This was the first major professional sports championship for the state of Arizona and the first for a team ( in the four major North American professional sports leagues ) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns made it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 but lost both times.

United won the League championship but were denied the 20th century's first " double " when they controversially lost the 1957 FA Cup final to Aston Villa.

Meanwhile, the Browns unexpectedly had Cleveland to themselves ; the NFL's Cleveland Rams, who had continually lost money despite winning the 1945 NFL championship, moved to Los Angeles after that season.

The Browns finished 8 – 4 in 1952, but lost that year's championship game 17-7 after a muffed punt, several Lions defensive stands and a 67-yard touchdown run by Doak Walker scuttled their chances.

The team finished 11-1 in 1953, and narrowly lost the championship game to the Lions by a score of 17-16 on a 33-yard Bobby Layne touchdown pass to Jim Doran with just over two minutes left.

But in the end, Earnhardt lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by just 34 points.

The Marlins also lost key parts of their second championship team, Ugueth Urbina and Iván Rodríguez left via free agency ( signed by the Detroit Tigers ).

To mention a few of the memorable milestones on the road to the scudetto: a decisive win against Juventus ( 2 – 0 ), with a goal scored by Elkjær after having lost a boot in a tackle just outside the box, set the stage early in the championship ; an away win over Udinese ( 5 – 3 ) ended any speculation that the team was losing energy at the midway point ; three straight wins ( including a hard fought 1 – 0 victory against a strong AS Roma side ) served notice that the team had kept its polish and focus intact during their rival's final surge ; and a 1 – 1 draw in Bergamo against Atalanta secured the title with a game in hand.

In 1955, the year after Attucks had lost in the semistate final ( state quarterfinals ) to Milan's championship team, Attucks gained fame by winning the Indiana state championship, becoming the first all-black school in the nation to win a state title open to all schools regardless of race.

Following the championship, the Colts returned to the playoffs in 1971 and defeated the Cleveland Browns in the first round, but lost to the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship.

Their fellow second-year NFC expansion team, the Carolina Panthers, also got to their conference championship game, where they lost 30 – 13 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

The Wizards lost only 2 games in September and finished the season on a 6 game unbeaten streak to finish 14 – 9 – 9, for the Western Conference regular season championship.

He followed his 2001 US Open win by capturing the Wimbledon singles title, dominating first-time finalist David Nalbandian in straight sets ; Hewitt lost only two sets throughout the championship.

McLaren, though, lost the constructors ' championship to Ferrari.

Since, they have played in three additional World Series, including a dramatic run in that ended in a Game Seven loss to the Oakland Athletics, a second championship in against the Boston Red Sox that was cited in the Curse of the Bambino, and a Subway Series against their cross-town rivals the New York Yankees in the 2000 World Series which they lost in five games.

The following year, they lost the championship to the Colts again, giving up a 16 – 9 4th quarter lead enroute to 31 – 16 loss.

After losing the conference championship in 2001 to the St. Louis Rams, in 2002 to the eventual Super Bowl Champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in 2003 to the Carolina Panthers, the Eagles advanced to Super Bowl XXXIX at the end of the 2004 season, where they lost to the New England Patriots, 24 – 21.

While he has two championship rings with the 1999 – 2000 Yankees, Clemens has also been on the losing end of four World Series ( 1986 Red Sox, 2001 and 2003 Yankees, and 2005 Astros ), which is tied with Tom Glavine and John Smoltz ( who were both on the Braves when they lost the ' 91, ' 92, ' 96 and ' 99 World Series ) for the most among active players.

The Colts finished a distant second in the West to the Packers in 1966, and in 1967, with the NFL divided into four divisions of four teams each, went undefeated with two ties through their first 13 games, but lost the game and the Coastal Division championship to the Los Angeles Rams on the final Sunday of the season — under newly-instituted tiebreakers, Los Angeles won the division championship as it had better net points in the two games the teams played ( the Rams win and an earlier tie ).

The Giants advanced to their first Super Bowl in team history, and were playing for their first league championship since they lost to the Chicago Bears in the 1963 NFL Championship Game.

