In some parts of the western world, Super Saturday is still going strong. As we speak, the US Men's National Team (sans Matt Miazga) are playing against Bolivia and when that match finishes, there will still be the late games on the US West Coast in MLS and USL, with craft beer service at the latter, to look forward to. Fourteen hours of football goodness of varying quality, if you can bear it, from the crack of dawn to well past sunset.
It all started with Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois and the Belgium national team, who took on Switzerland in Geneva and walked away 2-1 winners. It wasn't exactly the dominant performance to set hearts racing in anticipation of Euro 2016, but thanks to a Kevin De Bruyne long-range special, Hazard got to notch the victory under his captain's belt. A bit of an odd-looking Belgium, too, with Axel Witsel playing at right back and no Radja Nainggolan in the middle. Nainggolan is expected back from his calf injury in time for the tournament's start. While KDB's shot was great and all, this save from Yann Sommer was unbelievable and denied Hazard an assist, too.
Following the international friendly, stakes ramped up considerably. Over in England, Hull City were taking on Sheffield Wednesday in an explicably not sold out Wembley stadium to determine the third and final team promoted to the Premier League and thus earning a share of the new massive TV contract. Thanks to a rather stellar strike from Momo Diame, it was the Tigers who clawed their way to victory in the Richest Game in Football. This is now the fourth time Steve Bruce has been promoted to the Premier League (twice each with Birmingham City and now Hull City), the all-time leader in that category. Former Chelsea prospect Sam Hutchinson started for the ultimately vanquished Sheffield Wednesday side.
Two more former Chelsea players were vanquished in the center-piece of the day, the Champions League final. Unlike two years ago, Atlético did not run out of steam in the extra time after regulation finished 1-1. Instead, they ran out of luck, as Juanfran's missed penalty kick in the shootout was the only miss and Cristiano Ronaldo sealed Real Madrid's 11th title. As the shirt came off with a well practiced maneuver, at the other end Filipe Luis stood stone-faced and Fernando Torres was reduced to tears, his fairy tale of helping his boyhood team to a Champions League crown, in the self-described biggest game of his career, ending with an offside goal for Real and a missed penalty (which Torres won) in regulation from Antoine Griezmann. Yannick Carrasco did manage to tie it up late to force extra time, but there was no happy ending for Simeone & Co. In a throwback to his Chelsea days, Torres often tried to be absolutely useless on the pitch (especially in the first half), but in the end, this extra-time and shootout did end like the one in 2012 (even though he wasn't able to take a spot kick in either). In the end, it was all a little bit sad.
That video is like a Rorschach test.