Top row, left to right: Ray Parlour, David Seaman,
Dennis Bergkamp, Martin Keown, Emmanuel Petit.
Bottom row: Patrick Vieira, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams,
Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry and Sylvinho.
Today, at 2:45 PM U.S. Eastern Time, Arsenal Football Club will host 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., the German soccer team commonly known as simply 1. FC Köln, of the city usually printed as "Cologne" in English-language media, at the Emirates Stadium in North London.
It will be Matchday 1 of the UEFA Europa League for the 2017-18 season.
Every season since 1997-98, Arsenal had qualified for the larger, more prestigious continental tournament, the UEFA Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup.
But in the 2016-17 season, Arsenal only finished 5th in the Premier League, and only the Top 4 teams qualify for the next season's Champions League. Therefore, Arsenal only qualified for the Europa League.
This tournament was known as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup from 1955 to 1971, and Arsenal won it in 1970. It then became the UEFA Cup, and in 2011 the name was changed again, to the Europa League.
The last time Arsenal played a match in it was in the 1999-2000 season. They only finished 3rd in their Champions League group, which dropped them into the UEFA Cup. They got to the Final, playing Galatasaray of Istanbul, Turkey, at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. This location was considered a good sign, as it was the site of the last European Final of any kind won by Arsenal, the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup, for defending champions of each country's national cup tournament.
(That tournament was phased out, and, since 1999, national cup winners, as Arsenal were last season, qualify for the Europa League. Arsenal would have done so had they not finished 5th or 6th in the Premier League.)
There was tension in the air. In the Semifinal, Galatasaray had beaten another English club, Leeds United. But in the Istanbul leg of the Semifinal (each side gets a home game in the knockout stage), Gala hooligans had stabbed 2 Leeds fans to death. Rumors ran rampant that an English "superfirm" of all the major club-oriented gangs would team up to take the Turkish fans down. They were doing it more for Leeds than for Arsenal, as the other English clubs hate Arsenal (though many, under their breath, admire them). In the end, there were a few skirmishes, but nothing major.
The game ended the 90-minute regulation scoreless, and it remained scoreless after the 30-minute extra time, as Claudio Taffarel, the goalkeeper on Brazil's national team, stopped Arsenal cold. The game went to penalties, and Taffarel stopped by Davor Šuker and Patrick Vieira, while Gala went 4-for-4 to take the tournament.
And for 17 years, Arsenal played only in the Champions League, never in the UEFA Cup/Europa League. They were too good for it. A tribute to manager Arsène Wenger.
Until now. Tonight (7:45 PM their time), they will play a Europa League game. It will be their 1st since May 17, 2000. That's 17 years and almost 4 months. How long has that been?
*
Except for Swedish winger Freddie Ljungberg, injured in the team's Semifinal win over French club RC Lens, Wenger started what was then Arsenal's best XI. David Seaman was in goal. The defense was Lee Dixon, team Captain Tony Adams, Martin Keown, and the Brazilian left back Sylvio Mendes Campos Júnior, better known by the nickname Sylvinho. The midfield was Ray Parlour (in Ljungberg's place), Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Marc Overmars. The forwards were the men voted in 2008 as the 2 greatest players in Arsenal's history, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.
In the 75th minute, Wenger took Dutch master Bergkamp off, and substituted the Nigerian Nightmare, Nwankwo Kanu, who had been spectacular during the tournament. (As had Parlour, probably the least talented of these players, but who had scored the 1st hat trick of his 9-year career in the Quarterfinal, away to German club Werder Bremen.) In the 115th minute, with 5 minutes left in extra time, Wenger took Overmars, his other Dutch star, off for the Croatian Sensation, Davor Šuker.
It turned out to be the last game in Arsenal's colors for Šuker, sold to East London club West Ham United; and for Overmars and Petit, the Frenchman with the blond ponytail. Spanish giants FC Barcelona bought both of them. Not getting into the game was veteran left back Nigel Winterburn, who had been a part of 7 trophy wins for Arsenal, but would also be sold to West Ham.
By the time Arsenal won the Premier League and FA Cup "Double" in 2002, 2 years later, Sylvinho would also be gone, and Adams and Dixon would be about to retire. New stars would be purchased, like Sol Campbell, Robert Pires, Kolo Touré and Laurent Etame Mayer, or grown into the Arsenal system, like Ashley Cole.
