June 20 – Walking in a Bergkamp Wonderland

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times wrote in 2006: “One night last year some legends of Dutch football gathered for dinner in an Amsterdam house. Around midnight conversation turned to an old question: who was the best Dutch footballer ever? Dutchmen have been voted European Footballer of the Year seven times, more than any other nationality except Germans. Yet Jan Mulder, a great centre-forward turned writer, chose a player who had never even threatened to win the award nor, at the time, a Champions League: “Bergkamp.” He had the finest technique, said Mulder. Guus Hiddink, the great Dutch manager, nodded, and so the matter was settled.”

On this day in 1995 Boring Boring Arsenal got quite a bit more exciting at a stroke when they signed Dennis Bergkamp from Internazionale for a then record fee of £7.5m

The signing was of huge significance not only for Arsenal and Bergkamp, but for English football as a whole as he was one of the first world class players to join the Premiership when talk of foreigners taking over the English top flight was a long way off.

Schooled in the famous Ajax academy Bergkamp won the Eredivisie, the Uefa Cup and the KNVB Cup for his hometown club before the big time came-a-calling in the shape of Italian giants Internazionale, who signed him in 1993 for £12m.

The Dutchman’s expected progression in Italy did not really materialise and after two largely disappointing seasons he was rescued by Bruce Rioch who took him to Highbury.

Bergkamp said: “The decision I made was to leave Italy and the first team that knocked on the door was Arsenal.

“They were a solid team and that’s what you want, a base where you can fit in before you try to add something. Straight away I thought ‘This could work’ and I didn’t know anything about ‘Boring, Boring Arsenal’ at that time.”

Meanwhile Inter president Massimo Moratti sounded a lot like a man who had just lost £5m on his investment two years earlier when he said: “They will be lucky if he scores 10 goals this season.”

Needless to say, Arsenal had the last laugh as, after a slow start, Bergkamp became a mainstay in the Arsenal side for the next decade, flourishing under the management of Arsene Wenger who replaced Rioch in 1996.

Three Premiership titles and four FA Cups was the not-too-shabby haul of trophies Bergkamp notched up while at Highbury, but as ever, the stats only tell half the story as he was a beautiful player to watch. He was so perfectly suited to Wenger’s ideals of stylish attacking play that it was easy to forget he wasn’t signed by the Frenchman.

As his strike partner Thierry Henry once said: “When Dennis Bergkamp scores, it’s not a common goal, it’s always what we call ‘a Dennis Bergkamp goal’.”

See the clip below for one of his finest goals for Holland in the 1998 World Cup where this last minute strike gave the Dutch a 2-1 win and a passage into the semi-final and knocked Argentina out. Keep the sound on and listen to the Dutch commentator going absolutely mental.

June 19 – Win or Die

FOR those of you who have seen David Brent’s ill-advised bash at motivational speaking, you will know that there are many different approaches to geeing up a team before a big match.

On this day in 1938 Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini brought his particular brand of encouragement to bear when his national team faced Hungary in the World Cup final in Paris.

Italy were reigning champions having triumphed on home soil in 1934 when holders Uruguay did not defend their title and Argentina sent a weakened squad because they were so worried about the Italians poaching members of their team who had Italian heritage, as had already happened with the captain Luisito Monti, Raimundo Orsi and Enrico Guaita. Known as Oriundi, these Argentine/Italian players were instrumental in securing the trophy in 1934.

By 1938, with the Second World War looming in Europe, the World Cup was an ideal arena for a bit of national posturing and Mussolini was perhaps keen to improve his standing as third in the list of the Big Three dictators of the day by retaining the World Cup.

After beating Norway, France and then Brazil, Italy faced Hungary in the final and just to make sure his players were fully focused on winning Mussolini sent each of them a telegraph which simply read: “Vincere o morire.”

Literally translated this means “Win or die,” and word got out before the match that the Italians were not so much playing for a win bonus as a loss death sentence.

Two goals each from Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola were enough to give the Italians a 4-2 win over Hungary, Pál Titkos and György Sárosi getting their goals.

The Italians had retained their trophy but some observers felt the Hungarians had perhaps given them a bit of an easy ride with Mussolini’s words in mind.

Antal Szabó, the Hungarian goalkeeper is reported to have said after the match: “I may have let in four goals, but at least I saved their lives.”

A noble act indeed although what an excuse to come out with after you have just lost the World Cup final.

