Scissors Kick

“In the summer of 1986 Udinese were in trouble. As punishment for their part in ‘Totonero bis’ – a match-fixing scandal which tore through the game and left many of its players and clubs tainted forever – the Friulian club were relegated to the second tier of Italian football. While his arrival may not have had the global impact of Silvio Berlusconi’s landing at Milan some four months earlier, Giampaolo Pozzo’s arrival would prove to be a watershed moment for a club who bear little resemblance to the one he bought 26 years ago.” In Bed With Maradona

“Wily, diminutive, tricky, graceful; feel free to add your own adjectives. Ossie Ardiles arrived at Tottenham Hotspur from Huracán in 1978 alongside fellow World Cup winner Ricky Villa and became a firm favourite with the White Hart Lane faithful. While younger Spurs fans will marvel at the silky skills of Luka Modric, older ones will recall the guile of creator in chief Ardiles. Like Modric, not the most prolific goalscorer, but the key creative component of a number of Spurs sides in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Sixty today, Ossie is back in management with second tier J League outfit Machida Zelvia. Here’s a nice tribute from 1985…” In Bed With Maradona (Video)

“The baker’s son from Botnang done good. On the occasion of his birthday today we thought we would give you a little bit of Klinsmann at his best. We could have chosen one of the many compilations of goals scored for Germany, we could have gone with his time with Spurs and in particular that video of his goals set to ‘Gertcha’ by Chas and Dave, but as good as that would have been we went with this.” In Bed With Maradona (Video)

“This has it all, and should give an exhaustive idea of why the Cosmos still matter almost four decades later. This is also why anyone who complains about the Age of the Internet needs to leave now without a fuss.” The Score (Video)

“A great Calcio poster from way back when. I’m guessing it must be around 1955-56 as Novara are in the picture. I also love the Lazio player (fascist salute?) and the Roma player who looks like he is about to wipe him out. (via thegentlemanultra)”

“Back in the late 1980’s Europe’s political landscape was changing. The Eastern Bloc was crumbling. Football was one language whereby different political ideals could be set aside for 90 minutes. That was unless you lived in the divided Germany at the time. It is hard to imagine today when we look at Germany that it was still a country partitioned by a wall into the haves and the have-nots. No place on earth saw this divide more than Berlin where the wall completely cut off a section of the city, known as West Berlin, which was a West German isle surrounded by a sea of the Eastern Bloc, a capitalist island in a sea of communism. Football was being suffocated by the political situation.” In Bed With Maradona

1930-31 La Liga
“In 1977 Athletic Bilbao contested a Copa del Rey and UEFA Cup final, losing both, in a striking parallel with 2012. In the August 1977 edition of World Soccer magazine, Keir Radnedge looked at how it all began for one of Europe’s oldest clubs. Athletic Bilbao struck a resounding blow last season for self-reliant clubs by reaching the UEFA Cup and Spanish Cup Finals with a team made up entirely of local-raised players.” In Bed With Maradina

“More than fifty years after covering his first World Cup in 1962 in Chile, French journalist Thierry Roland passed away on Saturday at the age of 74 prompting tributes from the highest spheres of France’s political scene, starting with President François Hollande, all the way down to the French players in Ukraine from Gael Clichy to Samir Nasri. Perhaps the only football-related figure that was more appreciated than Zinedine Zidane in France, Thierry Roland was one of these people which you would be forgiven to think they were immortal. After beginning his career as a football journalist as an 18-year-old in 1955, first on the radio before making the big move to live television, Roland went on to commentate thirteen World Cups and nine European Championships, spearheading more than 1300 football games in total for France’s foremost TV channels, ORTF from 1955 to 1968, Antenne 2 from 1975 to 1984, TF1 from 1984 and 2004, M6 from 2005 till yesterday.” In Bed With Maradona (Video)

“Our selection includes a nine-goal semi, English humiliation, Danish Dynamite – and the best international of the 21st century” Guardian (Video)

