LONDON -- In extravagant tension from Moscow, as the Chelsea stalwart John Terry strode to take the clinching penalty kick on giant TV screens, you could sense the pubs along the winding Fulham Road poising to erupt.
The steel-gutted Terry would make the kick, of course. Chelsea of London would defeat fellow kingpin Manchester United, 1-1 and 5-4 on penalties, to win the first all-English final in the biggest soccer-club competition in the world, the European Champions League. And when this European night's drama had settled, this road that runs past Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium would become maybe the place-to-be on the planet.
Horns would blare. Strangers might hug. It all became almost visible and audible as pub windows revealed Chelsea fans in blue, inhaling just before joy.
Just then, though, an inconceivable twist happened some 1,559 miles to the east. In Russian rain, Terry missed. He guessed correctly, aiming for the gaping half of the goal while Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar lunged rightward, but Terry slipped and shanked it stunningly wide of the goal.
Moments later, when Manchester United won 6-5 on penalties, once Van der Sar stopped Nicolas Anelka's try, the city of Manchester 163 miles to the northwest became the place-to-be, revealing again that sports is terribly capricious and that the European Champions League can be among the most thrillingly precarious competitions on Earth.
And old Fulham Road?
It became mildly eerie, even given that Chelsea fans probably rate among England's most posh contingents. In an instant, the whole stretch of road felt gutted.
A friend warned that it might be good to clear out of the pub area and head to an apartment just in case things got ornery. A peeved man in fine office clothing started a brief scrape of misdirected punches with a crowing Manchester United fan.
Broken bottles and glasses pockmarked some sidewalks. Within an hour, rows of riot police had lined up outside the Fulham Broadway subway station, and by midnight they had clashed with a cluster of Chelsea fans. People showed footage of the fracas on their mobile phones.
The stadium, warded off with makeshift gates, looked a bit forlorn in the dark.
In the match that had riveted the country that's the birthplace of the world's runaway No. 1 sport, Chelsea had reached its first Champions League final and come nightmarishly close to winning it.
