The word miracle is often thrown around to describe events and happenings that are merely impressive, surprising or coincidence. Sports writers and commentators are especially guilty of describing the games they cover in this manner, whether they do it with their tongue planted firmly in cheek or not.
Exhibit A. The gist of this article (scroll down for the list) from the Mexican football portal mediotiempo.com is that "miracles" really do exist in the Concacaf Champions League. In fact, based on the examples provided it looks like they exist relatively often.
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The author dug up eight unfancied comebacks over the course of the past 10 seasons. But is Pachuca's reversal of a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Costa Rica's Saprissa in the 2004 quarterfinals really a miracle? Or UNAM's fightback against Marathon in 2010? I'm sure for the fans of those winning teams they may have felt like a miracle occurred in the moment, but the more sane of them would probably conclude in later days and weeks that either their side's true quality eventually shone through or they were simply lucky.
Canadian soccer fans will remember Montreal's capitulation against Santos Laguna in the 2009 quarterfinals most famously. The Impact went into halftime of the second leg in Mexico carrying a 2-1 lead in the match and a 4-1 advantage on aggregate. That meant that Santos needed four goals (and no more from Montreal) to advance. The Mexicans got those four in the most heartbreaking fashion for Montreal fans, with two of them coming in deep in injury time.
We may arguably be approaching miracle territory here. Athletes and fans across Latin America often reference God when being interviewed. Since miracles are often attributed to divine intervention I'm sure some Santos fans to this day swear God was on their side during injury time. Although it does raise the question of what God has against the Montreal Impact? Also why would He chose to intervene in the quarterfinals and not in the semifinals one month later when Santos lost to Atlante?
The criterion used to debate whether this thrilling finish or that shocking upset qualifies as a miracle is endlessly subjective. But leaving aside the question of whether miracles even exist, and working under the assumption that for a sporting event to qualify it has to be big and carry a long-lasting impact, there's one miracle-related question that can't be avoided on this website. We've heard many times, that it will take a miracle for Canada's men to qualify for the World Cup.
Given the momentum the club game seems to have gathered in the past five or so years in Canada, alongside the overall growing popularity of the sport, I fully expect Canada to qualify for the World Cup about as much as it misses out over the second half of my life. Therefore saying that it would take a miracle for Canada to ever qualify would be off target. (If there's such a thing as being more miraculous than a miracle, Canada winning the World Cup might approach it.) But in this go-around, with this group of players and the opposition Canada faces, would Canada's qualification for the 2014 World Cup really be a miracle?