When in Spain

Today I happened to be in Madrid, Spain, and enjoyed a boring match that Spain won 3-0 over Austria. Mikel Oyarzabal scored two, Pedro Porro one, to give Spain an easy victory against an Austrian side that added nothing to the tournament.

Just another proof that 48 are too many teams.

We have not yet seen what Spain are capable of. Future champions usually pace themselves for the important matches; it would appear to be what Spain is doing.

The Legend Leo Messi

Lionel Messi scored his first World Cup goal at the 2006 World Cup, at the age of 18, in a 6-0 against Serbia-Montenegro. It was the only goal he scored in that tournament, but today, 20 years and one week later, Messi has made history by scoring both goals in Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Austria. 

With 18 goals, he is now the most scoring player in World Cup history, two goals ahead of Miroslav Klose and Ronaldo Nazarinho. And we will probably see more goals from the Argentinean magician/legend, as Argentina is looking to win the group with one match to go against Jordan. 

We all witnessed history today.

Denmark is going to Qatar

The news that Denmark are qualified for the World Cup in Qatar have been news waiting to happen for a long time. With seven straight victories and a goal difference of 26-0 Denmark have been on the verge of securing qualification for a while, but it only happened today, when they defeated Austria 1-0 at home at Parken. It was not a truly exciting game, but the Danish victory was well-deserved, as they continue towards a record perhaps of 10 straight victories and no goals against in the last two matches against the Faroe Islands and Scotland respectively.

No matter what happens in those two matches Denmark are group winners and bound for Qatar, alongside Germany who qualified this weekend. These are the first two qualified teams, who along Qatar will form the 32 side in next year's World Cup.

The first two quarterfinalists

Denmark destroyed Wales 4-0; the the first time in European Championships that a team has won two games in a row with at least 4 goals, so that underlines the wave that the Danish team is riding on, and they appear to have reason to be (carefully) optimistic about the quarterfinal, where they will face either the Netherlands or the Czech Republic. I am saying carefully because, despite it all, Denmark has some weaknesses that stronger teams can exploit. Wales started the match well, but when they went behind on a goal by Kasper Dolberg, they had nothing to offer; that will not be the case for any team that Denmark will face in the quarterfinals.

That said, the Danes in the quarterfinals is proof of enormous mental strength in a team that has been on an emotional rollercoaster over the last two weeks.

Italy won 2-1 against Austria after extra time. After the first round Italy was rightly touted as perhaps the strongest team of the tournament, but today they looked weaker against a well-organised Austrian side who with a bit of luck and better technique could have won against the long-undefeated Italians. At the score 0-0 the game had to go into extra time, where the Italians went ahead 2-0 on goals by Federico Chiesa and Matteo Pessina. That said, the Austrians scored the first goal against Italy in 11 matches when Sasa Kalajdzic pulled one back, and did give a bit of excitement to the last minutes of the match.

Italy will face the winner of Portugal-Belgium. Despite them not winning as overwhelmingly today, the Italians should still be considered favourites, specially because they can keep their heads cold in a match like this one. In my view Italy are still one of the favourites to take the title.

Denmark riding on a wave

Yesterday I managed to watch Austria-Denmark online, alongside some Danish buddies over Skype, and with some beers at hand. 

Football-watching in COVID-times.

Denmark won 0-4 in Vienna, against the team that many consider the other contender for the World Cup spot. This was Denmark's third victory in a row in what must be the best start for World Cup qualifying for any team (journalists were already getting a bit too excited, proclaiming that Denmark was basically qualified): 0-2 victory against Israel in Tel Aviv, and an 8-0 trashing of Moldova means Denmark has 9 points and a score of 14-0!

But as much as the results of the matches, Manager Kasper Hjulmand is in possession of a lot of depth in his team: he used almost 22 players for the three matches, among them many young players, most notably strikers, a position where Denmark has been weak for years: 20-year old Mikkel Damsgaard from Sampdoria scored two against Moldova, and 21-year old Andreas Skov Olsen from Bologna scored two against Austria, and it appears more established players such as Martin Braithwaite or Yussuf Poulsen must be feeling some positive pressure from the youngsters. But also defense, where Denmark has solid players with international experience, seems to have young players to add to the depth of the team, such as Atalanta's Joakim Maehle.

Interestingly, Denmark u-21 team has also been playing the European Championships this last week, and also won their group with three victories against France, Iceland and Russia. So there is a lot of interesting young players coming up the ranks in Denmark.

