This Week in Football History (Oct 21-26) – Martin Tyler’s greatest piece of commentary. Matt Le Tissiers best goal. Man Utd lost 6-3 and 6-1 but beat the Invincibles. Tommy Gemmill assaulted Helmut Haller. The original Clasico 5-0 occurred. Football got its first team and the worst defending ever My This week in footy history post last week was pretty well received, so I figured I should try and do one every week. This week there are nine stories, ranging from 1857 to 2011, all occurring on the dates of October 21-26. For next week (Oct 27 – Nov 2) I already have six stories but wouldn’t mind further suggestions.24 October, 1857 - Parkfield House, Sheffield, England: Football has its Genesis.In 1857 football was at its muddled and disorganized beginnings. The first fifty years of the 19th century saw the industrial revolution entirely transform England, and later in the 19th century Scotland, into a vast manufacturing based nation at the forefront of the world’s technological progress. But it wasn’t until the Second Industrial Revolution in the years after 1850 that England gained what could first be defined as a genuine working class.The Second Industrial Revolution saw an explosion in the importance of the factory. Suddenly the vast majority of the population was a part of the industrial revolution, and the newly formed working class needed something to bond over. They needed a common ground. They needed football.Now it wasn’t until after the First World War that football truly became the game of the common people. David Goldblatt argues in The Ball is Round that football “was one of the key factors that helped heal the wounds of WW1”, and provided a compelling and in very sound argument to back up that claim.As the English working class developed during the latter 19th century they slowly picked up upon this new sport. A sport where sometimes you kicked the ball and sometimes you picked it up and ran with it. This was essentially a mixture of football and rugby. This sport primarily developed throughout private schools up and down the country, but it was the north, and in particular Sheffield that took most kindly to the “kicking only” version. Indeed when southern schools such as Eton College would travel north for a sports event they were bewildered that many of the northerners refused to pick up the ball and run. The first five chapters of Goldblatt’s The Ball is Round expertly tackle the genesis of football, not just in England, but how it expanded across the globe in the years before WW1.There came a point where an actual team needed to be made such was the growing popularity of kicking games among the upper class. And so on 24th October, 1857, members of the Sheffield Cricket Club organized a meeting at Parkfield House and created Sheffield FC, the world’s first official football club.Initially they played “Married vs Singles” games amongst themselves but one year later, on October 21, 1858 the two founders of Sheffield FC, Nathaniel Cresswick and William Prest had the genius idea to come up with a set of rules, The Sheffield Rules. The most notable rule in this first book was the introduction of the free-kick for foul play. In 1860, Sheffield’s neighbour, Hallam created their team Hallam FC, and to this day contest a derby every year.I grew up in Sheffield, and through one of my very best friends I still maintain pretty close and personal ties to Sheffield FC. They currently play Northern Premier League Division One South, seven divisions below the Premier League. Some of my best memories are of watching Sheffield FC on a cold, grey and windy day at their 2,000 capacity stadium in a suburb of Sheffield. The Coach and Horses pub next door was a fantastic little place for a pint or two as well.25 October, 1953 – Real Madrid 5-0 Barcelona, The Bernabeu: Di Stefano scores twice in the original 5-0 El ClasicoWhat is the most controversial football transfer of all-time?In my opinion, there is only one answer to this – Alfredo Di Stefano’s transfer from Millonarios to Real Madrid. To this day the signing of the great Argentine evokes fierce debate between Spain’s greatest rivals. And whether or not General Franco did intervene in the signing, on October 25, 1953 Real’s original Galactico and his teammates pulled off the original 5-0.There have been quite a few 5-0’s between these sides, seven in total. The two early ones from 1935 and 1945 have long been forgotten but it was this game, footage of which still exists today and is linked above, that started the trend of Clasico thrashings being remembered in the history books. Di Stefano scored the first and last goal on this day, and one of the most gifted and influential players of all time had begun his journey as “The Godfather” of the what was to become the world’s most