November 19 – Pele Hits a Grand

EARLIER this year former Brazilian striker Romario scored what he claimed was the 1000th goal of his career. His scoring feat is disputed by some (including FIFA) because as well as including goals scored in youth games and friendly matches he had spent the previous couple of years playing for any team in any Mickey Mouse league to reach the magic number.

It was on this day in 1969 that Pele did reach the 1000 mark in a match for his Santos team against Vasco da Gama in only his 909th game.

Incredibly he managed the feat at the age of 29, some 12 years younger than Romario was when he notched up his dubious record.

The goal in question was a penalty, which Pele would later say was one of the worst he had ever taken. After he converted the spot kick many of the 80,000 fans packed inside the Maracana stadium rushed on to the pitch to mob him, delaying the restart of the game for some 30 minutes.

The Vasco goalkeeper was also prepared for the event and after the ball sailed past him into the back of the net he took off his jersey to reveal a congratulatory message written on a t-shirt underneath.

Pele’s final goal tally is also a matter of some dispute but FIFA reckon he hit 1,281 goals in 1,363 games, but whatever the final number, it was well over the 1000 mark.

He is senor Edson Arantes do Nascimento scoring that goal, and come back tomorrow for some more penalty shenanigans.

November 18 – Much Adu About Freddy

ANYONE who’s played Championship Manager in it’s various incarnations over the last five or six years will know all about today’s star of OTFD. One of the first things seasoned Champ Man fans would do is sign up the American wunderkind Freddy Adu, as he’d soon become one of the all-time greats. Perhaps Fergie’s a secret gaming addict, because today in 2006 he signed up Freddy for a two week trial at Manchester United.

It’s not like our friends over the pond to over-hype anyone or anything, but in the case Adu they outdid themselves. In 2004 the fourteen year-old Adu became the youngest American professional sportsman (or should that be sportsboy?) for a hundred years when he signed with DC United. This was all a long way from the Ghanaian port city of Tema, where Adu and his family left when he was eight after they won the Green Card Lottery and became US citizens.

He was rumoured to be the highest paid player in the MLS and a big fat contract from Nike meant that he outshone all his friends in the pocket money stakes.

By the time that Sir Alex got round to having a look at Adu he’d managed to represent the USA in a plethora of international youth tournaments where he impressed and the big money leagues in Europe came-a-calling. Nothing came of the trial at Old Trafford, but Adu responded by signing for the most European sounding club in MLS, Real Salt Lake.

Freddy has since made it into Europe after he became a £1m signing for Benfica in the summer, where he’s been forging a reputation of supersub extraordinaire, coming off the bench to score a number of important late goals.

Only time will tell if Adu reaches the peaks that the makers of Champ Man predicted for him, but as you can see by the footage below, he’s going about it the right way. We don’t think he’ll score as many goals as tomorrow’s subject though, so click yourself stupid this way in twenty four hours time.

November 17 – The Mighty Magyar Major

TODAY at OTFD we mark the passing of the man with the best goals-to-games ration in the world. Ever. By miles.

Most strikers try to aim for a goal every two games (obviously with the exception of Emile Heskey) but Ferenc Puskas scored just shy of a goal for every single game he played for both club and country.

It was on this day in 2006 that Puskas died aged 79.

In 529 league matches in his native Hungary and Spain he scored an incredible 514 goals, as well as a staggering 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary.

Puskas’ career coincided with the golden age of the Hungarian national side and he was captain of the Mighty Magyar team that became Olympic champions in 1952 and were the first non-UK team to beat England at Wembley when they gave the Three Lions a footballing lesson in a 6-3 drubbing.

Despite not being fully fit, Puskas also played and scored in the 1954 world cup final, but even he couldn’t stop West Germany from coming back from two goals down to win, as the Magyars were defeated.

His club career was no less distinguished. He started with the Kipest club where his father was a coach. The club was later taken over by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence who changed the name to Honved and gave all the players military ranks.

In a move which seems just a trifle unfair to the opposition’s chances the Hungarian MoD used conscription as an excuse to snap up all the best players ensuring that they, and Major Puskas, won five league titles between 1949 and 1955.

In 1956 Honved were drawn against Atletico Bilbao in the European Cup. The squad travelled to Spain for the first leg, but while they were away things at home got a bit hairy as the Hungarian revolution kicked off.

Puskas opted not to return to Hungary and instead found a new home worthy of his talents at Real Madrid. Despite being 31 when he rocked up at Real he still managed to notch up a hatful of trophies including five league titles and three European Cups.

