With Remembrance Sunday having just occurred a few days ago, we reflect on the men who gave their lives to their countries as well as giving their all on the football pitch. Their bravery on the field of play has been superseded by their courage and character on the field of battle even though some of them had little to no military education.

Here we commemorate and honour football’s top 20 war heroes in this list:

1. Bert Trautmann

The list starts with a goalkeeper as this shot-stopper enjoyed a very interesting career in England, particularly since he was WW II German soldier and he played there immediately after the Second World War. He joined the Luftwaffe in 1941 and he quickly gained promotion, firstly as corporal and then as sergeant of his unit. He earned 5 army badges for his superb work to the Germanic cause. However he was imprisoned by the British for his role against them in the war and he most of his sentence in Cheshire.

On his release, he farmed and played football part-time before eventually turning professional with St. Helens for a season. He then transferred to Manchester City in 1949, where he got a very mixed welcome  due to his role in the war. However 15 years later after leaving the Citizens, he etched his name into their history books as one of their finest ‘keepers ever.

He won both the FA Cup and FWA for Player of the year in 1956 on his way to making more than 500 appearances for the Manchester club. He also enjoyed spells in charge of Stockport County, Liberia and Pakistan before retiring from all footballing activities in 1983.

2. Alexander “Sandy” Turnbull

This Scottish striker etched his name into the hearts of the fans of both Manchester clubs in the early 20th century with his goalscoring skill. Having netted 143 goals in 230 Football League appearances, he had a sensational goal to game ratio.

Having won the FA Cup with Manchester City, he crossed the metropolis to join arch-rivals Manchester United where he enjoyed a golden period of success winning two First Division titles, but notably scoring the winner in the 1909 FA Cup final. However his career was cut short by the First World War as his last game came against Sheffield Wednesday in 1915.

He was also later found guilty of match-fixing and received a life-long football ban before joining the armed forces. Having risen to the ranks of Lance Sergeant in the Eight Battalion of the East Surrey regiment in the British Amry, he was killed on 3rd May 1917 in a battle in Arras, France. He was 32 but as a result of his heroic effort overseas, his ban was rescinded in 1919 after the war ended.

3. Eddie Latheron

Affectionately nicknamed ”Pinkie” on the terraces due his red hair and pale complexion, Latheron is remembered as a legend to Blackburn Rovers and a martyr for his country. The inside forward scored 94 goals in 258 appearances for his hometown club and it was this, coupled with his unselfish play that made him a firm fan favourite among the Lancashire faithful. The one-club man helped the Rovers conquer England twice during the 1911-12 and 1913-14 seasons as those First Division titles are his only silverware.

However the outbreak of the war in 1914 compelled him to enlist and within a week after his final game for Blackburn, he was a gunner on the front for the Royal Field Artillery. At 29 years of age, he was killed on 14th October 1917 at the Battle of Passenchendaele. Such is his legendary status, a group of Belgian Blackburn Rovers fans commemorated the striker on the 90th anniversary of his death at his grave located nears Ypres.

4. Vivian Woodward

Woodward was the Lionel Messi of his day when organised soccer began to gain prominence in Britain. Spells with Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea proved fruitful as he yielded 93 goals in 238 appearances. Having also appeared for the English nation side, it was his participation with the Great Britain team in the 1908 and 1912 which garnered him great fame. He captained the team to the gold medal on each occasion.

Woodward enlisted in the army and missed a huge portion of Chelsea’s 1914-15 season. However he was given special leave to attend his team’s FA Cup final but unfortunately Sheffield United beat the Pensioners 3-0 on the day. Having returned to the front for a second spell, his leg was badly injured by a stray grenade in 1916 and thus had to return home for the final time, with his footballing careers also in tatters. Despite being maimed, Vivian lived on until he was 74 years of age in 1954 and he will always be remembered as one of the pioneers of the beautiful game.

5. Walter Tull

Tull was the inaugural man who broke so much new ground up until his premature death in 1918 at the age of 29. The second ever mixed-heritage football player to ply his trade professionally in the English First Division, after signing with Tottenham Hotspur. However he has a short and unhappy time there as racial abuse seriously affected him and thus he moved to Northampton Town for a ”substantial fee.” In 3 years, he accumulated 110 games with the Cobblers, scoring 9 goals in that time-span.

When war broke out in 1914, he was the first Northampton player to enlist in the armed forces. Despite even more racial problems in the British army, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, the first mixed-race men to do so. Having heroically fought through the Battle of the Somme, he met his end on 25th March 1918. He was gunned down in the Pas-de-Calais but his body was never recovered from that gruesome scene. Tull was recognised for his outstanding efforts to his country as he was posthumously awarded the military cross for his bravery on the front.

6. Fritz Walter

For anyone who thinks football’s a waste of time, tell them it saved this man’s life. Walter was enjoying a brilliant career with Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga before having been conscripted to join the Nazi forces in 1942, where the forward was to fight for Germany.

However near the end of the war, he ended up being a POW after being captured by Hungarian soldiers. He wowed the guards with his exceptional skill but the time then came for him to be moved to another camp in the Soviet Union, where life expectancy was just 5 years and the guards would be more brutal.

However a football-loving Hungarian guard intervened at the last second and saved his life by aiding him in getting him out of the transfer to the Union and thus being fortuitously released from prison.

On his return to football, he restarted his career with Kaiserslautern and he retired from them in 1959 having scored a mind-boggling 380 goals in 411 appearances. Walter also won the German championship twice with his hometown club.  He also captained West Germany to their first World Cup victory in 1954, ironically over Hungary, the same nation where the guards came from who let him free.

7. Harry Goslin

A folklore legend for Bolton Wanderers, Goslin was also a sensational patriot to his country when he gave his life to the Allies during the Second World War. On turning professional in 1930, he joined the northern club for just £25 and he enjoyed nine years with the club scoring 23 goals in 306 appearances despite playing as a defender all his life. Before war broke out in 1939, he announced Bolton’s entire team would be joining the army.

When it did, Goslin led his team-mates in the fight against the Germans and their allies.  Within three years, his leadership qualities on the pitch transferred onto the battle field as he became sergeant in 1942. He also played a pivotal role in the withdrawal of troops from Dunkirk in that same year. However while traversing through Italy, he was seriously wounded by a mortar explosion under a tree. He bravely battled to live on four days after suffering the injury but lost his life on 18th December 1943.

