I’m still in shock for Benfica because despite the dominance
for 120 minutes in the Final, the curse still came to pass. *sigh*
It took the Boston Red Sox 86 years to break the Curse of
the Bambino, while for the Chicago Cubs, it's 104 years and counting. So in the
annals of great sporting hoodoos, Portuguese football club Benfica has a way to
go.
However, after eight defeats in European finals since
1962, it becomes harder to deny that the club's Bela Guttman curse lives on or
it was a strong one.
The Portuguese club was arguably the better side over the
120 minutes of Wednesday's Europa League final, but ultimately lost 4-2 to
Sevilla on penalties after the match ended goalless
Let us take a look at some Notable Sports-Related curses
in Sport;
·
CURSE OF 1940: The Curse of 1940 was a
mythical explanation for the failure of the NHL's New York Rangers to win the
Stanley Cup since 1940. It was broken when the Rangers defeated the Vancouver
Canucks 4-3 in 1994.
·
CURSE OF '51: The Curse of '51 allegedly
prevents Mayo from winning the Sam Maguire Cup ever again, or at least until
the death has occurred of every member of the last winning team from 1951. It
remains unbroken—despite the team reaching the Final on seven occasions since
then, they have either completely collapsed on the day or been undone by a
series of other unfortunate events.
·
ANDRETTI CURSE: Since winning the
Indianapolis 500 in 1969, auto racing legend Mario Andretti was plagued with
unexplainable bad luck in his efforts to win the great race for a second time
before his retirement in 1994. The misfortune at Indianapolis has notably
extended to his sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John, as well as grandson Marco.
It is also said to have affected, to an indirect extent, his twin brother Aldo,
former car owners Paul Newman, Carl Haas, and Newman's successor Mike Lanigan
at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.
·
CURSE OF THE BAMBINO: Some allege that there
was a curse placed on the Boston Red Sox, who failed to win a World Series
after 1918, apparently due to the selling of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
Before the sale, the Red Sox had won four titles in seven years (1912–1918).
After the sale, the Yankees went on to win 26 World Series Championships. The
"curse" was broken when, after 86 years, the Red Sox defeated the St.
Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 0 in the 2004 World Series (before the Series, the
Sox had come back from a 3-games-to-0 deficit, a first in MLB history, to
defeat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium for the American League pennant).
·
CURSE OF BÉLA GUTTMANN: Béla Guttmann, a
former Hungarian footballer and then manager, joined Benfica in 1959 and
coached the team to two Portuguese Ligas, two European Cups and one Portuguese
Cup title. In 1962, after his second European Cup title, he asked for a pay
rise but had his request turned down despite the great success he achieved at
the Lisbon club, also having his contract terminated. Then, he cursed the club
declaring: "In the next 100 years no Portuguese team will win two European
titles and Benfica will never be champions of Europe again without me."
Even though F.C. Porto managed to win two European Cups in 1987 and 2004
breaking the first part of the curse, Benfica has appeared in five European Cup
finals and three UEFA Cup/Euro League finals since 1962 and lost all eight
matches.
·
CURSE OF BIRMINGHAM CITY F.C: English
football side Birmingham City F.C. played 100 years under a curse from 1906 to
2006.[19] As the legend goes, the club moved from nearby Muntz Street into its
current location at St Andrew's, building the stadium on land that was being
used by the Romani people. After they were forced to move, the angry Romani
people put an 100-year hex on the stadium. This curse is similar to one placed
on Derby County FC.
Throughout the years many Birmingham
City F.C. managers would try to remove the curse but with little success.
Former manager Ron Saunders tried to banish the curse in the 1980s by placing
crucifixes on floodlights and painting the bottom of his players' boots red.
Another manager, Barry Fry, in charge from 1993 to 1996, urinated in all four corners
of the pitch after a clairvoyant said it would break the spell. On Boxing Day
2006 the curse was finally lifted and on that day Birmingham City F.C.
celebrated a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers F.C.
·
CURSE OF BOBBY LAYNE: In 1958, the Detroit
Lions traded Bobby Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Layne responded to the
trade by supposedly saying that the Lions would "not win for 50
years". This story has been disputed as being a hoax, particularly because
the quote was never published at the time.
Still, for the next 50 years after the
trade, the Lions accumulated the worst winning percentage of any team in the
NFL. They are still one of only two franchises that have been in the NFL since
1970 that have not played in a Super Bowl (the other team is the Cleveland
Browns, but because of the three-year franchise suspension after the 1995
season, the Lions' streak is longer).
·
CURSE OF DERBY COUNTY F.C: English football
side Derby County FC were placed under a curse by a group of Romani Gypsies who
were forced to move from a camp so that they could build their stadium the
Baseball Ground. The curse was that Derby County would never win the FA Cup. This
mirrors the curse placed on Birmingham City F.C.
Despite reaching six FA Cup semi finals
between 1896 and 1903, including three finals, they never managed to win the
trophy. The next time they reached the final was in 1946 against Charlton
Athletic. In the build up to the final, a representative from the club went to
meet with Gypsies in an attempt to lift the curse. During the Match, with the
score tied at 1-1, the ball burst. It has since been seen by fans of the club
as the moment the curse lifted. Derby County went on to win the match 4-1.
Can we now say Curses and Superstitions
are REAL?
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