After retiring as a player Puskas moved into management where he had some success with Panathinaikos, winning two league titles and taking them to the European Cup final in 1971 where they were beaten 2-0 by Ajax.

Still, goal scoring was his bag and although we are not Nostradamus, we’re guessing his incredible scoring ratio will never be bettered.

November 16 – The Red Devil

AT my school the weedy asthmatic little ginger kid was always the last to be picked when it came to picking football teams in the playground, but we’re guessing it might have been different at Cardinal Langley School in Manchester in the late 1980s where a young Paul Scholes was a pupil.

Today is Scholesy’s 33rd birthday so we thought we’d pay tribute to the quiet man of football.

The little red devil is often lauded as something of an antidote to the modern professional footballer and held up as the perfect example for aspiring players.

In his 13 year spell at Manchester United he has notched up seven Premier League titles, three FA Cup medals, a European Cup among other honours. He was also an England regular for seven years until he retired from international football after Euro 2004 to concentrate on his club career.

This year Scholes became United’s top Premiership scorer after netting against Portsmouth and he is generally regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation.

Despite all this little Scholesy famously shins the limelight, choosing not to do interviews and turning down advertising contracts, preferring to do all his talking on the Old Trafford pitch.

One place he does speak up however is in the boardroom – Scholes does not have an agent so negotiates all his own deals with the club where he has spent his entire career.

Although he spends his Saturdays making the Old Trafford faithful smile, he is actually an Oldham Athletic fan and likes to get along to Boundary Park when he is not at work.

So raise a glass to Mr Scholes and you can bet your bottom dollar that you won’t see pictures of him falling out of a nightclub in London with a Page 3 stunnah on his arm – and not just because he’s ginger.

Here are some of Scholesy’s strikes, and come back tomorrow for one of the all time greats.

November 15 – The Total Footballer

IT’S time to look at a bone fide legend here at OTFD, as we mark the debut of the greatest player Europe has ever produced. A 17-year old Johan Cruijff first crossed the white line today in 1964, when his Ajax side took on the snappily monikered GVAV.

Amsterdam’s finest were to lose 3-1 that day, but the Ajax faithful saw a glimpse of the future when Cruijff scored their consolation goal. The 1964/65 season turned out to be the worst Ajax had ever had, finishing 13th in the Eredivisie, but a year later this was long forgotten as they romped to the title thanks to 25 goals from Cruijff.

This was just the tip of the iceberg, as Ajax went about creating a new footballing philosophy under the tutorage of Rinus Michels. Total Football revolutionised the game, with Cruijff as the fulcrum. Ajax’s fluid, adventurous and exquisite play saw them win no less than 14 trophies in a seven-year spell, including three consecutive European Cups.

Not content with just being a legend at Ajax, he also enjoys something approaching deity status at Camp Nou. Upon his arrival in 1973 he immediately won a place in the Barca fans hearts by dissing the Franco regime and turning down Real Madrid. As manager ‘El Salvador’ would later guide the Catalans to their first European Cup and his shadow still looms large over the club, as his support for current top dog Joan Laporta was vital in the last presidential election.

Always ahead of his time, Cruijff spent his twilight years playing in America, and like everyone’s favourite injured MLS-er, he paid close attention to the commercial side of the game, refusing to wear the adidas Holland shirt as his team mates, peeling off one of the three stripes to appease the Puma boys, who were throwing money his way.

Throughout his career there were countless performances that we could coo about all day long at OTFD, but it’s easier just to show you. Check out some skills from one of the most innovative and graceful players ever to lace up a pair of boots and join us tomorrow as we try dispel any myths that OTFD is anti-ginger.

November 14 – The Battle of Highbury

WHEN you think of Highbury in the 1930′s you picture the art deco stylings and marble floors, with Herbert Chapman sat in his office coming up with ideas that are were years ahead of his time. The Gooners old stomping ground also played host to one of the nastiest friendlies of that or any other era, when England took on World Cup holders Italy, on this day in 1934.

Secure in their own knowledge that they were the best team in the world, England, along with the rest of the home nations, had not bothered to enter the 1934 World Cup. This enabled Italy to pick up the trophy in their own backyard as they took advantage of some of the spoils that playing a World Cup at home in a fascist dictatorship afforded.

When the Azzuri came to London four months later they saw an opportunity to put the English in their place and this, coupled with Mussolini’s offer of an Alfa Romeo and £150 to every Italian if they pulled off an unlikely win, was enough to ensure that sparks flew right from the off.

