On YouTube, the last 12 months in sports brought everything from small-town plays to major global sporting events, and we watched as the videos below exploded in popularity in the United States.

The bell-weather sporting event of the year was undoubtedly the World Cup in South Africa, where Spain finally lived up to their promise, football (aka soccer) aficionados worldwide were treated to a spectacularly speculative take on the game and its consequences in a series of ads by Nike, and American fans everywhere delighted in a last-minute, game-saving goal by Landon Donovan.

While the pros get their share of love on our site, amateur athletes got their chance to shine, too, whether it was must-be-seen-to-be-believed plays in football, soccer and baseball and basketball. In the category of "Awesomely Miscellaneous/Miscellaneously Awesome," trick shot artists reached new heights, while underwater base jumper Guillaume Nery reached, well, new depths. And while we're unclear on what exactly it is that these guys do, we still say: well played.

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• Check out the rest of our 2010 lists for the top 10s in:

Sports	News	Trailers	Parody	Non-profit
Tech Culture	Hip-hop	Vehicles	Animals	Most Discussed
Short Films	People	International music	Holidays

Andrew Bangs, YouTube Sports Manager