April 10 – Putting the ‘Mad’ in Madrid

FOR those of us too young to remember football in the 1970′s, watching footage of Norman Hunter and ‘Chopper’ Harris running around the pitch kicking lumps out of each other without the referee batting an eyelid are miles away from what we’re used to today. But even Don Revie’s finest would have winced at the levels of violence seen in Celtic’s European Cup semi-final first leg against Atletico Madrid that saw the Spaniards reduced to eight men, today in 1974.

Back in the ’70′s Atletico had not yet emerged from the shadow of their cross-town rivals and were relatively unknown in the British Isles. Celtic were a genuine European force, with three members of the legendary 1967 Lisbon Lions still in their line-up as the two sides got ready to rumble.

The first warning sign was that Atletico were coached by the Argentine Juan Carlos Lorenzo, famous for guiding his national side to the 1966 World Cup quarter finals, where they tried to kick their way past England, leaving Sir Alf to describe them as ‘animals.’

Atletico trained at Parkhead the night before and already had the bit between their teeth as the tackles flew in, and team-mates brawled with each other on the pitch in front of the bemused local press.

The lucky man in black charged with bringing order to the match was Turk Dogan Babacan. It took only seven minutes for his yellow card to come out as Atletico targeted the Celtic dangermen and begun to kick them off the park.

Particularly hard done by were Kenny Dalglish, Davie Hay and Dixie Deans (not that one), who was eventually substituted. After 90 minutes Atletico were down to eight men, 5 of whom had already been booked. Atletico’s tactics had helped them secure a 0-0 draw, but the final whistle didn’t slow them down, as Jimmy Johnson was set-upon on his way back into the tunnel, causing the police to intervene.

Atletico were as gracious after the match as they were during it, as they accused Celtic of bribing the referee and also claiming that the Strathclyde police came into the dressing room to beat them up.

The fun and games continued into the second-leg as the pitch at the Vicente Calderon was surrounded with armed police following a death threat to Jimmy Johnson. Celtic eventually went down 2-0, thanks to two late goals.

UEFA took a dim view of the affair, fining Atletico £14,000 and banning six of their players for two games. A 4-0 loss in the replayed final against Bayern Munich compounded this, as karma evened-up the score. Sadly there isn’t much footage of the game knocking around, so you’ll have to make do with this clip of footballing violence instead. Head over here tomorrow for a far more sedate affair.

April 9 – Socceroos Go Goal Bonkers

INTERNATIONAL football should be the most exciting and glamourous time in any player’s career – the pinnacle of achievement in their profession.

On this day in 2001 Tonga’s finest found out it can also be a harsh and unforgiving world of crushing defeats that would never occur in any other football environment when Australia defeated the plucky little islanders 22-0.

This mismatch match was of course a World Cup qualifier – one of those pointless matches which are seen as an irritation to the big nation and which surely do more damage than good to the minnow when they are swatted like a fly.

The score line set a new world record in international football.

The Socceroos did not even call up their highest profile players for the game but they still found themselves 10-0 up by half time, despite the Tongan’s defensive 10-0-0 formation.

John Aloisi, then a reserve striker for Coventry managed a double hat-trick while Kevin Muscat, then of Wolves, bagged five.

Despite the lowly opposition Australia still called up eight foreign-based players for the match. Tongan coach Gary Phillips thought this was a touch of overkill when they were facing a team who have won a grand total of five matches. Ever.

“I do not see the point of some of these superstars coming back for this,” he said. “If you add together the value of the Australian team and then divide it by five, then you have the value of the Tongan economy.”

The Socceroos would go on the smash their own record just two days later when they notched up a 31-0 win against the whipping boys of world football, American Samoa.

In the process striker Archie Thompson hit the back of the net 13 times (another world record) and the Aussie keeper Michael Petkovic only got his first touch of the ball on 86 minutes.

The score line is slightly misleading in that the American Samoan team that faced the Socceroos was shorn of 19 of their 20-man squad at the last minute when FIFA ruled players from neighbouring Samoa to be ineligible. They could not even call up the under 20s who were busy sitting end of term exams.

A team of youth players, some as young as 15 had to take to the field like lambs to the slaughter. Their manager Tunoa Lui, sought divine intervention before the game. “Frightened is not the word,” he said. “We are going to ask for help from above. We are asking the Lord to help keep the score down.” Seems the Lord was washing his hair when Lui was calling.

All this record breaking was ultimately fruitless even for the Australians who still had to face a play-off with Uruguay, the fifth placed South American nation for a place at the 2002 World Cup, which they lost 3-1 on aggregate.