Arsenal have since moved out of Highbury, a stadium first used in 1913 and whose main stands were constructed in the 1930s, limiting them to 38,000 seats, to the nearby Emirates Stadium, whose 60,000 seats generate a lot more revenue and allow them to buy much more expensive players. Adams, Bergkamp and Henry now have statues outside the Stadium.
In the 1999-2000 season, the Premier League included Aston Villa, Bradford City, Coventry City, Derby County, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and Wimbledon. None of those teams is in the Premier League in 2017-18, all of them having been relegated at least once since then.
Arsenal have since won 2 Premier League titles and 6 FA Cups. The League has also since been won 7 times by Manchester United, 5 times by West London's Chelsea, twice by Manchester City, and once by Leicester City. The FA Cup has also since been won by Chelsea 4 times, Manchester United twice, Liverpool twice, and once each by Portsmouth, Manchester City and Wigan Athletic.
As the 21st Century dawned, most American sports fans were aware that there were club teams, in addition to the national teams they occasionally saw on television, but most couldn't name any of the clubs, except maybe for Manchester United (a.k.a. Man United, Man U and ManUre, for having fans who are full of shit), who had won so many times, Americans would have considered them the Yankees of soccer. More accurately, given their arrogance and their willingness to cheat, they're the New England Patriots. Or maybe the Dallas Cowboys -- then again, maybe Ted Lasso was right: Since they haven't won in a long time, maybe the Cowboys are American football's Liverpool.
Regardless, now, Americans can see the Premier League as often as the English do, and choose their teams accordingly. And Arsenal have a huge following, although not as big as those of Man U and Liverpool, both of whom market themselves better, partly due to their histories.
English soccer legends Tom Finney, Nat Lofthouse, Bill Foulkes, Jimmy Hill, Don Howe, Alan Ball, Gerry Byrne, Ron Springett, Brian Labone, Howard Kendall, Peter Osgood, Emlyn Hughes, Dave Sexton, Graham Taylor and Bobby Robson, were all still alive on that date. So were John Charles and Gary Speed of Wales; Jimmy "Jinky" Johnstone, David Herd, Dave Mackay and Ian Porterfield of Scotland; and George Best of Northern Ireland.
So was Raymond Kopa of France. So was Ignacio Zoco of Spain. So were Eusébio and Mário Coluna of Portugal. So were Johan Cruijff and Piet Keizer of the Netherlands. So were Helmut Rahn, Helmut Haller, Ottmar Walter, Bert Trautmann and Udo Lattek of Germany. So were Giacinto Facchetti, Giorgio Chinaglia and Enzo Bearzot of Italy. So were Nils Liedholm and Bengt Gustavsson of Sweden. So were Ferenc Puskás, Nándor Hidegkuti, László Kubala, Gyula Grosics, and Jenő Buzánszky of Hungary's 1950s "Mighty Magyars." So was Fyodor Cherenkov of Russia.
So were Vavá, Djalma Santos, Gilmar, Nilton Santos, Hilderaldo Bellini, Carlos Alberto, Telê Santana, Sócrates, Zito and Waldir Peres of Brazil. So were Alfredo Di Stéfano and Omar Sívori of Argentina. So were Alcides Ghiggia and Luis Cubilla of Uruguay.
They're all gone now.
Thierry Henry, Gianluigi Buffon and Carles Puyol were 22 years old, and Henry was wrapping up his 1st season with The Arsenal. Tim Howard was 21, and Andrea Pirlo would be 2 days later. Steven Gerrard and John Terry were 19; Iker Casillas, Hope Solo, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Landon Donovan were 18; Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey and Frank Ribery were 17; Luis Robles was 16; Wayne Rooney, Heather O'Reilly, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bradley Wright-Phillips were 15; Megan Rapinoe, Mario Gómez and Manuel Neuer were 14; Olivier Giroud, Jamie Vardy, Luis Suarez, Leonardo Bonucci and Dax McCarty were 13; Lionel Messi was 12; Sergio Agüero, Robert Lewandowski, Diego Costa, Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez were 11; Alex Morgan, Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos were 10; Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann were 9; Jack Wilshere, Neymar and Mario Götze were 8; Paul Pogba was 7; Harry Kane was 6 (and was already concerning grownups with the fact that he was still licking windows), Dele Alli and Alex Iwobi were 4; Gedion Zelalem was 3; Christian Pulisic and Gianluigi Donnarumma were 1; and Reiss Nelson was 5 months old.