The last laugh may be on Szabó after all though as Mussolini’s note “Vincere o morire” was not intended literally and is simply a rabble-rousing term which just means, “go out there and do your best lads!”

Still, in those days you can understand why a telegram with a death threat on it would have been taken seriously when coming from a fascist dictator.

Here are the goals from the final, and don’t forget to swing by this way tomorrow when we’ll be looking at a player might have been nicknamed the Flying Dutchman, had he not been afraid of flying.

June 18 – Football Comes Home

ALL too often here at OTFD it’s our job to tell you about a losing England performance, whether it’s a heroic failure or embarrassing capitulation. Occasionally though, the Three Lions are capable of redressing the balance, as they did today in 1996 when they produced one of the their best results in recent years, downing the Netherlands 4-1 in Euro ’96.

With England hosting it’s first major tournament for 30 years the country had got itself rather wound up. You couldn’t go five minutes without hearing Baddiel and Skinner wailing out of tune to ‘Three Lions’, the red-tops were promoting ‘football war’ and St Georges’ flag-salesmen were being kept all-too busy.

England had started the tournament slowly, drawing with the Swiss before Gazza and Geller put paid to the Scots hopes. Next up was the pre-tournament favourite Dutch side, lead by Guus Hiddink, who has since proved he’s figured out how to beat the English.

What went down on the sun-kissed night at Wembley has gone into English legend. Lead by the talismanic SAS partnership of Shearer and Sheringham up-front England put four past the talented Dutch squad and made fans across the country believe that the 30 years of hurt would soon be over.

The catalyst for this new found confidence was an 11-minute spell in the second half that saw Teddy Sheringham score twice, either side of Alan Shearer’s second after his first half penalty. England fans were even cheering Patrick Kluivert’s late consolation goal, as it meant that the Scots were going out on goal difference. All-in-all it was one the great England nights. Or where they just lucky?

You might want to whisper it, but England were actually quite flattered by the 4-1 scoreline. In the first-half Holland had chance after chance, with Aron Winter missing two headers from inside the six-yard box and Bergkamp fluffing three clear-cut chances. Even the veritable Barry Davis admitted ‘England really need half-time here’ as they clung on to their first-half lead with the Dutch streets ahead in terms of possession, corners and shots.

Holland had entered the tournament with their usual bout of in-fighting and racial tensions. Hiddink had been accused of not listening to the views of his squad’s black players, who also complained that no Surinamese food was provided for them in the camp. When Edgar Davids suggested that Hiddink should take his head out the white player’s behinds in a radio interview the coach was quick to boot him out of the squad, but this would only lead to more bickering.

The Dutch disappointment was compounded in the next round when they went out to France on penalties, with Clarence Seedorf missing the vital spot-kick. This came after Kluivert, Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger had hinted that they wanted to play in an all-black national team, although they later said that they had been misquoted.

We all know what happened with England – a semi-final with the Germans and a new poster boy for Pizza Hut. See the action below and make your mind up if it was the dominant England performance that you probably remember or not and come back tomorrow for a even more high pressure match for the Italians than last night’s clash with the French.

June 17 – Swedes 2 Turnips 1

ANOTHER day, another England disappointment. With much of the nation realising that England not qualifying for this summer’s fun and games in Switzerland and Austria means that we don’t have to put up with penalty heart ache and a summer reading about shoes the current set of WAGs will be wearing, we thought we’d bring you back down to earth by looking at one of the Three Lions’ most disappointing European Championship exits.

It was today in 1992 that Gary Lineker’s international career was ended prematurely, with the housewives favourite being marooned on 48 international goals, one short of Sir Bobby Charlton’s England record, after being subbed by Graham Taylor in the do-or-die clash with Sweden in Euro ’92.

Failing to build on the momentum of the Italia ’90 campaign that saw England reach the semi-finals, Taylor’s side had backed themselves into a corner before their final group game against the host nation after a pair of goalless draws against Denmark and France. Only a win against the Swedes would be enough to make it to the knockout stages and the match started brightly enough with David Platt scoring in the fourth minute, but reality kicked in soon enough.

A tactical switch at half-time by Swedish boss Tommy Svensson, bringing on Jonny Ekstrom in place of Arsenal midfielder Anders Limpar befuddled the English defence, leading to a Swedish equaliser early in the second half. England began to toil, searching for that all-important winner. Then, in the 64th minute Graham Taylor made one of the biggest gambles of his career: taking off captain and leading scorer Gary Lineker, who had announced he was hanging up his international boots after the tournament.