They did finally make it a World Cup in 2006 and see the clip below to see some fair-dinkum Assie fans celebrating Tim Cahill scoring the country’s first ever World Cup finals goal ever.

April 8 – Busst’s Horror Break

IT is the one thing all professional footballers fear more than anything else. No, we are not talking about being hilariously ‘merked’ by the modern day Jeremy Beadle that is Rio Ferdinand, but rather sustaining a career-ending injury.

It was on this day in 1996 that Coventry defender David Busst had his playing days cut short when he broke his leg during a match. The break was so bad, with bone protruding from his skin, that it looked as if he might even have to have his leg amputated at one point. 26 operations later and although doctors saved his leg, they couldn’t save his career and he was forced to hang up his boots at the age of 29.

Busst was playing at centre half for the Sky Blues against Manchester United at Old Trafford and the game was only two minutes in when Coventry won a corner. Nine years later, Busst recounts to episode to the Daily Telegraph.

He said: “I trot up from central defence to take up my usual position at the back post . . . the ball curls in . . .Noel Whelan heads it goalwards . . . Peter Schmeichel parries and I slide in with Brian McClair and Denis Irwin . . . I manage to get my toe to the ball first . . . and that’s when the screaming started.”

The injury was so horrific that Schmeichel vomited when he saw it and had to receive counselling afterwards to help him get over it. The game had to be stopped for 15 minutes while ground staff mopped up the blood off the turf in the penalty area as Busst was stretchered off with Brian McClair holding his hand.

Busst recalls: “I could see the crowd clapping and cheering in sympathy but I couldn’t hear them above the noise of my screams. It was frighteningly painful and I knew that something major was wrong. It felt as though a part of me which should have been there was missing.”

It was not actually the break that did for his career as a player, but while in hospital he picked up MRSA (before anyone had heard of it) and the damage to his muscles meant his playing days were over.

He still works at Coventry City running their Football in the Community programme and he has ambitions in the dug out having taken coaching courses and he was manager of non-league Evesham United a few years back.

He is also the first port of call for journalists every time there is a horror leg break in a football match and has been called on to comment on Alan Smith when he broke his leg at Liverpool in 2006, and most recently Eduardo when the Arsenal striker was felled by Martin Taylor at Birmingham City in February.

Here is the moment that is probably still giving Busst and Schmeichel nightmares, although you can’t see much from the clip so no need to hide behind the sofa.

April 7 – Stokoe’s Sunderland Strike in Semi

AS a season that features the daftest set of FA Cup results for many a year reaches it’s climax, we thought it was time to dig out the history books on one of the biggest FA Cup upsets ever, as unfancied second division Sunderland today in 1973 booked their place in the FA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Arsenal.

Back in the early ’70′s Sunderland were languishing in Division 2, having been relegated for the first time in their history in 1958. However, the appointment of Bob Stokoe as manager in November 1972 was to change everything, as he wasted no time in putting together the mother of all cup runs.

It all started in the third round against Notts County, where Sunderland almost went out at the first hurdle. After trailing the Magpies for most of the game they bagged a late equaliser and won in the replay. Further replay successes against Reading and Man City followed, as did a 2-0 quarter-final win over Luton Town at Roker Park.

This lead to a semi-final day out at Hillsborough, where they faced an Arsenal side that had done the double only two years earlier. Going in as massive underdogs, the Mackems went at the Gunners from the word go.

Vic Halom bagged deserved early goal and the Black Cats doubled their lead in the 64th minute when Billy Hughes struck. Charlie George ensured there was some squeaky bum time at the end, but his 84th minute goal was only a consolation for the London side.

Sunderland supporters stayed in the ground following the final whistle, cheering and calling for Stokoe, who eventually appeared to salute the traveling Sunderland support. We can then presume that the thousands of Mackems went off to get hammered as they prepared for their big day out at Wembley.

Their opponents that day were to be Don Revie’s legendary Leeds United side, who had overcome Wolves at Maine Road in the day’s other semi-final. What happened in the final has gone down into FA Cup folklore, as Stokoe’s men produced arguably the biggest cup final upset of all time, an event that John Motson will reference in every single FA Cup commentary he does.

The final itself, however, is another story for another day, so check out all the action from the rip-roaring semi at Hillsborough here and come back tomorrow, because unlike Terminal 5, we’re churning this out everyday.

April 6- Greed Is Good

WE’VE banged on plenty of times here at OTFD about how money is ruining the beautiful game and today is no different. The events of today in 2006 were another step in the wrong direction, as Manchester United told FIFA that they wanted a share of the profits from the upcoming World Cup in Germany.

