In the Picture...

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1973: Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer exchange pennants.

Talking about Football...

Arsène Wenger about Dennis Bergkamp's work ethic

He was born with a huge talent and has done everything to develop that talent. What I respect most of all is that, for twenty years, each and every day, untill the last minute of training he was completely focused on his job. Dennis never played a ball he hadn't given thought to, and put something of himself into.

(Source: Voetbal International, 17 june 2020)

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1974: Der Bomber in action against East Germany

To Die in Harness

On September 10th 1985 Wales and Scotland met in Cardiff for a crucial World Cup qualification game. The tournament was set to be held in Mexico the following year. Both teams were desperate to keep their hopes of qualifying alive. Coaching the visitors was the legendary Jock Stein, the man behind all of Celtic's great triumphs of the 60's and 70's. In theory, things were looking good for them. A draw would see them reach a play-off against the winner of a yet to be held qualification tournament for Oceania. If they were to win, they had a decent shot of winning the group, which also featured Spain, and qualifying directly.

The only thing Stein's needed to avoid was losing to Wales. In that case only a defeat for Spain could help Scotland reach the play-off, but that was extremely unlikely as the only remaining match for the Spaniards was at home to bottom placed Iceland. Problem was, that losing to Wales was exactly what the Scots had done six months earlier. Wales boasted a world class attacking duo in the form of Liverpool's Ian Rush and Manchester United's Mark Hughes. Even the support of 60.000 fans at Hampden Park hadn't been able to prevent Wales clinching victory courtesy of a 1st half goal scored by Rush. If that defeat wasn't troubling enough in itself for Stein, this time around he'd have to take on the Welsh without his captain Graeme Souness, due to a suspension, and his star player Kenny Dalglish, due to an injury.

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1974: Holland coach Rinus Michels looks on as his team takes on Uruguay

Talking about Football...

Steve Bruce on Alex Ferguson's famous temper

I remember my debut, Portsmouth away. In the old dressing-room at Fratton Park there was a pillar that stood alone in the corner. When I came in at half-time there were about eight players sitting around this pillar. I sat on my own on the other side, thinking, 'Why are they all sitting there?'. We weren't playing well. Fergie came in, and he started. I soon understood why they were all hiding behind that pillar!

(Source: Daily Mail, 25 December 2019)

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May 1982: Aston Villa's Gary Williams with a sliding tackle on Bayern Munich's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

The Serie A's ban on foreigners

Many of the greatest Italian club sides are heavily identified with the foreign stars they featured. The late 80's Milan built around the Dutch trio of Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten immediately springs to mind. But the phenomenon goes back much further. Thirty years earlier Milan had featured another trio of foreigners: the Swedes Gren, Nordahl and Lidholm (affectionately nicknamed GreNoLi). And when Italian clubs had started to win their first European cups in the 60's, foreign stars continued to play their part. Helenio Herrera's Grande Inter featured the Spaniard Luis Suares as its playmaker and the Brazilian Jaïr on the wing.

And we haven't even mentioned the so-called Oriundi yet. Those were South-American players of Italian descent, who -thanks to an expediently procured passport- often even featured in the Italian national team. Their history goes back even further. The World Cup that Italy won in 1934 would never have been possible without the three Argentinean players they fielded, including one of the absolute stars of that team: Raimundo Orsi. So foreigners and Italian teams, a long and happy marriage? Not quite, because for fifteen years Italian clubs were in fact not allowed to sign foreign players.

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Pelé in action during the final of the 1958 World Cup

Talking about Football...

Bryan Robson on Paul Gascoigne

At his peak he was unbelievable. I knew he was a talent the moment I played against him. He had bravery to take the ball at any time, constant movement and tricks to get himself out of trouble. He also had this ability to push you in the chest with either arm without fouling you to lever himself away then run past you. He was really hard to shift off the ball.

(Source: Daily Mail, 25 April 2020)

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In the 2002 UEFA-Cup final Feyenoord's Pierre Van Hooijdonk scores the deciding goal from a free kick.

