(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
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The Egyptian football team won a record sixth African Nations Cup, beating Cameroon 1-0 in the final in Accra, Ghana in February. Mohamed Aboutrika scored the winning goal. They won the inaugural African Nations Cup in Sudan in 1957 and also won in 1959, 1986, 1998, and 2006. One team managed to be represented in both camps—Olympics and Football—as Argentina's Olympic football team retained the Olympic title they won in Athens, beating Nigeria 1-0 in the final in Beijing.
This year, there is a strong challenge from the United States. The New York Giants staged one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, winning the Super Bowl 17-14 and preventing hot favourites New England Patriots becoming the first undefeated team since 1972. While Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA basketball play-offs for a record 17th time.
Philadelphia Phillies, the oldest continuous one-name, one-city franchise in American professional sport, won only the second baseball World Series in their 126-year history, when they beat Tampa Bay Rays 4-1, with Cole Hamels being named Most Valuable Player.
The Detroit Red Wings' victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins was their 11th Stanley Cup ice hockey championship. They have now made the playoffs in 23 of the last 25 seasons, including the last 17 in a row— the longest current streak of post-season appearances in American professional sport.
One of the sporting victories most enjoyed in the United States took place in Kentucky in September. Led by six determined rookies, inspired by a brilliant captain in Paul Azinger, and roared on by a passionate crowd, the United States Ryder Cup Team beat favourites Europe 16½-11½ in this historic golfing encounter for the first time in nine years. More impressively, they did it without the best golfer in the world, Tiger Woods, who was injured.
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One Team provided the car driven by Lewis Hamilton as he became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion. During the year, the team won six Grand Prix: Hamilton won in Australia, Monaco, Britain, Germany, and China, and his teammate Heikki Kovalainen won in Hungary. But McLaren did not win the Constructor's World Championship. That was taken by Ferrari for a record 16th time with their drivers Felipe Massa and Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari won eight Grand Prix—Bahrain, Turkey, France, European, Belgium and Brazil (Massa), and Malaysia and Spain (Raikkonen).
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