Reasons why I love football #2: The weirdest match ever played

Continuing my series of reasons as to why I love this sport so much; I came across a story on my friend’s Facebook page, which was referred to as the weirdest football match ever played. I checked the details and was not left disappointed. If you trust Wikipedia, then you will love what you are about to read.

In the 1994 Caribbean cup, there was an unusual match between Barbados and Grenada.

Grenada went into the match with a superior goal difference, meaning that Barbados needed to win by two goals to progress to the finals. The trouble was caused by two things. First, unlike most group stages in football competitions, the organizers had deemed that all games must have a winner. All games drawn over 90 minutes would go to sudden death extra time. Second and most importantly, there was an unusual rule which stated that in the event of a game going to sudden death extra time, the goal would count double, meaning that the winner would be awarded a two goal victory.

Barbados was leading 2-0 until the 83rd minute when Grenada scored making it 2-1. Approaching the dying moments, the Barbadians realized they had little chance of scoring past Grenada’s mass defense in the time available, so they deliberately scored an own goal to tie the game at 2-2. This would send the game into extra time and give them another half hour to break down the defense. The Grenadians realized what was happening and attempted to score an own goal as well, which would put Barbados back in front by one goal and would eliminate Barbados from the competition.

However, the Barbados players started defending their opposition’s goal to prevent them from doing this. And during the game’s last five minutes, the fans were treated to the incredible sight of Grenada trying to score in either goal, while Barbados defended both ends of the pitch. Barbados successfully held off Grenada for the final five minutes, sending the game into extra time. In extra time, Barbados notched the game-winner, and according to the rules, were awarded a 4-2 victory, which put them through to the next round.

Woah, can you believe that, I really wished I was in the audience for this match . What a story, football never ceases to amaze me.