DC Sports: Leicester City - Underdogs to Champions

Excerpt from DC SocialPulse: The Challenge Rivals III - The Premiere posted earlier,

re-posted as a separate post in the interest of soccer & sports fans worldwide

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

Now, we turn from America's fifth major pro sport to the world's most popular sport and probably the most unlikely underdog story you'll ever hear about - either in sports or anywhere else. And if we only thought what we saw with Jenna & Vince on Wednesday or what Devin did on the AYTO Season 3 finale last year was amazing, it's minuscule compared to the story that's marveled the sports world and whose climax came this week, culminating with earlier today across the pond when they hoisted the most sought-after trophy in all of the United Kingdom.

Fifty-two weeks ago last Monday was Super Sports Saturday: American Pharoah's run to the Triple Crown, the Clippers knocking out the Spurs, and that fight - among other things. This time, May 2nd will mean so much more if you live in the East Midlands of England. Last year, we kicked off our Summer of Sports series with a look at the English Premier League - the most-watched & most-followed soccer league in the world. And while we're just five months in, when people look back on 2016 in sports, they'll look back at how a team who was 5000-1 when the season began last August overcame enormous odds and went on a fairy tale ride to football immortality.

   When the 2015-16 Premier League season began back in August of last summer, defending champions Chelsea were pegged by Sky Bet as 13/8 favorites to retain their title, while Manchester City was 5/2, Arsenal was 7/2, Manchester United was 5/1 and Tottenham Hotspur 100/1. If you thought the gap between the Power 6 that form the top conferences in NCAA Division I FCS, then consider most of the attention in the Premier League is focused on those teams, Liverpool, Everton and other clubs with history, huge payrolls, the best players and facilities that trump those of other clubs who don't have as much a worldwide reach as them. The same goes to Real Madid and F.C. Barcelona in Spain's La Liga.
   And way back in the pack in that morning line was Leicester City at 5000-1, and absolutely no one outside of the East Midlands gave them a chance to win the title, no less be likely favorites to be relegated back to the second tier of the English football pyramid, the Football League Championship, which they won back in 2013-14 to earn promotion to the big time. Aside from a historic comeback win over Man Utd. where they wiped away a 3-1 2nd half lead to score 4 unanswered goals, LCFC was at the bottom of the league table midway through the season, before escaping from relegation late in the season with 7 wins in their last 9 matches.

   Despite that, during the summer manager Nigel Pierson was fired after news leaked of son and LCFC player James Pierson having a role in a racist sex tape made by three Foxes players while on a postseason trip to Thailand; the son was also dumped by the squad as well. Former Chelsea manager and good humored Claudio Ranieri was appointed as his successor prior to the season to much skeptics after he was fired from the Greek national team, and nobody could predict the kind of start that they would go on. At the same time, Ranieri's old club experienced a miserable start to their title defense and led to the sacking of manager Jose Mourinho when they fell to 16th place in December.

   The one that turned the tide in the favor of the Foxes was a record-setting streak. Striker Jamie Vardy went on a tear by scoring 13 goals in a span of 11 consecutive matches from August to Thanksgiving weekend in November, besting the previous Premier League record of scoring in 10 straight games held by Ruud van Nistelrooy. The next month, Leicester went to Everton and notched a 3-2 road win to go to the top of the league table on Christmas: a total 180 from where they were one year earlier. A loss to Liverpool on Boxing Day saw them drop to 2nd place after Vardy's streak propelled them to a solid unbeaten streak. Amd after a 1-1 draw with the club who would eventually be relegated - Aston Villa, Leicester City returned to the top of the table, and it would stay that way the rest of the way.

   LCFC's success was aided not only by the struggles at Chelsea, but also at Arsenal where a poor start, a winless drought in late winter and draws in the spring became too much for Arsene Wanger and company to overcome. With the two Manchester clubs conceding to play for places in Europe, Tottenham Hotspur, with no top-flight league title since 1961, emerged as Leicester's biggest threat, aided by a 6-match winning streak in mid-winter to bring them into 2nd place and into contention up until last Monday. After Leicester drew 1-1 at Old Trafford last Sunday, Spurs ran out to a 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, but two goals by the Blues, and tempers flaring with 9 yellow cards, saw their challenge fade out with a 2-2 draw.

    the moment the final whistle blew, celebrations sprang out across the East Midlands, including both Vardy's house where his entire squad watched that game, in pubs throughout town, and of course all around the world. The Prime Ministers of Britain and Italy expressed their congratulations, as did Mourinho, former manager Martin O'Neil and EPL chairman Richard Scudamore. And for one of LCFC's biggest alumni who was a striker for the team, saved the club from bankruptcy and hosts the BBC's Match of the Day, Gary Lineker made a joke that he would host the football highlights program in just his underwear if his team won, and now he has to follow through on that promise.

   Another person who's had a front-row seat to this ride is a fellow Leicester resident who's brought this historic run back to America. When NBC first made its foray into soccer in 2012, they brought aboard the voice of one of American sports' most-rabid fan bases, Seattle Sounders play by play man Arlo White. Little did they know that his hometown club would ultimately top the soccer world in becoming what he calls "the most universally popular Champions in Premier League history" and adds, "Leicester City’s rise to glory is a story that is captivating the world. To be bottom of the table with seven games remaining one season, and seven points clear at the top, is unique and mind bogglingly impressive. They set a wonderful example of the rewards that teamwork, determination and fearlessness can bring.  It’s a magnificent tale."

   This is the first time Leicester City can lay claim to being champions of England in their 132-year history, and only the 6th club to lift the Premier League trophy. They're also the first outside of the Big Five to do so since 1995 and Alan Shearer's Nottingham Forest. Quite a remarkable rise for a club who played in England's third tier, Football League One, back in 2008-09, and whose payroll amounted to £54.4 million, or $78.5 million/U.S. - less than a quarter of those of the top teams not only in England but world football. And for oddsmakers in Britain, the stunning nature of the Foxes' title run has seen them pay out £25 million, or roughly short of $36.1 million, and forcing UK bookmaker Ladbrokes to never put a 5000-1 odds again on any club for winning a title.
   The Foxes join the Miracle on Ice U.S. hockey team, the '69 Mets, Namath's Jets, the '04 Red Sox, defending U.S. Open champ Flavia Pennetta, James "Buster" Douglas, Holly Holm and, yes, the Season 3 AYTO Cast, in defying all odds and expectations to surprise everybody. This is why we love the underdog, and with Leicester City winning the EPL title, it once again proves this adage that when something surprises in competition, it gives hope that David can beat Goliath. Maybe, could Jenna & Vince go all the way to the title after what we saw this week? Could an AYTO pair cash in their first two MTV appearances? Could we have a final without Bananas/Sarah and/or Nany/Wes? It's a long way off, but ask Leicester City: anything's possible.

- DC