8. Fred Griffiths

This Welsh goalkeeper enjoyed a long and varied career having been on the books of 12 clubs as well as earning 2 caps for his country. Having the honour of playing for big London clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, he was renowned for being a reliable man to have between the sticks but unfortunately this never translated into any major trophies.

After his retirement, he spent his time training local teams near his home in Presteigne, Wales. And despite being one year above the conscription age, (41 was the conscription age at the time) he felt compelled to fight for his country’s future when he enlisted with the British army in 1915.

He became sergeant within his rank, the 15th Battalion of Sherwood Foresters, before dying at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 at the age of 44.

9. Lev Yashin

Widely regarded as the best goalkeeper all-time, Yashin made his name Dynamo Moscow and the old Soviet Union during a trophy-laden 20 year career with each team. At just 12 years of age, in 1941, he began helping the Soviet Union in the only way he could in the war effort. Too young to fight on the front, the teenager went to work in the factories manufacturing arms, vehicle parts and more.

Yashin was finally able to begin his professional footballing career as a 21-year-old with Dynamo Msocow in 1950. With them he won the Soviet Top League 5 times and the Soviet Cup 3 times. He also helped him national team to continental glory by winning the 1964 European Championship with them as well capturing gold at the Olympics.

He made 324 appearances at club level, 78 at international level and was known as the ”Black Spider” around the world due to his amazing ability to save virtually goal-bound shots. His death came prematurely in 1990 when during relatively simple surgery on his knee went wrong and he passed away due to complications.

10. Ferenc Puskas

The Real Madrid and Hungary legend was remembered as a goalscoring phenomenon during his footballing career. However due to Hungarian law, he was conscripted to join their army and although never participating in infantry work, he rose through the ranks to become major. It was a combination of his rank and his footballing prowess while playing in the armed forces that earned him his lifelong nickname ”The Galloping Major.”

Puskas is revered around the world for scoring an incredible 157 goals in just 182 appearances for Los Blancos, where he additionally won 4 Pichichi awards during his Spanish stay. And he also netted 84 strikes in 85 games for the Hungarian national team in a truly remarkable playing career.

Having taken various coaching positions ranging from North America, Asia, Europe and even Australia, he briefly coached his nation during a four game spell. Puskas died on 17th November 2006 at the age of 79.

11. Ted Drake

The diminutive English striker’s playing career began with Southampton but blossomed with Arsenal during his 14 years in football. Scoring a handsome sum of 47 goals in 71 games for the Saints, he captured the eye of the Londoners, who signed the forward in 1934. He scored 124 goals in 167 games while at Highbury, with his finest game coming against Aston Villa. Drake netted 7 times in that single match, which is a record that still stands today in England’s top flight.

As well as winning two First Division titles with the north London side, he added a FA Cup medal to his collection. After periods in management at the helm of Hendon and Reading, he took charge of Chelsea Football club and guided them to their first ever championship in 1956. The end of his time at Arsenal was severely disrupted due to his participation with the Royal Air Force which restricted him to a handful of games during the war years. His playing career was prematurely ended in 1945 due to a spinal injury.

12. Stan Mortenson

Although this particular striker managed to only garner one trophy in his 21 year career, he was the man who led his country during a very difficult post-war era as well as being ridiculously lucky to have been able to play the game once you learn his story. Before he became the prolific striker that he is famous for, he began his wartime efforts in 1939 as a wireless operator.

Mortenson was involved in a disastrous air crash that same year when every single passenger onboard was killed except Stan. However even despite the injuries he sustained, he managed to carve himself a career out of professional football in the post-war era. Stints at Southport, Bath City and Lancaster City followed a golden spell that he enjoyed with Blackpool.

He scored 197 goals in 317 games for the side in a 14 year period (the first four of those being slightly disrupted by war commitments.) He also netted a remarkable 23 goals in 25 appearance for England as he helped put a smile back on his nation’s face after a long, depressing war.

13. Willie Thornton

Considered to be one of the greatest Scottish players of all time, Thornton was a prolific striker for Rangers during his 18 year career at the club, which book-ended his involvement in World War II. Debuting for the Glaswegian giants in 1936 at just 16 years of age, the striker enjoyed adulation from fans for his lethal touch in front of goal.  However his fledgling career was brought to a temporary end in 1939 due to outbreak of the war.

He joined the Scottish Horse regiment and as a result of his “acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire,” he was awarded a Military Medal for helping to defeat Germany on the battlefield. By the time of his retirement in 1954, he was well-known throughout Britain and he finished his career with 138 goals in a mere 219 appearances. He then became a manager of Dundee United and Partick Thistle for 5 and 9 years respectively where he had modest success.

14. Wilf Mannion

”The Golden Boy” as he was known as in his native Middlesbrough due to his streak of blond hair, endured a mixed time on Teeside but nothing negative can be said about his commitment to the British cause during the Second World War.  The inside forward played more than 350 times for Boro, scoring 99 times in his long career there but went on strike and retired in a bid to finally leave the club.

Although the reasons for his discontent are unknown, his dedication while playing was second to none, as he was with England, netting 11 times in his 26 appearances for his nation. He joined the war effort in 1940 and he was a key solider in the Siege of Sicily that occurred in 1943. Shortly after that he was allowed to return home and continue his footballing career. After the war, he joined Hull City and Cambridge United and perhaps his finest moment was being a member of the English squad for the 1950 World Cup in a career particularly special due to it’s amazing 24 year longevity.

15. Frank Buckley

Buckley took a more unusual route as he created a unique career in the game. Having joined the army as a teenager, he left by the time he was 20 in order to forge a football life for himself. He played for Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa before the outbreak of World War I. He was commander of the Football Battalion for a large of the war and thanks to his previous stint in the armed forces, he rose through the ranks rapidly and eventually became a major.

However he was badly injured in the Battle of the Somme and returned to restart his football career. With the war finished, he managed many football clubs including Leeds United where he introduced the legendary Jack Charlton to his first taste of professional action. Overall, he spent nearly 50 years in his long and distinguished life in football.

