2016: The Year of the Underdog?

In the first five months of 2016 the world has lost what some think is an inordinate amount of celebrities.

From Alan Rickman and Ronnie Corbett in the UK, Prince in the US to the Congolese singer Papa Wemba, it does at times seem like the famous are dying off at quite a rate. Of course, this is arguably only even noticeable because of tools like Twitter Trends. Surely most of us in the UK wouldn't have heard of Papa Wemba without social media.

The BBC say they've been running more obituaries than usual, and let's be honest, as the Baby Boomers reach their seventies the frequency with which they will pop their proverbial clogs is going to increase.

The Sixties, what a time to be alive they said. With the rise of TV, popular music and seemingly accessible celebrity, the number of celebrities has been rising since. And with more celebrities comes more celebrity death.


So why don't we focus on something else? 

2016 is shaping up to the be the real year of the Underdog.

Politically, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership victory may have been 2015, sure, but their recent victory (Okay, "not loss") in local and regional elections was arguably a real turning point in the discourse around his electability.

Trump, whilst one might not like to accept it, was just 12 months ago a rank outsider in the Republican Party. He can't be seen as a good old fashioned British underdog, fighting his way through poverty and adversity on his way to the top. But he was seen as a joke by damn near everyone. Now he's steamrollering his way to the Convention, and maybe, it's true, the White House.

And sport! What a year it's already been for sport!

Leicester City.

There's almost no need to add anything to that. Their tale has been a magnificent one, their rise from the third tier of English football, to kings of the land has been remarkable. A team of underdogs, for underdogs, with underdogs.

The Six Nations championships even produced a win from a team that might not have been expected to produce such a performance. After England's embarrassing exit in their own Rugby World Cup, the only host to ever (Yes. Ever.) fail to qualify from their group, they hired a new coach and mounted a brilliant comeback. Not only a Championship win, but a Grand Slam. They literally beat everyone. It was their first Grand Slam in 13 years.

And, though it's more niche of a sporting arena, cycling is getting bigger in the UK, and therefore we should mention Mat Hayman.

The veteran Australian, 38 this year, has been a professional for 16 years. In that time he'd won 5 races, committing his effort to supporting team leaders. That is, apart from the Spring Classics season, where he has been given free reign to try and win the races he really loves, the Tour of Flanders (de Ronde) and Paris-Roubaix.

And this year, the rider many among the pro-peloton say was the most deserving of that win actually managed it. After 15 attempts, the nearly-man of Australian cycling had his rock (the winner of Paris-Roubaix is given one of the course's famous cobbles as a prize).

And as if that isn't enough, on February 27 he was in a heap on the ground with a broken arm, after crashing during the Omloop Het Niewsblad race. Fast forward to 10 April, and there he is, top step of the podium.

A real victory for the underdog. "One for the good guys", as his teammate Luke Durbridge put it.


All years have their tragedies, and all have their success stories. Let's make 2016 the year of the optimist. While we celebrate those whose time is up, let's not lose sight of the here and now.

Especially when it's the 5000/1 outsider winning the biggest football league on the planet.

Leicester City 2-2 West Ham United

With European football well within their reach, West Ham United visited league leaders Leicester City on Sunday.

In a game dominated by a red card and two penalties, Leicester manage to keep their title hopes alive, and West Ham fans can still believe that their team can qualify for European football next year with a 2-2 draw.

Leicester came into the game on a tide of good form and with a boisterous and expecting home crowd.

They started with the same strong team whose success has landed them at the top of the table, with talisman Jamie Vardy leading the attack, alongside his Algerian strike partner Riyad Mahrez.

Andy Carroll, West Ham’s hat-trick hero from last weekend began the game on the bench, as manager Slaven Bilic preferring Nigerian striker Victor Moses to the Englishman.

The decision would prove a good one, as Moses persistently pushed at the Leicester City defence, and worked well with Mark Noble on several occasions. But they never quite broke down the strong Foxes defence, lead by their indomitable leaders Robert Huth and Wes Morgan.

