betvisa cricketGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex live http://crickex66.com Soccer journal, soccer TV guide & soccer bar finder Wed, 28 May 2025 16:53:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 http://i0.wp.com/crickex66.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-ftsquares-RED.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 betvisa888Great Teams | First Touch - crickex live cricket http://crickex66.com 32 32 120987483 betvisa liveGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex bet http://crickex66.com/dirty-leeds-100-years-of-history/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dirty-leeds-100-years-of-history Mon, 26 May 2025 11:06:00 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/dirty-leeds-100-years-of-history/ As Leeds celebrates its centenary it remains a club either loved or loathed. There's no middle ground. Its passionate supporters wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dirty Leeds: 100 Years Of History]]>

Dirty Leeds is a tagline for the ages. One at odds with their pristine white kit but immovable, nevertheless.

With Leeds United back in the Premier League once again, we thought this would be a good time to revive this article By Anthony Crewdson

leeds united fans holding scarves

As this famous institution celebrates its latest promotion, it remains a club either loved or loathed. There is no middle ground with Leeds United. Its passionate supporters wouldn’t have it any other way, and it is what has helped give the Peacocks their identity. Much derided but much loved, equally so. Never far from the news and seemingly courting controversy.

It is a club with a tumultuous past. Leeds United were founded in 1919 after the original club, Leeds City, had been thrown out of the Football League for making illegal payments to players during the First World War  �?despite the practice being commonplace throughout the league.

The club had achieved only modest success up until Don Revie revolutionised Leeds United during his spell as manager between 1961 and 1974. Not only was he to revolutionise the previous gold and blue kit, adopting the all white strip associated with the all-conquering Real Madrid side of that era, he was to transform the club and the city and put both on the footballing map.  But Leeds is also a club that has experienced success and heartbreak in equal measure. Revie’s Leeds were to experience a decade of unrivalled success from the heady days of the mid-1960s through to the mid-1970s.

Leeds United Under Don Revie

From being crowned Second Division Champions in 1963/64 to First Division champions a decade later Leeds at times appeared peerless. Arrogance combined with cynicism. Revie’s team knew they were good and could bully opponents with their ruthless approach. But their tactics drew criticism and they won fewer trophies than their dominance on the pitch warranted.

Leeds often competed on all three fronts domestically and on the continent in European competitions, but with a relatively small squad.  Although Leeds were crowned Division 1 Champions twice they were feted to be placed runners-up five times during this decade in the top flight.

In addition to winning the FA Cup, in the Centenary Final against Arsenal in 1972, and the League Cup in 1968, they also lifted the former Inter Cities/UEFA Cup twice and were finalists once during this period. But for all their remarkable progress Leeds could also be considered unlucky, hard done by even. They undoubtedly suffered from a series of poor refereeing performances and to this day it’s difficult being a Leeds supporter and not thinking those in charge of the game had an agenda.

Christos Michas was banned by UEFA from refereeing international club matches following his abject performance during Leeds�?1972/73 European Cup Winners Cup loss to AC Milan.

The Greek referee was subject to an investigation by his own association on suspicion that he had been bribed by the Italian giants.

The Brian Clough ‘Era�?/h3>

Revie’s Leeds had won every major honour during his time in charge with the exception of the then European Cup. Brian Clough was to follow Revie after the Teessider took up the opportunity to to manage the national team.

Clough’s appointment was controversial and divided opinion. He failed to receive the backing of a squad loyal to a manager whom Clough had previously been critical of, and consequently he lasted a mere 44 days.

Jimmy Armfield then succeeded Clough and guided an ageing set of stars to Paris and the European Cup final in 1975 against Bayern Munich. But despite dominating the match Leeds were to fall foul of a referee too easily influenced by German legend Franz Beckenbauer. A blatant handball and a trip from behind on leeds forward Allan Clarke as he was clean through on goal were ignored.

More galling was the decision not to award Leeds a goal from a perfectly good strike by Peter Lorimer from outside the box. The goal was initially awarded but then was chalked off for offside, incorrectly so, after Beckenbauer had harangued the French referee Michel Kitabdjian. Munich eventually ran out 2-0 winners, undeservedly so, and the Leeds fans reacted by tearing up Parc des Princes.

leeds united pop single jacket

Unloved Leeds

The club received a four year ban from all European competitions and quickly subsided into mediocrity. It was to be another 17 years before they were to play in the Champions League. Unloved and unwanted. Their notorious fans unwelcome on the European mainland and its football team consigned to the past.

