The Retro-Football Corner

@mattmid , the way Dutch Total Football transformed the game as a whole by the mid-1970s was remarkable, look at the 1970 World Cup official film (was repeated last month) and players like Rivellino and Beckenbauer would stand in the middle of the pitch and wait for someone to make a run. Was almost rude back then to disturb a great playmaker on the ball. :COAT::COAT::COAT:
 
Ah yes the Oldham pitch. The early artificial pitches weren't great. I seem to remember Frankie Bunn once scored 6 for them on it. Some pressure on that last minute penalty! I remember us playing against Neil Redfearn a few times in the nineties, if memory serves he went to Barnsley after this and us and Barnsley were in the championship together for ever it seemed like. He was one of those real good solid pro sort of players.
 
Ah yes the Oldham pitch. The early artificial pitches weren't great. I seem to remember Frankie Bunn once scored 6 for them on it. Some pressure on that last minute penalty! I remember us playing against Neil Redfearn a few times in the nineties, if memory serves he went to Barnsley after this and us and Barnsley were in the championship together for ever it seemed like. He was one of those real good solid pro sort of players.

I can't believe those pitches were allowed!

I remember Neil Redfearn from Barnsley. The more I read about him - Charlton and Bradford - the more the bells ring. Definitely the archetypal good pro. You can just imagine cliché lower league managers throwing all the clichés at him. 'Good football man', 'honest lad' etc!
 
What a nostalgic night!!! Coming from a country that will probably never have a team capable of winning the CL or the EL, those little moments of progressing, or winning the "one night", are so emotionally strong for a football fan.

Especiallly the No.1 goal against Ajax of 1995-1996, means so much for me and my team . A win from a total underdog against the (until that year's final) best team in the world!!!



The best match i remember from my team Panathinaikos was the rematch against Barcelona in 2002, in the CL quarter final. The first match was 1-0 win for Panathinaikos, but in the rematch, although we started with 0-1, Barcelona achieved to be better in aggregate, scoring 3 goals!
The milestone here, was that in the last part of the second half, Panathinaikos played as the BIGGER team and Barcelona as the underdog, as they were submitted to the greek team, which was eliminated unfortunatelly.


Despite all the above, and the controversy* that makes football the most fascinating sport in our world, is that the best game as a whole package, i consider the proudest moment of greek clubs football, is the match of Olympiakos!!!! against Real Madrid, in Madrid, in season 2007-2008. In my opinion in this match, i saw for the first time , a greek club to play as the superior team, and not in the counter attack, for all 90' minutes, resulting in better quality football then their theoritically superior opponent, which was Real Madrid! Despite the super performance, Olympiakos lost 4-2.


*It is a controversy, cause i support Panathinaikos. And Panathinaikos-Olympiakos are like eternal rivals, like Boca-River and Real-Barca!!! But i cannot deny that that performance felt more complete

P.S.: In the current state that Greek football and Greek Super League is the recent years, i do not believe my generation will live again such moments in the near future!!
 


I feel so bad for Maicon in this match, Bale totally destroyed him. I feel like the most heartbreaking part for me is seeing the amount of support that was needed for him when it was seen that he couldn't stop Bale on his own. In the first half, Lucio comes out of his position a few times to assist on the wing (it was a 4-2-3-1, so it exposed the defense quite a bit), you can see Zanetti closing on the run a few times too, also Muntari and Sneijder.

In the 2nd half though, you can see both Zanetti closing in, Obiori trying to mark Bale a few times like Maicon attempted to do in the 1st half, then Maicon tries two more times to stop Bale, it's defeated again and again, and then the team just entirely starts coming to help.

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In this picture you can see THREE players closing on Bale: Coutinho chasing him from behind, Obiora on his right side, and Lucio in front of him. Not shown in the screenshot is Zanetti in the middle so distracted by Bale that forgets to mark Pavlyuchenko properly and Samuel trying to make up for Lucio losing the run against Bale. Now, of course, this was at the end of the match, Inter was very much desperate for a goal to equalize so they exposed themselves a lot, but it's telling that nowhere in the picture Maicon is found, he wasn't subbed in that match.