16. William Angus

The word hero was conjured up exactly for this incredible man. With his footballing career cut short due to the declaration of war in Europe in 1914, Angus wasted no time in signing up and he was immediately mobilised out to the action. Before his war efforts, he played once for Celtic but left them for lack of first team opportunities. He was the captain Wilshaw Thistle when war was announced and within weeks, he had joined the 8th Royal Scots regiment.

His finest hour came a year after joining when he saw a comrade lying in a trench within the range of their enemies. Angus fearlessly went to save his fellow soldier and received 40 wounds for his courageous act, losing his left eye and part of his foot being his most serious injuries. Two months later as he was recovering, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award possible for a British solider.

17. Bernard Vann

Another man who was equally brave in the face of danger, Vann was also a recipient of the prestigious Victoria Cross for his valiant accomplishments while defending his nation. His football career was all over by 1907 at the tender age of 20 but he made appearances for Burton United and Derby County in his brief time on the football field. He then ordained to become a minister from the famous-named Jesus College but his chaplaincy was cut short due to be called upon for the war effort.

Having become a Lieutenant General, he earned his Victoria Cross by leading his subordinate troops into the face of death as his leadership qualities shone through impeccably. Rushing up to the line of fire, he surprised several German soldiers and disarmed three of them as he led his regiment on a crucial advance on enemy territory. However Vann missed the end of the war by a mere 4 weeks as he was shot by a sniper rifle in France on 3rd October 1918.

18. Billy Gerrish

William ”Billy” Gerrish was yet another tragic story which began on the football field and ended when he was fighting the front. An extremely promising young striker for Aston Villa, he scored on his debut against Arsenal and added to that with an even more impressive achievement by claiming a hat-trick against Chelsea. In his first season with the club, he helped them to win the First Division.

However he failed to live up to his full potential when World War I broke out and he was to join the British army. Having enlisted in the Footballers Battaltion Middlesex regiment, he lasted less than two years abroad. He was killed on 8th August 1916. In all, there were 40 other Aston Villa players who died as a result of their participation in that war, one of the highest of all the clubs in Britain.

19. Charlie Buchan

This beanpole striker was another goalscoring phenomenon who had his magnificent career due to his country’s involvement in keeping the peace abroad. Despite missing a fair chunk of his 14 years on the books at Sunderland, he racked up an impressive 209 goals in 370 appearances with the Black Cats.

He enlisted in the war effort as soon as it began in 1914 and by the time of Britain’s victory in 1918, he had been promoted to second lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters regiment. He was also a recipient of the Military Medal. On his return to football, he rejoined Sunderland until 1925 when he transferred to Arsenal.

With them, he was equally prolific, scoring 49 times during the 102 games that he donned the famous red shirt. He wrote one of the first football manual’s, was a distinguished journalist and commentated on matches for the BBC for the remainder of his life up until his peaceful death in 1960.

20. Nikita Simonyan

This legendary Russian football man was too young to actively take part in World War II. However when the soldiers rolled into his town, he helped ease the pressure and stress of war life by organising football matches. The military personnel thoroughly enjoyed these breaks from the endless killings and Simonyan then realised football would become a focal point for the remainder of his life.

He has become one of the most successful Russian footballers of all-time by winning the golden boot in the Soviet Top League on three occasions.  He won the Soviet Top League seven times in total as a player and manager of clubs as well as on the victorious side of the Soviet Cup six times. His career reached its pinnacle when he was part of the Soviet Union team which won the 1956 Olympic gold medal in football. And just earlier this year, his efforts of nullifying tension between Russians and Armenians were rewarded by the President of Armenia during a ceremony.

You can contribute to this list in the comments below or by emailing us. If you like this list, you will find more football lists here.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The 1960s just might be football’s golden decade. George Best, Garrincha, Pele in his prime and much much more. Recently on the Total Soccer Show podcast, we picked our starting XI from the 1960s. None of of us were alive back then, but thanks to television, YouTube and brilliant books like Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid, we were able to weigh the various options at each position and argue out the perfect starting XI to represent 10 of the most glorious years in the history of the beautiful game.

Play/Download the show

Listen to the show to hear how we arrived at our unbeatable lineup, or read about the starting XI below:

Goalkeeper: Lev Yashin
Dynamo Moscow and Russia
Who else? Gordon Banks might have won the World Cup, but Yashin is still talked about as probably the greatest goalkeeper of all time. “The Black Spider” wore leather gloves and a cloth cap, but he invented modern goalkeeping by yelling at his defenders to get them organized and coming out of his box to use his feet as the first sweeper-keeper. Still need convincing? Yashin apparently made over 150 penalty saves in his career.

Right back: Djalma Santos
Palmeiras and Brazil
The right back spot was a choice between two Brazilans. Though Carlos Alberto Torres would captain the 1970 World Cup-winning team, Santos was chosen for both the ’62 and ’66 tournaments, and provided the assist for Vava in the 1962 World Cup final by crossing a high ball into the glare of the sun. Not as adventurous as later Brazilian right backs (including Carlos Alberto) but gets the nod for defensive solidity. And a scary photo.

Left back: Giacinto Facchetti
Inter and Italy
The 6′ 3″ Facchetti played left back in the catenaccio-loving La Grande Inter team of the ’60s, which won multiple Italian titles and back-to-back European Cups. But though he could definitely defend, Facchetti was actually the key to Inter’s killer defence to attack transitions. Inter played a sweeper, two marking centre back, and a right back, but Facchetti had the entire left flank to himself and would bomb forward, cut inside and shoot with his right foot, basically inventing the European attacking fullback.

Centre back: Bobby Moore
West Ham and England
As the Total Soccer Show‘s sole Englishman, I thought I’d be the only one selecting England’s 1966 World Cup-winning captain. Turns out I wasn’t. Moore’s composed defending is famous worldwide, because very few have made relieving opponents of the ball look so simple and then strolling up field with it look so easy. Moore had a great run in the mid-’60s, winning the FA Cup in ’64, the European Cup Winners Cup (bring it back!) in ’65 and then the World Cup in ’66. That, plus England have not had a defender who can successfully pass the ball out of the back since.