England packed their side with seven Arsenal players, as they hoped that a bit of club unity would make up for fielding a young and inexperienced side. The opening ten minutes were to be more incident packed than a night out with Anton Ferdinand, starting with the Italian centre back Luis Monti breaking his foot, leaving his team mates to play on with ten men. Despite missing a penalty England were soon 3-0 up and cruising.

Seeking revenge for their fallen comrade, the Italians began to lash out. An injury list that resembled an episode of Causalty soon materialised, with arms and noses broken, punches thrown and god knows how many cuts and bruises dished out. This proved to be a catalyst for the ten men of Italy, as they pulled two goals back in the second half and came close to pulling off a stunning upset.

In the end, the unofficial world title was not really settled. The Italians returned home as heroes, but England refused to believe the hype and still told anyone that would listen that Assocaition Football was their game.

The English press agreed, showing a level of support for their team that Steve McClaren could only dream of. Dismissing the performance of the Italians, the Times was very to-the-point: “On paper, it looks as though the Italians were unfortunate to lose. Actually they were not.”

Unfortunately no footage made it out of Highbury alive, so in honour of the old boys we’re showing you a top ten foul list for you to wince at. When you’re done there, get your set squares out ready for the man once described as “Pythagoras in boots” tomorrow.

November 13 – Scholes Sinks Scotland

THANKS to the much lamented demise of the home international tournament the world’s oldest international fixture is something of a rarity these days.

The last time England and Scotland met on the football field was a two-legged play-off game in 1999 with the prize a place at Euro 2000. It was on this day that year that Hampden Park hosted the first stage of this fixture.

At the time England were being led by Kevin Keegan, while Craig Brown was in the dug out for the Scots. Although England were slight favourites over the two legs, there was no doubt they faced a daunting task at Hampden in front of a full house of Scottish fans.

Ginger wizard Paul Scholes was the man to silence them with two first half strikes that gave England a 2-0 win. At 1-0 David Seaman saved brilliantly to deny Kevin Gallacher and the Scots a way back into the game, before Scholes scored his second to give the Three Lions some breathing space.

The second half would prove frustrating for the hosts who had a lot of possession without really creating much, while England were happy to sit back in their own half and defend their lead.

“We’ve started, under my reign, to play the way I want to play,” said a delighted England coach Kevin Keegan. “We played fantastic today. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

But Scotland coach Craig Brown refused to give in. “We can still go to Wembley with hope. We’ve always scored away from home when we need to and we came do it in London,” he said.

And we was spot on. A week later Scotland went to Wembley and a Don Hutchison goal gave them a battling 1-0 win. England were through, but Scotland had beaten them at Wembley and proved their point.

After being beaten at home by a team that didn’t even make the finals, Keegan was at his best. “I know you’ll laugh,” he said after the lacklustre display against the Scots, “But we have a chance to win it.”

It’s the way you tell ‘em Kev. We did laugh, a lot. Until Phil Neville conceded a late penalty against Romania meaning KK’s charges didn’t even make it out of the group stage.

Right, tomorrow’s story features another international match from yesteryear so come back for a bit of midweek relief from us here at OTFD.

November 12 – Au revoir Roy Evans

SOME double acts are just meant to be. John and Paul, Barry and Paul Chuckle and Simon and Garfunkel were all duos that clicked together perfectly like two pieces of a jigsaw.

Today on OTFD we are looking back at the demise of a partnership that was doomed from the off. It was on this day in 1998 that Liverpool’s joint manager Roy Evans was given the boot from the boot room, to leave Gerard Houllier in sole charge of the team.

The Liverpool suits were tired of seeing the team struggle to compete for honours under Evans, who, since stepping up to the top job in 1994 had one league cup trophy to show for his time in charge. They decided action was needed but rather than do the decent thing and simply give Evans the sack, they came up with the hair-brained scheme of bringing Houllier in and making the two of them joint managers.

The plan had seemed madness from the outset, and clearly reflected badly on Evans who was obviously thought to be not up to the job on his own. The practicalities of the arrangement were bound to be troublesome: who would have final say on transfers, picking the team and so on?

At first things seemed to be working themselves out as Liverpool started the season with three wins and a draw from the opening four fixtures, but then the marriage started heading for the rocks, with Karl-Heinz Riedle the catalyst for the trouble.

The two ‘co-managers’ were apparently in disagreement as to whether Riedle should start an away game at West Ham, with one man wanting to save him for a mid-week European game. Riedle did not start, but came on as a sub to score as Liverpool lost the match.

From then on the English/French matrimony only went down hill, and as always, it was the kids who suffered. The wheels started to come off the team as they suffered more losses both home and away, and attendances started to fall at Anfield.