This period was to define Leeds and give the club its identify. A club difficult for those on the outside to love but a club that gets under the skin of its supporters and, in many instances, its former players.

It seems fitting that the maverick in Marcelo Bielsa is in charge during the club’s centenary year and Revie will no doubt have approved of his appointment and idiosyncratic manner. It would also be fitting if Bielsa was to oversee promotion to the Premier League in the manner of Don Revie.

Not quite dirty Leeds but still the tag remains.

Dirty Leeds: 100 Years Of History]]>
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betvisa loginGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex88 http://crickex66.com/preston-north-end-1888-93/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=preston-north-end-1888-93 Sat, 20 Aug 2022 04:32:07 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/preston-north-end-1888-93/ Under the leadership of Major William Sudell, Preston North End were the Manchester City of their day. Their dominance required other teams to up their game.

The Great Preston North End, 1888-1893]]>

Judging the quality of football teams and footballer players who operated before the advent of television is notoriously tricky for of course, we have no visual evidence on which to rely. We have to go by the memories of those who can still recall those days, from the books, the newspapers and perhaps the flickering newsreels of the day. Here’s the story of the great Preston North End from 1888-1893.

preston north end team shot 1888

By Dave Bowler

But if that’s tough, then reckoning on pre-war sides is tougher yet. What about pre-pre-war though? Or the inter-Boer War years? We may not know a huge amount about the way they played, but what we can tell is just who was the best and for a five or six year period from the late 1880s onwards, just as organised football was taking its grip, Preston North End were the boys.

After all, they weren’t called the Invincibles for nothing. Even now, after near 50 years of non-achievement in the post Tom Finney years, such was their early success that North End are still rated as the fifth most successful English football club on a domestic level.

Not only that, but they revolutionised the game, pretty much creating professional football in England, taking the game away from the amateurs at the Football Association and the early FA Cup winners such as Wanderers, Old Etonians and the Royal Engineers. When Preston got down to business, they were in it to win it.

Major Sudell

Under the leadership of Major William Sudell, they were the Manchester City of their day, swiftly assembling a team of all the talents, happily coughing up the wages and being expelled from the 1884 FA Cup after being accused of “professionalism�? Thirty-six other clubs, largely in the north, protested and so, a year later, the FA recognised the professional game.

Preston North End Passing Game

Preston’s main hunting ground was Scotland, their team being built around the likes of Nick and Jimmy Ross, Geordie Drummond, David Russell and the legendary John Goodall who, though born in London, learnt the passing game in Scotland after his family moved north. Brought back to England, he was a revelation and the basis of the team that was all but unstoppable.

Their peerless period began in the 1887/88 season. They beat Hyde 26-0 in the first round of the FA Cup, still the competition record, and progressed serenely to  the final, beating Bolton Wanderers 9-1, Halliwell 4-0, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday both 3-1 and Crewe Alexandra 4-0.

The final at The Oval was against West Bromwich Albion, and so confident were Preston of winning it that they asked the referee if, to save time afterwards when they’d want to be heading home, they could be pictured with the trophy before the game. “Hadn’t you better win it first?�?came the reply, and the referee was pretty shrewd in his judgement as Preston lost 2-1.

Football League

But no matter. That humiliation brought the club back to earth and there was a collective realisation that their results were won on performances, not reputations. The inaugural season of the Football League gave Preston the opportunity to show their worth, and they did just that.

The best team in the land right from the off, they simply decimated the opposition in the league season that ran from September through to the end of January. The 12 team league saw them play 22 fixtures. They won 18 of them, drew the other four and, in the days of two points for a win, won the title by a massive 11 points and at a stroll, their use of the “Scottish style�?weaving rings around the rest.

Preston North End �?FA Cup Heroes

The league won, it cleared the way for the FA Cup to begin in February. Bootle, Grimsby and Birmingham St George’s were beaten on the way to a meeting with West Bromwich Albion in the semi-finals, where revenge was served cold in the shape of a 1-0 win. It was back to The Oval for the final, against midlands opposition again, but this time there was no arrogance before the game and Wolves were seen off, 3-0, to complete a perfect season �?the double and an unbeaten fixture list.

