The word "unpopular" first appeared in casinos. At the earliest, people bet on chips and would choose the one with the most potential. In this way, many people bet on the favorite. The corresponding unpopular ones are those that no one cares about and are not favored. Just like Wang Liqin losing to Mr. Hu in Bingbingqiu, it would definitely be a huge upset.
In the late spring and early summer of 2004, several things happened.
Incident 1: In the Champions League knockout round, the finals were actually Porto of Portugal vs. Monaco of France. You can't help but wonder what the major wealthy teams are doing. They went fishing collectively. Strong teams behaved like sleepwalking in the knockout rounds. Here are two examples. 1. Real Madrid, the Galacticos with Raul Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo Carlos, was defeated by "one of their own" Morientes, who scored one goal at home and away. He hated Monaco, and Morientes was rented out to his opponent by Real Madrid. 2. Defending champion AC Milan defeated Deportivo La Coruna 4:1 at home in the first round. On the road, the IQ and EQ of the golden central defender combination of Maldini and Nesta dropped to the level of Dewey + Xiao Zhanbo. The whole game was full of loopholes. They were eliminated after a 0-4 defeat. Performances like this from the giants made the two teams that entered the finals so unknown.
Event 2: The Portuguese team won the Champions League, which was unexpected. But they are determined to win the European Cup hosted in Portugal. However, they were defeated twice by the Greeks in the same tournament, once in the opening match and once in the final. The myth of the Greeks used three headers to defeat France, the Czech Republic, and Portugal in the knockout rounds. Originally, Zidane, Nedved, and Figo all regarded the 2004 European Championship as the farewell game of their careers. Maybe It was the Greeks who inflicted too much pain on them, which prevented them from ending their lives well. The three of them were unwilling to die like this and made a collective comeback before the 2006 World Cup in Germany. This time, Greece did not qualify. Question: Do you remember the name of the Greek captain who won the Delaunay Cup? There are answers at the end of the article.
Event 3: In the 2004 NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons entered the finals. At this time, the Lakers had the greatest point guard before Nash, Gary Payton, and history Karl Malone, who surpassed Jordan in total points, and OK, who won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. O'Neal + Kobe, in addition to the above F4, the team also has a group of experts such as Derek Fisher - 0.4 second buzzer beater. As for the Pistons, they are all composed of players who have been frustrated by other teams to the extent that they are comparable to ancient Chinese literati. Billups has been replaced many times, and Hamilton, the masked man who was scolded by Jordan and was shameless, has no hair standing on end. O’Neal’s shoulder-high Ben Wallace, let’s not talk about the rest. The key is that they don’t have the home court advantage, but the subsequent result is that the Pistons won 4-1 and won the championship. If not for Kobe’s magical performance in the second game, the Lakers would most likely Being swept, yes, the Lakers, who have four of the top 50 NBA stars in 50 years, were almost swept.
The "what happened next" to the first incident: In the next five years, the Champions League returned to normal. The finals were all played among the giants, and there was basically no relationship with the small teams. They even rarely qualified for the group stage. AC Milan won one year Later, they re-entered the final. Although they unfortunately lost, they were almost relegated due to the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. However, in 2007, Kaká returned as king and led his team to regain the Champions League. Monaco and Porto, who entered the finals that year, basically won the Champions League again within 20 years. They also couldn’t make it to the finals.
In the second incident, the World Series returned to its proper order. The subsequent France vs. Italy in 2008 and Spain vs. Germany in 2008 were all contests between historically powerful teams. The Greeks seemed to have exhausted all their RP in 2004, failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, had a dismal performance in the 2008 European Championship, captain Zagranis sadly retired, and famous coach Rehagel was eventually dismissed. Nedved and Qi were also dismissed. Dardenne and Figo also received the honors that should belong to them. C. Ronaldo, Portugal's youngest player in 2004, won the title of "World Footballer" four years later.
Event 3. "Later", the Lakers F4 fell apart. O'Neal and Payton left and cooperated with Wade to win the first championship in the team's history for the Miami Heat in 2006. Karl Malone retired and Kobe stayed with the Lakers alone, suffering from various problems. There was such scandalous criticism. In 2005, he rarely even made the playoffs. In 2007, he was shot down by the Suns. In 2008, he was defeated by the Celtics with 39 points in the final game of the Finals. After countless hardships, he finally made it. Maybe in 2009, Kobe can regain the NBA championship! He can finally get rid of the reputation that "he alone is not enough to lead the team to win", and can finally erase the words "Given by O'Neal" on the three rings during the three consecutive championships.