However the championship was not decided until the day after in a court appeal in Melbourne in which Lowndes ' Triple 8 Engineering team lost.

That led to the 1977 – 78 motto of " We owe you one ", which would ultimately backfire when they lost in the playoffs that season to the Washington Bullets, who went on to win the NBA championship.

Attributed to their lack of a true go-to-scorer, the 76ers lost hold of the top three seed and division championship that they held for most of the season, by going on the losing steak.

AZ were undefeated in all 32 of their home matches in European competitions, a sequence which ran from 1977 until 20 December 2007, when they finally lost to Everton of England by a score of 3 – 2.

While scratch matches were played by Australian " diggers " in remote locations around the world, the game lost many of its great players to wartime service.

The Anglo-Welsh side ( Irish and Scottish unions did not participate ) performed well in all the non-test matches, but drew a test against New Zealand and lost the other two.

The 1968 tour of South Africa saw the Lions win 15 of their 16 provincial matches, but the team actually lost three tests against the Springboks and drew one.

The tourists won six and lost four non-test matches, and lost the test series 2 – 1.

Though most of the Paronomasia is lost in translation, it is the equivalent of ‘ Ashdod shall be but ashes ,’ where the fate of the city matches its name.

", " Madrid have lost three consecutive matches.

He lost only five competitive matches during his tenure and England rose to a No. 4 world ranking under his guidance.

Not surprisingly Essendon then lost four of the remaining six matches, including to wooden spooners Richmond to tumble out of contention.

The Tsar reportedly awarded the title to the five finalists: Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Frank Marshall ( respectively, the World Champion, the next two World Champions, and two players who had lost World Championship matches to Lasker ).

Despite this, South Africa lost all their matches.

While the Hungarians had the best won – loss record of the tournament as a team and lost only a single game of the 56 they played, they had won most of their matches by 2½ – 1½ scores, while the Russian team won gold as they piled up the points.

The new-look Liverpool side shaped by Dalglish topped the league for almost the entire season, and had a run of 37 matches unbeaten in all competitions ( including 29 in the league ; 22 wins and 7 draws ) from the beginning of the season to 21 February 1988, when they lost to Everton in the league.

But he lost to Tim Henman, 6 – 7 ( 5 ), 3 – 6, in the second round of the Miami Masters, a player he had defeated eight times previously in as many matches.

A team which has lost all five matches is said to have been ' whitewashed '.

Grace's presence initially attracted other leading players into the team, including Fry, Ranjitsinhji and Johnny Douglas, but the increased importance of the County Championship, combined with Grace's inevitable decline in form and the lack of a competitive element in London's matches, led to reduced attendances and consequently the club lost money.

The Swedes won their first seven matches, and had already qualified for the semi-finals when they lost 26 – 27 to Denmark, having led 17 – 11 at half time.

Milan stretched their unbeaten run into the 1992 – 93 season, going 58 matches over two seasons before they lost a game.

Spassky defeated Tigran Petrosian in 1969 to become World Champion, then lost the title in the Fischer – Spassky match in 1972 – one of the most famous chess matches in history.

In the 1974 Candidates ' matches, Spassky first defeated American Robert Byrne in San Juan, Puerto Rico by 4½ – 1½ (+ 3 − 0 = 3 ); he then lost the semifinal match to Anatoly Karpov in Leningrad, despite winning the first game, (+ 1 − 4

On November 20, 2007, Sampras lost the first of three exhibition matches in Asia against Roger Federer in Seoul, Korea.

In June 1995, having lost his influence in the Real Madrid side ( only eight matches, with one goal, as the club won another league ), mainly due to the emergence of 17-year old Raúl González, Butragueño signed for Club Celaya in Mexico and, in his first year, the team reached the final of the national championship.

The host nation lost both matches, 1-24 to India and 2-9 to Japan, but still won a bronze medal.

However, the qualification matches against the two southern teams Hamarkameratene and Fredrikstad FK were lost 3 – 0 and 1 – 0 respectively.