Such dominance required other teams to up their game and many followed the Preston route north to find fresh talent, or simply paid more to rival clubs in England to have the pick of their players. Consequently, the league fight was altogether closer the following year, but Preston retained their title in the end, two points ahead of Everton, but losing four games this time. Signs that the others were catching were also seen in the FA Cup, where they were defeated by Bolton Wanderers in the third round.

Preston North End Purple Patch

Preston’s purple patch continued over the next three seasons where they were the runners up on each occasion, once to Everton, twice to Sunderland, reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1893 where they were beaten by Everton, Sudell losing control of the club in that same year.

The loss of their driving force was significant of course, but in the end, it was the identity of those clubs that gave the biggest clue as to why the Preston era was ultimately doomed. Bigger cities taking a bigger interest in the professional game, pulling in bigger crowds, thereby creating bigger resources and overtaking smaller provincial towns such as Preston. By 1901, North End were struggling to keep up and were relegated from the top flight, caught out by the financial conundrum they’ve been trying to resolve pretty much ever since.

The Great Preston North End, 1888-1893]]>
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betvisa888 betGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex cricket bet http://crickex66.com/ajax-1971-73/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ajax-1971-73 Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:36:32 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/ajax-1971-73/ Dave Bowler reflects on the great Ajax 1971-73 team that was so dominant in Europe at the time, winning the European Cup 3 times in a row as Dutch Champions.

When The Great Ajax Team Domimated Europe]]>

The great Ajax of Amsterdam dominated European football in the early years of the 1970’s. Dave Bowler tells the story of the unbeatable Ajax 1971-73 team here.

ajax 1971-73 team shot

It’s become common currency, certainly since their dismantling of Manchester United at Wembley in May, for the current Barcelona outfit to be lauded as the greatest club side of all time.

Perhaps they are, perhaps others should wear the crown. As we will see in this series over the course of the season, while you pays your money and you takes your choice, there are plenty of other teams who can lay legitimate claim to that title.

The seeds of Barcelona’s success at Wembley in 2011 were sown at the same stadium �?or its predecessor at any rate �?exactly 40 years before, when Ajax of Amsterdam began their run of three straight European Cup wins, back in those far off days when you had to win your own league in order to qualify for the competition.

Arguments rage over whether the shift to the Champions League has made it harder to carry off the trophy these days, the fact that no side has repeated that hat-trick since the shift to a league format indicating it is, but Ajax’s achievement should not be denigrated, for their dominance of the game in the early 1970s made for a seismic shift in the way we thought about the game.

Dutch football, now so revered around the world, had no such stature back in 1971. As a nation, their European Nations Cup record was non-existent, their World Cup record laughable, one game, one defeat in each of the 1934 and1938 competitions their sole contribution.

Early European Success For Ajax

But as the 1960s ebbed away, it was clear that something was stirring. A youthful Ajax side made it all the way to the 1969 European Cup Final before being crushed 4-1 by Milan in Madrid but a year later, Feyenoord became the first Dutch club to claim the title, beating Celtic 2-1 in extra time in the San Siro.

But while Feyenoord were first, Ajax were the best. Coached by Rinus Michels, led by his apostle on the pitch Johan Cruyff and gradually assembling the first elements of what would be the national team’s golden side of the 1970s, Ajax busied themselves by giving the world what was to become known as total football. If Feyenoord pipped them to the greatest prize, the need to equal and then surpass their great rivals along with the burning desire to atone for their humbling in 1969 burned bright within Michels and his team.

By the 1970/71 tournament, Ajax were ready. A comprehensive thumping of Celtic in the quarter-finals followed by victory over Atletico Madrid took them to the final and a game with Panthinaikos. The gloriously named Dick van Dijk gave the Dutch side an early lead, but Ajax were not as imperious as they’d have liked. Both substitutions were made at the interval, evidence of Michels�?tactical nous, and though it took them until the 87th minute to score a second through Arie Haan, the victory was comfortable and never really in question.

ajax players graphic

Ajax Swagger

Europe began to sit up and take note of the swagger in Ajax’s step, and particularly of the way in which players refused to stick to regimented positions as Ajax employed the most fluid of systems, full-backs operating as auxiliary forwards, strikers dropping deep to stiffen the midfield, sweepers rampaging beyond them to create and to score. That said, the fact that their opponents had been the little fancied Panthinaikos meant few were quite ready to confer greatness on Ajax yet. That would be another 12 months away.

