Archives for the month of: November, 2009

Barça – Real : el clasico!

November 28, 09 //
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Barça – Real games are amongst the best clasicos in the world. Real have won 68, drawn 30 and lost 60 againt their eternal rival. Who will win tomorrow in front of a jammed packed crowd of 98 000 in the Camp Nou? Matches between these 2 incredible teams have often been memorable. Having a preference for Barça, I think that the most impressive game I remember was the humiliation of the Real Madrid in their own Santiago Bernabeu stadium during the 1973/74 championship. Real lost 5 – 0 against a magnificent Barcelona team led by the genius of a certain Johan Cruyff.

The best goal that never was

November 27, 09 //
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There is so much to be said about Pele but I just wanted to share with you what I find is one of the most memorable actions in football history. The scene is taking place during the 1970 World Cup semi-final between Brazil and Uruguay. There was a lot of pressure on the Selecao (nickname of the Brazilian team also known as the Auriverde in relation to their gold and green colours) to beat la Celeste and make up for the Maracanazo of 1950. The game was very violent with the Uruguayans trying to intimidate the Brazilians with 20-year old memories. And then the magic happened. On a a long ball that 99,9999% of all players would have gone for, Pele takes the decision that only a genius could have made of discarding the ball altogether, running around the goalkeeper Mazurkiewicz, to then meet up again with the ball and kicking it just wide of the goal. It is an awesome moment of sport that thrills me each time I see it again!

No more round-robins please!

November 26, 09 //
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I’m fed up with the UEFA Champions League round-robins. What is Michel Platini waiting to go back to the old European Club Champions Cup system which was based on a knock-out system right from the start. That ensured real matches and not the number of dull games we see in the current system where neither team has enough to lose or to win to make for an exciting game! Of course, to avoid a Barca-Arsenal – as an example – in the 1/64 finals, there needs to be a seeding system based on the strength of the national championships so as to avoid early on clashes. But true to the underdog spirit of this blog, there have and will always be major surprises that make football such an uncertain sport.

Everything is done right now to put currency over legacy (I am borrowing this expression by the way from Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It! which I really enjoyed and led me to finally start this blog, thanks Gary!). That won’t fly long-term believe me and it will one day lead to nearly empty stadiums. Platini is taking some of the right steps to avoid cash ruling everything by for example ensuring that the champions of so-called second zone countries do get a change to even participate in the round-robin first stage of the Champions League. Michel, go further than this and get rid of the round-robin!

Milan (AC not Inter)

November 26, 09 //
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AC Milan crest

Since I’m in Milan tonight, I thought of writing a post on one of the top 3 clubs in the history of football, namely the A.C. Milan. They were playing tonight in the legendary San Siro stadium againt Olympique Marseille in the first round of the Champions League but I got into the city too late to have enough time to go and see the game (final score 1-1 with Milan being extremely lucky to draw).

Amongst the Italian clubs, AC Milan is my favourite. For some unknwown reason, I often side with clubs that are or have been backed up by the working class. This is the case of the AC Milan although with Berlusconi buying the club in 1986, there has been a move to a more middle-class right-wing fan base. In contrast, Arch-rival Inter Milan hs always been the club of the Milanese bourgeoisie. Amongst the many world-class players that have played for the rossoneri (the nickname of the team due to its striped red and black shirt), Milanese fans would surely name Juan Alberto Schiaffino who I already wrote about in the first post of this blog, the Uruguayan midfielder who won the World Cup with Uruguay in 1950 and who later on became an Italian citizen. On the list would also be the famous Swedish trio Gre-No-Li who made wonders for the club in the 1950s as well as another trio, Dutch this time, composed of Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard, which brought the AC Milan to new heights in the 1980s with several national championships and European club champion titles. Obviously, I can’t omit on this list players like Altafini, Rivera, Baresi, Shevchenko, and Paolo Maldini the legendary defender holding the record number of 902 matches played with AC Milan. The club even decided to never again have any other player use Maldini’s n°3 shirt unless one of his sons makes it to the team!

Contrarily to its utmost rival, Inter Milan, AC Milan have often been known for playing an attacking game with a lot of class and style. I vividly remember the European Club Champion final of 1994 against Barcelona where the rossoneri won 4-0 and gave a football lesson for the world to see. It was football at its best and it was no wonder that AC Milan was part of it.

Here is a video which very nicely conveys the spirit of the most titled club in football history. Enjoy!

The goal that made 70 million Brazilians cry

November 24, 09 //
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Following my first post, I couldn’t resist showing video extract with commentaries from the Uruguayan radio of the famous – or infamous depending on which side you were supporting – second goal by the Uruguayan forward Ghiggia which caused the whole of Brazil to cry as they lost the 1950 World Cup.

Why Maracanazo ?

November 24, 09 //
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For all those that know about football (and I specify here once and for all that I mean the football played with a round ball also known as soccer in the US), Maracanazo might mean something. For me it means a lot and this blog is named after it as a living tribute to my father who so well has shared his passion for football with me since I was 5 or so (I am now 44).

My father grew up part of his life in Uruguay and happened to be there in 1950 when the World Cup was held in Brazil after 12 long years of interruption due to the Second World War. When I was a kid, my father actually made me believe he was in the Maracana stadium of Rio de Janeiro on the day of the final between Brazil and Uruguay. To this day we act as if it were a true story and it makes us both secretely enjoy the fantasy.

The reality was that my father was listening to the final on the radio as probably any other of the 3 million Uruguayans who could be next to one. Due to the round-robin system that had been decided for the second stage of this World Cup, the final game between the host Brazil and Uruguay only needed the former team to tie to win the Cup. Uruguay was in the obligation to win in front of a crowd of 210 000, the biggest ever to attend a football event. At half-time, the score was 0 – 0 and the Brazilian Prime Minister was already celebrating publicly with the crowd (not sure if this was true). Worse for Uruguay, 2 minutes into the 2nd half, Brazil scores meaning Uruguay had to score twice to win the championship. Then the unheard of happens. The Uruguayans led by their genius midfielder Juan Alberto Schiaffino score twice with the second goal just 11 minutes before the end of the game. The final score is 2 to 1 for Uruguay who win their 2nd World Cup after the first edition which they won at home in 1930. Imagine, this was the victory of a small country of 2.5 million people against their gigantic neighbor with a population at the time of 70 million. The result was a shock and became known as the Maracanazo which can be more or less translated as the Maracana blow.

Don’t get me wrong, I love everything Brazilian football stands for, its incredible talent, imagination and creativity. But what I admire even more is when the underdog wins it all. That is the magic of football, it happens rarely but it does happen.

This blog will try and share with you my absolute passion for the universal sport of football, its moments of drama, sadness,  but also the incredible magic that a small round ball can bring about for millions of people around the globe.