The 3-1 lead has taken a beating this year. The Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers also blew 3-1 leads in the NBA playoffs. The Cleveland Inidians blew a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
In the "year in review" pieces declaring 2016 the year of the blown 3-1 lead, one notable choker has consistently been overlooked.
Borussia Dortmund.
Saying the words "Adam Lallana is the key to the Premier League's most high-powered offense" feels weird. It does not roll off the tongue. You think "did I just say that?" and, after a few moments, realize you did say that, and that you meant it, because it's true.
This is not a thing that seemed like it could ever be true as recently as this summer.
Here are a couple of tweets I have tweeted about Adam Lallana:
Nicolas Cage is making/has made a movie called Arsenal, which, from the trailer, you might not think is about soccer, specifically not about the North London-based EPL team of the same name.
But it is.
For a non-soccer, more Nicolas Cage-focused take on the trailer, read UPROXX's Brian Grubb on the subject.
For me, it was an old VHS tape called Ooh Aah Cantona - The Cantona Phenomenon that changed everything. Before the days of soccer on ESPN or NBCSN, well before the era of YouTube skill show compilations and with the lasting memories of the 2002 World Cup seared into my mind, I was introduced to Eric Cantona.
The number seven emblazoned on his red shirt, striding around the pitch with dad bod physique, his collar upturned and with all the beguiling qualities of an existential Frenchman on his third glass of absinthe, Cantona was a side of football I’d never seen before.
Tottenham have apparently forgotten which holiday is approaching, and I think that's great. A picture from the club's Christmas party revealed the players had dressed up in costumes like it's Halloween.
It doesn't have to be Halloween for wearing costumes to be a good idea. Any holiday can work, or any day, really. Tottenham aren't letting convention define them, and that's great. Now, to the costumes.
The Merseyside derby was today. It had everything you'd expect from such an occasion: tackles, fouls, more fouls, lots of fouls, all the fouls, every foul, grabbing, holding, kicking, Ross Barkley doing something extremely stupid, Jordan Henderson stomping around with his chest puffed like a guy who's had a few too many and thinks everyone is looking at his girlfriend, more fouls and exactly one goal.
But what a goal.