After all, who could dismiss the claims to greatness of Inter Milan? But for all their experience, for all the brilliance of Facchetti and Mazzola, for all their expertise in spoiling a game, in closing it down, Inter were simply second best. Truly unveiling the full majesty of the vision of Cruyff and Michels �?the coach by now replaced by Stefan Kovacs �?Ajax dominated from first whistle to last.

Catenaccio, the scourge of European football for a decade, was swept aside by a totally different conception of the game, a game of movement, of style, of tactical and technical eloquence, of pure joy at the possibilities the game held, while introducing a level of fitness that outstripped anything we had seen before.

Cruyff & Co

Ajax were approaching full maturity, the side brimming with Dutch brilliance. As well as Cruyff, there was Neeskens, Gerrie Muhren, Krol, Haan, Suurbier, Keizer, an XI who understood not just their own job, but that of the other ten, and who could acquit those other roles almost as well as their own. It took until the second half before Ajax got the goals that their superiority demanded, but with Cruyff twice on the scoresheet, justice was done and Ajax retained their trophy.

Completing a hat-trick is reserved only for the true Gods, but that was the standing of the men from Amsterdam by this stage. Italy provided the opponents again, Juventus this time on the receiving end. Johnny Rep opened the scoring after four minutes and for the remaining 86, the Italians barely saw the ball as Ajax stroked it around the park with an arrogance bordering on contempt, a trait that would ultimately be the undoing of the national team.

3 In A Row For Ajax

It ended 1-0 to Ajax, a third straight European Cup, and something approaching immortality. But we are all mere mortals in the end, even Cruyff, and the lure of a new challenge, infinitely better rewarded, was too much to turn down. In 1973, he left Ajax for Barcelona for a sum just short of £1million which seemed simply unbelievable and just a little immoral back then. While Ajax were no one man team, that one man had been the difference between a great team and a legendary one. It was never the same again.

But in Catalonia, homage was paid to Cruyff, to Michels and to the method of total football. Cruyff ultimately became the manager there, setting down principles that have persisted, enthusing and inspiring a young player called Pep Guardiola who, in the fullness of time, would pick up the baton. And so the story rolls on�?/p>

Ajax Amsterdam logo
When The Great Ajax Team Domimated Europe]]>
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betvisa888 betGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex casino http://crickex66.com/ostersunds-fotbollsklubb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ostersunds-fotbollsklubb Wed, 20 Sep 2017 11:12:32 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/ostersunds-fotbollsklubb/ This is the story of how Graham Potter led the tiny Swedish team Östersunds from fourth-tier obscurity to cup glory in the space of a few years.

Introducing Östersunds Fotbollsklubb]]>
Östersunds Fotbollsklubb is not a name that rolls off the tongue or indeed rings many bells with the vast majority of football fans around the world, but their story is nothing short of remarkable. 

Potter’s Magic Wand Produces Swedish Fairytale

ostersunds fans

In The Beginning

Formed in 1996 by merging three local clubs from the town of Ostersund, OFK joined the third tier of Swedish football. Director of Football Daniel Kindberg used his connections with Roberto Martinez at Swansea to loan players and help build the club’s profile throughout the 2000’s. Östersunds fortunes then took a downward turn when they were relegated to the fourth tier in 2010. Kindberg had already walked away from the club at this point.

“I didn’t like the negativity and the way we were fighting about stupid things. It was the normal thing in football: white, heterosexual, powerful men arguing and blaming each other for this and that. I’d had enough, so I left.�?/p>

“Then one day, I was at home, and I had a knock on the door. The players told me they wanted me back. Otherwise, they would all quit, too. I took a couple of days to think about it. As a military officer and businessman, you don’t make decisions based on feelings, but in football, you’re a kid again, and I took the emotional decision to come back. We had almost nothing: a couple of players, a stadium, one half-time employee and an annual turnover of �?00,000. We started all over again.�?/p>

The Rising

This is when Kindberg got serious. He drummed up more local financing in the town of just 50,000 residents and brought in ex journeyman professional player Graham Potter as manager. Southampton fans will remember Potter from playing in the famous 6-3 win over Man Utd in 1996. He also had long spells at Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and York City, but no prior managerial experience before joining OFK.


