As 2013 winds to a close, TSN. Prince Shembo Falcons Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. TSN.cas writing staff reflects on the best soccer moments from the past 12 months including CR7 one-upping Messi, Fergies farewell, the redemption of Robben and more! Cristiano Ronaldo will score whenever he wants to By: Ken Rodney He scores in La Liga and in the Champions League for Real Madrid. He scores for his country Portugal. He scores when he wants. That is the story of 2013 for the incredible Cristiano Ronaldo, who alongside Barcelonas Lionel Messi and Bayern Munichs Frank Ribery is a finalist for the Ballon dOr, FIFAs player of the year award. Fitting that he will face Messi for that award because there is always a place in a Ronaldo story where a comparison to Messi must be made, only this time it slants well in the favour of the Portuguese international. His 68 goals for club and country during 2013 are more than Messi and Ribery combined. During the current 2013-14 La Liga season he is joint top scorer with 17 goals, 9 more than his Argentinian rival, who to be fair is currently battling an injury. In international play this year he has 10 goals in nine matches, including two three-goal performances. While he will finish the year without getting his hands around a team trophy, it is impossible to not be impressed by the 2013 submitted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Fergie Says Farewell By: Mike Beauvais When Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his legendary managerial career in early May, the math showed that Manchester Uniteds season-ending match on May 20 at West Bromwich Albion would be the Scotsmans 1500th in charge of the club. It would be an anti-climatic one. United locked up the BPL title weeks earlier, but the United-West Brom season finale ended up being a highly entertaining 5-5 draw. Uniteds May 12 match, though, saw "Fergie" manage Manchester United for the last time at his beloved Old Trafford. As Ferguson made his way down to his familiar spot on the United bench, he greeted supporters and signed autographs, but there was no hiding the emotion in the Scotsmans face. It seemed as if it were just dawning on him that this would be the final time he took that walk. In the 86th-minute, Rio Ferdinand made sure his gaffer would go out a winner when he volleyed home to give United the 2-1 victory. After the match ended, United received its championship trophy presentation and Ferguson addressed the crowd for one last time. "If you think about it, those last-minute goals, the comebacks, even the defeats, are all part of this great football club of ours," Ferguson told his rapt audience. "Its been an unbelievable experience for all of us, so thank you for that." He closed his remarks with a stark reminder to the Old Trafford faithful, one that seems almost prescient now. "Id also like to remind you that when we had bad times here, the club stood by me, all my staff stood by me, the players stood by me," said Ferguson. "Your job now is to stand by our new manager. That is important." Nobody expects David Moyes to be the new Alex Ferguson, but then again, nobody expected Alex Ferguson to be Alex Ferguson. Arjen Robben finds Champions redemption By Shane McNeil After the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final I had begun to believe that something was permanently broken in Arjen Robben. One of the worlds premier footballers, the Dutchman had Bayern Munichs 2012 European title on his foot when he drove an extra-time penalty into Petr Cech. Then, when the game went to penalty kicks, he was nowhere to be seen. His summer would get even worse when the Dutch team was bounced from Euro 2012 without a win, scoring just two goals. Yet, he was offered a second chance with Bayern taking on Borussia Dortmund in the first ever all-German Champions Final. In the 60th minute, Robben sent out a prayer from the left side of the goal and a ball that seemd destined for a goal kick suddenly found its way to Mario Mandzukics boot across the face of the goal and into the back of the net. A fluke, I told myself… A lucky bounce. Then in the 89th, the real Robben returned. Thundering into the box, he split two defencemen, forced Roman Weidenfeller wide and slipped a dribbler the other way, into the goal. Robben exorcised his Champions demons, claiming Man of the Match along the way. Iceland misses World Cup; FIFA misses out By Shane McNeil Seemingly every major international brings some flavor from the fans when it comes to soccer. Euro 2012 had the Irish fans serenading their team with "The Fields of Athenry" as they bowed out, winless. The 2010 World Cup had its ever-present vuvzelas, so loud that broadcasters tried to find a way to phase them out for live broadcasts. There will likely be a story for Brazil 2014, but it will not - sadly - be the fans of the Icelandic national team. Iceland was in a balanced qualifying group that featured top-10-ranked Switzerland and Slovenia, which had qualified for both Euro 2012 and the 2010 World Cup. On the last day of qualifying, Iceland held on to a 1-1 draw with Norway, while Switzerland did them a huge service by eliminating Slovenia with a 1-0 victory. Iceland headed to the play-off round with a chance to become the smallest nation to ever qualify for soccers