Centre back: Bill McNeill
Celtic and Scotland
The Lisbon Lions had to be represented here, so Celtics’s 1967 European Cup-winning captain would be the stopper in our lineup. Billy McNeill, or “Cesar” to Celtic fans, was a hard man, a leader and a never let you down defender, meeting every high ball with his head, intercepting every pass and stopping every attacker in his tracks by getting a well timed foot-in. McNeill and Bobby Moore will have to argue over the captain’s armband in this team, but either man will do a fine job.

Box-to-box midfielder: Josef Masopust
Dukla Prague and Czechoslovakia
There isn’t a lot of footage of Masopust, so his selection is based on what we’ve read and the very little YouTube we’ve seen. But from everything we’ve heard and read, Masopust could defend and attack, would happily cover the length of the field several times over, and was instrumental in leading Czechoslovakia all the way the 1962 World Cup final. We also felt that any Team of the ’60s should represent the incredible talent of the Soviet nations in that decade.

Attacking midfielder: Bobby Charlton
Manchester United and England
Imagine Frank Lampard in his prime. Now imagine him about five times better at absolutely everything. Now give him a silly haircut. That’s Bobby Charlton, who could pick up the ball from anywhere, carry it forward at pace by dribbling with either foot, and then unleash an powerful, laser-guided strike into the top corner, again with either foot. And that’s how Bobby Charlton is England’s all-time top scorer despite not actually being a striker.

Right wing: Garrincha
Botafogo and Brazil
“The Joy of the People” was a terrible, terrible professional footballer. Fond of a drink and unable to absorb any tactical information—legend has it he was allowed to play table tennis while the rest of the team talked tactics. But it didn’t matter. Because the bendy-legged winger (bendy-legged due to childhood polio) literally went past fullbacks for fun. So much so, he’d sometimes wait and let them recover, just so he could beat them again. Brazil never lost a game when fielding Pele and Garrincha, so any respectable Team of the ’60s should do the same.

Left wing: George Best
Manchester United and Northern Ireland
We know, Best was mostly a right winger and shouldn’t be pushed out to the left. But we couldn’t have a team of the ’60s without Garrincha and we couldn’t have a team of the ’60s without the magician that was George Best. So we compromised. Best’s career tailed off in the ’70s, but the ’60s were Best’s decade: the fame, the female company and—most importantly for this list—the football. Possibly the best way to describe Best going forward with the ball is “justified arrogance”, which is what gave him license to do things no one else thought of doing, like playing one-twos off opposition defender’s shins.

Support striker: Pele
Santos and Brazil
You may have heard of him. Pele introduced himself to the world as a teenage sensation in 1958 and reached apotheosis at the 1970 World Cup, but “O Rei” actually did all his best work inbetween, in the 1960s. Pele won the Copa Libertadores and Intercontintental Cup with the legendary 1962 Santos team, won the ’62 World Cup with Brazil and was considered so dangerous in the ’66 World Cup that the only solution for Portugal was to kick him, hard, until he left the field injured. Want to hear about Pele the player? They key is not to think of him as just a striker, because he could also drop deep and create. But it’s impossible to pick one attribute because Pele could do it all, and he did it best in the 1960s.

Striker: Eusebio
Benfica and Portugal
Only a little fella’, but 5′ 9″ Eusebio was built like a bulldozer. You could not muscle him off the ball. Add to that a fine touch, a nose for goal and the only shot in the world that could rival Bobby Charlton’s for power and accuracy (would love to see a long distance shootout between those two!) and it’s crystal clear why Eusebio was a European Cup-winner with Benfica in 1962 and the top scorer at the 1966 World Cup with nine goals. His partnership with Pele—supplied by Garrincha and George Best—wouldn’t just be the greatest attacking lineup of the ’60s, it might be the greatest, and most entertaining, of all time.

Find out more about these players, and the players that just missed out: Play/Download MP3.
Like what you hear? Subscribe to the Total Soccer Show podcast via iTunes or subscribe via RSS.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

While watching David Silva and Spain dismantle a dogged and compact Scotland on Wednesday, it struck me: this was hardly Spain’s best outfit and they were dominating.

Silva cemented his bona fides as one of the top half-dozen players in world football and Spain, with a team featuring second-choice players like Thiago Alcantara, Jordi Alba and Santi Cazorla, passed Scotland into an uneasy submission. The Scots, bless ‘em, tried hard but the Spaniards seemed at times to be playing not just another game, but on another plane.

The players who didn’t feature on Tuesday – Torres, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, Mata – mean it’s now apparent that Spain’s second XI could be one of the world’s ten best international outfits. Not accounting for squads (only first teams), they are helped by a healthy youth league and a relative dearth of great opposition: realistically, only the Netherlands and Germany are able to hold a candle to the Spaniards. Brazil and Argentina today are still good, but only resemble their most terrifying best.

The FIFA world rankings (hardly the greatest indicator, but the only one we’ve got) suggest the world’s top ten sides are Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, England, Croatia and Argentina.

In living up to their position description as confusing and nonsensical, the FIFA rankings have Croatia ranked ninth and Greece sitting in eleventh position. This is in spite of both squads finding themselves in the same qualifying group for Euro 2012; a group from which Greece qualified and Croatia now face a tricky playoff tie with Turkey.

We can, however, suggest this is a fairly accurate representation of the best teams in world football.

Were Spain’s Second XI to feature in the FIFA rankings, they’d come up against three great teams (Germany, the Netherlands and Uruguay), two inconsistent ones (the other South Americans) and four eminently beatable squads, each with major weaknesses. Apart from perhaps a perceived weakness in central defence, Spain II play a similar brand of football to their first-choice brethren, have pace in abundance and, as they showed on Tuesday, discipline.

Using Spain’s favoured 4-2-3-1, the second furia roja would probably include: Valdes; Alba, Jose Enrique, Alvaro Arbeloa and Raul Albiol; Thiago, Javi Martinez, Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla and Pedro; and Fernando Llorente.

Wow.

The argument could be made that this team also features some of the best players dozen players in Spain. In this lineup Pedro plays for the twos, yet started in their World Cup triumph last year – superseded by Mata and Silva. Valdes’ recent success in head-to-head battles with Casillas now invites, rather than discourages, comparison between the two. Fabregas is shuttled out of the Spain midfield (as with club) by players comfortably in the World’s top five. Spain has played better recently when Llorente – rather than Torres – has led the line.