It was United chief executive David Gill who was going all Gordon Gecko on us as he spoke on behalf of the G14 group during a conference in London.

“We believe our players are the assets providing the income,” he said, cap in hand, “This World Cup will be a fantastic event and produce huge, huge profits and the belief of the clubs is that the assets are being provided for free by the clubs.”

Gill had his eyes on a slice of the £636m profit that the 2002 tournament made, deciding that it would be better in the Old Trafford coffers rather than going back into the game and being distributed amongst national associations and to finance FIFA’s charitable activities.

He went on: “We recognised that UEFA and FIFA are non-profit organisations but they do not have a monopoly on what’s good for the game. We put resources and money into our community,” he told a room for of suits that didn’t object to football players being described as ‘assets’.

A cynic would say that the timing of Gill’s speech, which sounded an awful lot like begging letter, was motivated by the recent Glazer takeover that had recently plunged the Red Devils into a mountain of debt. Either way, it’s not what football’s all about.

You’ll be glad to know that FIFA didn’t decided to give all their money to Manchester United and that the constant squabbling between FIFA and the G14 has now ended when the group recently disbanded itself. Now if the powers that be can stop being so obsessed with the yankee dollar, we might be getting somewhere. Check out the defining moment from the tournament in Germany below and head over here for some more action tomorrow.

April 5 – Tragedy in Turkey

AS John Gregory, the manager of Aston Villa at the time, said: “You don’t go to a football match and expect not to come home.”

Gregory was speaking on the eve of Villa’s match with Leeds United – the first game the Elland Road club played after their European match in Turkey where tragically, on this day in 2000, two Leeds fans died.

CHRISTOPHER Loftus and Kevin Speight had travelled to watch Leeds play Galatasaray in the first leg of their Uefa Cup semi final tie but trouble broke out between the two sets of fans the night before the match.

Turkish television station A-TV showed English fans lying in pools of blood in Taksim Square, in the centre of Istanbul’s entertainment district as the trouble flared.

Loftus and Speight were stabbed in the clashes and died from their injuries.

Peter Ridsdale, then Leeds chairman told the BBC after visiting Taksim hospital where Loftus was taken: “It is a tragedy. One minute I was talking to Galatasaray directors to promote the friendship between the two clubs and the next minute I receive a telephone call telling me there had been some problems in town and a fan had been killed.

“Tonight is going down as one of those black nights in history.”

The match did go ahead the following night and was preceeded by an unofficial minute’s silence that was only observed by the Leeds players and fans. To the disgust of many fans only the players from the Yorkshire side wore black armbands in the match that Galatasaray won 2-0.

“Leeds United were the only team that wore black armbands. That’s the only thing I could control,” said Ridsdale.

“I don’t want to talk about why the Galatasaray players didn’t wear them or why there was no minute’s silence.”

The tragedy did not do anything to diminish the famously intimidating atmosphere in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium and the home fans reportedly booed a stadium announcement about the killings. The many ‘Welcome to Hell’ banners were removed by police.

The return leg also went ahead on April 20 although Galatasaray fans were banned from the fixture after Leeds said they would not be able to guarantee their safety. The absence of away fans did not prevent trouble at the game though as Leeds supporters targeted the Turkish club’s team coaches and clashed with police outside the ground. The match finished at 2-2 on the night to give the Turks a 4-2 win on aggregate, although the result by now seemed largely irrelevant to most given the events in Istanbul.

The one person to come out of the whole episode with any credit was Peter Ridsdale. The former Leeds chairman was widely praised for the diplomatic way he handled the situation in very difficult circumstances, and what remains one of football’s most shameful and tragic episodes.

April 4 – ‘Sorry’ Sniffs Rob

OVER the past few months Robbie Fowler seems to have become a bit of an OTFD regular. Whether it be for scoring a record breaking hat-trick, asking a ref to not award him a penalty or courting political controversy by publicly supporting Liverpool dockers, Rob has always been entertaining.

Today in 1999 was no different when the cheeky scouser was forced to apologise for one of his more humourous goal celebrations during a Merseyside derby.

The Reds had gone behind at Anfield to an Olivier Dacourt opener but Fowler was given the chance to level the tie from the spot when Marco Materazzi brought down Paul Ince in the box.

Fowler buried the ball and then began sniffing the white line of the penalty area – a response to the near-constant accusations of drug use he has faced from rival fans through his career.

The referee did not take any action during the 3-2 win for Liverpool and in his post match interview manager Gerard Houllier tried to play the whole thing down as a bit of a joke.

