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As 2013 winds to a close, TSN.ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. TSN.cas writing staff reflects on the best soccer moments from the past 12 months including CR7 one-upping Messi, Fergies farewell, the redemption of Robben and more! Cristiano Ronaldo will score whenever he wants to By: Ken Rodney He scores in La Liga and in the Champions League for Real Madrid. He scores for his country Portugal. He scores when he wants. That is the story of 2013 for the incredible Cristiano Ronaldo, who alongside Barcelonas Lionel Messi and Bayern Munichs Frank Ribery is a finalist for the Ballon dOr, FIFAs player of the year award. Fitting that he will face Messi for that award because there is always a place in a Ronaldo story where a comparison to Messi must be made, only this time it slants well in the favour of the Portuguese international. His 68 goals for club and country during 2013 are more than Messi and Ribery combined. During the current 2013-14 La Liga season he is joint top scorer with 17 goals, 9 more than his Argentinian rival, who to be fair is currently battling an injury. In international play this year he has 10 goals in nine matches, including two three-goal performances. While he will finish the year without getting his hands around a team trophy, it is impossible to not be impressed by the 2013 submitted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Fergie Says Farewell By: Mike Beauvais When Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his legendary managerial career in early May, the math showed that Manchester Uniteds season-ending match on May 20 at West Bromwich Albion would be the Scotsmans 1500th in charge of the club. It would be an anti-climatic one. United locked up the BPL title weeks earlier, but the United-West Brom season finale ended up being a highly entertaining 5-5 draw. Uniteds May 12 match, though, saw "Fergie" manage Manchester United for the last time at his beloved Old Trafford. As Ferguson made his way down to his familiar spot on the United bench, he greeted supporters and signed autographs, but there was no hiding the emotion in the Scotsmans face. It seemed as if it were just dawning on him that this would be the final time he took that walk. In the 86th-minute, Rio Ferdinand made sure his gaffer would go out a winner when he volleyed home to give United the 2-1 victory. After the match ended, United received its championship trophy presentation and Ferguson addressed the crowd for one last time. "If you think about it, those last-minute goals, the comebacks, even the defeats, are all part of this great football club of ours," Ferguson told his rapt audience. "Its been an unbelievable experience for all of us, so thank you for that." He closed his remarks with a stark reminder to the Old Trafford faithful, one that seems almost prescient now. "Id also like to remind you that when we had bad times here, the club stood by me, all my staff stood by me, the players stood by me," said Ferguson. "Your job now is to stand by our new manager. That is important." Nobody expects David Moyes to be the new Alex Ferguson, but then again, nobody expected Alex Ferguson to be Alex Ferguson. Arjen Robben finds Champions redemption By Shane McNeil After the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final I had begun to believe that something was permanently broken in Arjen Robben. One of the worlds premier footballers, the Dutchman had Bayern Munichs 2012 European title on his foot when he drove an extra-time penalty into Petr Cech. Then, when the game went to penalty kicks, he was nowhere to be seen. His summer would get even worse when the Dutch team was bounced from Euro 2012 without a win, scoring just two goals. Yet, he was offered a second chance with Bayern taking on Borussia Dortmund in the first ever all-German Champions Final. In the 60th minute, Robben sent out a prayer from the left side of the goal and a ball that seemd destined for a goal kick suddenly found its way to Mario Mandzukics boot across the face of the goal and into the back of the net. A fluke, I told myself… A lucky bounce. Then in the 89th, the real Robben returned. Thundering into the box, he split two defencemen, forced Roman Weidenfeller wide and slipped a dribbler the other way, into the goal. Robben exorcised his Champions demons, claiming Man of the Match along the way. Iceland misses World Cup; FIFA misses out By Shane McNeil Seemingly every major international brings some flavor from the fans when it comes to soccer. Euro 2012 had the Irish fans serenading their team with "The Fields of Athenry" as they bowed out, winless. The 2010 World Cup had its ever-present vuvzelas, so loud that broadcasters tried to find a way to phase them out for live broadcasts. There will likely be a story for Brazil 2014, but it will not - sadly - be the fans of the Icelandic national team. Iceland was in a balanced qualifying group that featured top-10-ranked Switzerland and Slovenia, which had qualified for both Euro 2012 and the 2010 World Cup. On the last day of qualifying, Iceland held on to a 1-1 draw with Norway, while Switzerland did them a huge service by eliminating Slovenia with a 1-0 victory. Iceland headed to the play-off round with a chance to become the smallest nation to ever qualify for soccers biggest tournament, bringing their boisterous and colourful fans with them - in spirit at least. Sadly, Iceland would fail to score against Croatia, dropping the play-off 2-0 on aggregate, keeping one of the best stories of the qualification round out of the big finale. [url=http://www.airmax2017scarpe.it/...di/air-max-zero.html]Nike Air Max Zero Italia[/url] . 