“The saddening death of an old acquaintance Giorgio Chinaglia evoked so many memories. It was an astonishing career, begun obscurely in South Wales where he once was obliged (by club fines) to steal milk bottles from doorsteps for his breakfast, to triumphs with Lazio and the 1974 Campionato thanks largely to his goals, to disgrace in the subsequent World Cup in Europe.” World Soccer – Brian Glanville

Giorgio Chinaglia 1947-2012
“The legendary Lazio, Italy and New York Cosmos striker Giorgio Chinaglia has died, aged 65. Chinaglia was a member of the infamous yet hugely talented 1974 scudetto winning Lazio side, where his fiery temper and penchant for mayhem were not out of place. Having played most of his early football with Swansea (he had been brought up in Wales), Chinaglia was considered no great loss to the Welsh side as he headed home for national service and Serie C club Massese in 1966.” In Bed With Maradona

“It almost goes without saying that the near-death – and very much beyond – experiences suffered by English football during the 1980s shaped the game that we watch today. There was a time – a period from the middle to the end of that decade – when the definite feeling that this was a game on its last legs became tangible. Crowds dwindled to somewhere beyond what might have been considered the bare bones, whilst an unhappy trinity of disasters carried both a literal and symbolic loss, with deaths that represented scores of personal tragedies alongside a wider sense of corrosion in what had been the nations number one pastime.” twohundredpercent

“There can be few things more tiresome in international football than war analogies. Sometimes, however, they are inescapable and this can be no more true than in the case of European nations which once pitched up against each other on battlefields, only to find themselves facing off against their former allies or rivals for decades afterwards. In the case of the Dutch national team, the complex nature of its relationship with its neighbour – and former occupier – Germany has come to manifest itself through an occasional series of gladiatorial matches between the two national sides.” twohundredpercent

“‘Carloooooooooos Herrrrrrrrrrrnandez’. The PR system rung around Melbourne Victory’s AAMI Park as the introduction of Carlos Hernandez was announced to the home faithful in the biggest game of the season, a derby with cross-town rivals Melbourne Heart. The team sheet shocked every supporter who knew Hernandez, as he was left on the bench. Perplexing. Jim Magilton, the former QPR and Ipswich boss, opted instead for Leigh Broxham and Grant Brebner, a Manchester United youth player, in the centre of midfield.” In Bed With Maradina

“As Cardiff prepare for the Carling Cup final against Liverpool this weekend, the Welsh side know that they have the chance to make history. The club have brought home few major trophies in their 113-year history, but winning the FA Cup final in 1927 against Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal was the culmination of a decade in which the Bluebirds were seen as one of the top clubs in the English league.” ESPN

“If the early history of the European Championships can be seen as explicitly wrapped up in the politics of the time, then Spain’s victory on home ground in 1964 European Nations Cup could be regarded as one of international football’s ultimate flashes in the pan.” twohundredpercent

“The fact that AS Roma have only ever won three scudetti has always been something of an anomaly. Virtuoso players have come and gone, numerous coaches have tried their luck at bringing success to Roma (with varying levels of aptitude), but only Nils Liedholm in 1982/83 and Fabio Capello in 2000/01 have brought the Serie A title to the red and yellow half of Rome since World War Two.” In Bed With Maradoma

“With the football authorities having made an unforgivable and irrevocable mess of European competition these days, there is currently little chance of any side from a smaller nation taking the continent by storm. Since Porto and Monaco reached the Champions League final in 2004 – an unusually weak year, in all honesty – the likes of Napoli, Porto and Dortmund find themselves pilfered by the big clubs as soon as they threaten to ransack a closed shop.” FCF (Video)

“In 1998 he became the world’s most expensive footballer. A mere ten years later, not even Turkish Süper Lig club Vestel Manisaspor wanted to sign him on a free transfer. Aleks Klosok recounts the rapid rise to and dramatic fall from grace of one of Brazilian football’s great underachievers: Denílson.” In Bed With Maradoma