It was a brave move and had substitute Alan Smith grabbed a late winner Taylor would have been lauded as a no-nonsense and ruthless winner. But it didn’t. Lineker refused to even look Taylor in the eye as he made his way to the bench, which considering he was never even booked during his England career, was a fully-formed tantrum in his book, akin to an Antonio Cassano moment.

England went crashing out, losing 2-1 to a brilliant late Tomas Brolin strike and Taylor was public enemy number one. The Sun ran the first in their series of vegetable puns, declaring “Swedes 2 Turnips 1″, with a picture of Taylor’s head on the afore mentioned root vegetable.

Lineker meanwhile went over to Japan to spend two seasons goal-hanging for Grampus Eight before returning as a crisps figurehead and pundit on the BBC. See highlights of the shambles in Stockholm below and we’ll be back tomorrow for a peak at much better England performance.

June 16 – Robbo’s Quick Off the Mark

HAVING taken a job as an ambassador for Manchester United it has to be hoped that Bryan Robson has finally learned that football management is not really his forte.

Here at OTFD we have always wondered why so many chairman consistently overlooked his managerial record which was at best mediocre and at worst just plain bad, and continued to employ him. Perhaps Bryan was living on his past glories as a fantastic player and captain for Manchester United and England.

Captain Marvel was an outstanding player for both club and country and he was equally happy scoring goals as he was preventing the opposition from doing so. Today in 1982 at the World Cup in Spain Robbo wasted no time in getting England’s campaign up and running when he scored after just 27 seconds in the opening match against France.

Steve Coppell took a long throw in, Terry Butcher headed it on and an unmarked Robson volleyed it in at the far post. It was the fastest goal ever scored in World Cup history and the record stood for 20 years until Hakan Suker scored after just 10 seconds against South Korea at the 2002 World Cup.

Gérard Soler equalised for the French before Robson added another by beating the goalkeeper to a cross from Trevor Francis on the right and heading the ball into the net. Paul Mariner got England’s third goal seven minutes from full time to complete a 3-1 win against a French team containing Michel Platini.

For Robson’s record-breaking achievement, he received an inscribed gold watch, which apparently he still occasionally wears.

After the France game England went on to beat Czechoslovakia and Kuwait in the first round, before drawing to both Germany and Spain in the second round which was not enough to see them through to the quarter-finals. They were eliminated without losing a single game.

Have a look at the England v France game below to see Robbo’s early goal and come back tomorrow for more from us as usual.

June 15 – Gazza and Geller Beat the Scots

EVERYONE seems to know the score
They’ve seen it all before
They just know
They’re so sure
That England’s Gonna throw it away
Gonna blow it away
But I know they can play
‘Cause I remember…

They did play, but they also threw it away. England fans look back on Euro 96 with fondness. El Tel had roused his troops well for the tournament when football came home and the Three Lions got all the way to the semi-finals before inevitably going out on penalties to eventual winners Germany.

After a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in their first match, England really got their campaign up and running on this day when they faced up against Scotland for the first time since the annual fixture between the two sides was axed in 1989.

Wembley was rocking when they took to the pitch with both teams fancying their chances of coming away with a victory. The first half was frustrating for both sides as neither team could settle and get much of a rhythm going. Venables made some adjustments at half time and Shearer was the benefactor when he opened the scoring on 53 minutes.

Sheringham and McManaman both had chances as England started to get into their groove but with just 15 minutes left on the clock Scotland were awarded a penalty, which Gary McAllister stepped up to take it.

He had not reckoned on an Israeli spoon-bender hovering above the stadium in a helicopter though and Uri Geller claimed he used his psychic powers to make the ball move before McAllister struck it. Seaman saved and England held on to the their lead.

Geller said afterwards: “When that penalty kick was taken I willed Dave to dive to the right, and he did. And I willed the ball to move with pure telepathy.

“I tapped into the massive wave of positive vibrations from the England supporters and beamed them down to the players. I was like a receiver and a transmitter – I said before the game if all the fans visualised England winning, they would. The players felt my powers very strongly.”

Before Uri could take all the credit for an England win, Paul Gascoigne seized the initiative minutes after McAllister’s miss. He ran on to a chip forward by Anderton, and on the edge of the box, flicked the ball over the stunned Hendrie, ran round him as he stumbled and volleyed the ball past his Rangers team-mate Goram in the Scotland goal.