Current New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault was the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Todd Bowles of the Jets was coaching their defensive backs, Mets manager Terry Collins was managing in the Tampa Bay Rays' minor-league system, John Hynes of the Devils was an assistant coach at Boston University, Ben McAdoo of the Giants was coaching high school football in Pennsylvania, Jeff Hornacek of the Knicks was wrapping up his playing career with the Utah Jazz, Joe Girardi of the Yankees was playing for the Chicago Cubs, Doug Weight of the Islanders was playing for the Edmonton Oilers, and Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was playing in France's basketball league,
Manchester United won that season's Premier League title, Chelsea the FA Cup, and Real Madrid the Champions League. D.C. United were the holders of the MLS Cup, and the Rochester Rhinos were the holders of the American version of the FA Cup, the U.S. Open Cup.
The defending World Champions in North American sports were the Yankees, the St. Louis Rams (now back in Los Angeles), the San Antonio Spurs (soon to be replaced by the Los Angeles Lakers) and the Dallas Stars (soon to be denied back-to-back Stanley Cups by the Devils). The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Lennox Lewis -- and we haven't had an undisputed heavyweight champ since.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain and Russia. The World Cup has since been held in Japan, Korea, Germany and South Africa. And both have since been held in Brazil.
The President of the United States was Bill Clinton. Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush of Texas were running to succeed him. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, their wives, and the widow of Lyndon Johnson were still alive.
Barack Obama was a State Senator in Illinois, and had just lost the Primary for the U.S. House of Representatives -- the only election he has ever lost. Donald Trump had just gotten divorced for the 2nd time, and the idea that he would one day be the star of a TV series, let alone the President of the United States, was patently ridiculous.
The Governor of the State of New York was George Pataki, the Mayor of the City of New York was Rudolph Giuliani, and the Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman. Andrew Cuomo was U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Bill de Blasio was managing First Lady Hillary Clinton's campaign for the U.S. Senate. Chris Christie was legal counsel for the New Jersey portion of the Bush Presidential campaign. Ken Livingstone had just taken office as Mayor of London, the city in question.
The idea that "money = speech" was discussed only by political conservatives, and not taken seriously by rational people, let alone treated as the law of the land by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gay marriage was, similarly, only on a few people's radar at the time. Four Justices then on the U.S. Supreme Court are still on it now: Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
There were still living veterans of World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Irish War of Independence. (The last surviving veteran of the Easter Rising of 1916 died in 2000, but I can't find an exact date.) There were still living survivors of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the General Slocum disaster of 1904, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and the sinking of the Titanic.
The organization Doctors Without Borders was the holder of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a few months away from being named a Cardinal.
The Prime Minister of Britain was Jean Chrétien, and of Britain Tony Blair. The head of state of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. Current Prime Minister Theresa May was in her 1st term in Parliament. There have since been 4 Presidents, 4 Prime Ministers, and 3 Popes.
Major novels of 2000 included The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, The Human Stain by Philip Roth, and Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates' novel about Marilyn Monroe.
George R.R. Martin published A Storm of Swords, the 3rd novel in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, although it would not be until 2006 that he was approached about turning it into a TV series, and 2011 before Game of Thrones reached the airwaves. (Do we still call TV broadcasts "the airwaves"?) J.K. Rowling published the 4th book in her series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; the 1st film in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was now filming. (As with the book, it was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in America.)
Stephen King published The Plant. David Auburn premiered his play Proof. Peter Ackroyd published London: A Biography; Dave Eggers a memoir pretentiously titled A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; and Bruce Wilkinson The Prayer of Jabez, about the blasphemous idea of "the prosperity gospel."
Major films that premiered in the Spring of 2000 included Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2, 28 Days, American Psycho, Love & Basketball, U-571, Where the Heart Is, The Virgin Suicides, Road Trip, Shanghai Noon, Big Momma's House, the remake of Gone In 60 Seconds, Samuel L. Jackson's (Sequel? Update? Reboot?) of Shaft, John Travolta's calamitous version of L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction story Battlefield Earth, and Frequency, a sort-of time travel story that used the Mets' win in the 1969 World Series as a plot point.