Graham Potter in his playing days as full back for Southampton.

“When I arrived and I told people I was working for the football club they would say: ‘What are you doing – they’re rubbish! This is an ice hockey town!�?�?Potter recently told the English press.

“People were really friendly,�?he recalls. “I’d be out with my wife and they’d ask why we were here. When I told them, they’d immediately look concerned or puzzled and tell us it was ‘useless�? ‘impossible�? or: ‘You’re crazy.’�?/p>

Potter proved the locals wrong, however, and his signing proved to be an inspired one as he led the young team to two successive promotions. Then in 2015 the 42 year old secured promotion to the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s top flight, for the first time in the club’s short history.

“At first we had crowds of about 500,�?says Potter. They now attract over ten times that many fans and have moved to a bigger stadium.

The Reward

But the story doesn’t end there. In April 2017 he guided the team to their first piece of silverware when they thumped IFK Norrköping 4-1 in the Swedish Cup Final. This victory earned OFK the chance to qualify for this year’s Europa League.

Against all the odds, OFK beat Galatasaray 3-1 on aggregate in the Europa qualifying stage and then went on to advance through the play-offs, knocking out Greek side PAOK on away goals.

OFK’s amazing momentum continued as they qualified from the group stage of the competition and now face the mighty Arsenal in the knock-out phase.

Introducing Östersunds Fotbollsklubb]]>
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betvisa liveGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex88 http://crickex66.com/tottenham-hotspur-1960-63/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tottenham-hotspur-1960-63 Wed, 30 Dec 2015 20:38:03 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/tottenham-hotspur-1960-63/ We all know the folklore that it’s a good season for Tottenham Hotspur when it ends in a �?�? Many years ago, the story held true.

Tottenham Hotspur 1960-63 �?A Profile]]>
We all know the folklore that it’s a good season for Tottenham Hotspur when it ends in a �?�? Many years ago, the story held true.

Spurs team line up 1961

By Dave Bowler 

In 1950/51, the famous “push and run�?side under Arthur Rowe was a revelation in a more industrial age, their sharp passing and constant moving of the football taking English football by storm as they first won promotion and then, the following year, 1950/51, won the Football League itself, finishing runners-up to Manchester United a year later.

That was the last hurrah for an ageing side, one which needed major rebuilding as a number of stars who had lost much of their football to the war were put out to pasture. Rowe himself moved on, with wing-half Bill Nicholson hanging up his boots to take on the management of the club following a mixed spell under Jimmy Anderson, slowly reconstructing the side around the talismanic figure of captain Danny Blanchflower.

Danny Blanchflower

Blanchflower was what we would today term a playmaker. As he admitted himself, it was an expression of his ego that he would touch the ball perhaps twice as much as anyone else in the side, but always it was with a purpose, for a reason. The Northern Irishman was a footballing intellectual in those far off days when players weren’t allowed to train with the ball in the week, doing lap after lap of souls aping running instead. “You’ll be hungrier for it on Saturday that way�?ran the argument. “But how will I recognise it on Saturday if I haven’t seen it all week?�?was Blanchflower’s retort.

Spurs were ahead of the game. Dour Yorkshireman he might have been, but Bill Nicholson was a love of the beautiful game, steeped in Rowe’s passing philosophy, a philosophy he expanded upon as he set about creating the century’s first double winners.

Spurs 1961
Terry Dyson – Outside left for Spurs
Bill Nicholson

Training under Bill Nick was all about using the ball, about teamwork, about shape, about building an understanding. Where too many sides were of the traditional English kick and rush, following the powerhouse brand of the game made famous by Stan Cullis�?Wolves just as all too many sides today still do, Spurs were all light and shade, contrasts, intelligence, firebrand movement, elusive, skilful, purposeful.

In a way, they were a thoroughly modern entity, football’s white shirted embodiment of the “white heat of technology�?that Harold Wilson would seize upon to try to shape his Premiership of the country. Spurs were playing a new game, moving on the Hungarian model, use bright skills not brute force, creating clever triangles, advancing up the park by passing the opposition to death.

