2023 will live on in the memories of many athletes, this being a magical year for many teams from different disciplines. A year like this could be described as before and after for some teams, since they achieved important feats in their respective tournaments.
For the first time in its history; Teams such as the Denver Nuggets, Texas Rangers, Manchester City, Vegas Golden Knights and the Spanish women’s and German basketball teams achieved their greatest achievement and became champions for the first time in their history within their respective competitions.
Manchester City’s revenge
We’ll start with the sky blues. Manchester City has been known as an important team within domestic competitions; Call it the Premier League, the FA Cup or the Carabao Cup. However, their great debt lay in winning the UEFA Champions League.
With the help of an experienced coach such as Pep Guardiola and important players, such as Ilkay Gündoğan (today at FC Barcelona), Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Rodri Hernández and many more, they achieved the long-awaited orejona in Turkey last year. June 10 against Inter Milan thanks to a solitary goal from Spaniard Rodri.
The English club tasted European honeys and was crowned for the first time in Europe’s most important club tournament. Thanks to this achievement they obtained a ticket to the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, whose tournaments they also won a short time ago. It is worth noting that in the 2020-2021 season, Manchester City played the final in Porto against Chelsea and lost by the minimum of 1-0.
The finals went to the Denver Nuggets
In the National Basketball Association (NBA) there was a team that surprised more than one and these were the Denver Nuggets. This franchise had an important season, they were the third team with the fewest losses (29) throughout the entire regular season. Only the Milwaukee Bucks (24) and the Boston Celtics (25) had fewer losses than the Nuggets.
Being leaders of the Western Conference with 53 victories, they qualified directly for the postseason; leaving the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Phoenix Suns on the way, beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference final and finally in the Finals they beat the Miami Heat in the fifth game (4-1).
Serbian Nikola Jokic was a fundamental piece for the Nuggets to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in their history, as well as getting their first championship ring. As additional information, Denver had been on the verge of the Finals four times after losing the Western Conference Final series, three of these against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Texas Rangers and their first World Series
Another team that received its first championship ring was the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Texans had a fairly average round and to reach the World Series they had to go through the Wild Card Series.
The Texas Rangers celebrated their first World Series title in style. Texas Rangers
In the regular season they finished second in the American League West Division with a record of 90-72, behind the then-reigning champions, the Houston Astros. Already in the postseason, they established an important 11-0 mark as visitors and thus advanced to what would be their third World Series in their history (2010, 2011 and 2023).
The Rangers’ victims were the Tampa Bay Rays (2-0), Baltimore Orioles (3-0), Houston Astros (4-3) in the Championship Series and finally defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-1).
The NHL has a new champion in its history
The Stanley Cup is the trophy that National Hockey League (NHL) teams hope to obtain each season. In 2023 it was the turn of the Vegas Golden Knights. This title makes it more valuable since it is the first Stanley Cup that the team will have in its trophy cases.
The Vegas Golden Knight achieved a feat this year that had not been seen in a long time in the history of the NHL. They became the expansion team, outside of the Original Six, to win the championship the fastest since their inception, surpassing what the Philadelphia Flyers achieved when they won the Stanley Cup in the 1973-1974 season. It is worth noting that the Golden Knights have only been around for six years (2017).
In the championship series they faced the Florida Panthers and won the championship in game five (4-1).
Spain debuts patch as world champion
At the national team level, a team that left a lot to talk about in recent months was the Spanish women’s team. Their championship in Australia for the FIFA Women’s World Cup was tainted by actions of third parties that at this point are no longer worth remembering, so we will focus on the important feat achieved by the selected teams.
Aitana Bonmatí celebrating her title with Spain. FIFA Women’s World Cup
The Spanish team arrived at the World Cup with significant expectations and even more so by sharing a group with a soccer powerhouse in this branch such as Japan. Spain managed to qualify as second in group C after adding six points out of a possible nine.
Their only defeat of the tournament against the Japanese forced Spain to qualify as second in the group and have to play the round of 16 against Switzerland. They showed no mercy and beat the Swiss 5-1 with a great performance by the current best player in the world, Aitana Bonmatí. Their next rivals were the Netherlands, Sweden and in the final they had to face off against England.
With a solitary goal from Olga Carmona, Spain added its first star at a senior level and took the World Cup home for the first time in its history.
It is worth highlighting the important rise of the Spanish women in the last eight years, since before this World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand, Spain had only qualified for two World Cups (Canada 2015 and France 2019), being left out in the phase of groups in their World Cup debut and being eliminated in the round of 16 on French soil. Before the 2023 World Cup, Spain had only won one World Cup match and it was against South Africa in France 2019.
Germany’s feat in the Basketball World Cup
The German basketball team could not be left out of this list. His great performance in the FIBA Basketball World Cup caused a lot of noise by eliminating the United States in the semifinals of the tournament.
Undefeated, Germany won its first World Cup title and its play displayed in each of the matches made an entire nation excited. Their litmus test came when they faced the always powerful United States, but this did not intimidate Germany, who with a score of 113-111, took their ticket to the final against Serbia.
Before playing against the Serbians, Germany played the first group stage against Australia, Japan and Finland. Then in the second round, they defeated Georgia and Slovenia. In the qualifiers they left Latvia, the aforementioned United States, and finally won against Serbia. Thanks to this title, Germany qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
2023 was a complete success for these teams, however, knowing how competitive the world of sports is, it is expected that it will not be the only title that these teams win in the coming years and that they will be able to enlarge their trophy cabinets.
2023-12-28 19:31:08
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