George Lucas was receiving lots and lots of money, and lots and lots of criticism, for the previous year's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Voyager was now the only Star Trek series running, and the Next Generation film Insurrection had done poorly the previous year. Pierce Brosnan was still playing James Bond. Superman was still stuck in limbo, as various ideas for a new film, none of them good, were in "development hell." Batman was also stuck between the Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan periods, and one idea was a "Batman vs. Superman" film that might actually have been worse than the one we got.
The day of the UEFA Cup Final, the last first-run episode of Beverly Hills 90210 aired. One week later, on May 24, 2000, The WB Network aired the 3rd season finale of Dawson's Creek, in which Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) and Ethan (Adam Kaufman) have the 1st male gay kiss on U.S. prime time TV. The episode also produced the James Van Der Beek "Dawson Leery Crying" meme.
In addition to BH90210, other shows that ended that Spring were Sliders, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Malcolm & Eddie, Early Edition, Party of Five and Boy Meets World. The Nineties were over. Recently debuting were Malcolm in the Middle, Survivor and Jackass. Big Brother was soon to follow. The George W. Bush era had already begun.
The Number 1 song in America was "Maria Maria," continuing the comeback of Carlos Santana. The day before, Britney Spears released her album Oops!... I Did It Again. Metallica sued Napster. Curtis Jackson was shot 9 times on Sutphin Boulevard in South Jamaica, Queens. He survives to become the rapper 50 Cent. My grandmother grew up in that neighborhood in the 1930s, and had been back since, and had seen what had happened to it. When I was visiting her, and a commercial for 50's film Get Rich of Die Trying came on, I told her who he was and what happened to him. She didn't bat an eye, saying, "I'm not surprised."
Pink had recently debuted. Alicia Keys had yet to do so. Katy Perry was 15, Lady Gaga and Lea Michele 13, Rihanna 12, Taylor Swift 10, the oldest member of One Direction (Louis Tomlinson) was 8; Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus were 7; Justin Bieber was 6.
Nathan Fillion played a priest in Dracula 2000, and hadn't yet been cast as Mal Reynolds, let alone Richard Castle. Kate Hudson and Pauley Perrette were in Almost Famous. Hayden Christiensen, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Alba were 19; Natalie Portman, Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Cobie Smulders, Kirsten Dunst, Matt Smith and Jodie Whittaker were 18; Lupita Nyong'o, Henry Cavill, Andrew Garfield and Chris Hemsworth 17; Adam Driver 16, Scarlett Johansson and Gal Gadot 15, all of the Pretty Little Liars younger than that, Robert Pattinson 14; Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and Rose Leslie 12; Jake Lloyd and Emma Stone 11; Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Johnson 10; Sara Hyland 9, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley 8, Jack Gleeson was about to turn 8, Cara Delevingne was 7, Dakota Fanning and Saoirse Ronan were 6, Sophie Turner was 4; Maisie Williams, Tom Holland and Zendaya 3; Ariel Winter 2, and Rico Rodriguez and Nolan Gould 1.
Most Americans had never heard of Osama bin Laden. And if they knew of any of the Kardashians, it was likely to be Robert, O.J. Simpson's close friend and part of his legal "Dream Team."
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.43 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 33 cents, and a New York Subway ride $1.50. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.56, a cup of coffee $1.96, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $6.49, a movie ticket $5.34, a new car $21,047, and a new house $202,400. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 10,769.74.
The tallest building in the world was the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had the Internet, and cellular phones (mostly still flip-open); and DVDs, although most people still used VHS cassettes. There was no Wikipedia, no Skype, no MySpace, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no Tumblr, no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Vine. There was no iPod, no iPad, no iPhone. The original Sony PlayStation was the leading home video game system of the time.
In the Spring of 2000, Microsoft was ruled to have violated U.S. antitrust laws. Federal agents freed 6-year-old Elián González from his Cuban-exile family in Miami, and returned him to his father, who took him back to Cuba. (Now 23, he is a college graduate, engaged to be married, and works as a technology specialist for a company that makes large water tanks.) Adam Petty, not quite 20 years old, the 4th generation of his family to compete in NASCAR, was killed in a crash in a practice run for a race in New Hampshire, just 37 days after the death of his great-grandfather, dynasty founder Lee Petty. The population of India surpassed 1 billion. And, in the city in question, London, the Tate Modern Gallery opened.
Hafez al-Assad, and John Gielgud, and Maurice "the Rocket" Richard died. Jackie Evancho, and Morgan Lily, and Ryan Sessegnon were born -- in the Fulham left back's case, 1 day after the game in question.