Of course Denmark is not qualified yet. Far from it. And despite last night's routing of Austria, one feels that they are still to be tested against quality opposition. But after this last week, even with my un-apologetically biased eyes, I think that there is great cause for optimism about the Danish national team!

Denmark in the Euro final

25 years ago the Danish national team won the Euro 1992, and now, 25 years later, a Danish side is again in the Euro final, namely the Danish women's side, who could repeat history!
The Danish ladies defeated Austria in a nerve-wrecking semifinal, where the Austrians managed to defend with passion against a lot of Danish chances, but also proved lousy at penalty kicks, missing one early in the match (that could have given them the victory as the match developed), and then missing three penalties during the penalty kick contest.
The Danes held their nerve, and they will be facing the Dutch hosts in what will be a difficult final. The Netherlands defeated Denmark 1-0 in the first round, and will be favourites after defeating England 3-0 n the semifinal. But anything can happen in a final and these Danish girls will fight hard!
No matter what it is great to have these ladies that have made Danish football fans dream again!

The impossible rejoicing

Cristiano Ronaldo is a football genious. But his comments after the Iceland game showed a man too full of himself, a bad loser, who did not have the magnanimity to acknowledge the achievement of a team that uses its resources to the maximum (contrary to Portugal...).
But I acknowledge that it is because Ronaldo is a highly competitive man, and that is what makes his a football genious.
But when Ronaldo missed his penalty against Austria today, I must admit that I was more than delighted when Ronaldo missed his penalty.
No excuses, just himself, and that is the payback for his stupid comments after the Iceland game.

Iceland is in the House!

Iceland qualified in style for the Euro 2016 from a very difficult group ahead of Turkey and the Netherlands (and behind the Czechs). So it is perhaps surprising that they have been considered the minnows of the tournament.
Not after today, where they are rather the Cinderella of the tournament, after an outstanding 1-1 against Portugal. Portugal were not as disappointing as they so often have been in these tournaments, although one cannot but feel that they again fell into their common trap of arrogance whenever they play "smaller" teams.
Iceland were equals to the Portuguese stars throughout most of the match and that should be a wake-up call for the other two teams in the group, Austria and Hungary (where the Hungarians surprisingly defeated Austria 0-2 earlier in the day). But what is interesting in this group is that all teams are strong and could make it to the next round.
Even the Cinderella of the tournament.

The Euro Qualified nations

20 out of 24 nations are ready for the 2016 European Championship in France. Despite the fact that I am those who think that a European Championship of 24 teams is way too much, I cannot help but notice some notable newcomers among the 20 nations, some of which would even have qualified with 16 nations, showing what is perhaps a power shift going on in European football:

• Group A: The Czech Republic and Iceland qualified. Besides the big surprise of Iceland, ending on second place, the upset here was that the Netherlands did not qualify at all, not even taking the third spot, which gave Turkey direct qualification (and is it really something to be proud of to qualify as third out of six...?)
• Group B: While not surprising that Belgium qualified on first place, it is perhaps a bit more surprising that Wales took second spot to participate in their first major tournament since 1958. That said, the group did not look that strong, with Bosnia-Hercegovina being the other contenders, and taking the play-off third spot.
• Group C: Spain never seemed in doubt as group winners, although Slovakia did threaten them on the way. Ukraine will be going to the play-offs.
• Group D: This was a surprisingly close group for the World Champions of Germany, who despite defeats to Poland and Ireland on the way, took the first spot and were followed by Poland. Ireland will be someone's difficult opponent for the play-off.
• Group E: Perhaps the most surprising thing in this group is that England, as the only side in Europe, won all their matches, and scored a record 31 goals. Switzerland came on second spot with little competition from third placed Slovenia.
• Group F: The big surprise of this group is that the 2004 European Champions of Greece ended in the last place, behind even little Faroe Islands. For a big nation, this is a bigger humiliation than the Netherlands fourth place in group A, and show the crisis Greece is in. The winners were also a surprise: Northern Ireland qualified ahead of Romania, while Hungary will be going into the play-ff.
• Group G: Austria is the new country to watch in the European Championship as they won the group in style and swept aside their opponents. Russia came in second, with Sweden going into the play-offs.
• Group H: One of the few groups with no surprises as Italy and Croatia took the two qualifying spots, and Norway not as unsurprising taking a play-off spot.
• Group I: Portugal won the group with seven victories and only one defeat, to second placed surprise of Albania, who qualified deservedly despite also having been awarded a 0-3 victory after a scandalous match against Serbia. A Danish side which completely lacks the quality of former times took the play-off spot.

