Actually, we’re pushing 60 percent finished with the current decade, given that we persist in starting decades and centuries and millennia on years that end in zero.

(Digression alert!) And, by the by, what are we calling this decade? Apparently we haven’t decided because it’s varieties of stupid/awkward.

Back in 2009, the BBC did a story suggesting the first decade of this century would probably be known as the Noughties, which works (sorta) if you are English, and “nought” is sometimes used as a synonym for zero. What is the past decade called, back in the states? No idea.

And this decade? The BBC, on the eve of 2010, trotted out some notions: “2010s”, “tens” or “10s”, “teens” “tensies”, “teensies”, “one-ders”. And, perhaps anticipating another fraught decade: “ten-sions”.

Digression over.

Recently, I was searching this site for something else and came across an interesting post. (Yeah, what were the odds.)

It seems I had a pretty good decade covering events, back in the Oughties (as I called them. I did a countdown of the most memorable events, from 10 on down to 1, and about three times (it had been a while since I re-read it) I figured, “Well, what beats that?” And then something did.

So, halfway-plus through the “ten-sions” I was thinking of what might make a future list for this decade, and it’s kinda sad.

Here’s what I have:

Well, first let me qualify this. Because we are not yet 60 percent through this one, I’m going to limit the size. Five events only.

Still, it’s going to a bit difficult, because this decade, more than any other in a career insports  journalism, has been about doing management stuff. “Inside” stuff.

I have not gotten out much, especially the past three years.

And what I have seen, here in the UAE, is nearly only soccer. A bit of tennis … And, really, what major events happen in a country this small? Not many in sports I have semi-significant knowledge of.

So, with that apology making you wonder why you are still reading, the top five:

5. UAE 1, Australia 0, February 22, 2012. This was the game that set up the game further down this list. The Emirati U23 team was leading the qualifying group thanks to a 1-0 victory over Iraq in Doha (another story) and three points from a disqualification. The day before the match, the UAE coach, Mahdi Ali, said that “all Emiratis who love the country” would necessarily turn out for the game with the Aussies in Abu Dhabi. And then they did, more than 28,000 of them, and that is an enormous crowd in this country. Omar Abdulrahman, on his way to being acclaimed the best UAE player of his generation (and maybe ever) scored the only goal, in the 23rd minute, and the UAE needed only a tie to advance to the London Olympics.

4. Al Muharraq 5, Al Wasl 4, shootout, June 10, 2012. Three years later, this remains the last game Diego Maradona coached. The season had been one of ups and downs and nutty stuff, but Wasl was going to win a trophy, albeit a silly little one, the GCC Champions League, which is contested by teams not good enough to get into the Asian Champions League. Wasl had defeated the Bahrain club away, and a huge celebration had been prepared at Wasl for their inevitable victory after the second leg was played, in Dubai. But … Majed Naser, the impulsive goalkeeper, was sent off in the 10th minute  for butting an opponent, and Rashid Essa was red-carded in the 78th, also for butting an opponent. Playing two men down, Wasl were caught at 3-3 in aggregate and it went to a shootout, which Muharraq won. Afterward, Maradona refused to apologize for the ridiculous behavior of his team, and a month later he was fired. He may never coach again.

3. Team Great Britain 3, UAE 1, July 29, 2012. This one was played at Wembley, and the place was packed — 80,000 in the big bowl. I was in a luxury suite (don’t ask) and the wifi was going down every few minutes. The GB team had Ryan Giggs and Daniel Sturridge on it, and the UAE team was … well, the usual guys. Giggs scored early but in the 60th minute, a winger named Rashid Essa scored for the UAE … and for 13 minutes the Emiratis were on their way to a draw, in Wembley, against the Masters of the Game. It was mind-boggling. Then Scott Sinclair and Sturridge scored, and that was that. But for 780 seconds there … This beat the UAE-Uruguay game at Old Trafford, where Ismail Matar’s goal gave the UAE a lead against a team with Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.

2. Lebanon 3, UAE 1, September 6, 2011. This was played in Beirut, which is not the kind of place you just go to, if you’re paying attention. Anyway, Lebanon, a “never been anywhere, never done nothin'” soccer country, overpowered a limp UAE team to essentially end the Emiratis’ hopes for the 2014 World Cup — three years ahead of said World Cup — and led directly to the firing of their coach, the Slovenian Srecko Katanec. The game was memorable for watching a disaster unfold before us in a huge, nearly empty stadium in Beirut, and then came the “dude is fired” bit, and I chased over to the team hotel, and found Katanec and his staff sitting around drinking beers and grousing. He was unhappy with me, because I happened to be standing there (and had suggested he needed to win the game to keep from being fired), and when he said a few things I zipped over to the work center, there in the lobby of the hotel, and I nearly knocked myself out by walking into a glass door so clean I never knew it was there, and when I realized I was still conscious, I banged out this news piece on deadline. Not important, but memorable.

1. UAE 3, Uzbekistan 2, March 14, 2012.  The UAE needed a victory of draw to win its Olympic qualifying group and advance to the 2012 London Games. Things looked dire when they trailed 2-0 in the 46th minute on a sloppy pitch in chilly Tashkent (which, yes, is a pretty seriously exotic/weird place), but Ahmed Khalil scored a pair of difficult goals, and little Haboush Saleh, a late sub, scored the winner in added time, making it tidier and more memorable — a victory taking the Under 23 team to London, instead of a draw. (And here is a better retelling of it, not done on deadline two years before.) Probably the biggest comeback of any sort in UAE sports history.