Given 24 hours to think about it though and the club did not think it was that funny after all and prompty fined Rob £64,000 for his gag. The young player, then only 24, said all the right things to try and take the heat off him.

He told the BBC at the time: “I would like to apologise unequivocally for my first goal celebration after scoring yesterday in the match against Everton.

“Despite my actions being taken in the heat of the moment immediately following the penalty, I realise that they have caused great offence and I deeply regret that.

“I have been greatly distressed and hurt over the last few years by the constant allegations levelled against me regarding drug use, which have not only affected me but have been very upsetting to my family as well.

“But as an international player and a public figure, I have responsibilities and a duty to rise above such scurrilous accusations and I accept that my behaviour yesterday was totally wrong.

“I would never do anything intentionally to undermine the work being done to combat the suffering and social problems that drug abuse brings to users and their families or to drug awareness campaigns.

“I would like to say sorry to the Liverpool and Everton fans who attended the derby game and have also apologised to my manager Gerard Houllier and teammates for my behaviour,” he said all on his own, with no prompting/help from club press office officials.

Here is the goal and Robbie’s celebration, but watch the clip below that from his later Manchester City days when he showed that even a £64,000 fine couldn’t help him learn his lesson as he celebrates a goal in front of the Goodison Park fans who love to hate him. Robbie Fowler smackhead? Never.

April 3 – La Birth of La Boca

THEY say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Perhaps that is why there’s 14 clubs in the world, from Madagascar to Gibraltar, that go by the name of Boca Juniors. However, today’s tale of footballing history isn’t concerning the third division Bolivian side or even the chancers from Saint Lucia, but the real deal: the all-conquering Buenos Aires side that were formed today in 1905.

Fittingly it was a bunch of kids that were the founding members of Argentina’s most famous side. Five young Italian immigrants met at the Plaza Solis in the heart of the La Boca district of Buenos Aires and decided to have an organised kick-about. Esteban Baglietto, Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Sana, and brothers Juan and Teodoro Farenga came up with the name Boca Juniors as an English tone would make it sound more prestige and distance themselves from the social problems that the neighbourhood faced on a daily basis. It was also a nod to the British railroad workers that had introduced the game to South America.

Once they had a club, next on the agenda was to go about battling their way up to the top flight of Argentine football, winning 6 national amateur titles before the filthy lucre got involved. The advent of professionalism didn’t change too much though, as the trophies kept on flowing and Boca can currently boast of 46 league titles.

Boca’s iconic yellow-striped shirt actually came about by accident, as their earlier blue and white striped shirt clashed with another local team who went by the name of Boedo. The two sides then faced up, with the winner keeping their kit. Boca lost but one of their members who worked by the sea liked the look of the Swedish flag, so nicked it for his team and one of world football’s most recognisable kits was born.

Argentina’s finest can also boast of having one of the best named stadiums in world football: La Bombonera, or ‘The Chocolate Box’ in English, named after the fact that it reverberates like a tin of candy when the 61,000 or so Boca fans get excited. And never do they get more excited than when they play their rivals River Plate, in what is one of the world’s most explosive derbies.

Like all good local rivalries, the Boca-River Plate match is more than just a game for Joe Average in Buenos Aires. River originated in the poor La Boca region, but outgrew it in 1923, moving to the more affluent Núñez district, so Boca fans have been banging on for eighty years about how they are keeping it real. Fights, riots and mountains of coloured confetti have all been evident over the years, as Boca have accumulated a 65-61 advantage over their fiercest rivals.

During that time regulars at La Bombonera have seen the likes of Francisco Varallo, Antonio Rattin, Francisco Sá, Gabriel Batistuta, Claudio Caniggia, Juan Roman Riquelme, Juan Sebastian Veron and Carlos Tevez mix it with the best of them. Boca’s most famous son, and number one fan, is perhaps the greatest player the world has ever seen, Diego Maradona.

Check out some fan footage of La Bombonera in full flow below – it’s probably got a bit more atmosphere than most of us will be witnessing at a quarter to three this Saturday. We’re off to go and save up for a trip to Buenos Aires, but until we get there they’ll be more OTFD action, so join us tomorrow as we look at a goal celebration that not many South Americans would sniff at.

April 2 – Bowyer Vs Dyer

WHEN Graeme Souness was appointed Newcastle manager in 2004 he took over from Sir Bobby Robson with a brief to instill discipline in a squad which was seen as badly in need of a kick up the arse.

Having Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer all at the same club meant this was indeed a challenge and old Graeme proved he was clearly losing the battle on this day in 2005 when two of his players decided to have a fist fight right in the middle of a match at St James’ Park.