May 17, 2000. Arsenal lost the UEFA Cup Final to Galatasaray. They haven't played a game in the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League since.
Within 2 hours of my posting this, they will again, at home, against Köln. Does the tournament matter to me? Not much. I just want them to win, and have the players who take the field show me that they can be trusted to give their all in matches of the Premier League, FA Cup, and, God willing, next season and for many seasons thereafter, the UEFA Champions League.
The defending World Champions in North American sports were the Yankees, the St. Louis Rams (now back in Los Angeles), the San Antonio Spurs (soon to be replaced by the Los Angeles Lakers) and the Dallas Stars (soon to be denied back-to-back Stanley Cups by the Devils). The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Lennox Lewis -- and we haven't had an undisputed heavyweight champ since.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain and Russia. The World Cup has since been held in Japan, Korea, Germany and South Africa. And both have since been held in Brazil.
The President of the United States was Bill Clinton. Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush of Texas were running to succeed him. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, their wives, and the widow of Lyndon Johnson were still alive.
Barack Obama was a State Senator in Illinois, and had just lost the Primary for the U.S. House of Representatives -- the only election he has ever lost. Donald Trump had just gotten divorced for the 2nd time, and the idea that he would one day be the star of a TV series, let alone the President of the United States, was patently ridiculous.
The Governor of the State of New York was George Pataki, the Mayor of the City of New York was Rudolph Giuliani, and the Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman. Andrew Cuomo was U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Bill de Blasio was managing First Lady Hillary Clinton's campaign for the U.S. Senate. Chris Christie was legal counsel for the New Jersey portion of the Bush Presidential campaign. Ken Livingstone had just taken office as Mayor of London, the city in question.
The idea that "money = speech" was discussed only by political conservatives, and not taken seriously by rational people, let alone treated as the law of the land by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gay marriage was, similarly, only on a few people's radar at the time. Four Justices then on the U.S. Supreme Court are still on it now: Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
There were still living veterans of World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Irish War of Independence. (The last surviving veteran of the Easter Rising of 1916 died in 2000, but I can't find an exact date.) There were still living survivors of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the General Slocum disaster of 1904, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and the sinking of the Titanic.
The organization Doctors Without Borders was the holder of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a few months away from being named a Cardinal.
The Prime Minister of Britain was Jean Chrétien, and of Britain Tony Blair. The head of state of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. Current Prime Minister Theresa May was in her 1st term in Parliament. There have since been 4 Presidents, 4 Prime Ministers, and 3 Popes.
Major novels of 2000 included The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, The Human Stain by Philip Roth, and Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates' novel about Marilyn Monroe.
George R.R. Martin published A Storm of Swords, the 3rd novel in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, although it would not be until 2006 that he was approached about turning it into a TV series, and 2011 before Game of Thrones reached the airwaves. (Do we still call TV broadcasts "the airwaves"?) J.K. Rowling published the 4th book in her series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; the 1st film in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was now filming. (As with the book, it was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in America.)
Stephen King published The Plant. David Auburn premiered his play Proof. Peter Ackroyd published London: A Biography; Dave Eggers a memoir pretentiously titled A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; and Bruce Wilkinson The Prayer of Jabez, about the blasphemous idea of "the prosperity gospel."
Major films that premiered in the Spring of 2000 included Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2, 28 Days, American Psycho, Love & Basketball, U-571, Where the Heart Is, The Virgin Suicides, Road Trip, Shanghai Noon, Big Momma's House, the remake of Gone In 60 Seconds, Samuel L. Jackson's (Sequel? Update? Reboot?) of Shaft, John Travolta's calamitous version of L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction story Battlefield Earth, and Frequency, a sort-of time travel story that used the Mets' win in the 1969 World Series as a plot point.
George Lucas was receiving lots and lots of money, and lots and lots of criticism, for the previous year's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Voyager was now the only Star Trek series running, and the Next Generation film Insurrection had done poorly the previous year. Pierce Brosnan was still playing James Bond. Superman was still stuck in limbo, as various ideas for a new film, none of them good, were in "development hell." Batman was also stuck between the Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan periods, and one idea was a "Batman vs. Superman" film that might actually have been worse than the one we got.