Of course, the 20th nation, not among the above, are the hosts of France!
The draw for the play-off matches that will decide the last four participating teams will take place next Sunday. 
We will soon know all 24 participating countries!

Greatest World Cup matches: Algeria-West Germany (1982)

The match between Algeria and West Germany in 1982 is perhaps as much remembered for the later match in the group between West Germany and Austria, one of the most disgraceful matches in world cup history that effectively left the charming Algerian team out of the world cup in what smelled awfully as a fixed match between the two Germanic teams. But to put the West Germany-Austria match as one of the greatest matches would be a crime against all other football matches in history (one Spanish paper properly wrote about this match under their crime-pages). Instead, Algeria’s memorable first match against West Germany is what should be written about. Before Algeria’s too early exit, the North Africans had been the first African team to defeat a European side in the World Cup. This happened only four years after Tunisia, in the 1978 World Cup, had been the first African team to win a match when they had defeated Mexico 3-1 in Argentina.
Nobody really expected that Algeria, who were participating in their first World Cup ever, had a chance in their opening match against the reigning European champions of West Germany and their many stars, such as the veteran Paul Breitner, Hamburg’s extraordinary header Horst Hrubesch, Bayern Munich’s Karl Heinz Rummenigge (European footballer of the year in 1981 and 1982) and the young FC Köln talent Pierre Littbarski, as the teams drew each other in the first round group 2 together with Austria and Chile.
The opening match was thus important for the Algerians who played one of the best games in their lives, and in a very entertaining match managed to pull one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.
First half had been quite tactical, with the Germans dominating, and with most observers thinking that the Europeans champions, in spite of the lack of goals, would in the second half have no problem scoring, as first half ended 0-0. However, the Algerians came out to the second half with renewed energy and faith in their abilities and started using their quick counter-attacking players as the Germans quietly pressed forward. Nine minutes into the second half this bore fruit, when Djamel Zidane (no relation to the later French superstar) made an excellent pass that completely tore through the German defense, putting the outstanding Lakhdar Belloumi alone with Harald Schumacher. The German goalkeeper managed to deflect the shot with his foot, but the ball bounced to Rabah Madjer, the later FC Porto star, who made no mistake and surprisingly brought Algeria ahead.
The Germans now put more pressure and player harsher. Horst Hrubesch and Karl Heinz Rummennigge both had chances before the latter equalized for West Germany when he pushed in a good cross from Felix Magath. But only one minute after the equalizer Algeria went ahead again on a goal that looked almost like a copy of Rummennigge’s a minute earlier: the excellent technical player, Salah Assad, combined on the right side of attack and rushing to the back-line made a perfect cross to Lakhdar Belloumi in front of the goal, who scored what would be Algeria’s winning goal.
Lakhdar Belloumi is still considered one of the greatest stars of Algerian football of all time, but in spite of many big European clubs trying to lure him to Europe, he always remained in his hometown club GCR Mascara.
The last part of the match was both very entertaining and hectic. West Germany attacked while the Algerians defended heroically. Horst Hrubesch had a goal annulled, while Rummennigge hit the post and goalkeeper Mehdi Cerbah made an incredible save on a shot by Real Madrid’s Uli Stielike in the dying minutes.
However, Algeria was also very dangerous on the counter-attacks, and had a couple of excellent chances, as well as Madjer having a goal strangely annulled.
Jupp Derwall, West Germany’s coach, had before the match said that he would jump into the Mediterranean if they lost, but he had to eat his words and the Mediterranean was saved. Algeria had pulled a huge sensation and were now the darlings of the tournament. Losing their second match 0-2 to Austria, they got a much-needed 3-2 victory in their last match against Chile, almost putting them in the next round. However, Austria and West Germany were to play their last match right after Algeria’s victory, and both knew that the only result that would see both teams go through was 1-0 for West Germany. After only 10 minutes Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany, and the rest of the match both teams just stopped playing while the Algerians desperately looked on.
Algeria had been eliminated by the pitiful West Germans and Austrians. Although they had obviously played on the result, FIFA made no attempts at punishing the teams. However, it did lead to one change in the rules: since then all last round matches are played simultaneously so as to avoid speculation on the result.
However, this was a meager consolation to a great Algerian team that were nevertheless the moral and real victors of the group.