I've seen a lot of comments on this match picking on Maicon but also blaming the entire Inter defense or picking on Lucio, I think that's unfair for the following reason: MAICON was responsible for marking Bale, he overloaded his fellow defenders with his ineptitude to cancel Gareth, so we have Lucio constantly trying to make up for Maicon in the right-back and Zanetti trying to make up for Lucio, which had DISASTROUS results for Inter.

This match breaks my heart so much because as a child I was a huge Inter fan and Maicon was one of my favorite players.
 
Being a huge fan of both USWNT and Nadeshiko, I can't help but think this must be one of the most emotional finals in Women's Football history, even better with commentary of the great Jon Kabira.



SAWA NO SUPA GORU
 
One of the most intense memories i have, from watching football in my pre-adulthood, was this CL match AEK vs REAL MADRID, which finished 3-3.

Short story, Tsartas the player staring in this video, played for Sevilla from 1997-2000, scoring a lot goals from free kick, and was from the last Greek free kick specialists and classic No10's. He was the player in the Euro 2004, that gave the assist in match against Spain in group stage and that took the corner kick against Czech Republic that lead to the silver goal win.

So i was 16 years old and was watching the match with my father who is an AEK fan. AEK is awarded with a free kick in good position in 5th minute. My father suddenly started screaming "TSAAAARTAAAASSSS he will score it, Casillas has peed his pants, they are scared, they are shaking by feaaar".

From the video i see Casillas being sceptical but serious, not so terified! Tsartas take the free kick and it hits the post. My father screams a big "Noooooo" but the referee gives FK repeat, cause Tsartas took the free kick , before ref blows the whistle. He books Tsartas with yellow card.

My father yells at the referee to f@k off , etc and then starts cheering again for Tsartas "Now he will do it, Casillas cannot move from fear, he is so scared".

Me thinking that my father is crazy, trying to get him back to reality, i tell him "Dad, Casillas now knows where Tsartas wants to hit the free kick, so i don't think he will try to score it again"... For my big surprise, Tsartas takes the free kick with one step, repeating the same Free Kick as seconds before, but with a little bit better trajecory, and the ball goes in...

Well , still thing my father's football theories are crazy, but this time he was not!!! :) Until today i can't believe that Tsartas aimed two times the same spot by Free Kick!!

Forgot to mention, he scored one free kick and gave 2 assists in this match.

The free kick.

Match highlights.
 
@slamsoze From the look of it the post was what Casillas was scared of! :D Great free kick though and two virtually hit the same spot twice in a row like that.
 
@slamsoze From the look of it the post was what Casillas was scared of! :D Great free kick though and two virtually hit the same spot twice in a row like that.
hahahaa. yeah.Ι really miss those 90's set piece-specialists and technical players at general. They maybe were not as pacey as todays players, but was something very classy.

Even in my hometown's team, which is like "Portsmouth of Greece", did some good runs in the highest division and then relagated 2 divisions in a row (maybe worse than Portsmouth :P ) , btw we wear Blue and White like Pompey, just a little bit more light blue. :)

I remember a Polish player we had, Leszek Pisz. He was also a slow AMF. Deadly with free kicks. I remember again my father , coming home after the first preseason training session he went to watch in my City's local ground. It was the first training for Pisz with the lads. My father came at home and when i asked him how the team was, he replied me with a bass-voice " We have problem in set pieces, only the "new Polish guy" trained to free kicks. I told the manager to make more player train in free kicks!!!!!!!!" (yes my father is crazy) :P

He later scored a lot of goals from free kicks, every season he played for us. But shame that such slow players, would not even play in starting 11 of modern first division teams.. :(..Really miss that , those days every team from biggest to lesser underdog had its specialist, free kicks, corners, lobs , crosses...:CRY:


And when he was younger, 1995 in Legia

 
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I remember a Polish player we had, Leszek Pisz. He was also a slow AMF.
I miss those slower, higher technical players who didn't seem to have much pace but used their intelligence and skills to make it happen. Something very special about using your brain instead of physicality to set up plays.

South America has had a fair share of these type of players: Sócrates, Valderrama, Riquelme.. Not agile or fast players, but those who used their heads, their awareness, and overall sense of the game to create football art. I really wish these type of players would come back. :)

Sócrates, one of my favorite players of all time, even though I don't remember watching him play live, I've watched hundreds of replays and matches. What an incredibly charismatic, fantastic player.