decorated club.This 5-0 occurred exactly 61 years to the day before this weeks’ Clasico. How Real or Barca fans would dream of another 5-0 this weekend.Four other 5-0’s have happened between then and now. All will be mentioned in future posts. Also the history of Clasico matches prior to 1955 is quite interesting. The return match in the 53/54 season saw Barca win 5-1. And dating back to 1930 there have been scorlines of 8-2, 5-0, 5-5, 5-0, 6-1 and 7-222 October, 1969 – West Germany 3-2 Scotland, Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany: Tommy Gemmell viciously hacks down Helmut HallerScotland had pushed the Germans all the way to the wire in order to qualify for the 1970 World Cup. If my math is correct then Scotland had to beat Germany by two goals in Hamburg on October 22, 1969 in order to qualify, which needless to say was a very tall order.But Scotland started well, a goal from one of the Lisbon Lions’ heroes Jimmy Johnstone after three minutes was the ideal start. The Germans came back, as they always do, and with 10 minutes to go were 3-2 ahead. Scotland were out of the 1970 World Cup.Desperately looking to score as time ticked down, another Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell surged towards the German penalty area. West German great Helmut Haller then performed what is the quintessential “back in the day” challenge, by having a good kick out at Gemmell. It was a poor foul, and in today’s age a solid yellow card. I can understand why Gemmell was so pissed, but his reaction was quite extraordinary. Linked above is the incident where like a proper angry Scot after 12 pints Gemmell sprinted at Haller before chopping him to the ground with one almighty swing of his right leg. The footage is could only be described as shit, but the incident is still clearly visible.Gemmell was sent off. His manager, the great Jock Stein was watching from the stands. He was dropped for the forthcoming League Cup final and from then on his relationship with Stein deteriorated until the hero of the 1967 European Cup final left Celtic for Nottingham Forest in 1971.Gemmell’s assault on Haller in 1969 will forever remain as one of the great staples of “When red mist descends upon sportsmen”.26 October, 1991 – Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 Man Utd, Hillsborough: This is the most comical defending I think I’ve ever seen1991/1992 was to the last season of the old Division One. English football had reached it’s absolute low-point during the 80’s. Hooliganism, Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough all were still fresh in the nations conscious. However at the turn of the 90’s English football had recovered significantly to form the Premier League. All of the old first division sides broke away to form the English Premier League and promptly reaped the benefits of all that sweet sweet Sky money. The creation of the Premier League, coinciding with the take-off of the internet, wonderfully saw Football’s world-wide popularity increase at relativistic speeds during the late 90’s and early 00’s.Leeds were to be the champions of the final Division One, but it was this instance in a game between Sheffield Wednesday and Man Utd on 26 October, 1991 that quite simply had to be the funniest moment of that season.First Wednesday lost the ball in their own half. Not really that big a problem. When Paul Parker crosses the ball no-one challenges Brian McClair who kind of flicks the ball with his back to Giggs. Now Utd are in, Giggs to Bryan Robson who must score, but the retreating Carlton Palmer puts in a magnificent block. What transpires in the next five seconds is as hilarious as it is ludicrous. Just watch the clip if you haven’t already. Despite defending like abused giraffes Wednesday went on to win the game.24 October, 1993 – Southampton 2-1 Newcastle, The Dell: Matthew Le Tissier only really scored amazing goals, I think this was his bestBack heel and flick it past one defender, lob it over the second defender and roll it past the keeper. Easy right?Well, yes actually. For Matt Le Tissier it probably was pretty easy. A scorer of truly incredible goals Le Tiss was the absolute definition of the Maverick Genius. Criminally never given a look-in by the England managers, Le Tissier was a subscriber to the philosophy of the late, great Brazilian Socrates – “Anyone who runs doesn’t think, but anyone who thinks, doesn’t have to run”. Well Le Tissier never ran, never tracked back. But did he need to when he could do shit like this? He also scored this nonchalant volley in the same game against Newcastle.26 October, 1996 – Southampton 6-3 Man Utd, The Dell: One week after losing 5-0 to Newcastle, United collapse again.Having lost 3-1 to Southampton towards the end of the 95/96 season in a game where