.

 

LCFC fall into both categories.

Whether it's the greatest achievement or greatest story doesn't hugely matter.

The fact we did what we did over eight years in the modern era (from Div3 to CL quarters) we should be massively proud.

[Nalis]

Its such a wide term that can be interpreted in so many ways.

 

An achievement could be over a career or a one time event.

 

Therefore, I'm going for Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds 100m world record. Hard to believe it was 11 years ago.