1. Liverpool vs Manchester United
Liverpool get their title campaign back on track with a win against their most bitter of rivals in a dramatic 2-0 victory at Anfield. Goals from Fernando Torres and David Ngog seal the win for the Reds.
2. The NFL in London
The NFL returned to Wembley Stadium for the third time in three years as the New England Patriots destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35-7 in front of nearly 90,000 fans.
3. Jensen Button – World Formula One Champion
Jensen Button sealed his first Formula One World Championship in Brazil after leading the Drivers Championship since the beginning of the year. The Brawn driver made it two wins in two years for British drivers after Lewis Hamilton’s win in 2008.
4. Valentino Rossi – World MotoGP Champion
Valentino Rossi won his seventh MotoGP World Championship in Malaysia with one race to spare. The Italian, who many consider the best to ever race motorbikes, finished the race in third place for the Yamaha team.
5. Barcelona lose to Rubin Kazan in Champions League
This week saw one of the biggest shocks ever to take place in the UEFA Champions League as European Champions Barcelona went down 2-1 at home to Rubin Kazan. The Russian Champions are taking place in their first ever Champions League and were virtual unknowns outside of Russia before this season.
This week was highlighted by last minute wins from two of the biggest teams either side of the Atlantic so let’s start with them:
1. Michael Owen scored a dramatic late goal to seal victory for Manchester United in one of the great derby matches of all time. It was the coolest of finishes from a classic predator striker. Instead of the goal (which you’ve probably seen five times already), enjoy this clip from Sky’s fanzone:
2. 11 points down with 5.35 left on the clock; things were looking bleak for the Patriots in last week’s NFL game against the Buffalo Bills. Fortunately they have someone called Tom Brady at quarterback and 2 touchdown drives later, the Pats walked off the pitch with a 25-24 win under their belt.
3. Hole-in-one for 1 Million dollars? No problem:
This was a week for the big boys. They showed us that form is temporary but class is permanent, that the cream will always rise to the top, that the business end of the season is upon us and that the world of sport loves a good cliche. So here’s our countdown:
1) Golf – Tiger Woods produced a Tigerish performance to overhaul Padraig Harrington and win the World Golf Championship at Firestone. It all happened at the par-five 16th hole where Woods struck a magical 8 iron to give himself a birdie and the lead, after the Irishman carded a disastrous triple bogey. Luckily for the rest of us we’ll get to see the two of them pair up at the USPGA Championship on Thursday.
That 8 iron…
2) Cricket – Australia levelled the Ashes series in emphatic fashion on Sunday afternoon by inflicting an ‘innings and 80 runs’ defeat (that’s huge if you’re not much of a cricket fan) on England. Plenty of great moments from the Aussies but we’ll go for Marcus North’s century as our favourite.
3) X-Games – Travis Pastrana is an X Games legend. Unfortunately even legends get it wrong occasionally, as happened with this Toilet Paper Roll attempt at X Games XV. Read more
Check out the action from the first leg of Laureus: Breaking the Cycle of Violence…
I’m in Manchester getting ready for the ‘Grand Depart’ tomorrow. OK, so it’s not exactly the Tour de France but I’m pretty sure I’ll be feeling it after a week.
This afternoon I’m visiting a football project called Kickz, run by the Manchester United Foundation. I’m going along with Hugo Porta, the Argentinian Rugby Legend, who has kindly agreed to join me along the whole route (I’m hoping he’s not going to embarrass me!). We’ll be doing a few cycling competitions with the young people from the project and it should be a lot of fun.
Laureus will be taking a few pics and some video footage, which should be up later today.