A league cup game at Anfield was to be Evans last game in joint charge of the team as Liverpool lost 3-1 to a struggling Tottenham side and the crowd booed the team off the pitch.

Reds chairman David Moores finally did what he should have done in the summer and sacked Evans to leave Houllier in sole charge of the club and put an end to the idea that joint management could ever work in top flight football.

Since then Evans has had brief spells in charge at Fulham and Swindon, and is now assisting John Toshack with the Wales national team and coaching at Wrexham.

Tomorrow we will be looking at the oldest international fixture in the whole wide world, so why doncha come on over and check it out.

November 11 – You Can’t Say That Mike!

WHEN someone starts a sentence with “I know it sounds sexist, but I am sexist” you can usually bet that there’s going to be fireworks. And fireworks there was, when Mike Newell ranted about female officials today in 2006.

During Luton’s Championship clash with QPR assistant referee Amy Rayner had the gall to not give Newell’s side a penalty when QPR defender Marcus Bignot tangled with Carlos Edwards and the scouser wasn’t happy. We’ll let him speak for himself:
“She shouldn’t be here… It is tokenism for the politically-correct idiots. We have a problem in this country with political correctness and bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom. It is absolutely beyond belief. When do we reach a stage when all officials are women because then we are in trouble?” Don’t hold back Mike. Oh, hang on, he’s not finished: “It is bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have but if you start bringing in women, you have big problems.”
Needless to say, his comments got him into a spot of bother. A £6,500 fine followed, as did a spate of angry feminists writing columns in national newspapers, but Newell wasn’t rushing to apologise. He took the opportunity to explain further in his programme notes for Luton’s game against Derby:

“For those people who do not know me personally, and have labelled me prehistoric, a caveman and a bigot, can I ask you this? Is it sexist to have traditional values? Values such as holding a door open for a woman, helping a mother with a pushchair off a train or up an escalator, worrying what time my daughter will be home and whether she is escorted, buying flowers and paying for dinner. If all of these are sexist and prehistoric, then I am guilty of them all.”

So there you go ladies, the man’s a gent. What were you all worrying about? Newell’s sexism outburst was one of series of rants he was getting embroiled in at the time, as it seemed like he was actively seeking the sack. He also had a pop at the influence of foreign players in the English game, said bungs were rife and publicly asked the board where transfer money had been going. He ended up with egg on his face when it emerged that 10% of all transfer fees Luton received were going directly to his pocket and he soon found himself without a job, leaving him with plenty of time to open doors for women.

See how Luton’s local newshounds reacted to one of Newell’s rants below and watch out for more scouse manager stories coming this way tomorrow.

November 10 – Ireland take on the Axis of Evil

IT’S always fun when sports and politics mix. As George Orwell once said, “sport is war minus the shooting”, and football has indeed been the cause of wars and helped break down countless social barriers. Today in 2001 the Republic of Ireland entered the political stratosphere when they took on Iran in the first leg of their World Cup 2002 playoff.

Ireland’s reward for finishing second in their group, ahead of Holland, was to be randomly drawn against the winners of the Asian Football Confederation’s playoff in a scrap for the last spot in the World Cup Finals in South Korea and Japan. Here they faced Iran who had beaten the UAE 4-0 on aggregate.

Coming two months after the 9/11 attacks and shortly before George Bush would include Iran in his ‘axis of evil’ speech the game had a distinctly politicised edge. Much was made of the fact women had been banned from watching football in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iranian authorities invoked this ban to protect them from the bad language and rude gestures of male fans and crowd noise on television coverage would be turned down so no female viewers at home would be offended.

Twenty Irishwomen were eventually allowed into to the stadium to watch the game, all following a strict dress code of a long coat, long trousers, and their heads covered.

The first leg in Dublin saw the Leeds United pair of Ian Harte and Robbie Keane give the Irish a two-goal lead to take over to Iran, where a gutsy 1-0 loss with a blockbusting performance from Shay Given meant that Irish eyes were smiling, as Mick McCarthy had lead his team to the biggest stage for the first time since their memorable run in USA 1994.

After a seven-hour flight, the Irish returned home as heroes, and preparations for the tournament in South Korea and Japan begun in earnest. If you want to know how well they went, ask Roy Keane.

Here’s some Iranian footage below as they took on the USA in one of the 1998 World Cups biggest games, but we want all you ladies watching to turn down the volume in case you hear anything you shouldn’t. And you’d better not come back tomorrow, as we’ve a tale of a manager who’s proud of his ‘traditional’ values.