Bark-bark, underdogs. This seems to be your very best year

By Chris Erskine

June 30, 2016 4:57 PM PT

We have been privy lately to some exquisite sights. LeBron James’ resurgence. Bernie Sanders’ open-field running. Actress Krysten Ritter’s incredible nose.

Now, Iceland beats England.

This Year of the Underdog started with the Denver Broncos winning the Super Bowl in an upset and gave way to the Cleveland Caviliers coming back from a previously insurmountable 3-1 deficit.

It will end with the Chicago Cubs doing something extraordinary — lord knows what. A huge, blingy trophy would be nice, though unlikely, given the DNA and family psychoses involved.

You want comical? Of course you want comical: How else are you going to survive your nephew’s bar mitzvah, or that hard-charging new boss in sales? Comically, this seems the Year of the Underdog, of surprise, of plot twists and epic and unlikely comebacks. It’s a year for the rest of us — the world’s grinders, who get it done each day but never win much of anything.

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to England,” a TV commentator crowed Monday in the closing minutes of Iceland’s win over the bloody Brexit Brothers.

True, the Roman conquest of Britain was a big deal, as was the Battle of Hastings (always bet William the Conqueror on the road). At one time, Caligula also attacked Britain, but famously faced his Roman soldiers in the wrong direction. Oops.

That’s essentially what happened to England’s soccer team this week. Most of the match, the troops were facing the wrong direction. A sooty national funk soon rolled over the island, overlapping the previous national funk from a few days before.

See, soccer is still more important in England than tea, trade and toothless chimney sweeps. Historic battlefield losses are one thing, but to brick a soccer game against a tiny outpost such as Iceland, with two, maybe three total inhabitants, officially means you’re in a wee slump.

Social media quickly glowed with news that England’s coach made $4.6 million a year, while Iceland was co-coached by a part-time dentist. The outcry wasn’t so much over money. It was that England let a perfectly good dentist get away.

“Same odds as finding Elvis alive.”

— Soccer writer Rob Tanner, on Leicester City beating the 5,000-1 odds

Never mind this minor slump, because empires often bounce back from tough times. Like USC and the Dodgers, for instance. They’re always on the way back.

Besides, England is still home to perhaps the greatest underdog story of all time, the Leicester City Foxes, who overcame 5,000-1 odds to win the Premier League championship this year.

“Same odds as finding Elvis alive,” reports Rob Tanner, a soccer writer whose new book “5000-1: The Leicester City Story” chronicles the team’s sensational season.

Think of the Leicester City Foxes as the Bad News Bears of soccer, featuring a great history but limited conquests. In short, they represent our greatest qualities — perseverance in the face of longshot rewards and a wry belief that life must somehow go on.

Oh, what a cast. The Foxes are coached by an amusing Italian who uses invisible bells to motivate the team and led by a barroom brawler who used to wear an ankle bracelet during matches after some difficulty with the authorities.

“He’s a bit of a rough diamond,” Tanner says of striker Jamie Vardy.

Earlier in his career, Vardy would hurdle the sideline barriers at the end of games and race home in hopes of not violating the terms of his curfew.

And you thought Yasiel Puig was a handful?

I guess redemption and improbable runs are what Leicester is all about. If you like that sort of thing, you can see them play here when they take on Paris Saint-Germain at the StubHub Center in Carson on July 30.

Note that if Paris Saint-Germain escapes L.A. without her own reality show, that might be the biggest upset of all. Wait, what? She’s a soccer team? With a fancy name like that? C’est la vie.

Tanner predicts an excellent game in the L.A. leg of the International Champions Cup, which features elite European teams. He says American fans will take to Leicester City’s explosive style. According to Tanner, the Foxes like to lie back on defense, let the other team tap the ball around to little avail, then retaliate explosively.

In short, Leicester City doesn’t play West Coast dink-and-dunk futbol, the way Barcelona does. Their bombing style of play is more what William did to King Harold — a brisk, lethal strike leading to historic victories.

So you can’t say the Brits haven’t learned something over the years. They prefer their redemption, like their beer, served a little warm.

Go Foxes! Go Cubs! Go underdogs! Because the Year of the Underdog is only half gone.

MIRACLE MOMENTS

Chris Erskine’s unofficial list of the unlikeliest upsets of the last century: