Being on the blog

 I have not blogged for more than two months. I have before had periods during which I have blogged little, but they were either because of technical problems or because I was simply tired of football.

That is not the case now: I am following football a lot, and so many things have happened: the sad passing of the giants Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer; the (unlikely) Ivorian victory in the Africa Cup of nations; Jurgen Klopp's surprising announcement that he will leave Liverpool (as well as the lead in the Premier League and the League Cup victory over Chelsea); Paraguay's and Argentina's qualification for the Olympic Games; Real Madrid's good run (against Girona in particular) and Xavi's resignation from a very unstable Barcelona side; exciting Champions League matches, and even, closer to home, Messi making El Salvador go crazy when coming with Inter Miami to face El Salvador in a boring 0-0 match.

As I write this, I realize how many posts I have missed! But truth is that maybe the time of Blogs, like this one that I have had over 20 years, are over? Not that I mind that nobody reads it: I have always said it is like a diary, for myself, and in fact, when I read at my nearly 1500 posts, I see many moments of my life!

It is strange to think about, and it is perhaps a little bit of a loss of the discipline and inspiration to write when I see some of the many interesting football news. 

I must continue.

Greatest World Cup Matches: West Germany-Italy (1970)

West Germany entered the 1970 World Cup in Italy with a strong team of quite experienced players. Among them was Franz Beckenbauer, who only 25 years old already was one of the most experienced and established players in international football. The team was still captained by the legendary Uwe Seeler, who was playing his last World Cup, while the Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller had seemed unstoppable, scoring seven goals in the first three matches, which the Germans won against Peru, Bulgaria and Morocco.
In the quarterfinals West Germany had played England, in a repeat of the 1966 final. This time though, the Germans were better prepared against an English team that was arguably better than it had been in 1966, but was apparently not well-adapted to the intense Mexican atmosphere. Also, Coach Alf Ramsey made obvious tactical changes when England could have carried the match away. In the end, West Germany won 3-2 after extra time, on a Gerd Müller goal.
This was only the second time England lost to West Germany, and as has happened so much since, the English swam over in references to the war.
Italy had not had good results for the World Cup for many years, but under coach Feruccio Valccareggi had built up a very strong team playing the reputed “Catenaccio” style, around a highly organised and very strong defense. The midfield led by AC Milan’s Gianni Rivera (who and 1969 had won the “Balon d’or” as best player of the year), and with powerful strikers, notably Gigi Riva from Cagliari (who is still the most scoring player in the history of the Italian national team). In 1968 Italy had won the European championship and was surely one of the best teams of the world at the time.
However, the Italians were not popular for their “catennaccio” style after their first round matches where they tied 0-0 with Uruguay and Israel, and defeated Sweden 1-0. In the quarterfinals they had nevertheless shown their attacking power against the hosts of Mexico, and won 4-1, and were now ready to the semifinal, where the winner would play the winner between Brazil and Uruguay.
The match in from of a full Azteca Stadium started well for the Italians: only eight minutes into the match the Inter striker Roberto Boninsegna got a return ball at the edge of the German area and resolutely shot and scored.
After this, Italy pulled back around its strong defense, and while the Germans had the ball the most, they were unable to open up the defense. It was frustrating for the many spectators as well as for the German players, to see the German team in possession and attacking, but unable to score. In particular Franz Beckenbauer was playing a strong match, and in the second half he dislocated his shoulder in a fearless tackle. However, unwilling to be substituted, the Bayern Munich star continued playing with a bandaged shoulder for the remainder of the match for what must have been a very painful sacrifice.
In the 90th minute of the match, the frantic German attacks finally paid off when the AC Milan defender Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (”Volkswagen”) suddenly found himself alone in front of the Italian goal on a cross by Jurgen Grabowski, and just had to put the foot on the ball, that went straight into the net. It was one of the few mistakes that the well-organized Italian defense had made.
West Germany had equalized and now seemed to have everything going for them as the match went into extra time.
Only four minutes later, Gerd Müller took advantage of a misunderstanding between the goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi and the defender Fabrizio Pelotti; when either decide to grab the ball, Gerd Müller quickly got in between them and squeezed the ball into goal for a German lead.
With the match completely turned on its head, it was now Italy’s turn to start attacking against the partly amputated German defense, and only four minutes later the Inter defender Tarcisio Burgnich scored after receiving a bounced off ball from a German defender. Another defensive mistake had equalized it for the Italians, who nevertheless continued attacking after the goal. At the end of the first half of the extra time, Gigi Riva was given too much space at the edge of the German area, and in spite of it not being a very hard shot, it was well-placed towards the far corner of the goal, and Sepp Maier had no chance.
The match had in fifteen minutes turned around twice!
Again it was West Germany’s time to attack as the teams went into the last fifteen minutes of the match, and after only a few minutes Gerd Müller scored to 3-3 on a header.
But the Italians, immediately when putting the ball into play, scored again, without the Germans even touching the ball: Boninsegna crossed the ball to a Gianni Rivera and the Milan striker made no mistake when carefully placing the ball perfectly behind Sepp Maier!
Anything seemed possible in this crazy semifinal, but it was the last goal of the extraordinary drama which Italy won 4-3 and put them in the World Cup final against Brazil.
An anecdote of this match tells that the guards at a prison near Acapulco, absorbed in the dramatic match on TV, didn’t notice the escape of 23 prisoners…
Surely one of the greatest World Cup dramas!

