Month: July 2007

My little white Sony digicube was new when I listened to this match on it in 1988. It was all Holland, and the commentator’s shock at Robson’s goal insulted me. I spent that glorious summer at the head of a long table of roll-up smokers and bored retirees trying to make sense of footballers’ pensions….

Care of 101 Great Goals, the Youtubing in six parts of a 1987 documentary about George Best. More Best clips than you ever knew survived. A documentary on George Best from 1987, titled “Best intentions” and including some rare footage, has been uploaded onto YouTube. It can be seen in six parts here, here, here,…

Courtesy of Youtube’s “Beaten Generation,” here are poor Revie’s Leeds being conned out of a variety of cups and titles. The old rule that one refereeing decision against you is balanced by another in your favour never seemed to apply to the team in yellow. 1967: FA Cup Semi-Final vs Chelsea [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLMb1su5Lg] 1971: Ray Tinkler…

With a title like that, you might not be expecting an article about football, let alone one as rushed as this is going to have to be. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the simple obstinacy of much of English football; wondering how often it can be offered a short-cut into the future by…

For most of its life, football in England as a mass sport has been industrial, and it has been Northern. It shows in the voices. So many North-Easterners: so many Scots. And the others from north of Birmingham. Shankly, Busby, the Charlton brothers, Lawton, Milburn, Finney, Matthews, Paisley, Law. And the great Irish players: Best,…

Accompanied by the worst commentary ever imposed onto a single game, Manchester United see off Benfica to win the 1968 European Cup Final: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0y7_VwNysU] Reeking with insincerity. Here’s Brazil in blue, playing Cruyff’s Holland in the 1974 World Cup. Playing the man, not the ball: was it all only four years before that they’d given…

What first strikes you is the contrast in playing styles: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr8SByeSZ6Y] Somehow, Wolverhampton Wanderers come off as winners, proclaimed “the greatest in the world” by their manager Stan Cullis. That might not have been true – Honved are clearly the better team and the better players, even in these limited, poorly-filmed highlights. But in many…

..and looks better in colour: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nzKzlay8nY] England’s side remained unchanged for almost a year after this match, but Alf Ramsey had chopped and changed formation and tactics constantly throughout his time in charge and would continue to do so right up to the 1966 Quarter Final. Luck was with England in 1966. Brazil were kicked…

I refer, of course, to the 1981 Ashes Test Series: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GGtnukbjBM] Not as good as 1985, of course, but I don’t want to complain.

Glorious sunshine, a large crowd, beer and top class cricket. There’s even a South American Prima Donna. And it’s still only 1970! What could possibly go wrong? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-jLv3B4S4]