Blanchflower, as we’ve noted, was the orchestrator, the conductor, but all around him were virtuoso performers. Dave Mackay might now be caricatured as the hardman to end all hardmen, but that was just one facet of a multi-dimensional game. Mackay could play too, perhaps without quite the finesse of his skipper, but he was a rare footballer of rare quality with the burning lifeforce of the natural born winner and the quality to impose that competitive streak onto games in myriad ways, be they deft, be they aggressive.

Terry Dyson

Out on the flanks, there were the quicksilver Cliff Jones and Terry Dyson, a pair of wingers so quick yet so skilful that when given the right service from Blanchflower and Mackay �?and that was what they got from those models of consistency- they could destroy any full-back at will. The service they provided for the burly Bobby Smith and the lethal inside forwards who supported him, John White and Les Allen, made Tottenham the most potent side in the land.

And if they ever lost the ball and somehow the opposition did get past Mackay, there was the monumental Maurice Norman to deal with, the England international who was utterly resolute in defence but good enough on the ball to find the midfielders time and again. Full-backs Peter Baker and Ron Henry were all but auxiliary wingers so keen were Spurs to flood forward and entertain, then there was the last line of defence, Scotland’s Bill Brown, drafted in from Dundee and wholly reliable.

But it was Nicholson who should have the lion’s share of the credit. Taking the reins in November 1958, his first season was spent simply keeping Spurs afloat. They ended 18th in a horrible season, but the following year they were third and they were flying. They were ready.

Jimmy Greaves

Thy reeled off 11 straight wins to start the season, and by the end of 1960, they’d played 25, won 22, drawn two, lost one. The league was in the bag, they could go all out for the double, the prize no-one had won since the turn of the century. After a close call in beating Charlton 3-2, they were imperious in the FA Cup �?Crewe 5-1, Villa 2-0, Sunderland 5-0, Burnley 3-0. Leicester stood between them and immortality and though Blanchflower was characteristically upset when the final didn’t contain the glory and the romance that he demanded from the game, the deed was done with a 2-0 win.

Jimmy Greaves was added to the already high octane mix the following season as Tottenham were again impressive. A second straight title was just beyond them, finishing third behind Ipswich who won the title in their first ever season in the First Division, a side managed, ironically, by Alf Ramsey, a member of Spurs�?push and run maestros of �?1, but playing an altogether more cagey game in Suffolk.

The European Cup distracted Spurs, losing at the semi-final stage to Eusebio’s Benfica, but they’d already booked a place in the FA Cup Final, a trophy they defended in style, picking Burnley apart at Wembley. A year later they became the first English club to succeed in Europe, winning the Cup Winners�?Cup, smashing Atletico Madrid 5-1 in the final.

Tottenham continued to be a fine side beyond that 1963, but that little spark had gone. It was the absence of Blanchflower, football’s great romantic, Scott Fitzgerald with a ball instead of a typewriter. How we could use a visionary like that today.

Tottenham Hotspur 1960-63 �?A Profile]]>
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betvisa888Great Teams | First Touch - crickex88 http://crickex66.com/honved-1949-56/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=honved-1949-56 Sun, 20 Dec 2015 04:53:04 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/honved-1949-56/ It is a measure of the genuine majesty of Honved of Budapest that the team from the early 1950s still attracts such feelings of warmth. By Dave Bowler

Honved Of Budapest In The 1950s]]>
It is a measure of the genuine majesty of Honved of Budapest that the team from the early 1950s still attracts such feelings of warmth. After all, they were essentially an Hungarian Army side at a time when the grip of Soviet communism meant that eastern European armies were pretty savage beasts.

So many of the sporting triumphs of the Iron Curtain nations in the post-war, pre Berlin Wall fall period have been discredited because of the methods by which physical supremacy was won, and by the way in which the games were played. But not Honved.

honved soccer team logo

By Dave Bowler 

Hungary was a little different to some of those Soviet satellites, certainly in the immediate post-war years. Budapest itself was occupied by the Germans in 1944 before, in December of that year, Soviet and Romanian troops laid siege to the city. From frying pan to fire went the capital city and the country as a whole, but in spite of the occupation and oppression, a sense of identity and even intellectual resistance persisted.

