By John Mehaffey
LONDON (Reuters) - Confounding the odds in the finest traditions of schoolboy sporting fiction became commonplace during 2005.
In May, Liverpool recovered from a 3-0 halftime deficit against AC Milan to win the European Cup on penalties in Istanbul.
In July, London was unexpectedly selected to host the 2012 Olympics ahead of Paris.
Then on a September day at the Oval in London, the England cricket team finally recaptured the Ashes from Australia after striving unavailingly since the 1986-7 series to beat their oldest enemy.
Billionaire owners made their mark in football. American tycoon Malcolm Glazer took control of Manchester United, angering fans by imposing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt on the club.
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The spending power of Russian Roman Abramovich helped Chelsea to win the English League title for the first time in 50 years.
In Germany, referee Robert Hoyzer was jailed for two years and five months for rigging games in return for payment in a scandal which deeply embarrassed authorities preparing to host the World Cup.
Allegations of match-fixing also dogged China’s Super League which had financial problems as well with players from 2004 champions Shenzhen Jianlibao going on strike because they had not been paid for two months.
Brazilian forward Ronaldinho, who guided Barcelona to the Primera Liga title, was named European Footballer of the Year and has been tipped to retain FIFA’s World Player of the Year title on December 19. He also took the inaugural FIFPro World Player of the Year trophy awarded by his fellow professionals.
Brazil were dominant in South America, finishing top of the two-year, 10-team, 18-match World Cup qualifying marathon.
Sao Paulo were crowned continental champions with victory in an all-Brazilian Libertadores Cup final against Atletico Paranaense in July, qualifying for this week’s World Club Championship in Japan.
KIDNAP ORDEAL
Argentine-born Ruben Omar Romano, coach of one of Mexico’s richest clubs Cruz Azul, survived a 65-day kidnap ordeal only to be fired less than three months after returning to his club.
Tens of thousands of fans gathered in the rain in Belfast to pay their final respects to former Northern Ireland and Manchester United winger George Best who died in November after years of heavy drinking.
In cricket, the outcome of the 2005 Ashes series, acclaimed as the greatest in history, hung in the balance until the final afternoon of the five-test series.
Shane Warne proved he is not just the best leg spinner ever but probably the best bowler of any type as he bowled throughout the day. For England, Kevin Pietersen struck seven sixes in his match-saving 158 not out.
While Britain celebrated, Australians had a year to forget.
Their rugby union team, World Cup finalists two years ago, lost eight out of nine games. Coach Eddie Jones was a predictable victim and Wallaby captain George Gregan, who won a record 115th cap in the loss against France, is likely to join him in the wilderness.
Their rugby league team lost their first test series since 1978 when they were destroyed 24-0 by New Zealand in the Tri-nations final.
The U.S. sporting year began with the New England Patriots winning their third Super Bowl in four years. Their 24-21 win over the Philadelphia Eagles represented a ninth consecutive post-season victory, equalling the record of Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers.
It concluded in October with the Chicago White Sox completing a 4-0 sweep of the Houston Astros in baseball’s World Series. The team from the windy city had not won a series since 1917.
In the Australian Open tennis, Russian Marat Safin harnessed his talent and controlled his temper to end Roger Federer’s grand slam dream before it had started.
Federer then succumbed to Spanish teenager and eventual champion Rafael Nadal on clay in the semi-finals of the French Open.
By Wimbledon Federer was back to his best, and he won the final two grand slam tournaments of the year with majestic ease.
CUP WIN
The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, refocused after the distractions of recent of years to win a grand slam each. Croatia beat the Slovak Republic 3-2 to win the Davis Cup for the first time.
Tiger Woods missed the cut at the Byron Nelson event in May after a record 142-tournament streak but otherwise his revised swing was in good order with wins in the Masters and the British Open golf. A typical late charge was not enough to prevent New Zealand’s Michael Campbell winning the U.S. Open and Phil Mickelson took the U.S. PGA.
Fernando Alonso took over from Michael Schumacher as the world Formula One champion, winning the title in Brazil after the longest season in history comprising 19 races. He celebrated again in Shanghai when he gave Renault their first constructors’ title.
Lance Armstrong extended his winning record in the Tour de France to seven consecutive victories but was then embroiled in one of the drugs controversies which continue to haunt cycling.
French sports daily L’Equipe said it had evidence that Armstrong had used the blood booster EPO (erythropoietin), the drug at the centre of the Tour’s 1998 doping scandal, in the following year’s race.
Armstrong denied the allegations, accusing the newspaper of conducting a witch hunt.
Athletics, another sport plagued by dope busts, welcomed a new 100 metres world record holder in Jamaican Asafa Powell.
Powell reduced Tim Montgomery’s world record by a hundredth of a second to 9.77 seconds but missed the Helsinki world championships because of injury. Montgomery, who did not make the U.S. team, was still waiting at the end of the year to learn if he would be banned for life for serious doping offences.
In their absence Justin Gatlin won the 100-200 double and Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who recorded the first women’s five-metres clearance in London in the previous month, set her 18th world record.
Two years out from the World Cup the balance of power in rugby union swung decisively back to the southern hemisphere as the British and Irish Lions were thrashed 3-0 in their series against the New Zealand All Blacks.
The All Blacks then beat Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland on successive weekends to complete only their second grand slam.