After a nervous first eighteen minutes with West Ham winning several free kicks on the edge of the penalty area and Cheikhou Kouyaté managing to deflect one of Payet’s efforts past Schmeichel before hitting both posts, Jamie Vardy opened the scoring with a brilliant left footed drive.

Mahrez and Kanté broke from the halfway line, and Kanté passed beautifully into Vardy’s stride. The West Ham defence angrily called for offside, but the officials made the right decision, as the King Power Stadium crowd burst into applause and chants of “We’re going to win the league”.

A few minutes later, in what would turn out to be a vital moment, Jamie Vardy tackled Kouyaté around halfway, and although not a serious foul, it was from behind and probably deserved the yellow card Jonathan Moss deemed it worthy.

That was perhaps the beginning of the trouble for both sides, as tempers began to rise, and Dimitri Payet was soon booked for a painful looking tackle on Vardy. Again a tackle deserving of the yellow card given.

It remained 1-0 at the break.

When the teams returned to battle, Andy Carroll was brought on for the ineffectual Pedro Obiang.

His impact was immediate, as although both teams started again with pace and purpose, and Vardy worked two half chances, Carroll’s aerial threat was used to great effect in a clear change of tactics by Bilic.  

Marc Albrighton had looked at half-pace all day, and was substituted for Jeffrey Schlupp just before the hour mark as Leicester tried to react to the renewed vigour of the Irons attack.

Leicester continued to look the better side, and Okazaki soon beat his marker on the left wing to drive a low ball across the face of goal. If Vardy had been a second quicker to react, in the words of Claudio Ranieri, the score could easily have been 2-0. But he wasn’t. And only a minute later the game would be changed irreversibly by a contentious and, at least with home fans, unpopular decision.

As Vardy ran on to another piercing through ball from the midfield, his legs tangled with the retreating defender, and they both tumbled to the ground inside the penalty box.

It looked immediately like a penalty, and as the crowd bayed, and the referee blew a sharp blast on his whistle, it seemed as though the Foxes loyal following would get their wish.

But in fact, Mr Moss had seen the affair in an entirely different light to the majority in the stadium, and even a significant number in the press box.

Jamie Vardy was penalised for diving, and to the distress of 30,000 Leicester fans, was shown a second yellow card.

Unsurprisingly in such a situation, involving a player not known for his long temper, a scuffle followed and rumours later surfaced that Vardy had used some, let’s say, choice language towards the officials. No doubt we’ll hear more of that story later tonight, though Ranieri told the post-match press conference that he had no idea if such an incident had taken place.

The game seemed to progress in Leicester’s favour and they never gave up the attack, despite being under huge pressure from a West Ham side who could clearly smell blood. But Wes Morgan was judged to have pushed Winston Reid as a corner was swung in by Payet, and Mr Moss pointed to the spot.

Andy Carroll, relaxed and professional, planted the penalty in the right hand corner, sending Kasper Schmeichel the wrong way.

And from there, the game lit up.

West Ham continued to press, and the home side held on well and even escaped on several counter attacks. But just three minutes after Carroll equalised, an Antonio cross dropped to Aaron Cresswell on the Hammers’ left wing, and with a beautiful stroke, the defender volleyed the ball past a desperate Schmeichel into the top right hand corner.

As Leicester fans started to file out, and the four minutes of added time wound down, Andy Carroll, once the West Ham hero, brought down Schlupp in the penalty area. Perhaps the contact was minimal, but the Leicester fans I spoke to after the final whistle saw the decision as retribution for what they believe was the unfair dismissal of their striker Vardy. In post-match interviews, Carroll made it clear that he also believed the decision to Moss's attempt at levelling the game after such an important sending off.

Up stood Leonardo Ulloa and blasted the ball past the talented Adrian. 90+5 minutes gone, and almost literally the final act of play.

2-2. A worthy draw, but surely frustrating for both camps as the sending off utterly changed the game, and even with an extra man, West Ham couldn’t finish off what would have been an important win in their charge for the Europa League.

My "New Arab" Articles

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