The most hated man in Glasgow

As most football fans will know, Scotland's biggest city is divided into two camps: one favors Celtic, the other favors Rangers. I'm sure fiercer footballing rivalries exist, but there can't be many. Because whereas most rivalries at least confine themselves to football, in Glasgow there's an added dimension of sectarianism to the mutual envy and hatred. Celtic, founded for and by Irish immigrants, is the team of Catholic Glasgow, and Rangers that of the Protestants. The ferociousness of the rivalry meant a player switching between the two clubs was completely unthinkable.

Yet switching was exactly what Maurice "Mo" Johnston -indirectly- did in the summer of 1989. The forward had played for Celtic for three seasons, between 1984 and 1987, scoring 52 goals in 99 games. Johnston had won the cup with the Catholic club in 1985 and had added the league title a season later. When the Scottish international decided to return to Scotland after a stint playing in France, Celtic was the most obvious destination. The fact that he signed for Rangers instead, came as a bolt from the blue.

In the Picture...

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1974: Kevin Keegan, Alec Lindsay and Emlyn Hughes line up to assist Liverpool goalie Ray Clemence

Taking about Football...

Bobby Charlton on seeing Alfredo di Stefano play

Who is this man? He takes the ball from the goalkeeper; he tells the full-backs what to do; wherever he is on the field he is in position to take the ball; you can see his influence on everything that is happening... I had never seen such a complete footballer. It was as though he had set up his own command centre at the heart of the game. He was as strong as he was subtle. The combination of qualities was mesmerizing.

(Source: BBC, 7 July 2014)

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June 1974: Johan Cruyff scores Holland's fourth goal against Argentina

AC Milan and the toothless striker

What springs to mind when you think of an AC Milan centre-forward? People of a certain age will immediately be reminded of Marco van Basten, an intelligent and technically gifted striker. The Dutchman was far from the only world class centre-forward to wear the red and black. In the fifties there was the Swede Gunner Nordahl, Milan's all-time goalscorer, and a decade later the Brasilian José Altafini stalked the San Siro. After Van Basten greats like Shevchenko, Weah and Inzaghi played for Milan. These days Ibrahimovic is spending his dotage there.

What few people will probably come up with when conjuring up a mental image of a Milan forward, is a classic British target-man. The kind that would long ago have lost his front teeth in some ill-fated areal duel. Yet that is exactly what AC Milan set out to take the Serie A by storm with back in 1981, after spending a year in the Serie B due to a betting scandal.

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December 1911: The Oldham goalkeeper kicks the ball downfield

Talking about Football...

Marco van Basten on Arrigo Sacchi:

I was used to Cruyff, who had been a great player. We thought the same way. Sacchi was more theoretical. We had to watch so many videos and he was always talking during training. It was too much. I told him: ‘Mister, you have already told me this 12 times. If I don’t understand it now, I never will.’

(Source: Guardian, 31 October 2020)

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May 1963: AC Milan's Cesare Maldini tackles Benfica's Eusebio

Lima, the Forgotten Stadium Disaster

“The mass is a river of screams and panic. Unstoppable and unknowing it crushes anyone who stumbles and falls. The avalanche of people goes from fear to hysteria when at the foot of the stairs, that descent into death, it encounters closed doors. Metal objects that only open to the inside. There is no turning back, away from that fatal escape route. No way back up to the stands, where, despite the asphyxiating gas, freedom awaits, instead of this prison of bodies that crush, suffocate, and kill each other. The pressure of those joining the human waterfall makes escaping impossible. The air gets exhausted. Lungs shrink. Ribs break.”

Thus, loosely translated, wrote the journalist Mauricio Gil in the Peruvian paper El Comercio. What is being described above is not the Hillsborough disaster or the Heysel drama, but by far the greatest football disaster in history. A disaster that has been almost completely forgotten outside of Peru.