WE CAN BE HERROES
FOOTBALL, as Gary Lineker observed, is a simple game where 22 men chase a ball for hours – and the Germans always win.
And when Chris Schindler stepped up to end 45 years of hurt at Huddersfield Town in a £170million shoot-out, there was only ever going to be one outcome.
Years from now, did you seriously think the soundbite in the commentary archive would describe Schindler having missed? Not a chance.
After two hours of barren tedium, Huddersfield’s record £1.8m signing from Munich 1860 was cool as a freshly-poured Pilsener from the spot, and Terriers manager David Wagner had the last laugh. Now Wagner, who was Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s best man and reserve team coach at Borussia Dortmund, can lock horns with his old chum in the Premier League next season.
And one of the first calls he will have to make is to ask Klopp if he can borrow Liverpool keeper Danny Ward for another season.
In a shoot-out infinitely more dramatic than the two hours of deadlock which preceded it, the equation was down to sudden death when Ward – who saved two penalties in the semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday – plunged low to thwart Jordan Obita.
Schindler did the rest, and Wagner’s side completed the remarkable feat of winning promotion to the Premier League after finishing the season with a negative goal difference.
Huddersfield still plant three gold stars above the club crest on their shirts as a reminder of consecutive titles won by the team Herbert Chapman built more than 90 years ago.
The Terriers also groomed Bill Shankly’s managerial genius before he attained greatness at Liverpool, and Shanks handed a 16-year-old poacher called Denis Law his debut.
But Huddersfield, who last played in the top flight in 1971-72, when Ian Greaves was the manager and Frank Worthington a young maverick up front, don’t need to live in the past any more.
Make no mistake, Huddersfield deserved to edge the world’s richest game of club football, whether the jackpot dividend was £170m or £170billion.
Wagner’s men should have been home and hosed inside the opening 10 minutes as Michael Hefele headed Aaron Mooy’s free-kick wastefully wide and midfielder Izzy Brown submitted
a late contender for miss of the season. Brown arrived unmarked at the far post to meet Elias Kachunga’s low centre, but from two yards he managed to plant a simple tap-in wide.
Like half the players in the Championship, Brown is on loan from Chelsea, and his glaring miss condemned everyone to 120 minutes of increasingly stifled tedium.
In a gimmick straining the boundaries of good taste, title sponsors Sky Bet rigged up two supporters from each side at this season’s play-off finals to measure their pulse rates. For long periods, they would have produced greater spikes on the electrocardiogram from reading a good book or picking daisies.
Such was the dearth of quality that one inspired Twitter comedian suggested docking both teams prize money, the meter running down from £170m with game-show cruelty.
Apart from substitute Garath McCleary firing just wide from 20 yards at the end of first extra period, Reading rarely found the required cutting edge.
The Royals have had an oustanding season and they weave pretty patterns, but so do the curtains from Laura Ashley.
Long before it boiled down to a game of who-blinks-first from the spot, penalties looked inevitable.
And when Wagner assembled his men on the pitch for the climax, he told them: “We have worked so hard for 10 months for an opportunity to reach the Premier League – to do that now, all you have to do is put the ball in the net from 12 yards.”
Surprisingly it was a German, Michael Hefele, who suffered the first blip, Ali Al Habsi beating out his weak effort and the Huddersfield defender beating the ground in frustration.
But Reading lost the initiative when Liam Moore blazed over, a throwback to his manager Jaap Stam sending a spot-kick into orbit when Holland lost to Italy on penalties at the Euro 2000 semifinal. And when Ward guessed correctly to deny Obita, Schindler settled all arguments and Hefele was the most relieved man at Wembley.
“Such a small club is now in the best league in the world – it’s crazy,” he said.