FOOTY FAIR

Football's Greatest Sides - Part 5 of 5: Real Madrid (1955 to 1960)

2016-04-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

While the other famous club sides in this series, particularly the Milan side of Arrigo Sacchi and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona were defined in large part by the footballing philosophy of their respective managers, this certainly doesn't apply to the great Real Madrid squad of the late 1950s.

Rather than being influenced by a single manager during their record breaking run of five straight European Cups, Los Blancos went through the tenureship of José Villalonga, Luis Carniglia (twice), Manuel Fleitas, and Miguel Muñoz (twice).

But that's Real Madrid in a nutshell, a football institution that wins titles with colourful players and even more colourful presidents, but where the manager is as disposable as yesterday's daily newspaper.

The story of that wonderful Madrid side began to take shape when Santiago Bernabéu de Yeste was appointed president in 1945. He would become the first in a long line of powerful overseers of the club, but none have come anywhere near close to matching his influence or success.

But it wasn't an easy start for the man who Real's stadium is now named after. Bernabéu took over a club that was in ruins following the Spanish Civil War, with a decimated board room and a subpar playing staff.

He quickly got to work on a two pronged approach of building up the club's youth side and signing the best available talent in Spain and beyond.

Madrid's fortunes took a dramatic upward turn in 1953 when Bernabéu hijacked Barcelona's attempted capture of Argentinian attacker Alfredo Di Stéfano and instead brought "The Blonde Arrow" to the Spanish capital.

If you were to pop into a cafe in Madrid, even today, and engage in conversation with football fans of a certain age they will tell you to forget about Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Pele, because the greatest player of them all was Don Alfredo.

Although scant footage exists of the man his contemporaries refer to as football's most complete player ever, when considering the Argentine's influence on the game the old Madridistas may have a point.

Di Stéfano, with a talented supporting cast including Paco Gento and Hector Rial, helped Madrid storm to victory in the first ever European Cup Final in 1956 by virtue of a 4-3 win over Stade de Reims.

Madrid also helped themselves to the signing of Reims best player following the final, when they added Raymond Kopa to their glittering array of attacking talent.

The club would go on to win the European Cup again in 1957 with a 2-0 victory over Fiorentina, and would follow that up with a tense 3-2 extra time win over AC Milan in 1958.

Another win over Stade de Reims in 1959, this time by a score of 2-0, made it four straight cups for Madrid.

Their opus though would come with the last of their five straight European titles in 1960 when 127,621 stunned spectators at Hampden Park in Glasgow witnessed Madrid destroy West German champions Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3.

Scoring in his still record fifth straight final, Di Stéfano plundered a hat trick while Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas helped himself to four.

The following season saw Madrid finally ousted from the tournament, beaten at the semi-final stage, as age started to catch up to some of their leading stars.

Club football has seen a number of brilliant and innovative teams in the past fifty years, but it's impossible to imagine that anyone will match the five straight European titles by the side that Bernabéu built.

5 Facts About Luxembourg

2015-11-14T11:56:00.000-05:00

Greece's miserable run of results following their elimination from the 2014 World Cup continued last night as they were stunned 1-0 in Luxembourg courtesy of a stoppage time strike from Aurelien Joachim.

For Greece, who finished at the bottom of their qualifying group for the European Championship, it was a bitter pill to swallow as Luxembourg currently sit at 146 on the FIFA world rankings, a full 89 places behind the Greeks.

For the tiny nation of Luxembourg though it was a tremendous result following another difficult, and ultimately unsuccessful, qualifying campaign for the European Championships.

As Luxembourg is by no means a football superpower and is certainly not a country that has featured much here on FootyFair, I thought I would present five quick facts about the country and it's football.

1) Luxembourg Almost Qualified for Euro 64

It's no great surprise to even casual followers of international football that Luxembourg doesn't have a tremendous record in World Cup or European Championship qualifying, but in 1963 they came agonizingly close to booking a place in the European Finals the next summer. Back in the early days of the Euros, the tournament was played across Europe in home and away qualifying rounds with only four teams reaching the finals. One of those teams would then be selected as the host.

Luxembourg defeated the Netherlands 3-2 over two legs in the First Round of Qualifying, which was sealed with a stunning 2-1 win in Rotterdam. Camille Dimmer, who was a well known politician in the small Western European country, scored both goals on the night, including a 67th minute winner.

Sadly, Luxembourg were denied a place in Euro 64 in Spain by virtue of a 6-5 loss over two Quarter Final legs and a one game playoff to Denmark. An exciting 3-3 draw at home was followed by a 2-2 draw in Copenhagen, but in the days before the away goals rule a one game neutral site playoff was required and the Dane's came through in Amsterdam 1-0.