And ironically, Honved were to offer an outlet for that, for from the roots of that side grew the full flowering of the mighty Magyars, the national side that bestrode world football and ultimately inspired the Brazilians and the way in which they revolutionised football with Garrincha, Zagallo, Pele and all.

Born in 1949

It’s all the more surprising since Honved did not exist until 1949 when Hungary became a communist state. It grew from Kispest FC, a club side which already included the genius of Ferenc Puskas and Jozsef Bozsik, but it came into being under the auspices of the national team coach Gsztav Sebes who, drawing on the experience of the pre-war Austrian wunderteam, realised it was wise to draw the national side from just a couple of sources rather than a dozen disparate teams.

In a communist state, creating an army team and conscripting any player you wanted made that perfectly possible, and so Honved was born, the word meaning defender of the homeland, a role they figuratively took up for the next few years, the Hungarian nation being as much a state of mind as a piece of land in those repressive days.

honved graphic

First Title In 1950

Success took little time to arrive, Honved carrying off their first league title in 1949/50, the first of five titles they were to collect by 1955. To the ranks were swiftly added Sandor Kocsis, Gyula Crocsis, Zoltan Czibor, Laszlo Budai and Gyula Lorant, names that echo down the years.

Sebes’ theories quickly came to fruition, for as Honved bestrode the national game, their players grew to know one another as well as they knew themselves. To employ the cliche, the team functioned like clockwork, except that is to do them an injustice.

The team played with fluidity, with intelligence, with verve, with wit. The football field gave them a release from the realities of Hungarian life, gave them a chance to express themselves, to express the fact that they were not all part of the drab uniformity of the communist state, that they were not as unthinkingly obedient as, for instance, the East Germans.

Olympic Gold 1952

The Hungarians carried off the Olympic gold medal in 1952, they ended England�img src="http://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/2122.png" alt="�? class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />s long unbeaten home run in 1953 and were within a whisker of winning the World Cup which was truly their just desserts in 1954.

At the beating heart of it all was the Honved combination, the irony being that such was their charisma that these representatives of the workers utopia became celebrities, became the side that everyone wanted to see.

As football embraced two new innovations “television and floodlights�?Honved were the team the world wanted to see. The flickering black and white images that remain show a team that played a new kind of football, a world away from the powerhouse, kick and rush style so prevalent in this country.

Puskas
Nándor Hidegkuti and Ferenc Puskás in 1954
Nándor Hidegkuti and Ferenc Puskás in 1954

With Puskas scheming, with players talking up unorthodox positions on the pitch, with the team using a scientific, possession football approach, they gave us a new conception of the game and, though they were ultimately beaten 3-2 by Wolves under the lights at Molineux in that first TV game in December 1953, they were the moral victors.

That game not only changed how football might be played, it changed how and where we might play it for it played a huge role in the establishment of the European Cup, which came into being in 1955/56. Honved missed the inaugural season, but were in the mix for 1956/57 when they were drawn to play Athletic Bilbao November 1956. Events were then to change the course of history for Honved.

Crushed

They slipped to a 3-2 defeat in Spain but before they could return home, the Hungarian revolution had been crushed by Soviet tanks. With the borders still open, the players summoned their families and refused to return, playing the return leg at the Heysel Stadium. Their goalkeeper was injured, Czibor had to go between the posts and they drew 3-3 to go out of the competition and all but end their story.

The team as it was constituted went on a brief fundraising in Italy, Portugal and Spain, thrilling crowds with their last hurrah. FIFA in its typically infinite wisdom swiftly outlawed the team while they were playing in a tournament in Brazil, so there was to be no future for them as a footballing version of the Harlem Globetrotters. Returning to Europe, some found new clubs and defected to the west, others chose to go back home.

The majesty of the Magyars was a thing of the past, but in the end, only tanks could stop them.

Honved Of Budapest In The 1950s]]>
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betvisa888 cricket betGreat Teams | First Touch - crickex bet http://crickex66.com/the-busby-babes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-busby-babes Sun, 20 Dec 2015 04:27:43 +0000 http://new.crickex66.com/the-busby-babes/ Welsh international Graham Williams remembers the Busby Babes of Manchester United from likely conquerors of Europe to a team with no future. 

