Miracle Man

Sunday I went down to my new favorite sports bar, Slainte's Irish Pub & Restaurant in Fells Point, to watch an English Premiere League soccer match between London crosstown rivals Arsenal and Chelsea. I had planned to go alone, but my girlfriend surprised me when at the last minute she asked, "Do they have food there?" Sure, I assured her. "OK, I'll go." It was a match made in Heaven. She ate a gut-busting Irish omelette while I gourged myself on one of the most exciting matches I had seen since the World Cup. American football fans would yawn to hear that the result was a 1-1 tie, but it was far from listless. The two clubs went at each other with an amazing intensity, fighting and clawing - and even "diving" (the Drogba-Lehmann theatrics were the stuff of Keystone Kops slapstick!) - for a full 90 minutes, right down to the stoppage whistle.

Anyway, Arsenal was all set to hand Chelsea its first home loss since Jose Mourinho took over at Stamford Bridge in 2004 until this miraculous shot by Ghanian superstar midfielder Michael Essien salvaged a point for the home team. This is an amazing exercise in trajectory physics that I just had to share:



Q: How does anyone stop a shot like that?

A: They don't!