This club may even trouble the the vaunted Spain first team. The Spain Second XI are, on paper, a better team than Croatia, Portugal and even Italy. Place Spain v2.0 in any one of the Euro 2012 qualifying groups (and back them with suitable squad depth) and they at least make the playoffs from each. It’s probably also the case that they’d slice England to pieces also.

The simile used most with Spain (and Barcelona) is “death by one thousand cuts”. Perhaps a more appropriate metaphor may be that Spanish football is at present drowning the rest of the football world – inexorably, constrictingly and (given their outstanding Euro U-21 campaign) shows no signs of receding. All that is certain is the next wave of Spanish attacks could well overwhelm a struggling Scot, Lithuanian or even Oranje. After decades of torment, La Furia Roja is certainly making up for lost time.

While going back-to-back-to-back at major tournaments is so difficult that it’s spoke of in grail-like reverence, the smart money for next year’s Euros is on a three-peat – perhaps simply because the difficulty of staying focused for such a period is balanced by the failure of chief rivals Germany and the Netherlands to bridge a gaping talent gap.

Matthew Wood regularly contributes to Soccerlens.  You can find more of his commentary and analysis at Balanced Sports or follow him on Twitter @balanced_sports

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Fan’s are big lovers of at least having a striker on the pitch, funnily enough. Scotland’s defeat to the Czech Republic will possibly go down as Craig Levein’s defining moment if things don’t go so well, his 4-6-0 formation failing to keep the Czechs out and failing also to provide much attacking threat in return. It’s definitely understandable to be annoyed if you are a Scotland fan to see the tartan army’s chosen do the equivalent of tie their hands behind their collective backs.

So perhaps it was at least some consolation for your average Scotsman to see a striker at least in the defeat to Brazil, even if a fan did inadvertently bring controversy upon the ninety minutes. Consolation in the face of the fact that the co-commentator’s thought that ‘Scotland would be pleased to lose only 2-0′ sums up Scotland’s plight. Simply they were outplayed, as most people could have predicted. They barely found an attacking threat where Brazil could have easily scored more then they eventually did, a scenario all too familiar to the smaller teams in qualifiers – big international teams turn up, keep the ball for 85 minutes of the game, win by two or three goals. Despair for Scotland, who are as far away from qualifying for any big tournament as they ever have been.

But, there might be hope for small teams of the future, if their coaches are willing to experiment.

Ferguson’s example.

Step back to January 31st 2010, when Arsenal were struck out of the title race by Manchester United, in part by the key role of false nine striker Wayne Rooney. To quote the BBC report of the Gunner’s 3-1 loss. ‘Sir Alex Ferguson’s champions unleashed a devastating display of sweeping, counter-attacking football inspired by the brilliance of Wayne Rooney and Nani.’

Which says a lot more then simply those twenty two words. Firstly that United played on the counter attack, possibly acknowledging that Arsenal could play the ball better then United. Certainly, despite United edging the possession stats, (52 % to 48% in Man United’s favour) Arsenal had more shots on and off target, more corners and United committed more fouls.

And in any case it’s fair to suggest that Arsenal can outplay any team in the premier league, so a recent trend of United and Chelsea is to hit them on the counterattack, and United in particular on this occasion used Rooney dropping off deep into midfield and taking a defender with him, leaving Arsenal to cope with United’s two very, very aggressive wingers moving lightning fast into the bigger gaps left by a central defenders departure. The result being that Nani, Park and Rooney feeding off a Nani return crushed Arsenal beneath their clinical goals.

Zonal Marking talks about this game as ‘the probable death of Arsenal’s title hopes’ and further on moves on to say the game could well also be ‘the death of the traditional striker at top clubs. But why not smaller teams? They after all, are constantly in danger of being outplayed by the bigger teams, even more so with Barcelona’s tika taka tactics coming into fashion. But with the addition of a false nine, clubs that would usually be under the cosh can spring a surprise. Like Scotland. Take, for example, the experimental line up below.

Hmm...that striker doesn't look very aggresive...

Kicking your opponent in the behind.

Now immediately upon posting that picture in the article I can imagine the groans of ‘not again, dear sweet William Wallace…’ from Scottish fans seeing that the front player does in fact drop into midfield in this idea, but give me a chance to explain, and bear this in mind; our front three in this formation are very, very important.

Take for example, Robert Snodgrass. He is going to be our ‘false nine’ in this little experiment. He is going to drop off the defenders and pull them all over the place. But that isn’t the only thing a false nine does. The more important problem a false nine player poses is simple in the fact that opponents have a big dilemma in dealing with it.

For example, a defender can tight mark our false nine, that is if they want to have their defensive line made all the more fragile by said false nine dropping deep, and giving the wingers reign to stream into the gaps left, like Zonalmarking talks about in the above analysis of that so important Arsenal game.

Of course the defender can choose not to go with the striker, which leaves the defence a little more secure. On the other hand, then the false nine does something even worse. It helps in the overwhelming of that midfield which so used to simply making a little team chase shadows are now suddenly outnumbered in midfield.

The deep assasin: Snodgrass dropping deep can cause Brazil's midfield serious problems.

The spare man.

So here we have a demonstration of how it could have worked against Brazil. (Assuming that Fletcher had in fact been there) Lucas against Bannan, Elano against Adam and Ramires against Fletcher, all making different interesting runs to try and outfox the opposition. But it is going to be Snodgrass making a key difference here. By dropping into free space and no defender going with him Snodgrass hands a key advantage to the Scottish midfield, that being a free man in space. Suddenly, Brazil’s midfield are in trouble – Snodgrass can get in between the midfield and defence and with the support of midfielders like Adam, Bannan, Forrest and Commons, can begin to hurt Brazil’s defence.

Of course Brazil could pull Alves further inside to keep tabs on him, or pull Jadson back to keep tabs on him, at the same time either limiting the threat from a world class fullback and leaving Commons free on the wing, or in pulling Jadson back negate a wing threat and leave Crainey free to overload Alves. If Snodgrass were to move into space on the other side of the pitch, the same result occurs. Brazil can’t win, in the sense of that small battle at least.

