Finally a shot at the top level

It was 86 years for the Red Sox.

It’s been 98 for the Cubbies.

But you know what? That’s… It was 86 years for the Red Sox.

It’s been 98 for the Cubbies.

But you know what? That’s nothing. It was 135 years for Reading.

Reading, a second-tier soccer club in England, secured the top spot in the division when Sheffield United tied at Stoke City, 1-1 on Saturday. The draw was merely a formality, as the Royals had already clinched a promotion spot when they tied Leicester, 1-1, a week before that.

But think of what this means for that team. The promotion is their first trip to the Premiership in history. Ever. This is more than the Cubs or the Red Sox. They were in Major League Baseball, and if they had done well enough, they could have won the World Series.

Reading? Their promotion to the Premier League for a chance to compete for that title. This is their first trip to the top field, their first chance to win a real championship.

Let’s try to put this in perspective. The club was founded in 1871. Your great-grandparents? They were probably born after that. The American Civil War had just finished six years ago. Basketball? Nobody thought to throw the ball into a peach basket for another two decades. Walter Camp hadn’t introduced scrimmage instead of scrum.

You want another timeline? During the Spanish-American War, Reading wasn’t in the top division of English soccer. During World Wars I and II, it wasn’t. Korea? Vietnam? Falklands? Iraq? Iraq? No, no, no, no, no.

We’re seeing a great moment in sports history. This is like The Curse of the Bambino on steroids. These guys are finally getting their shot at the big time.

What makes it sweeter is the fact that they’ve come painfully close before. They made the playoffs – which consists of the teams in places three through six competing for the final promotion spot – three times, but lost in each appearance. What’s more, in 1994-95, Reading finished second, but the Premiership reduced its number of teams, so the Royals had to play in a playoff instead of receiving automatic promotion.

You guessed it – they lost.

Perhaps none of these close calls was worse than last year, though. They held the league lead, but then went winless in their last 11 games to fall short of not only the top two spots in the league – which automatically get promotion to the top division – but also out of a playoff spot. They finished in seventh.

That sort of collapse could kill a team. An American comparison: The 1964 Phillies had a 6.5 game lead with 12 games to play, then lost 10 in a row. They ended the year in a tie for second place. After that, they didn’t make the postseason for another 12 years. (Okay, so they hadn’t made it for 14 years before that, but still, it’s tough.)

Reading wouldn’t have any of it. They bounced back, and they did it with authority. The Royals didn’t just win the second division; they ran away with it. At one point, they had a 33-game unbeaten streak, a record run for any team in the second tier of English soccer. Not only that, but they clinched promotion faster than any post-war team.

“I think we surprised a lot of people this year, including ourselves,” goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann said in his monthly column for ussoccerplayers.com. “Not because we got promoted, but in the manner that we did it.”

That’s another thing that I think is worth following about this team: Hahnemann is their starting keeper. Hahnemann is also American. He has been one of the driving forces of Reading’s current push toward the Premiership, a steadying influence from the net in his time since starting all 47 matches the team played 2002-03, his first full season.

Bobby Convey, another American – who is moving himself into position to secure a spot on Bruce Arena’s World Cup team – is the fifth-leading goal scorer on Reading. That’s two Americans playing a pretty big part in this breakthrough. I see that as more proof that the United States is finally establishing itself as an important part of international soccer.

English soccer doesn’t get a terrible amount of publicity in this country. A list of scores in the back of the sports section, maybe, but nothing extravagant. However, if you get the chance, follow Reading next year, see what they do with their first shot at the big show. You’ve got two Americans on the team you can follow, and besides, it’ll take the Cubs another 30 years of losing before we get a story in the States even close to this proportion.

Brian Weaver is the assistant sports editor for The Pitt News. E-mail him at bweaves_pittnews@hotmail.com.