The day of the UEFA Cup Final, the last first-run episode of Beverly Hills 90210 aired. One week later, on May 24, 2000, The WB Network aired the 3rd season finale of Dawson's Creek, in which Jack McPhee (Kerr Smith) and Ethan (Adam Kaufman) have the 1st male gay kiss on U.S. prime time TV. The episode also produced the James Van Der Beek "Dawson Leery Crying" meme.
In addition to BH90210, other shows that ended that Spring were Sliders, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Malcolm & Eddie, Early Edition, Party of Five and Boy Meets World. The Nineties were over. Recently debuting were Malcolm in the Middle, Survivor and Jackass. Big Brother was soon to follow. The George W. Bush era had already begun.
The Number 1 song in America was "Maria Maria," continuing the comeback of Carlos Santana. The day before, Britney Spears released her album Oops!... I Did It Again. Metallica sued Napster. Curtis Jackson was shot 9 times on Sutphin Boulevard in South Jamaica, Queens. He survives to become the rapper 50 Cent. My grandmother grew up in that neighborhood in the 1930s, and had been back since, and had seen what had happened to it. When I was visiting her, and a commercial for 50's film Get Rich of Die Trying came on, I told her who he was and what happened to him. She didn't bat an eye, saying, "I'm not surprised."
Pink had recently debuted. Alicia Keys had yet to do so. Katy Perry was 15, Lady Gaga and Lea Michele 13, Rihanna 12, Taylor Swift 10, the oldest member of One Direction (Louis Tomlinson) was 8; Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus were 7; Justin Bieber was 6.
Nathan Fillion played a priest in Dracula 2000, and hadn't yet been cast as Mal Reynolds, let alone Richard Castle. Kate Hudson and Pauley Perrette were in Almost Famous. Hayden Christiensen, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Alba were 19; Natalie Portman, Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Cobie Smulders, Kirsten Dunst, Matt Smith and Jodie Whittaker were 18; Lupita Nyong'o, Henry Cavill, Andrew Garfield and Chris Hemsworth 17; Adam Driver 16, Scarlett Johansson and Gal Gadot 15, all of the Pretty Little Liars younger than that, Robert Pattinson 14; Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and Rose Leslie 12; Jake Lloyd and Emma Stone 11; Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Johnson 10; Sara Hyland 9, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley 8, Jack Gleeson was about to turn 8, Cara Delevingne was 7, Dakota Fanning and Saoirse Ronan were 6, Sophie Turner was 4; Maisie Williams, Tom Holland and Zendaya 3; Ariel Winter 2, and Rico Rodriguez and Nolan Gould 1.
Most Americans had never heard of Osama bin Laden. And if they knew of any of the Kardashians, it was likely to be Robert, O.J. Simpson's close friend and part of his legal "Dream Team."
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.43 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 33 cents, and a New York Subway ride $1.50. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.56, a cup of coffee $1.96, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $6.49, a movie ticket $5.34, a new car $21,047, and a new house $202,400. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 10,769.74.
The tallest building in the world was the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had the Internet, and cellular phones (mostly still flip-open); and DVDs, although most people still used VHS cassettes. There was no Wikipedia, no Skype, no MySpace, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no Tumblr, no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Vine. There was no iPod, no iPad, no iPhone. The original Sony PlayStation was the leading home video game system of the time.
In the Spring of 2000, Microsoft was ruled to have violated U.S. antitrust laws. Federal agents freed 6-year-old Elián González from his Cuban-exile family in Miami, and returned him to his father, who took him back to Cuba. (Now 23, he is a college graduate, engaged to be married, and works as a technology specialist for a company that makes large water tanks.) Adam Petty, not quite 20 years old, the 4th generation of his family to compete in NASCAR, was killed in a crash in a practice run for a race in New Hampshire, just 37 days after the death of his great-grandfather, dynasty founder Lee Petty. The population of India surpassed 1 billion. And, in the city in question, London, the Tate Modern Gallery opened.
Hafez al-Assad, and John Gielgud, and Maurice "the Rocket" Richard died. Jackie Evancho, and Morgan Lily, and Ryan Sessegnon were born -- in the Fulham left back's case, 1 day after the game in question.
May 17, 2000. Arsenal lost the UEFA Cup Final to Galatasaray. They haven't played a game in the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League since.
Within 2 hours of my posting this, they will again, at home, against Köln. Does the tournament matter to me? Not much. I just want them to win, and have the players who take the field show me that they can be trusted to give their all in matches of the Premier League, FA Cup, and, God willing, next season and for many seasons thereafter, the UEFA Champions League.
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