The Majesty of Game Seven

I absolutely love series-formats in sports playoffs. It provides the one thing that any sports fan craves - whether it is while they bask in the glory of a championship, or while they ponder if they will ever reach double-digits in the win column.

It makes excuses impossible.

No matter which sports or teams one follows, one of the most difficult things to watch is a player or coach be interviewed following a particularly heartbreaking loss. As with any loss, it's difficult to single out anything as being the sole thing that lead to their defeat - especially immediately after having had your heart ripped out in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators. If it happens to be a player, then that player was simply too good to be beaten by your team. If it is due to questionable officiating, it is difficult to ever properly express your frustration with the result of the game you play having been taken out of your hands.

And to watch, much less have to experience that firsthand - three or four times over the course of around a week-and-a-half, is excruciating. No matter what it was that caused your side to come up short - the more it happens, the harder it becomes to explain why the proper adjustments were never made.

This is actually a lot harder for most people to comprehend than most would believe. Because the more a person watches or reads about sports, the more the events themselves become just another accessory. Once you read enough about the upcoming final, and how this team has the proper mismatches to beat their opponents - the easier it becomes to visualise it all, to the point where it seems as though it has all happened already.

But for an athlete, each matchup is far from a bygone conclusion - and no matter how hard we believe they are trying, they have most likely done more in their preparation for the game than those watching have in their analysis. And that is not to discount the work that goes into breaking down these games, but the fact remains that it takes both mental and physical conditioning to get that athlete up each day and compete. And even then, it may still take the encouraging words of this coach or that teammate to really make them feel comfortable about any of it. And as they are posed questions such as "how much do you feel that missed shot cost you in the end," as though there was a way for them to go back and correct that mistake.

And trust in this, if there is ever a time travel device invented - the most likely candidate would be an athlete scorned by a loss. Especially those who have lost a seven game series.

I know most American sports fans are more used to this format (NBA, NHL, MLB) than not (NFL football) - while most European fans are used to nothing but do-or-die style playoffs and championships. Yet, this year we will all but have a case for such a matchup between Man Utd and Chelsea. Regardless of who you support in the match, or even if you couldn't care less which one of the clubs wins - it is still unquestionably an incredible situation to be in. Should Chelsea manage to avenge their loss in the Premiership, they would do so in grand fashion - winning the Champions League, widely considered to be the most prestigious club title of all.

Really, it's only fair. How many down-to-the-wire series have the NBA, NHL and MLB combined for? At this point most American fans probably take it for granted that their team can even get another shot. They look for those chances, even during their seasons - striving for not just playoff berths, but hoping for the top position in the standings so as to obtain the all-important home-(field/court) advantage. Meanwhile, on the final day of another season in the Premiership - a team can be bounced from the top spot by a team who doesn't even have to defeat them for the championship (unless some very specific criteria are met ).

All said, it can still be argued that this is all made up by things like the Champions League, FA Cup, UEFA Cup - and to a lesser extent, the UEFA Super Cup. But the majesty of Game Seven is still another beast entirely. I'll put it this way - if playing a sport professionally is flirting with glory, then the first six games of a seven-game series are outright foreplay - OVER SIX DAYS. Even most women aren't up to such a task.