Match Stats:

• 16th June 1982, El Molinón, Gijón
• Attendance: 42,000
• Referee: Enrique Labo Revoredo (Perú)

Algeria-West Germany 2-1
Goals: 1-0 Madjer (54), 1-1 K.H. Rummenigge (67), 2-1 Belloumi (68)

Teams:
Algeria: Cerbah; Guendouz, Kourichi, Merzekane, Assad, Fergani, Belloumi, Madjer (Larbes), Zidane (Bensaoula), Dahleb, Mansouri
West Germany: Schumacher; Briegel, Breitner, Foerster, Dremmler, Littbarski, Hrubesch, K.H. Rummenigge, Magath (Fischer), Stielike, Kaltz

European travels

I have been travelling around in Europe for a month, and although with the break, there wasn't much football on my busy programme, I did nevertheless notice some things:
-I was in Barcelona when R.D. Espanyol inaugurated their new stadium by winning a 3-0 victory against Liverpool. I have always felt some sympathy for Español for being the "little guys" in Barcelona, and was happy to see them play well. But it was nevertheless truly sad to hear, barely a week later, that Español's captain, Dani Jarque, passed away due to heart failure during a training session in Italy.
-R.I.P.
-While in Barcelona, I also watched FC Barcelona's trianing match against L.A. Galaxy. Barcelona was far superior, presaging a strong next season, although the victory of 2-1 was arguably too small.
-Great free-kick goal by Beckham! Good that he will be back among the stars in Europe, where he belongs!
-And the Ibrahimovic fever has set in in Barcelona, although the Swedish striker has yet to play a match; his shirt can already be purchased everywhere in the Catalonian city. It will indeed be interesting to see how he unfolds in Barcelona!
-I was also in Austria, a country whose football history I still know very little about. I was only in Vienna, and seeing signs of the two city clubs, Austria and Rapid Vienna, I had to find out about their status, only to find out that Red Bull Salzburg won the league last season. While there, Salzburg in fact qualified to the final qualification round of the Champions League after defeating Dynamo Zagreb 1-2, while Austria Vienna continued to the next round of the Europe League qualification, after defeating Vojdovina 4-2.
-Salzburg is up against Maccabi Haifa FC in the next round.
-I was in Berlin as the Bundesliga season 2009-2010 got underway. The locals of Hertha Berlin, who are still hoping to bring a title to the capital, defeated Hannover 1-0 in the season debut, while defending champions of Wolfburg defeated Stuttgart 2-0.

It was a great trip, but now I am also looking forward to all leagues getting underway for the next season!

Auf Wiedersehen

Tonight Germany defeated Austria 1-0 in Vienna. The Austrians are out, while the Germans have made it to the quarterfinals, where they will be facing Portugal.

The current German national team started the tournament with the same charm and offensive play we remember them for in the last World Cup. After what we saw tonight, that seems ages away: we saw a German team play for the result, boringly, against a spirited but inefficient and insufficient Austria side. This German team reminds one more of the 1986 team, and one had some flashbacks to another memorable game in 1982, between the same two teams, where the result was the main thing...

Besides Ballack's amazing free-kick, which gave the Germans the victory, there was nothing really noteworthy in the German side. On the contrary: they were slow, inefficient and at times the defense looked very shaky; if the Portuguese are given the space the Austrians at times had (and wasted), they are in for a bad defeat, and Austria will not be the only Auf Wiedersehen we'll see this week!

I do hope the Germans give us some of the nice playing of what we have seen them do before, because that could make an extraordinary match against Portugal!

In the meantime, thank you and farewell to Austria.

EURO 2008 predictions

The EURO 2008 is starting on Saturday with two matches in group A: the hosts of Switzerland are facing the unpredictable Czechs, while the favourites of Portugal are facing Turkey.

With a lot of exciting football matches ahead it is time to make my predictions of the tournament (where I am, to be honest, usually pathetically wrong...):

• Group A: A strong defense and home support will bring the Swiss to the top of the group, with Portugal just behind (the two teams will share points in the last game of the group).


• Group B: The Croatians have a young and talented team, and is ready to repeat what they did in 1998: they will defeat a German team which I believe will disappoint for its third EURO in a row. Croatia will win the group, ahead of Austria, which without a strong team will take advantage of playing at home.


• Group C: This is the "group of death", and is thus the hardest to predict; I am certain we will see some close matches. The Romanians are an exciting young team, but they won't prevail. Instead, I believe the Netherlands will win the group, taking advantage of what i believe will be a tuff last repeat of the 2006 World Cup Final, but where the French will prevail ahead of the Italians, to take the second spot in the group.


