The Most Painful Soccer Match I've Ever Watched

Last Sunday night, Mexico's Liga MX, its premier professional soccer league, held the final match in its 2015 Apertura championship playoffs.  The two teams left vying for the title were university-based pro teams UNAM of Mexico City and UANL of Monterrey, usually respectively known simply by their feline nicknames Pumas and Tigres.  The final round, as did the earlier ones, consisted of two games, with the contestants taking turns hosting them.  The first leg of this series had been held last week at Monterrey, with Tigres...the team I have been supporting...winning convincingly, 3-0.  Now the championship is based on the two-game aggregate goal total, so with Sunday's match in Mexico City my Tigres had quite a substantial lead.  Very few thought that Pumas could stage a comeback from that much behind.  So I sat down in front of my TV set at 9:30, comfortably and complacently expecting Tigres to easily just coast on to the championship.  I should have known better...

For almost all of the first half (45 minutes) of the Pumas-Tigres finale, Tigres put up a strong defense...as they are know for...and shut out their opponent while maintaining control of the ball most of the time.  As action was winding down, I thought that keeping that 3-0 advantage with only one half to go was a great success on the part of Tigres.  But then, suddenly, with only seconds to go in the half, Pumas somehow managed to slip in a goal.  Now the sum total was 3-1 Tigres.  Not to worry, though...my team still had the big advantage.  That advantage diminished further early in the second half when Pumas came up with another score, making the lead now only 3-2.  For the next 30-35 minutes, it was all about Pumas attacking the goal over and over again, just missing scoring on a number of occassions.  It was painful enough for me to watch this, especially after I originally had though I would have an easy game.  But it did look as if Tigres would hold off Pumas...that is, until once again as THIS half was closing and Pumas scored again, tying it all up 3-3...

Now regulation time had ended and the two teams would have to play two 15-minute overtime periods to determine the winner.  The TV announcers (on UniMas Channel), who all seemed to be on the side of Pumas, were so giddy with excitement that I had to turn down the sound to be able to withstand it all.  Amazingly, Tigres were able to score a goal near the end of the first overtime period, giving them a 4-3 lead.  And they held it well, all the way up to the end of the second overtime period...when they, for a third time, gave up a late goal to Pumas.  That made it 4-4 and the contest was headed to a penalty kick shootout...

By this time I was so frustrated at the way this game had gone that I was convinced that Pumas would eventually win.  But the first Pumas penalty kicker failed while the Tigres players were excellent in the shootout...Tigres prevailed on penalty kicks 4-2 and somehow managed to hold on and win the championship.  But it sure wasn't very fun to watch...