Match Stats:

• 17th June 1970, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
• Attendance: 102,000
• Referee: Arturo Yamasaki Maldonado (Peru)

West Germany-Italy 3-4 (After extra time)
Goals: 0-1 Boninsegna (8), 1-1 Schnellinger (90), 2-1 G. Muller (94), 2-2 Burgnich (98), 2-3 Riva (104), 3-3 G. Muller (110), 3-4 Rivera (111)

Teams:
West Germany: Maier; Schnellinger, Beckenbauer, Schulz, Vogts, Seeler, Overath, G. Muller, Patzke (Held), Loehr (Libuda), Grabowski
Italy: Albertosi; Burgnich, Facchetti, Cera, Rosato (Poletti), Bertini, Riva, Domenghini, Mazzola (Rivera), De Sisti, Boninsegna

Greatest World Cup matches: England-West Germany (1966)

For the World Cup in England the home nation was full of expectations. Having never won a World Cup before, everyone thought that England should excel at home, and had indeed assembled a very strong team, where the West Ham captain Bobby Moore, led what became the best defense of the World Cup. In midfield the star was Bobby Charlton from Manchester United, an extraordinary offensive midfielder who was awarded the title of best European player of the year of 1966.
In spite of this strong team, England had not had an easy time, and had mainly prevailed because of their strong defense that didn’t let in a single goal until the semifinal.
The English had been in a rather easy first round group which they had won ahead of Uruguay (a poor side that they had only managed to tie 0-0 with), and in the quarterfinal had won a narrow 1-0 victory against Argentina in a match that was marred by a controversial German referee who had left Argentina with ten men after expelling the Argentinean captain Rattin for not liking how he looked at him.
In the semifinal the English had strangely been allowed to change the venue of the match to Wembley, where the best defense of the tournament, England, had faced the best attacking side of the tournament, Portugal. In spite of allowing Eusebio to score the first goal against them, England won their best match in the tournament with two goals by Bobby Charlton, and was ready to play the final in Wembley against the rivals of West Germany.
The Germans had by 1966 again built up a strong disciplined team combining of experienced and young players. They were captained by Uwe Seeler, the Hamburg striker (who was playing his third World Cup), and had a strong and offensive midfield with Helmut Haller from Bologna. These were supplemented by a strong defense where a 21-year old player from Bayern Munich had been noted in the tournament: Franz Beckenbauer totally changed what it meant to be a defender, scoring many goals coming from his “free” position, and was to become one the greatest players of all time.
In the first round the Germans had won their group ahead of Argentina, Spain and Switzerland. In the quarterfinals they had destroyed Uruguay 4-0, and had in the semifinal defeated the USSR 2-1.
There were understandably huge expectations to the final between two European giants, but England were firm favourites in what was to become a legendary drama.
Helmut Haller brought West Germany ahead after twelve minutes after picking up a bad clearing from Ray Wilson. However, only five minutes elapsed before West Ham’s Geoff Hurst levelled the match for England. Geoff Hurst had only entered the tournament in the quarterfinal against Argentina as a substitute for Jimmy Greaves.
He was to become one of the great players of the final.
First half ended 1-1 in what had until then been an equal encounter.
The English entered the second half with the decision to create a result, and had much more possession in the second half, but without being able to force clear chances on the disciplined German defense. However, continued pressure finally bore fruit for the home side in the 78th minute: Allan Ball took a corner kick that reached Geoff Hurst, whose shot bounced off the foot of the Werder Bremen defender Horst-Dieter Höttges, and was picked up by another West Ham player, Martin Peters, who calmly placed the ball around the German goalkeeper Hans Tilkowski.
England was ahead 2-1 and the world cup title was within grasp; but the Germans never give up!
West Germany started to attack, hoping to get an equalizer, and only one minute before the end of the match when the defender Wolfgang Weber tackled his way to the far post after a free kick, and by way of his foot and an English defenders’ knee, pushed the ball into goal and an equalizer for West Germany.
Disappointingly for many English fans, the match had to go into extra time. In spite of both teams being exhausted, England apparently found some energy; notably the hard workingAllan Ball, who halfway through the first half of extra time, caught a ball at the far corner flag, and made a pass backwards to Geoff Hurst in the German area. Hurst stopped the ball and shot quickly and hard towards the goal. The ball hit the post and headed down, out of the goal, where a German defender headed it away as the English players lifted their arms appealing for goal.
It was impossible to see whether the ball had been in, but the referee, after consulting the linesman, awarded the goal to England.
This goal remained very controversial, but it has only been able to seen later with modern technology that the “whole of the ball” had not passed over the goalline, and therefore the goal should not have been allowed.
Nevertheless, this was impossible for the referee to see, and there was no doubt that England had been the better team and deserved to be ahead 3-2.
The Germans were very tired, and unable to respond to an English team that continued attacking. In the very last minute of the extra time Geoff Hurst received the ball in a counterattack and running towards the German goal scored his third goal and England’s fourth, which sealed their victory. Geoff Hurst to this day remains the only player in the history of the World Cup to have scored three goals in a final.
In spite of the controversial goal, nobody could take away that England, the home of football, had deservedly won its first (and to date only) World Cup title.
There have been many myths created around England’s triumph, but there was nothing particularly “gallant” about the English side: it was strong, they deservedly won the world cup on the two last matches, but had certainly had much favouring from FIFA in the form of venues and referees.
Still, football had returned home, at least for four years.

Match Stats:

• 30th July, 1966 Wembley Stadium, London
• Attendance: 96,994
• Referee: Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland)

England-West Germany 4-2 (After Extra Time)
Goals: 0-1 Haller (12), 1-1 Hurst (18), 2-1 Peters (78), 2-2 Weber (90), 3-2 Hurst (98), 4-2 Hurst (120)

Teams:
England: Banks, Cohen, Wilson, Stiles, J. Charlton, Moore, Ball, Hurst, R. Charlton, Hunt, Peters
West Germany: Tilkowski, Hottges, Weber, Schulz, Schnellinger, Beckenbauer, Haller, Overath, Seeler, Held, Emmerich