Sir Alex claimed the players couldn’t see each other because of their grey kit, United came into this game looking for a bit of revenge. Having been thumped by Newcastle the previous week, Ferguson claimed “it was just a blip”. Well, not quite. After going a goal down Roy Keane got sent off, as he tended to do from time to time, and it only got worse from there. Southampton’s new striker Eyal Berkovic scored twice, included one brilliant volley, and Matt Le Tissier impudently chipped Peter Schmeical from 20 yards. United would lose for the third time in a row the following week at home to Chelsea. It seemed that Alan Hansen’s prediction of “You’ll never win anything with kids” was going to come true during 96/97. Instead Fergie got one hell of a hairdryer out for the players, and from then on United lost only twice during the rest of the season and went on to claim their 4 th Premier League title.23 October, 1999 – Chelsea 2-3 Arsenal, Stamford Bridge: “Kanu believe it!!! He’s flattened Chelsea”:Never the most prolific goal scorer but cult figure and all round cool guy Nwankwo Kanu scored an amazing hat-trick in the last 15 minutes of Arsenal’s away trip to Chelsea to reverse a two-goal deficit on the 23rd October, 1999. Having seen the signings of Thierry Henry and Davor Suker in the summer of 1999, and already having Dennis Bergkamp* as the star man, Kanu faced stiff competition for a starting place under Arsene Wenger. 99/00 was Kanu’s most prolific season with the Gunners scoring 16 goals in all competitions. This hat-trick was undoubtedly his greatest moment in the red of Arsenal and it spawned one of Martin Tyler’s very best pieces of commentary.“Oh, and De Goey is right out of the centre. It’s Kanu, what’s he gonna do!?. OHHHH!! Kanu believe it!!! He’s flattened Chelsea!! He’s hit a hat-trick!”Of course Tyler actually said “can you believe it”. But the fact that this was Kanu’s winning goal, after a fifteen minute hat-trick to turn around a 2-0 deficit, Martin Tyler’s wonderful, and perhaps intentional pun remains my favorite piece of commentary from the voice of my childhood. Sorry “Agueroooooo!!”*Dennis Bergkamp being the star man during 99/00 or 00/01 isn’t entirely accurate. He played second fiddle to Henry and Wiltord during this period and was limited to mostly substitute appearances. It was in 01/02 that Bergkamp reclaimed the glory of his early Arsenal days by becoming the main man again, alongside Henry in an Arsenal side I believe to be better than the invincibles side.Here is the full highlights of Arsenal’s comeback without the time stamp to Kanu’s third goal. It’s worth a watch.24 October, 2004 – Man Utd 2-0 Arsenal, Old Trafford: The Battle of Old Trafford, part 2.Arsenal had started the 04/05 season in the same manner in which they went the whole campaign of 03/04 - unbeaten. But all great records must come to an end sometime. And who else to bring this record to an end but Manchester United, right at the height of the Man Utd/Arsenal, Wenger/Ferguson and Keane/Vieira rivalries. The Battle of Old Trafford, part 1 had occurred 13 months previously and scores were to be settled.Arsenal were looking to reach that magic number of 50 games unbeaten, but Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was the centerpiece of the first battle of Old Trafford was to have his revenge. Wayne Rooney made a meal of a clumsy Sol Campbell tackle in the area and van Nistelrooy made no mistake from the spot. Rooney then tapped in a second on his birthday to seal a famous win and kick start United’s season. It was to be Chelsea however, now equipped with Jose Moruinho at the helm and a certain Russian above him in the directors box who were to break Arsenal and United’s grip on the Premier League during 2004/2005 by racking up a quite remarkable record of 95 points over the season, whilst only conceding 19 goals, keeping 25 clean sheets and winning 29 games, all which were Premier League records.23 October, 2011 – Man Utd 1-6 Man City, Old Trafford: This game will live long in the memoryI’m gonna exceed my 15,000 character limit so no little write up for this game. But we all remember it don’t we? “Why always me?”, Man Utd go amateur hour in stoppage time, all classic moments. So for all those who aren’t United fans, sit back and enjoy the highlights of this game once again.*These aren’t the best highlights in the world, but the only one I could find with English commentary. If someone could find a better highlights link with English commentary I’ll edit the link.Next Week – Real Madrid, Arsenal and Spurs feature. Three amazing goals are scored in the Champions League and a frankly ridiculous world record
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:59:33 +0000
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