Sheffield Wednesday Wins Greatest Comeback in EFL Playoff History

I don't write about Sheffield Wednesday very often. While I watch highlight videos, follow Twitter for updates during games, and listen to the Owls Americast podcast, I haven't watched a live Wednesday game in about a year. That changed over the last week as I watched two Wednesday-Peterborough United playoff matches.

A quick summary of English football for those who don't follow. You know what, I'll let the first episode of Welcome to Wrexham explain. (Warning: One bad word in the video.)

Sheffield Wednesday has been around since 1867 with a long history of playing in England's top league. They were actually a founding member of the Premier League in 1992 but got relegated after the 1999-2000 season. That's when I was first introduced to the team though I probably didn't start following them closely until about a decade ago. Wednesday haven't been to the Premier League since 2000 and were relegated from the Championship division to League One (the third division) following the 2020-2021 season. The way English Football works is that the top two teams during the season earn an automatic promotion. Then, the teams finishing 3rd through 6th compete in the playoffs with the winner also going up. Wednesday finished 3rd this season meaning that they played a two-game series against 6th place Peterborough United. Peterborough won the first game last Friday 4-0 in an awful game. So to advance to the final at Wembley Stadium for a chance to move up to Championship League, all Sheffield Wednesday had to do was come back from a four-goal deficit. No team had ever been down more than two goals after the first leg and advanced, but to quote Jim Carrey, so you're telling me there's a chance. 

And then this happened:

Incredible. I don't think I've been this excited about a game and celebrated so much after a goal (in this case Liam Palmer's goal at the end of regulation) since the US-Algeria 2010 World Cup match.

I should probably mention that I almost predicted the result. I published this tweet several hours before the game.

When Peterborough scored in extra time, I figured, yeah, this is just like Wednesday. Get our hopes up and lose in the worst way possible. Fortunately, the team came through and won an amazing game.

Now, Wednesday will play at Wembley Stadium at 10:00 AM Eastern time on Memorial Day. I'll be watching!

Here's a little more about the game from the BBC and ESPN. Sheffield Wednesday also posted an extended video of highlights of the match. I may watch this all weekend long!

Friday Video: Snow

It seems like almost everyday, there is some news or story that is pretty unbelievable. Things that you can’t imagine are happening. Although there are still seven months remaining this year, I’m not sure that anything will astonish me more than the fact that Snow is part of hit song in 2019.

Let’s go back to 1992 when Canadian rapper Snow had a #1 song, Informer.



At least in my world, this song was everywhere. Snow rapped so fast that you really couldn’t understand what he was saying expect for "a licky boom boom down," which didn’t make any sense but seemed cool. Then, the tide started to turn against Snow, and (at least in my mind) he was done after In Living Color (hi Jim Carrey!) did a sketch making fun of him.



Fast-forward to 2017. The biggest song in the world was Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee (not to be confused with Derek Jeter) featuring Justin Bieber. Although Daddy Yankee was a huge star in Puerto Rico and had some success on the mainland, Despacito catapulted him to nearly A-level status in the US. Now, Daddy Yankee has a song called Con Calma with Snow, who he seemingly brought out of retirement.



The song certainly had (and is having) success around the world (see below), but Daddy Yankee and Snow themselves didn't get the song massive radio airplay on most English stations. Enter Katy Perry on the remix.



Sadly, Snow did not appear on American Idol in this performance by Daddy Yankee and Perry.



Apparently, according to this fascinating Rolling Stone article, Snow can't enter the US:

Snow also appears in the video for “Con Calma,” but his part had to be filmed separately in Canada. Thanks to his past legal issues, including an assault conviction in 1995, Snow is currently unable to enter the U.S. without a waiver, which would have allowed him to apply for a work visa. “You’re supposed to renew the waiver and he didn’t,” says Farberman. “It’s a technical matter.”

I guess that's why he on American Idol. Anyway, Con Calma is currently in the top 40 in the US, and I wouldn't be surprised if it moves into the top 20 or even top 10 by the end of the summer. Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, the song reached #1 in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, and reached the top five in Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and Slovenia.

Please let me know if you find a story more unbelievable than Snow being part of a top 5 song in Poland and Slovenia in 2019!