Dyer and Bowyer squared up to each other in the middle of the pitch just after Newcastle had gone 3-0 down to Aston Villa in their Premiership clash.

Other players including Villa captain Gareth Barry had to pull them apart before they were both sent off.

Souness was stunned by his players’ behaviour and made them appear at a special press conference after the game to apologise.

“I’ve never witnessed that, you see hard words between players in every game but it’s unusual to say the least for it to lead to what happened today,” said Souness.

“There will be internal discipline, but I can envisage both of them playing for Newcastle again. They’re top-class players and they don’t come along very often.”

Bowyer said: “We’d like to apologise to the fans, the chairman, the staff and everyone connected to Newcastle.”

“We’re team-mates and we have disagreements, but we shouldn’t fight in front of 50,000 people,” added Dyer.

Then-Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd said: “I could hardly believe what my eyes were telling me. I am deeply embarrassed, hurt and angry about what happened. It was just unbelievable,” said Shepherd.

“It was a black day for Newcastle United and I never thought I would see two of our own players fighting.”

Captain Alan Shearer betrayed the dull pundit he would soon become by actually voicing an opinion: “Once again the good name of Newcastle United is being dragged through the dirt,” he said.

“What happened was a disgrace, there is no defence for it and I made my feelings known in the dressing room.

“I’m very angry still and very frustrated by it all, especially when things had been going so well and the spirit within the camp has been so good over the last few months.

“Our dirty linen has been hung out for the country to witness yet again.”

Both players did continue at the club until Bowyer was sold to West Ham in 2006, with Dyer following him to Upton Park just a year later, presumably not with Gareth barry trying to hold him back and saying, “Just leave it Kieron, he’s not worth it!”

Perhaps just to prove he likes a challenge Hammers manager Alan Curbishley now also has perennial pain-in-the-proverbial Craig Bellamy at the club.

Watch the whole sorry incident below with some great Eurotrash commentary and come back tomorrow for a little foray into South American football.

April 1 – Kid Icarus

HERE at OTFD we occasionally like to get the crystal ball out and speculate about the future. We’ve told you about the Arsenal wunderkind Carlos Vela, so it’s time we looked at another young buck. So as Clive Tyldesley would say, remember the name – Icarus Balatro, the Barcelona starlet who was born today in 1992.

Young Balatro was born just outside Athens and came to prominence in the Ethnikos Piraeus youth team, where as a twelve-year old, he scored 48 goals in 20 games. Possessing a turn of pace that would make his team-mate Henry look sluggish and a left foot that can pass a ball through the eye of an over-used football cliché, big things are predicted from the Greek youngster.

Named after the character in Greek mythology that flew to close to the sun, wee Icarus certainly has sporting pedigree in his genes, as his maternal grandmother is a distant relative of Greek immigrant Pete Sampras. However, tragedy struck when he lost both his parents in the 1999 Athens earthquake, and was taken in by his uncle, a Greek Orthodox clergyman and also massive AEK Athens fan who introduced him to the game.

As word about the quick, diminutive striker got out and videos of his golscoring exploits found their way onto Youtube, scouts came flocking to the Greek capital. Two years ago it was Barcelona who managed to prize Balatro away, causing commotion in the Greek press who believed that they had lost their most promising natural talent since Nikos Dabizas.

You wouldn’t blame Icarus for believing that the Barca academy at La Masia would be the best place for him to be. No club in the world produces more top-class players, with a roll-call of the likes of (deep breath) Lionel Messi, Josep Guardiola, Carlos Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Pepe Renia, Mikel Arteta, Jordi Cruyff and Bojan Krkic making most clubs youth set-ups look amateur.

With an annual budget of £4.5 million La Masia is well backed by the Catalan club, as historically they have relied on a mixture of using ‘one of their own’ with expensive imports such as Maradona, Laudrup or Ronaldinho.

They haven’t always had it their own way however, with the memorary of a fifteen-year old Cesc Fabregas’ deflection to Arsenal in 2003 still smarting, and this is a worry that the club has over their latest superstar. It has been rumoured that Wenger has had his infamous scouting network sniffing around Catalonia and wherever they go it seems these days, Chelsea are never far behind, as a host of top clubs track Balatro’s progress. It is believed that Wenger will test the young Greek’s loyalty in the summer and try and get his poach on.

Although we’re unlikely to see Balatro pull on the famous Barca shirt this season, few within the club are betting against him soon stepping into the limelight like Bojan Krkic and Geovanni dos Santos have done this season. Have a gander at one of the birthday boy’s early youtube videos below and if you can’t wait until tomorrow for more OTFD action, why not have a gander at our new reviews section at the top of the page.