• Group D: This group is also hard to predict, but I believe the Russians will surprise by winning the group. Spain will largely disappoint, as usual, but will squeeze past the Swedes to take second place in the group. The Greeks will lose their 2004 title.

With these predictions on the first round, we are looking at the following quarterfinals (I will not make any further predictions here):

1. Switzerland-Austria: The co-hosts clashing!


2. Croatia-Portugal: Surely to be an utterly intense match!


3. Netherlands-Spain: Can Spain do it?


4. Russia-France: The surprising Russians against the dangerous French.

According to this, we could plausibly be looking at a final between Russia/France/Netherlands and Portugal/Switzerland.

In the Facebook UEFA Euro 2008 predictor (I have before written about the football applications on Facebook) the most predicted team for champion is Spain, closely followed by Portugal. Although one can seldomly count on history alone, this is interesting: Spain often go in as favourites, but besides their victory in 1964, they usually disappoint. I don't believe their team this time is particularly stronger than previously - who knows...? Maybe that is why they could make it...

The teams mostly picked as runner-ups are Germany and Italy, and this shows that people are perhaps hoping/expecting to see a new winner, in spite of one of the big powers who usually win. Neither Italy nor Germany have done well in the last couple of European Championships, and although one should never-say-never with these super-teams, I don't believe that they will do well this time either.

In any case, I have been wrong before, and the greatest fun is to discuss it over beer and watch some great games, as well as taunt our fellow Europeans!

EURO 2008

The European Championship for national teams is starting soon, on June 7th. As all leagues have pretty much finished, and thus, the EURO 2008 in Switzerland/Austria will be a good afterthought/hangover, full of exciting matches for all football fans.
I must admit that I have far higher expectations to the EURO 2008 by now than I would have to the World Cup, where too many teams mean too many boring matches between lousy teams. But with more of the better teams and a more compact format, the EURO 2008 should not suffer from this (nevertheless, I do predict some incredibly boring matches between some of the more tactically-minded teams).
Although some people say that the EURO 2004 in Portugal was a bore with the wrong winner, I do not agree: Greece was not an exciting team, but were deserved winners. In fact, another beauty of the European championships is that you actually have the realistic possibility of seeing surprises by "small" teams winning: Greece is only one example, but Denmark in 1992 is another (This also makes it very difficult to predict the tournament!)

Greece will undboubtfully have a hard time defending their title, although their group D does not look impossible; they have been paired with Spain, Sweden and Russia.
Sweden is as always unpredictable, and could both win and lose, while Spain again goes to a big tournament with a super-team, but without winning it. Russia is another interesting team: they qualified at the last moment because of England's exit, but were otherwise not overly impressive in the qualifiers.

What I would call the "group of Death" is group C, where the world champions and number two, France and Italy, face each other in a repeat of the 2006 World Cup final. The other teams in the group are the ever-talented Dutch, and a young talented Romanian side, who actually qualified ahead of the Netherlands in their group. Watch out for them!

Group B will see some interesting clashes, where Germany will try to wash away their huge disappointments from the EURO 2004 and the EURO 2000, where they didn't qualify from the initial stages. But it won't be easy, as they will be facing teams who are sure to want to defeat the Germans: Poland has qualified strongly (ahead of Portugal), and after a dramatic match in Berlin at the 2006 World Cup, will be sure to want to upset their big neighbor.
For Croatia any game against Germany is special: in the EURO 1996 they lost in the quarterfinals, but in the 1998 World Cup quarterfinals they destroyed Germany 3-0 in a legendary match which brought Croatia to the forefront of world football. Croatia-Germany is a match I would never want to miss!
The last team in the group are the Austrian hosts; a team that has not showed great results in the last years, their possibilities as hosts are difficult to estimate.

Group A will see the Swiss co-hosts in some interesting matches, although the group otherwise doesn't personally excite me very much: the Swiss are good, but in the 2006 World Cup were very defensive and boring. The group could see a tense match between Turkey and Switzerland, who played last time for the 2006 World Cup play-offs, when Turkey proved disgraceful. Nevertheless, Turkey is still an interesting team, that anyone should watch out for.
The other two teams in the group, Portugal and the Czech Republic, are powerful outsiders: the Czech had a good EURO 2004, but a lousy 2008 World Cup. They still have a powerful team, and won their qualifying group ahead of Germany.
Finally, Portugal still has a super team, and with the world's currently best player, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, it remains to be seen whether they can go all the way after their disappointing loss at home to Greece in the EURO 2004. But I would certainly call them the favourites in group A!