Big team troubles.

Of course its easy to argue that Brazil could do the same thing. As in draw a striker back and help his team mates in that three on four battle in midfield. And arguably Brazil could certainly find a striker capable of running between the lines, holding the ball up and supplying creativity. But in doing so, Brazil remove an outlet from the attack – suddenly Brazil have less of an outlet in attack, him picking up Fletcher while the rest of the midfield rearrange to pick up other players.

In effect they would be reacting to Scotland’s game rather then the other way around and imposing their star players on Scotland, who would have in effect not just largely curtailed a front player, but Brazil’s central front player, which would serve Scotland well in keeping Brazil out. Certainly, the false nine has the possibility of making the game more uncomfortable for more illustrious opponents.

The problem of experimenting.

That said it wouldn’t just be the Brazillians with a bit of a puzzler on their hands. It is only really Roma and Manchester United who have previously implemented false nine based strategies in the past on a regular basis, suggesting the sheer difficulty in the execution. Scotland do not have a Wayne Rooney to lead the line, and they do not have a Francesco Totti. Their main striker is a speedy but ultimately, blunt striker in Kenny Miller who led the line for the worst ever team in the premier league. This is in fact where Snodgrass comes in as very much an experiment. He has skill and creativity, and good technique. A goalscoring striker he is not, but perhaps, just maybe, he could fill the role that Scotland would need him to perform.

In midfield though, Scotland do have the creativity they would need. They have a champions league midfielder in Fletcher and several creative midfielders who can support Snodgrass in his role. They have up and coming players in defence, like the ball playing Danny Wilson, advanced playmakers like Barry Bannan and the very, very direct young winger James Forrest. In other words, they have a midfield that can create and assist in the attack. And therefore, perhaps they and other teams can look to what is essentially a 4-6-0 formation to give bigger sides with everything their way cause for concern.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Recently the Republic of Ireland has made headlines for attempting to bolster their national team ranks as it becomes known players such as Jamie O’Hara, Marc Wilson and Jermaine Pennant are eligible – and perhaps welcome – to play for Ireland.

Portsmouth’s Liam Lawrence recently suggested that such players, though maybe encouraged by the FAI and manager Giovanni Trapattoni, would not be as warmly received in the dressing room as the coach’s box. The Portsmouth winger suggested that it wasn’t necessarily the decision to switch allegiances which irritated Irish players – he did so himself – but more comments made by on-the-fence players – as if they were evaluating two companies vying for the same contract.

And Lawrence’s stance is fair enough: with Pennant saying “I’m not getting any younger and I want to play international football, whether it’s with England or Ireland … I’d love to play for England but it’s just never happened”, his words make it seem his first preference is to play for England and his second would be to pull on the green of Ireland. To Lawrence, it could sound extremely selfish – as if he, his teammates and country appear to be the ugly friend at the disco. Pennant’s comments make it sound like he is focusing only on himself.

Because one’s nationality and patriotism are such complex issues, this issue is always going to be a murky one. It would be difficult (and morally dubious) to judge a player’s motives for choosing a national setup; but the lesson from Pennant’s words and Lawrence’s reaction is the value of tact. “Pennant for Ireland” is purely player-driven.  He understandably wants to experience the international stage and isn’t going to shy away from saying so.  His words though, could have been thought through more carefully.

There is, however, no question that the International spectrum is much the richer for having multicultural football teams. One of the World Cup’s greatest ever goalscorers, Miroslav Klose, was eligible both for Poland and Germany – as was his forward partner Lukas Podolski. Australia owes much of it’s growing footballing presence to players who have had dual nationalities: In fact, during the 2006 World Cup in Germany the group match between Australia and Croatia featured seven Australians eligible to play for Croatia and three Croats players who, when faced when the same decision, went the other way.

Australia seems to have both benefited and lost, however, as both Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgios Samaras were eligible for the Socceroos yet opted for Portugal and Greece respectively.

There appears to be very little that FIFA can do to stop players hemming-and-hawing about which country to play for. The rule on changing or selecting nationalities (pg 62), as it stands, is perhaps imperfect or not all-inclusive, but it is also probably the best available.  Resolution to this issue shouldn’t have to come from legislation, however, but from the players: playing for your country should be an honour, rather than an obligation or even an added perk.

When new Scot Phil Bardsley speaks of his and his family’s justifiable pride at his Scotland call-ups – the words stir the inner patriot. Jermaine Pennant’s, while it’s fair he wants to experience international football, seem a little thoughtless. International football is without doubt better off for having players strutting their stuff for the country of their choice and it is right to let a player choose his nationality.

Let’s not hang Pennant for wanting to play internationally, but Lawrence’s words ring true: when on the fence, or the outside looking in, it’s probably best not to say much.

For more analysis and opinion from Matthew Wood, visit Balanced Sports.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Five-Time World Champions Brazil take on Scotland on 27th March 2011 at the Emirates Stadium in London. We are offering one lucky Soccerlens.com reader (plus one guest) the chance to visit the Emirates to watch the Brazil v Scotland game live. Read on for more details.

Brazil and Scotland last squared off at the opening game of the 1998 World Cup, which was incidentally also the last time Scotland qualified for a major international tournament.

For Scotland, it completes a week in which the team will covene for a five-day training camp at the La Manga resort in Spain. The match is also part the acclaimed Brazil World Tour (managed by Kentaro) and is expected to be a sellout with only a few thousand tickets left to go!

Match Facts:

Brazil v Scotland
Sunday 27 March 2011
Emirates Stadium, London
Kickoff: 2PM GMT

Scotland’s squad is expected to be announced on Thursday, with Brazil’s squad soon to follow.

It will be the first time Scotland have played in London since the 1-0 Euro 2000 qualification play-off win at Wembley in 1999, a result that was not enough to earn progress to the finals.

Scotland and Brazil have met 10 times, four times in World Cup finals, and the best results achieved have been draws, 1-1 in a Hampden friendly in 1966 and 0-0 in the 1974 World Cup in Mexico when they came close to scoring a winner.

Tickets can be bought via www.arsenal.com/brazilvscotland, but if you’re based in the UK and would like to attend the game, here’s your chance to win free tickets to Brazil v Scotland.