Of course, El Pibe.


Juan Román Riquelme, one of the last classic 10's


I find these type of players so enjoyable to watch. South American magic! They really took football to artistic levels.
 
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A team of legends. Millonarios 1978 Colombian Champions (our 11th title!) Even though I hadn't been born yet, this team (featuring Colombian ídolo Willington Ortiz, second from left bottom row, he's still with us!), Alejandro Brand, Turco Amado, and Luis Gerónimo Lopez means a lot to me, like a true legend I wish I'd seen! Winning 3-1 vs our derby rivals Santa Fé, I wish there were videos of this championship, but finding Colombian League clips from the 70's is like finding a needle in a haystack.. To me, this is like an epic team of mythical proportions which I was never able to see, but is imprinted in my subconscious somehow!

Great thread! :BSCARF:
 
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A team of legends. Millonarios 1978 Colombian Champions (our 11th title!) Even though I hadn't been born yet, this team (featuring Colombian ídolo Willington Ortiz, second from left bottom row, he's still with us!), Alejandro Brand, Turco Amado, and Luis Gerónimo Lopez means a lot to me, like a true legend I wish I'd seen! Winning 3-1 vs our derby rivals Santa Fé, I wish there were videos of this championship, but finding Colombian League clips from the 70's is like finding a needle in a haystack.. To me, this is like a epic team of mythical proportions which I was never able to see, but is imprinted in my subconscious somehow!

Great thread! :BSCARF:
Sometimes those Millos photos give me some Kavala vibes, despite Millos is a powerhouse, and AOK is struggling most of its history :P Maybe its the blue/white colours, not sure. This photo reminds me some retro photo, i couldn't tell which team is which, without description.

This is from 1972, from the first participation of AOK in Balkan Clubs Cup.

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Also i remember this team pose, with the upper line having their hands crossed, and the fron line standing to the knees, until the early 90s. I used to find it too dated, not sure. I prefer more poses like below, in team photos.

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It looks more like a family-spirit.
 
Millos is a powerhouse
Haha man, I might put this in my signature someday! :LOL: :BSCARF:

Agreed. Those 70's AO Kavala pics really remind me of Millos! Fantastic pics!

Although I will say, I do like those "hands crossed, crouched poses"!, it gives the team an epic, serious vibe, even though like you say the newer style gives a family atmosphere too! :) But in the older style, they look like they are ready to take on the world, looking off in the horizon, like being aware of the weight of the moment! :TU:
 
Staying in the 70's era theme photos, here is the Moroccan national team starting eleven who participated in Mexico 70, back in a time where my beloved team ASFAR was the feeder team of the national team.
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Back row (left to right): GK Allal Benkassou (ASFAR), Kacem Slimani (Difaa El Jadida), Moulay Idriss Khanousi Alaoui (MAS Fez), Boujemaa Benkhrif (Kenitra AC), Abdallah Lamrani nicknamed "Bakha" (ASFAR) and Mohamed Maaroufi (Difaa El Jadida).
Front row (left to right) Mohamed Filali (MC Oujda), Said Ghandi (Raja Casablanca), Ahmed Faras (SCC Mohamedia), Driss Bamous (ASFAR), Maouhoub Ghazouani (ASFAR).

And here is a photo that dates back to 22 August 1964, Driss Bamouss shaking hands with Uruguay and Real Madrid icon José Santamaría in the 1964 Mohammed V Cup Semi-finals, Real Madrid would win 4-0 and eventually lose the final to Boca Juniors 2-1.
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Just two years prior to that, we've beaten Real Madrid 4-3 in the 3rd place game of the same competition.
Here is one of the very few pieces of media that documented the event.
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Real Madrid's Vicente Miera is surrounded by Abdelkader Moukhtatif (right) who scored a hattrick in that game, Mohamed Ouardi "Chicha" (back), Zinai (left)
 
@The Moroccan That's an epic photo bro.. Perfect for a poster. :)

Something about those 70's pics have a really cool and dramatic effect to them, but at the same time very real and grounded.. It's a bit tough to explain but they feel very authentic. Man and about ASFAR in the 1960's, I had no idea of your dear team having faced the internatonal giants in the Mohammed V Cup, that's awesome.
 
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