By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
State football championships
It’s football championship week here in Iowa. Some champions have already been determined: Class 8-player, won by Bishop Garrigan over Woodbine, 44-42. Class A, won by MMCRU over Saint Ansgar, 30-17. Class 1A, won by West Lyon over Regina Catholic, 34-27. Class 4A, won by Xavier over Pella, 31-6.
Still to be determined today are Class 2A between Van Meter and Kuemper Catholic (likely finishing up as this column goes out), Nevada vs. Bishop Heelan in Class 3A, and Dowling vs. Iowa City Liberty in Class 5A. The games are all being streamed online for free at www.iahsaa.org/watch/. Tap in and watch some of the best football teams in the state try to etch their names into the history books.
World cup madness
The next Fifa World Cup is in 2026, hosted by the great U.S.A. I remember hearing rumblings of this happening back when I was in high school. The selection process takes years and is normally determined far in advance, mainly to help the hosting countries prepare for the influx of teams and fans.
The World Cup is the single greatest sporting event in the world. Better than the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, MLB playoffs, and even the Olympics. Every four years the greatest soccer talents in the world put their skills on display and play their hearts out for their respective nations.
It has created some of the most memorable sporting moments of all time, from the Diego Maradona “Hand of God”goal, to Zidane’s headbutt (2:30 in), to Tshabalala’s opening goal of the 2010 World Cup, to the overall stunning 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France that saw Lionel Messi capture the sport’s most elusive trophy in a game for the ages.
Solid performances at the tournament have jumpstarted many relatively unknown player’s careers and have produced incredible moments during qualifying games. This past week, we got one of, if not the, greatest qualifying game ever.
Denmark and Scotland were battling for a place in the 2026 World Cup. The winner of this Nov. 18 game guaranteed a place in the tournament. What transpired was absolute fireworks.
Scotland’s Scott McTominay opens the scoring with an incredible bicycle kick just three minutes in. Take a bow. Fast forward, Denmark answers back in the 57th minute, followed by a red card for the Danes in the 61st. Scotland takes the lead back in the 78th minute, only for Denmark to answer right back in the 82nd, tied 2-2, heading into the final minutes. And, of all players, defender Kieran Tierney produces a left footed curler in the 93rd minute to give his nation the lead. Check out this angle. If that wasn’t enough for the Scottish fans in attendance, just three minutes later, Kenny McLean scores from within his own half, lobbing the keeper from some 60 yards out. Here are highlights to the game. Skip to 20 seconds for McTominay’s bike, 3:08 for the red card, 4:25 for Tierney’s strike, and 5:30 for McLean’s lob. “They will drink Glasgow dry tonight.” What a comment. What a game.
Reach out with comments, complaints, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.