Remembering The Busby Babes 1958]]>

There was a tragedy on February 6th 1958, on the airfields of Munich. It turned a Manchester United side known as the Busby Babes from likely conquerors of Europe to a team with �?literally in too many cases �?no future, in the blink of an eye. Welsh International Graham Williams recalls the events.

The Busby Babes in 1955
The Busby Babes in 1955
By Dave Bowler

In the wake of such catastrophe, football seems such a trivial little pastime. Yet it was the game that gave those left behind a reason to go on. It offers momentum to their ultimate and necessary recovery, providing purpose. As the front cover of the United Review proclaimed on March 5th 1958 “United will go on�? After all, what other choice is there for a great institution?

That plane went down in Munich on February 6th, a disaster that sent shockwaves far beyond the environs of Manchester, right across the country and into the heart of the footballing community, wherever they played the game. Future Wales and FA Cup winning captain Graham Williams was a young footballer starting to make his way in the game.

Graham Williams On The Busby Babes

“I was doing my National Service and Bobby Charlton was in the same camp with me. Duncan Edwards was there as well. In 1955, West Brom had played United in the FA Youth Cup Final, so we had history with them. I had a lot of feeling for those boys. I vividly remember hearing the news. I can’t remember where I was when Kennedy was shot but I remember when I heard about United’s plane.

“We’d just finished a regimental game. We were coming in to eat afterwards and somebody said the United plane had gone down. The shock was horrendous, everybody trying to find out who had survived. We lost friends, not just footballers.

“It was very early in the days when people started flying to games. People were frightened of flying anyhow. When that happened, it sent a shiver through everybody. A few years earlier, Torino had lost a team in another crash. So purely from that point of view, as a footballer, you were a bit worried about your team going abroad and having to get on a plane yourself.�?/p>

munich busby babes 1958 clock at old trafford in manchester

Young Men In Their Prime

United had a side that was loved at that time, even by the neutral. This was an era long before much of the populace became jaundiced by their Premiership success. The recipe for that far-reaching admiration �?youth, excitement, and genius as Graham Williams explains.

“Manchester United were such a side at that time. They played great football, they were very exciting. Also, they were all very young men with their best football still in front of them. The Busby Babes were going to be the biggest thing we’d ever seen in England. They were a beautiful footballing side, great skill, lovely to watch. Early in the �?0s, it had been Albion who had nearly done the double in 1954. Wolves were a big side as well, but United were overtaking us both. They would have become huge anyway.

“Eddie Colman could send a whole stand out of the ground with the way he swerved, a brilliant player. Tommy Taylor was some centre-forward. They were playing here one time when I was still just a youngster. I watched them training, preparing, and to see what Taylor could do was just incredible.

Tommy Taylor

“Van Basten was about the closest I’ve seen to Tommy, that’s how good he was. He had a brilliant scoring record for United and England. He would have gone on to do amazing things in the game.

“Then there was Duncan. Duncan Edwards was from just down the road, from Dudley. It’s a pity he didn’t come here to West Brom instead of going to United! He was such a great player.

Duncan Edwards

“You have to be careful because the tragedy, the fact that he died so young, the fact that he played so little football, it all turns him into a legend, and we shouldn’t. We should remember him for the great player he already was because that’s more than enough. He was a man, not a cartoon.

“Duncan gets bigger every year, the more we talk about him. But he actually was a giant, he really was. He played against us in that youth game in 1955 and he murdered us because he was already a man. We were in awe of him even then.

“We had a great youngster called Barry Hughes that people were expecting great things from. Duncan destroyed him and the rest of us. He was in the England side at 18. I remember going to see him play for England at Wolverhampton. He was just so mature, and he wasn’t out of his teens. Here was a player who could have played in the World Cup in 1966, maybe in 1970 as well. A truly great player.

Busby Babes �?Special Players

“Yet even Duncan didn’t look immeasurably better than the rest, great player that he was. That was because it was a football team filled with very special players.

“They were already a phenomenon with a couple of titles behind them. They might have done the double in 1958, even the treble they had to wait another 40 years for. Great as Liverpool became, as United were again, I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a better team than United were since then�?

 
The Busby Babes in 1955
Remembering The Busby Babes 1958]]>
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