2) Luxembourg is One of the Smallest States in Europe

With an area of 2,586 square kilometres (998 sq mi), Luxembourg is the seventh smallest sovereign state out of the 50 states in Europe. Only Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Vatican City are smaller. With a population of just a little over 500,000 a result such as the one they had last night over Greece looks even bigger.

3) Luxembourg's Football League Has Five Divisions

Although many of the clubs are semi-professional or amateur, Luxembourg currently has a five tier league system with promotion and relegation between the divisions. The Luxembourg National Division, which is made up of 14 clubs, is the top league in the country. The current league champions are Sporting Circle Fola Esch.

4) Jeunesse Esch are the Biggest Club in Luxembourg

Jeunesse Esch are the most successful, and arguably the biggest, club in the country having won the league championship a record 28 times. Although like most sides from the Luxembourg they haven't had much success in Europe, in 1959-1960 they enjoyed a notable upset when they knocked the heavily favoured Polish side LKS Lodz out of the European Cup with a 6-2 aggregate win in the first round of the competition. In the next round though they were trounced 12-2 on aggregate by the mighty Real Madrid side of Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas, who were on their way to a record fifth straight European title.

5) Luxembourg and England Have a Bit of History

As of November 2015, the Luxembourg national team has played 356 official games which has resulted in 26 wins, 41 draws and 289 losses, with 208 goals for and 1012 against. Their record defeat is a 9-0 reverse to England in 1960, which was repeated in 1982. The country's record win is a 6-0 rout of Afghanistan at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, England.

5 New Signings Making Miserable Faces

2015-06-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

The transfer silly season is upon us and as players hold up the scarves of the new teams they've just signed for let's hope they attempt to smile about the prospect of leaving the bench of a Champions League powerhouse for a second tier no-hoper.

That will distinguish them from the following five players who looked positively horrified at signing for their new clubs:

Aaron Lennon - Everton

"London, Spurs, possible Champions League football...and now I'm at Everton? Well, at least they're the biggest side on Merseyside, right?"

Julien Faubert - Real Madrid

"Yeah, I know Don Alfredo... I can't believe Madrid signed me either."

Nicolas Anelka - West Brom

"Bernabeu, Parc des Princes, Stamford Bridge... The Hawthorns? Great."

Emmanuel Frimpong - Barnsley

I don't even need to make anything up for this one. Upon moving from Arsenal to Barnsley, Frimpong Tweeted: "How am I gonna draw girls now?"
Indeed, how?

Jaap Stam - Lazio

"I was badly advised when I wrote that book criticizing my Manchester United teammates."

Throwback Thursdays: 1963 - Benfica Denied a Third European Cup

2015-05-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

Before it came to be known as the hyper commercialized UEFA Champions League, the greatest cup competition on the continent was known as the European Cup. In the early days it was a nice two-legged knockout tournament that included only actual league champions and concluded with a single match final.

For the first five years of the competition the cup was the sole possession of the great Real Madrid side of Alfredo Di Stefano and friends. In 1961 though their stranglehold on the cup finally ended when they were beaten in the semi-final by Barcelona, who would themselves fall in the final to Portuguese champions Benfica in Switzerland.

Benfica, bolstered by the emergence of the mercurial Eusébio, would repeat as European Cup winners in 1962 when they hammered Real Madrid, in a symbolic last hurrah for the old champions, by a score of 5-3.

On 22 May 1963 at Wembley Stadium in England, Benfica were widely tipped to add a third straight title as they took on AC Milan and thus keep the cup in Southern Europe.

The great Eusébio rocketed his side into the lead in the 18th minute when he blasted one of his trademark right foot thunderbolts past Milan keeper Giorgio Ghezz to the delight of the watching 45,700 strong crowd.

Although Benfica were initially in the ascendancy, AC Milan held strong and finally in the 58th minute they found a breakthrough with a goal from Brazilian born striker José Altafini.

Eight minutes later Altafini found the net again to put the Italian side into a lead they would not squander and Milan had won the first of their eventual seven European Cup titles.

As for Benfica they would go on to four more European Cup Finals, but would lose all of them. They have also finished as runners-up in the UEFA Cup/Europa League on another three occasions.

Wembley Stadium itself would prove to be a very unhappy venue for Eusébio as he would break down in tears after losing the 1966 World Cup semi-final to England under the famous twin towers and also lose in extra-time to Manchester United in the 1968 European Cup Final at the same venue.

Throwback Thursdays: European Cup of 1960

2015-03-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Real Madrid was the most dominant club in Europe, having won 4 straight European Cups to get this new competition underway they were clearly the team to beat in Europe.

It wasn’t a surprise that they reached the 5th straight final and were looking at making five straight title wins. Their opponent was Eintracht Frankfurt from Germany, and the place was Hampden Park in Glasgow.

The demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt at the hands of the powerful Real Madrid is one if not the most memorable European Cup final of all time. The victory by Real Madrid in Glasgow secured their 5th straight win and set Real Madrid as one if not the biggest club in European footballing history.