I shall soon make my predictions for the tournament, but be sure that it will be fun, as European nations again face each other for the title of the best team of the continent!

BBC Documentary: Football and Fascism (review)

I recently watched a BBC documentary on football and fascism in the Europe of the 1930's. It showed how Mussolini, Hitler and Franco respectively used football as a political propaganda tool. As a person with a keen interest in both European 20th century history and in football, it was interesting programme, although the programme at times often rather simplified the hsitorical context, such as the German annexation of Austria or the reasons for the Falagist victory in the Spanish civil war.

But the programme was certainly interesting in regard to how football was used by these regimes as a tool in their propaganda machine. For instance the way in which Mussolini in the 1930's sponsored and pressured Italian football, leading directly to the victories in the world cups of 1934 and 1938.
In 1934 Mussolini directly influenced the Swedish referee Ivan Eklind, who dined with Mussolini before refereeing the final against Czechoslovakia. Mr. Eklind had also been referee in the semifinal between Italy and Austria, where he had gone very far in what he allowed the Italian players to do. The programme strongly suggests that Italy should not have won, but goes on to largely ignore the fact that Italy also was victorious in France in 1938. Italy did have an extremely good team in the 1930's. While the quality of the team always will be put in doubt by Mr. Mussolini's actions, the fact remains that they were victorious in two world cups, and their players were leading in what was one of the world's best leagues at the time.
Austria of the 1930's plays a important part in the programme's part on Nazi Germany. In the 1930's, Austria's national team was one of the bets in the world, led by the charismatic and popular Max Sendelar, one of the greatest players of the time. With the 'Anchluss', that is Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, many Austrian players were absorbed into the German team. But Max Sendelar became a symbol of Austrian nationalism, and died under mysterious circumstances in 1939. The program focuses much on these mysterious circumstances under which he was found gassed in bed, together with his Italian girlfriend. It is obviously insinuated that he was killed by the Nazis. Nothing has ever been clarified, but the method would be very like the Nazis.
But this is not the only focus on Hitler. As is well-known, the Nazis were exceptional in using propaganda as a political tool. The 1936 Olympics were the first with the massive use of a mayor sporting event to promote the political agenda of the Nazis. The German football team was also part of this political machinery, and the programme alledges that the only football game Hitler ever went to was when Germany sensationally was defeated by Norway in the 1936 Olympics. I guess Norway were the Jessee Owen of football by this great result!
However, the programme tends to exaggerate the importance of this result, insinuating it undermined the regime. While football is a valuable propaganda tool, it was more an expression of the society and politics of 1930's Europe, and not a direct influence on the sustanability of the regime. This is a fault in the programme which is continued in the last part, which is about how Francisco Franco, in Spain, used football, and in particular the success of Real Madrid, as a tool in its relations with the outside world. That the international success of Real Madrid during the 1950's was central in ending Spain's isolation after World War II, is an overstatement to say the least. It ignores the whole cold war and anti-communist context leading US foreign policy at the time.
But that Franco was indeed a Real Madrid fan, and used its success as a stage to show off, is beyond doubt. It is interesting to hear an interview with the great Alfredo Di Stefano, who largely tells the period as he saw it: "We were just playing football, and paid little attention to the politics around us".
Real Madrid's success played an important element in attesting the superiority of Madrid over other Spanish regions, notably Barcelona. Today the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid stems very much from this period, where also Catalan nationalism uses the football of FC Barcelona as a political platform - a fact mentioned shortly, but otherwise largely ignored by the programme.
There is little doubt that Real Madrid had the upper hand in the 1950's, also showed by Real Madrid's amazing team of those years; by far the world's best at the time. Truly "Galacticos" - whose record will probably never be beaten: five European cups and six Spanish championships. Mr. Di Stefano's own transfer to Real Madrid was part of the upper-hand of Real Madrid: Barcelona had confirmed the transfer (according to Mr. Di Stefano himself, he was already ready to go to Barcelona), but at the last moment, there was a mysterious intervention to get him to Madrid. As we all know today, he was the greatest player ever in Real Madrid, which is not a small feat!
The BBC programme is recommendable to anyone interested in the role of politics in football, and viceversa. Politics and football do go hand in hand more often than not. As such, football was also used by fascist dictatorships, and the programme gives a good, although at times simplified, view of how it happened. But it is important to notice that football was just one little element of the political game, and that the use of football as a political tool is in no way an exception to these regimes.