Scotland Squad

Goalkeepers: Allan McGregor (Rangers), Craig Gordon (Sunderland), Iain Turner (Everton).

Defenders: Phil Bardsley (Sunderland), Christophe Berra (Wolves), Gary Caldwell (Wigan), Stephen Crainey (Blackpool), Grant Hanley (Blackburn), Alan Hutton (Tottenham), Danny Wilson (Liverpool), Stephen Whittaker (Rangers), Mark Wilson (Celtic).

Midfielders: Charlie Adam (Blackpool), Barry Bannan (Aston Villa), Scott Brown (Celtic), Kris Commons (Celtic), Don Cowie (Watford), Murray Davidson (St Johnstone), James McArthur (Wigan), James Morrison (West Brom), Robert Snodgrass (Leeds).

Forwards: Chris Maguire (Aberdeen), Kenny Miller (Bursaspor), Steven Naismith (Rangers).

Brazil Squad

Goalkeepers: Victor (Gremio), Jefferson (Botafogo), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan)

Defenders: Lucio, Maicon (both Inter Milan), Thiago Silva (AC Milan), David Luiz (Chelsea), Luisao (Benfica), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Andre Santos (Fenerbahce), Daniel Alves (Barcelona)

Midfielders: Lucas (Sao Paulo), Lucas Leiva (Liverpool), Elano (Santos), Elias (Atletico Madrid), Henrique (Cruzeiro), Jadson (Shakhtar Donetsk), Ramires (Chelsea), Sandro (Tottenham Hotspur), Renato Augusto (Bayer Leverkusen)

Forwards: Alexandre Pato (AC Milan), Jonas (Valencia), Neymar (Santos), Nilmar (Villarreal)

Win Free Tickets To Brazil v Scotland

When
On Monday, 21st March 2011, Soccerlens.com will pick one lucky winner from the draw.

How do you enter the draw?
Be a fan of both Soccerlens.com and Brazil World Tour on Facebook to qualify.

Any other conditions?
Ideally you need to be based in the UK, or at least have a UK delivery address for the tickets. Tickets are non-transferable.

You only have 5 days to enter the draw to win tickets, so get busy with Facebook on Soccerlens.com and Brazil World Tour now!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

There is little doubt that Fernando Llorente has done nothing to harm his reputation as of late. The Athletic Bilbao striker scored twice in Spain’s victory over Lithuania and against Scotland on Tuesday night he came off the bench to grab the winner. As well as his goals for La Seleccion, Llorente has also been in impress form for Athletic, scoring three times in six matches to help lift his team to seventh in La Liga.

Unsurprisingly his goals have not gone unnoticed, with Real Madrid reported to be interested in signing the 25-year-old. Madrid’s sporting director Miguel Pardeza did little to quash the reports either, heaping praise on the striker before adding that at the moment the squad is satisfactory.

“Llorente is a magnificent striker, who possesses some characteristics which are not in abundance. As well as that, he has progressed enormously in recent years, as can be seen in recent games with Spain and Athletic. He’s an interesting player, that’s clear. But right now we are only concerned about those that we have here. It’s too soon to talk about the future.”

With Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema both seemingly vying for one spot at the Bernabeu as it is, any move for Llorente would have to be preceded by the sale of either the Argentine or the Frenchman, with the former the more likely to stay. Is the Athletic striker really what Madrid need though? Whilst Pardeza is correct in his assertion that his characteristics are ‘not in abundance’, it is not hard to think of a striker with very similar qualities who the capital club only let go one year ago – Alvaro Negredo.

Madrid exercised their buyback option on Negredo to bring him back to the club for €5 million, but then promptly sold him to Sevilla for €15 million. With only a year gone since they sold him, Madrid do still have a year left to exercise a buyback option yet again, but with the forward not yet at his best with Sevilla it seems unlikely that he will return to the Bernabeu once more.

Nevertheless, Negredo’s story illustrates perfectly the roundabout workings that are repeated at Madrid. First of all there is the assumption that they need a tall centre forward who can score goals with his head, then it is soon realised that crossing the ball relentlessly does not suit the Madrid style of play, and hence the striker is sold without been given a proper chance. It happened with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Negredo and it could well happen to Llorente, despite the fact that all three of them are much more then just big ‘target men’.

For his part, Llorente has not exactly ruled out a move away from Athletic, saying that he doesn’t know what will happen in the future but that at the moment he has a contract with the Basque club. Whilst the fans would love Llorente to stay, it might be hard for him to resist giving it a shot at a club like Madrid, especially when one considers that he could be at the peak of his career very soon.

Should Madrid decide to make a move for Llorente then it is likely to be expensive (perhaps in the region of €35 million), and the final decision could well lie with Jose Mourinho. With one of his favourite players, Didier Drogba, seemingly unavailable, the Madrid coach might well be tempted to try for Llorente, a player with similar characteristics to the Ivorian striker.

Mourinho and Madrid could be faced with competition next year though, as reports state that Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur are also keeping tabs on the forward. Whilst a move to either club seems unlikely, considering firstly the style of play at Barcelona and also the language barrier at Spurs, there is no doubt that Llorente’s reputation, which has been on the up for a few years, is now growing even more. The striker has improved on his goals tally in every one of the last three seasons with Athletic and should he top 23 this year, his reputation could move him away from San Mames.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

It wasn’t pretty but few from the Rangers camp will care how they grabbed a point from Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

A goalless draw away to Manchester United should not have any negativity put towards it, although some will have a bash anyway.

Ten men behind the ball was hardly a surprising tactic imposed by Walter Smith – he did it all the way to a European final two and a half years ago. It wasn’t an exciting match, but neutral observers will have been aware of what was going to occur, and if they didn’t like it, they shouldn’t have tuned in.

It was a fantastic point from Rangers and a great start to their Champions League campaign. However, it’s only a start.

Last year, the draw away to Stuttgart was nearly as impressive and realistic hopes of qualifying out of the section were muted. Three crushing home defeats soon put paid to this.