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[url=http://www.airmax2017scarpe.it/]Air Max 2016 Nere[/url] . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games. LAS VEGAS -- NASCAR announced sweeping changes to the Hall of Fame election process Thursday, including tweaks that make Bill Elliott and Mark Martin immediately eligible for enshrinement. Among the six changes: Drivers are now eligible if they have competed for 30 or more years in NASCAR or turned 55 in the calendar year before nominating day. Previously, drivers were not eligible until they had been retired for three years, so drivers can continue to compete and still reach the hall. Martin, winner of 96 races across NASCARs three national divisions, has no plans at this time to race next year after 31 seasons in the Sprint Cup Series. Elliott, winner of the 1988 Cup title, is 58 but raced as recently as 2012. Two-time NASCAR champion Terry Labonte ran in five races in 2013, but is 57 and has competed in Cup for 36 years. Other drivers immediately eligible for Hall of Fame consideration include four-time Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr., who still competes at age 55, and Ken Schrader, who said last months season finale at Homestead was his final race after 30 seasons. The ballot will also include only 20 nominees, down five from the first five classes. Also, any member of the nominating committee or voting panel who appeared on the previous years ballot or current years ballot will now be recused from participation in the nominating or voting process while they are on the ballot. Ned Jarrett, Bud Moore, Junior Johnson are active Hall of Fame voters and were on the panel when they were elected. Jerry Cook is a present voter and has consistently been on the Hall of Fame ballot. Those were the only direct changes to enshrinement as NASCAR passed on forming a veterans committee or if fewer than five should be inducted each year. "We have decided that that time has not yet arrived, but we will give strong consideration to revisiting both of those propositions after the 10th class is seated," said chief communications officer Brett Jewkes. "This year well be seating the fifth class. Long story short, those are viable things. There was a lott of debate, a lot of discussion, but weve made the decision that we wont revisit those until the 10th class is seated.ddddddddddddquot; NASCAR has also established the "Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions" that will begin with the 2015 class. Potential recipients could include competitors or those working in the sport as a member of a racing organization, track facility, race team, sponsor, media partner or being a general ambassador. Landmark Award winners will remain eligible for Hall of Fame induction. Five nominees for the Landmark Award will be selected by the halls nominating committee. The winner must appear on at least 60 per cent of the ballots. Beginning next year, the nominating committee will meet in person to create its ballots for both the Hall of Fame and the Landmark Award. The committee previously submitted nominees via mail to an independent accounting firm. The nominating committee will meet Feb. 21 in Daytona. NASCAR previously announced that the reigning Sprint Cup champion will be an eligible Hall of Fame voter starting with the 2015 class. Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson will be the first active driver to cast a ballot in voting next year. All of the changes were made after NASCAR examined the election process via discussions with current panelists. "A couple things we learned through this process is that our process right now is incredibly strong and comparable to other sports halls of fame," Jewkes said. "We feel very strongly about the strength of our process, and thats been borne out in the fact that we have five classes that we think are an exceptional reflection of the history of the sport. What came out of this process, it really magnified the caution we should take in comparing ourselves to other sports halls of fame. "Bottom line is our sport is very unique, the industry is very unique, the structure of our ownership and competition and the feeder series and everything in our sport is very, very unique, and therefore our process will always be a little bit unique." 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