A crowd of 134,000 people that included a young Sir Alex Ferguson, then an 18 year old center forward playing for Queen’s Park. They were treated to an incredible game where Di Stefano and Puskas showed all of their class and talent. Puskas and Di Stefano were at the peak of their game, and were the two best players playing in Europe at that time, and they used this game to show it to everyone. Supported by Jose Santamaria, Francisco Gento and Luis Del Sol, Real Madrid had an ensemble of stars that Eintracht Frankfurt would not be able to match.

Having said that and looking at the final score of 7-3 for Real Madrid, one would think that the German side was weak and out of their depth. Sure they didn’t have the talent that Real Madrid had, but they were not a push over. They had put twelve goals past Scottish champions Rangers in the semi-finals and were the first ones to score in the final.

That goal did nothing more than poke the bear and it was the wakeup call that Di Stefano needed to get the game turn around quickly. He would score two goals in the first half to give a 2-1 lead to Real Madrid at halftime.

Puskas was not going to be outdone by Di Stefano, and he scored four goals in the second half to surpass Di Stefano who ended up with a hat trick. Incredible performances from these two geniuses had Real Madrid leading 7-1 after 71 minutes. Eintracht Frankfurt would score two goals by Erwin Stein to make the score line 7-3 in the final.

This was Puskas and Di Stefano’s night, the duo had four and three goals respectively and dominated the game from beginning to end. They showed the world their incredible class and ability, and gave Real Madrid their fifth consecutive European Cup in five editions of the competition.

Players Who Smoked

2014-10-17T20:54:00.002-04:00

Like most teens in North America, that come from working or middle class backgrounds, I had a series of crappy part time jobs in Highschool to put money aside for a car and, hopefully, College, but also to have some cash to spend on things like music, trips to the movies, sports cards and magazines.

While working at a factory, dying clothes one summer, I quickly realized that the smokers got more breaks than the rest of us. So while I was sweating my balls off loading drenched sweaters into something called an 'extractor', all the guys who lived for that sweet Carolina breeze, were outside shooting the shit while having a smoke.

'Well fuck that noise," I thought to myself, "I'm taking up smoking."

So before my third shift, I promptly bought myself a pack of DuMaurier Lights and joined the smokers on their extra breaks.

Not to date myself, but this was back in the days when cigarette manufacturers were allowed to label smokes as 'lights', almost as if they were good for you and far less cancer causing.

I never became a regular smoker, and after leaving that particular job I pretty much only had the odd smoke here and there while out drinking, so I found it relatively easy to quit.

One thing I did notice is that none of my friends that smoked regularly could run for any great distances, at least not without hacking up a lung, and it therefore has always blown my mind when I have come across pictures of professional footballers smoking.

A goalkeeper for my Sunday league side, years ago, used to enjoy a smoke during play and would scream at us defenders if he had to make a save that would cause him to drop his cigarette. But this guy would get winded when walking from his couch to the refrigerator for another beer, so there was a reason we put him in goal.

Besides the notable exceptions of Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere, most modern footballers generally refrain from smoking and with the high pace of the game these days you can understand why.

But back in the '50s and '60s, it wasn't an uncommon thing to see a player sneaking a 'crafty dart' at half time, or even prior to a match.

Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn even admitted sneaking to the bathroom to have a smoke before the 1951 FA Cup Final and finding four of his teammates in there doing the same.

Smoking didn't hold Milburn back though, as he went on to score two goals as Newcastle went on to beat Blackpool 2-0.

Speaking of Blackpool, their star winger Sir Stanley Matthews was a 'tea total', non drinking or smoking, clean living guy, who ended up playing professional football until the age of 50. This however didn't stop him from doing advertisements for Craven A.

Jackie Milburn's famous nephews Jackie and Sir Bobby Charlton also enjoyed a few tabs themselves and the picture below of Jackie enjoying a post training smoke is more 1970's than butterfly collars and the Bee Gees.

Outside of England, stars such as the great Alfredo Di Stefano enjoyed the odd ciggie and the Dutch master Johan Cruyff used to smoke at least 20 cigarettes a day. Brazil's Socrates was another heavy smoker, but if you've ever watched footage of his leisurely pace you could almost imagine him having a puff while elegantly passing the ball around to more hurried teammates.

Despite all of the guys that did feed their nicotine habits, even as early as the 1930's managers such as Arsenal's famous Herbert Chapman and Wolves' Major Frank Buckley tried to persuade their players from smoking as they, quite rightly, believed that affected performance.

These two managers proved to be well ahead of their time though, as smoking only really began to become a no-no for professionals from the mid-1970's and onwards.

Anyhow, smoke 'em if you got 'em, here's to the weekend, and all the best to one of the writers here on Footyfair, Kon, who is in the process of quitting smoking himself and hasn't hit the psychotic or binge eating stages yet.