Rangers, much like the Scottish national team these days, find it tougher to win at home than on their travels; when the onus is on them to open up and create. They simply do not have the necessary quality to do this. If they did, the lack of pace in defence would be cruelly exposed. Not just Davie Weir, but also Steven Whittaker, Sasa Papac and Kirk Broadfoot all have slow acceleration speed.

Playing a 5-4-1 is the right tactic away from home, but it will be hard to replicate the same defensive performance in Spain and Turkey. You see, there is no plan B. If Rangers lose the first goal then they have little to offer in an attacking sense. When chasing the game, as they did against Unirea and Sevilla last year, too many gaps appear and better players than SPL standard are able to use this space more effectively.

However, this tactic is the only one they can adopt. Valencia, despite losing key players over the summer, are still a decent outfit as proven with a four goal victory in Turkey.  Bursaspor have spent close to a hundred million pounds in two years, so just from this you can expect Rangers to struggle.

The next two games – Bursaspor and Valencia at Ibrox – will tell us everything about Rangers ambitions. Four points from these will be an achievement, and it would put them in a great position to challenge for the top two positions.  How Rangers approach these matches will be important to their chances.

Maybe five more backs to the wall displays will result in five more goalless draws and give Rangers 6 points, which will probably enough to secure third place and a passage through to the Europa League. Something most inside Govan will reluctantly accept.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Football is all about contrasting emotions; joy and despair, victory and defeat.

How emotions swing one way to the other through the 90 minutes of a match is what generates the drama that attracts people to the sport and makes us fans. 

Scotland 2 – Liechtenstein 1 To see a game dramatically turn in the 7^th minute of stoppage time (2minutes more than the minimum required) and see a side go from total disaster to total glee, it never stops to amaze.

Hampden Park had started to empty as stoppage time dragged on and a new low point in Scottish football seemed to have been found.  Facing Liechtenstein, who sat 100 places below in the FIFA rankings, you would assume a home win was certain but at the clock turned to 96 minutes it was one all, and this was after Scotland had already come from a goal down. 

I took a corner in the, what turned out to be, final minute with the last touch of the game to separate the sides.  It was a fine header from Stephen McManus and a very welcome 3 points in the qualification campaign but should it have been celebrated as much as it was?

Ultimately you can only beat who is in front of you but when the opposition is of such a low calibre, a last gasp win at home should not be treated with such joy.  Admittedly there will be relief but, you would hope, it will pass quickly when even the players should be saying “it was Liechtenstein!!”.

But is also showed us how far the standing and expectations of Scotland has drifted in recent years after.

It is now 12 years since Scotland managed to qualify for a major tournament and on the showing of the first 2 qualifiers for Euro 2012, let us assume it will soon be 14 years, before the next attempt starts.  After 5 World Cups and 2 Euro between 1974 to 1998 it looks like the well is now dry and qualification seems so far away after the highs of the John Collins wink at the Stade de France on 10^th June 1998.  Yet it was another day that ended in disappointment but for 70 minutes, Scotland matched was what viewed as the best team in the world, but what fun it was.

The players joy tonight seemed genuine but the crowd around them, what was left, seemed embarrassed to be celebrating this last minute victory.

In the pantheon of results where will this sit?

I doubt it will register along with the two victories over France in the failed qualification to Euro 2008 or to go back further, the success against the Netherlands in 1978 with Archie Gemmill’s famous goal.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Maribor vs Hibernian
First Leg, Third Qualifying Round, Europa League
Stadion Ljudski vrt, Maribor, Slovenia
Thursday, July 29th 2010
1930 (UK Time)

Hibernian kick off their almost inaugural early European football humiliations tomorrow night against Slovenia’s most successful club, NK Maribor, in the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League. Thankfully us Hibs fans no longer have to put ourselves through the ritual humiliation of the old Inter-Toto cup, which has seen Hibs tumble out pathetically to the likes of Elfsborg, Odense and FK Vetra in the past decade. 

But who are NK Maribor? Hibernian assistant Brian Rice has been sent to scout them, and took in their second league game of the season at the weekend, in order to pinpoint their threats and weaknesses. As previously mentioned Maribor are Slovenia’s most successful league club with 6 titles, and boast a management team that includes ex-Slovenian internationalists Zlatko Zahovic (who also played for Valencia and Benfica) and Darko Milanic, both of whom represented their country at Euro 2000.

Soaring temperatures in the picturesque city of Maribor, which lies on the river Drava, have also given some fans cause for concern; many perhaps remembering Scotland’s disastrous early qualification attempts two years ago in Macedonia in similarly sweltering temperatures.

After an intensive 4 game tour of Holland, which saw Hibs play 4 Eredivise sides (Vitesse Arnhem, ADO Den Haag, NEC Nijmegen and Heracles) and only register 1 victory, the team will be eager to prove that these tough friendly fixtures will provide excellent preparation for a crack at qualifying for the Europa League group stages. 

The tie also provides the majority of Hibs fans to get their first glimpse of how the team is shaping up for the new season, with the return leg at Easter Road on the 5th of August. Supporters will be keen to see new signings Michael Hart, David Stephens and Edwin De Graaf in action; Hibs gaffer John Hughes using the summer break to strengthen and tighten up his squad. 

However, Hughes will no doubt still rely heavily on the quality of strikers Riordan and Stokes, who virtually dragged Hibs screaming and kicking into these qualifiers after a poor end to the 2009/2010 domestic campaign.

Hibernian do have a relatively respectable European pedigree having reached the Semi Finals of both the European Cup (now the Champions League) and the Fairs Cup (effectively now the Europa League), as well as twice reaching the Quarter Finals of that same competition. 

However these European sojourns date back to the 1950s and 1960s, firmly rooted in the memories of a dwindling number of supporters. While the club still regularly competed in the UEFA Cup in the 1970s, it was with little success and Hibs have failed to penetrate the consciousness of European football ever since, with inglorious defeats in the first round of the UEFA Cup to Dnipro, AEK Athens and Anderlecht providing the only entertainment in the past 20 years.

Hibs, then, will be keen to prove to themselves and their fans that change is on the way, and that change begins tomorrow night in the blazing sunshine of Slovenia.

Maribor vs Hibernian Coverage

No television or radio coverage seems available at the moment, however the official Hibernian website is investigating the possibility of either streaming the game live or reporting on it via a radio link for its members.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News