Ferenc Puskas
“Let’s go back to 1956. Hungary had, arguably, the best football team that had ever lived, the ‘Mighty Magyars’. They lost narrowly in the World Cup final 3-2 to West Germany two years earlier after leading 2-0 inside the first 10 minutes, won the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and famously beat England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953, to strike fear into countries around the World. The Hungarian club sides weren’t bad either, Honvéd, made up mostly of the Hungarian national team, were one of the best teams in Europe, losing narrowly on two occasions to the English champions Wolves in a competitive friendly before the European Cup had been introduced, and two years later to Atlético Bilbao in the 2nd ever European Cup. However, October 1956 changed everything.” (In Bed with Maradona)

“Twenty one years ago, Arsenal won the League title in the most unbelievable way by scoring an injury-time goal at Anfield. Arsenal was leading 1-0, but if the score had remained the same, Liverpool would have won the 1988-89 League title. Instead, the ball fell to Arsenal’s Michael Thomas who knocked the ball past Bruce Grobbelaar to win the match 2-0 to the Gunners and to crown Arsenal champions based on the same goal difference, but the Gunners scored one more goal than Liverpool.” (EPL Talk)

Umuchu Lagos, 1989 Christmas tournament. The author stands in the rear, third from right.
“Editor’s note: Obi Nwakanma in a Vanguard essay in 2008 notes the achievement of Chinua Achebe‘s Things Fall Apart. Achebe, according to Nwakanma, a Nigerian poet born in 1966—eight years after publication of a novel since translated into 50 languages—helped a continent claim its memories and helped restore a people. Achebe’s father was an early agent of the Church Missionary Society, founded in London in 1799. He was, in Nwakanma’s words, a ‘native informer’.” (The Global Game)

“Continuing on the political theme that we started last week with ‘Football & Fascism’, this week’s Video Of The Week continues on the same wavelength with another terrific BBC documentary, ‘The Game Of Their Lives’. This film, which is not to be confused with the atrocious American film of the same name about the 1950 World Cup finals, tells the story of the North Korean team of the 1966 World Cup finals, their brief love affair with the supporters of Middlesbrough Football Club and what happened to the team afterwards. Filmed on 2002 by Daniel Gordon, it goes beyond merely telling the story of their surprise elimination of Italy from the tournament from the point of view of the players and into the country of North Korea itself.” (twohundredpercent)