Whether An Adventure Or Journey, It Was A Good Run

This post is best read with the video above playing.

Champions League commentators have been fond of calling Tottenham's run an adventure. An adventure suggests venturing into unknown territory with a possible element of danger involved, even a sense of impending doom. The commentators were evidently on to something.

Tottenham hadn't qualified for the Champions League in over 50 years and had their fair share of missteps against some of Europe's finest teams. Everything that could have went wrong did in their 4-0 loss in the first leg against Real Madrid. That would be the 'unknown territory' and 'element of danger' aspects of an adventure. The impending doom part happened yesterday.

The score this time was a more respectable 1-0 loss at White Hart Lane. However, Ronaldo's lone goal (again Ronaldo, of all people) should have been saved. And just like that -- the end. Tottenham couldn't muster a goal despite setting a furious pace out of the gate. The aggregate was insurmountable anyway, but a positive moment to end on would have been nice.

While an adventure was certainly an appropriate term to describe Tottenham's time in the Champions League, I prefer to think of it as a journey. A journey has a less cynical tone to it, and suggests a learning experience. Because that is really what this was -- a learning experience. Players don't go to Tottenham expecting to play in the Champions League.

In the second stanza of his poem "Journey's End," J.R.R. Tolkien describes the reconciliation process at the end of a journey:

Though here at journey's end I lie
In darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the Sun
And Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.
 
Journey's end, but the sights seen and lessons learn remain forever. I was happy to be a very small part of that journey, 4,000 miles away, watching on my computer.