Havant & Waterlooville

I love soccer. And one of my favorite things about it is the FA Cup.

For you non-soccer fans, England's FA (Football Association) Cup is a nationwide tournament staged every year. And a few hundred teams enter it each from from the heavyweights like Manchester United, Chelsea and the rest of the famous top division teams to pub league teams (the English version of our rec league softball teams). This year 731 teams entered it.

Today, Liverpool (a legendary, top-flight club) beat Havant & Waterlooville (a semi-pro team) in a tournament match played at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium.

H&W's starting goalkeeper works construction during the week. Another starter is a school teacher, one's training to become a London taxi driver, one is a delivery driver, one's a garbageman and another is a janitor. Liverpool's average starter makes more money playing one soccer match than these guys do in a full year of work. Liverpool's captain told a newspaper he'd never heard of the team before seeing they'd have to play against them. Liverpool is ranked more than 100 places above H&W.

Liverpool won 5-2. But that's not the story. The game was tied at halftime, 2-2. In fact, H&W led 1-0 and then 2-1 in the first half. Bookies in England gave 60/1 odds that wouldn't happen.

Can you imagine the feeling the H&W players had at the half? I'd have paid cash money to have been in that locker room.