The goal was voted the best ever scored at Wembley in a poll before the old stadium was demolished. Gazza said later: “People often ask me whether that’s the best goal I’ve ever scored, and it was a memorable one. It was one of the best, although I scored one or two in Italy that never get shown on TV which were just as good.

“In terms of what the goal meant though, you couldn’t beat it. I was playing in Scotland for Rangers at the time. I had taken a beasting about the game, so it was really sweet. And to have 70,000 odd fans singing your name is just unbelievable.”

Have a look at Gazza’s goal in the montage below and don’t forget to tune in, turn on and cop out with us tomorrow when we’ll have more football trivia for you.

June 14 – A Thriller for the Grecians

THEY’VE spent most of their existence meandering around the lower regions of English football, with the occasional relegation or, as seen last month, promotion but today in 2002 Exeter City hit the headlines the world over, as the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson visited the club as part of a charity event.

Before Jackson shamoned his way down to the south coast Exeter City’s most famous honour was being chosen to be the Brazilan national team’s first-ever international opponents when they took on the Samba boys in 1914 during a tour of South America , losing 2-0.

The origins of the visit from everyone’s favourite plastic surgery enthusiast stem from the sea of debt that engulfed the side following their 1994 relegation from Division Two. The hard-up minnows struggled for cash, managing to limp along until 2002 when they were presented with a saviour in the form of spoon-bending nutcase Uri Geller. Yes, the story gets weirder. Geller said that he wouldn’t use his ‘powers’ to influence Exeter’s performance on the pitch and he wasn’t lying as the club finished bottom of the whole football league in his only season at the club.

Exeter midfielder John Wilkinson said at the time: “Uri used to come into the changing room bending spoons and that before games, handing everyone a spoon and saying, ‘I want you to focus on it’. We started giggling and he used to get really angry and storm out, throwing his spoon on the floor.”

It didn’t take long for Geller to turn to daft publicity stunts in order to win over the fans. We’re not sure if he had to resort to some kind of crazy mind games to convince his mate Michael Jackson to make one of his rare public appearances at a charity event at St. James’ Park, but that’s exactly what the rain-soaked public were treated to. In case the day wasn’t bizarre enough box-dwelling magician freak David Blane also tagged along.

Jackson proceeded to drive into the stadium, made a five-minute speech on HIV in Africa, told the 10,000-strong crowd that he thought England would win the forthcoming World Cup before beating it and heading back for cover, leaving Blane to carry out a few tricks to the bemused Grecian fans.

Wacko Jacko was then made a honoury director of the club and Geller harped on about renaming a stand after him before the fuss died down as City’s chances of avoiding the drop became slimmer than their most famous fans’ nose.

Geller was gone after a year and life went back to normal for the club whose five-year spell in the Conference came to an end at Wembley after the play-off final. Still, it was fun while it lasted as Wilkinson remembers, “It was a crazy time. I’d love it if Michael Jackson was at David Blaine’s house now thinking, ‘Oh, I must just check how Exeter got on. I wonder if Flacky [Steve Flack] scored again?’”

Instead of inflicting all you Grecian fans with your former director’s greatest hits we’ll instead show you footage of the club taking Manchester United to the wire in the 2004/05 FA Cup. Imagine what could have been below, and if we’ve got ‘Billie Jean’ out of our head by tomorrow we’ll be back tomorrow with another story featuring one of today’s more random protagonists.

June 13 – Maradona Under Siege!

IF you make it as a top footballer, one of the first things that goes is your privacy. In a world where more column inches are devoted to the nuptials of Wayne and Colleen than boring things like 42-day detention votes, footballers are always going to be hassled by the press. Some react better than others though; on the one hand you have Beckham cultivating his brand over in California, and on the other you have Diego Maradona using some poor journalists as target practice.

Yes, today marks the anniversary of another crazy day in the life of the most talented and mixed up man ever to play the beautiful game, as on June 13, 1998 Maradona was being sentenced for shooting an air rifle at a team of hack assembled outside his Buenos Aires home.

The incident in question dates back to February 1994 when Diego saw a scrum of journalists looking for their next scoop camping on his doorstep. Instead of drawing back the curtains or going for the old hat-and-glasses disguise, the Argentinean crouched behind his Mercedes with two of his mates and began shooting at the hacks with an air rifle, injuring four of them.

The case took four years to go trial, in which time Maradona managed to represent his country for two games in the 1994 World Cup before being sent home and given a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test, attempt a comeback with Boca Juniors and then check into rehab to try and kick his coke habit.

