Europa Cup: Fulham vs. Atletico Madrid

V.

UEFA Europa league championships were held yesterday. It is a second tier cup below the Champion's League, which both of these teams were knocked out of earlier in top European play. That is the title that Barcelona were knocked out of last week by Inter Milan.

In the semi-finals of the Champion's League Barça went down after failing to overcome the 3-1 loss of the first game in Milan. Instead, they scored one goal at home but didn't overcome the deficit of the week before. 2-3 cumulative. Bye-bye champion's league.

Those hopes were slashed months ago for At. Madrid and Fulham. Excellent teams of European play's second tier, they had to duke it out in London. It was a tough game that showed Atletico's Spanish passing struggle to catch fire. They scored once, only to have the English side answer about seven minutes later. Then the tough winds blew and the ball stayed away from the goals. Hesitation from Atletico's strikers, though they had lot's of opportunities. My boy was talking about Eto'o playing for At. Madrid... That would be badass.

They went to overtime, and played an additional 30 minutes, looking half-haggard. At the 118th minute, one of the Atletico plays finally broke through their place of frustration. Score. They celebrate--the Madrid supporters ecstatic as the English fans begin to re-sharpen their fatalism.

All the drama unfolding in interrupted bursts from the heavily broken down feeds to the game; it's hard to watch football on the internet. The games--the marquee ones at least--are so hyper-protected by UEFA copyright holders that any signals which are uploaded are quickly pulled. This equals: Finding a good signal, consistently refreshing the page as it fails, then finding a back-up feed in the inevitability that the previous channel collapses. Repeat. Repeat.

This was a long game, so hosts weren't ready to broadcast the OT. It was murder to watch. Tense. For the players, supporters, commentators, and the poor scum at home trying to watch the game for free.



Rolling Stones, 'Connection'