Four of the Greatest European Cup Sides in History

2014-05-23T12:00:00.000-04:00

This Saturday, Real Madrid takes on Atletico Madrid at the Estadio da Luz in an attempt to clinch their historic tenth European Cup/Champions League crown, "La Decima". Real Madrid have a rich history of success in European competition, and their supporters around the world are confident that they will see their club lift the trophy once again this weekend.

Since the great AC Milan side of the late '80s/early '90s, no club has repeated as champions though and that will continue this year. Last seasons winners, Bayern Munich, were knocked out in the Semi Finals by Real Madrid and it has now been 24 years since a club has retained the cup. Repeating in the Champions League appears to range from extremely difficult to impossible these days, with all of the massive clubs involved in the competition. But that wasn't always the case, as we look back at a few of the great sides who were able to retain "the cup with the big ears".

Real Madrid: 1955/1956 - 1959/1960

Led by the imperious Argentine, Alfredo Di Stefano, Los Blancos made the European Cup their own personal possession in the first five years of its existence. Seeing off Stade de Reims in the 1956 and 1959 finals, while defeating Italian sides Fiorentina in 1957 and AC Milan in 1958 respectively. Although the side contained talent all over the pitch, particularly in attack, everything went through Di Stefano. He was at the heart of nearly every attacking move, and often on the end of them as well. Heading into their fifth straight final at Hampden Park in Scotland, Madrid already containing stars like Luis Del Sol and Paco Gento, in addition to Di Stefano, had also added the Hungarian star Ferenc Puskas to their ranks. For the last of their run of five straight wins, in a match that every Glaswegian over the age of 60 claims to have been present at, Madrid hammered Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3. In that famous final, Di Stefano fired in a hat-trick, while Puskas found the net four times himself. The feats of this wonderful side will likely never be matched.

Ajax: 1970/1971 - 1972/1973

In a golden age for Dutch Football, the Amsterdam club, led by the sublime Johan Cruyff, realized coach Rinus Michels vision of a fluid passing and possession-based game. Ajax's system encouraged individuals to express their individual skills, but move to cover the spaces vacated by teammates when they didn't have the ball. Ajax then went on to add a pressing element to their defending after losing in the European Cup Final to Milan in 1969 and formed the basis for their later success. Beating Panathinaikos 2-0 in the 1971 final, Ajax survived the loss of Michels to Barcelona, and went on to beat Internazionale in 1972 and Juventus in 1973. Playing some brilliant, attacking football this side of Cruyff, along with Johnny Rep, Johan Neekens, and Ruud Krol formed the core of the Netherlands team that came so close to winning the 1974 World Cup.

Bayern Munich: 1973/1974-1975/1976

The three year reign of Bayern Munich in the European Cup came to within twenty seconds of not happening at all. Trailing 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in extra-time in Brussels, Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck let fly from over 25 yards out and found the net, forcing a replay. In the replay, two goals each from Uli Hoeness and Gerd Muller dispatched the Spanish club 4-0. The side, that had provided the core of the World Cup winning West German side of 1974, was marshalled at the back by the brilliant Franz Beckenbauer, with Muller providing the goals and Hoeness the pace. Bayern benefited greatly from being allowed to develop together domestically and internationally over the course of several years. Although not as aesthetically pleasing as the Real Madrid side of the 1950's or the Ajax side that immediately preceded them as European Cup winners, Bayern instead were built on brute strength, quick breaks and defensive organization. Beating Leeds United, under controversial circumstances due to some terrible refereeing, 2-0 in Paris and then seeing off Saint-Etienne 1-0 in Glasgow, Bayern emulated Ajax in winning three straight European Cups.

AC Milan: 1988/1989-1989/1990

The last side to win back to back European Cups, the Milan side, bankrolled by media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, had complemented a terrific core of Italian players including Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni and Paolo Maldini with the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard to form one of the greatest sides Serie A has ever seen. Under the management of Arrigo Sacchi, MIlan played a very un-Italian style during this period. Emphasizing a high tempo, pressing style, Milan were modelled more off of the Ajax sides of the 1970's, than the traditionally defensive Catenaccio style Italian teams. Sacchi encouraged his teams to set the tempo and this was evidenced by their 4-0 thrashing of Steaua Bucharest in the 1989 European Cup Final. Van Basten and Gullit both scoring two goals against a good Romanian side that contained Gheorghe Hagi and Dan Petrescu who would shine for Romania at the 1994 World Cup. Milan then went on to retain the European Cup in 1989 with a 1-0 win over Benfica. Unfortunately, the relationship between the hard driving Sacchi and several of his star players broke down, leading to his sacking in 1991, but his Milan side are still the last club to successfully retain the greatest prize in European club football.