Despite being the most famous man in Argentina, Diego couldn’t escape the long arm of the law and was given a suspended sentence of two years and 10 months. Reporter Daniel Talamoni, one of the journalists that was injured by Maradona trumpeted that “this exemplary case does show that there is justice for all,” but the quartet all appealed as they thought the sentence was too light.

The ruling meant that Diego was free to travel to the World Cup in France that summer, which was the first since 1978 that he wasn’t playing in, to work for Argentinean television. And to think in this country we have to put up with Alan Shearer. It didn’t take long for Maradona to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons again as his retirement proved to be as quiet as a Manchester United fan chomping on a prawn sandwich, as he was soon knocking on heavens door following a drugs overdose in 2004 and putting on weight quicker than Tomas Brolin in a pie shop.

In case you’ve forgotten how good Maradona was on the pitch have a gander below and head back here in tomorrow for the strange story of when one of the world’s most famous pop stars decided he was a fan of lower league English football.

June 12 – Anders Against Argentina

AFTER Archie Gemmill’s stunning but ultimately fruitless heroics for Scotland yesterday, today we remember a beauty of a goal that did have a bearing on the final shake-up of a World Cup group.

For Scotland and Gemmill in 1978 read Sweden and Anders Svensson on this day in 2002 at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The competition was the tournament of the underdog with joint hosts South Korea making it all the way to the semi-finals while Senegal and the USA enjoyed surprise victories over Portugal and France respectively.

While the underdogs prospered, the big boys struggled with holders France mounting the worst defence of the title ever seen. After their opening 1-0 defeat to Senegal, the World Champions failed to even score as they were eliminated at the group stage.

Favourites to life the trophy were Argentina. They had World Cup winning pedigree having won in 1978 and 1986 and Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said: “Argentina are probably the best team in the world,” when his side were drawn in the same group as the South Americans.

Argentina had beaten Nigeria in their opening match but lost to England thanks to a David Beckham penalty in their second match. Going into their match with Argentina, Sweden already had four points on the board having beaten Nigeria and drawn with England.

Despite the South Americans dominating the game, just before the hour Anders Svensson, then a Southampton player, was fouled by Matias Almeyda. He picked himself up and took the free kick himself scoring a curling shot that went over the wall and evaded goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero.

Despite a late equaliser from Hernan Crespo, Argentina could not find the crucial winner they needed and, thanks to England drawing with Nigeria, Argentina were out, and Sweden were group winners.

They only managed one more game themselves though, as they were beaten 2-1 in extra time by France’s conquerors Senegal.

Have a look at Anders’ goal and come back tomorrow when one former player decides dark glasses and a false moustache are not working and resorts to drastic action to evade the press.

June 11 – Archie Gemmill’s Moment of Glory

AS none of the home nations made it to Euro 2008 (which is beginning to shape up nicely thanks to Holland and Spain) today we are going back thirty years to an international tournament that was graced by a British side.

The England team had failed again to qualify for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina so it was left to Scotland to show what they could do on the world stage. At first, it didn’t look like they could do much as they lost 3-1 to Peru in their opening game and followed this up with a disappointing 1-1 draw with World Cup newcomers Iran.

Things were looking bleak for the Scots who went into a daunting looking final group match with Holland on this day needing to win by three goals to progress. Things looked even worse when the Dutch scored a penalty on 34 minutes but Kenny Dalglish hit back ten minutes later, and an Archie Gemmill penalty early in the second half gave the Scots a 2-1 lead.

Gemmill was not finished there though and with 68 minutes played he produced a stunning piece of skill to score Scotland’s most memorable goal.

The Scotsman reported: “The little midfield player homed in on goal, played a magnificent one-two with Dalglish, then sprinted into the box and thumped a glorious goal past Jongbloed to revive all the hopes which had died the death this past fortnight.

“It was an extraordinary goal and an extraordinary moment. Suddenly Scotland were dreaming of glory again.”

Sadly for the Scots, Holland were about to tread on those dreams when Johnny Rep scored a 25-yarder to bring the score to 3-2 and end Scotland’s hopes of coming away with the three goal margin they needed to progress. They were out, but they were out in style.

The goal is lauded as the best ever scored in a Scotland shirt and was immortalised in the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting when Renton exclaims: “I haven’t felt this good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in the 1978 World Cup,” after getting his end away.

Watch the goal below and come back tomorrow when reading our little offering will in no way make up for England’s failure to make it to Euro 2008 but might waste a couple of minutes while you’re at work.