biggest tournament, bringing their boisterous and colourful fans with them - in spirit at least. Sadly, Iceland would fail to score against Croatia, dropping the play-off 2-0 on aggregate, keeping one of the best stories of the qualification round out of the big finale. Jake Matthews Jersey For Sale . The second-seeded Nadal cruised past Ukrainian-born American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour, 46 minutes, while a third-seeded Federer leveled Russian qualifier Alexander Kudryatsev 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 38 minutes for his 60th match win at Melbourne Park. Jake Matthews Black Jersey . The wide receiver was placed on the reserve/non-football illness list Saturday, ending his season with two games left and after he missed practice time this week for "personal reasons.INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers made a big change with another season falling apart, firing general manager Chris Grant on Thursday. Grant was fired a day after the Cavs dropped their sixth straight game, an embarrassing home loss to a Los Angeles Lakers team that started with eight players and finished with five. Vice president of basketball operations David Griffin will serve as acting general manager. Owner Dan Gilbert made it clear hes unhappy with what has transpired in a season that began with hopes the Cavs would make the playoffs after a three-year absence. "This has been a very difficult period for the franchise," Gilbert said in a statement. "We have severely underperformed against expectations. Just as this is completely unacceptable to our loyal and passionate fan base, season ticket holders and corporate partners, it is also just as unacceptable to our ownership group." Gilbert also met with reporters at the teams training facility following the announcement. He expressed confidence that the Cavs can show improvement under coach Mike Brown over the final 33 games. Grant was instrumental in the rehiring of Brown, who was fired during his first stint with the team in 2010. Gilbert was asked if Browns job was safe for the rest of this season. "Were going to see Mike Brown succeed this year because I think that hell be able to do good things and I think this team will be able to do good things," Gilbert said. "I think theyre going to look at each other and theyre going to look in the mirror and theyre going to rally." Gilbert also was asked why he decided to change his general manager but not his coach. "Coach Brown has only been here over half a season," he said. "Chris Grant has been here 8 1/2 years. Hes been the general manager almost four years. Theres a lot of talent on this team. I think everybody knows that." Gilbert promised last spring the Cavs would not return to the NBA lottery, but Cleveland is 16-33 and has dropped six in a row -- matching its longest losing streak of the season. The Cavs are 5 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot in the weak Eastern Conference and their only win in the last nine gammes came over Milwaukee, which has the leagues worst record.http://www.nflfalconsus.com/Elite-Jake-Matthews-Mens-Jersey-Atlanta-Falcons-70-Team-Alternate-Two-Tone-Nike-NFL-94.html. "Accountability starts with me," Gilbert said. "I take responsibility for where were at." Grants tenure will be known for not being able to rebuild the Cavs fast enough despite having a slew of first-round draft picks, including two No. 1 overall selections. Grant addressed the teams poor play last week, saying everyone in the organization was accountable, including himself. Grant took Anthony Bennett with the first pick last June and then signed free-agent centre Andrew Bynum during the summer when no other team would offer the 7-footer a contract. Grant was able to unload Bynum in a trade with Chicago for Luol Deng, but the forwards arrival has done little to invigorate the Cavs. Cleveland has been under .500 since the fifth game of the season and the players have been slow to pick up Browns system on both ends of the floor. In a season thats already had too many low moments, the Cavs hit rock bottom Wednesday. Not only did they fall behind by 29 points to Los Angeles, the Lakers played the final few minutes with five healthy players, including one who was allowed to remain in the game after committing his sixth foul because coach Mike DAntoni was out of bodies. The Cavs were booed throughout the game and Brown, who has been unable to come up with any answers to stop his teams skid, benched All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and three other starters in the fourth quarter as Cleveland got back in the game before losing 119-108. The acquisition of Deng last month brought hope the season could be salvaged, but that proved to be temporary. The Cavs went 3-2 on a West Coast trip, but followed that with a 1-4 record on its longest homestand of the season. Cleveland then lost three consecutive road games, including a 31-point rout by the Knicks on national television. Grant joined the organization in 2005 as vice-president of basketball operations/assistant general manager. He was hired as general manager on June 4, 2010. Griffin was hired later that year after spending 17 seasons with the Phoenix Suns, the last three as the clubs senior vice-president of basketball operations. ' ' '
