Fuzzy Dunlop Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 When I was so young that I couldn't properly comprehend football, it stuck in my mind that Marco Van Basten was the greatest player ever. I had a Milan shirt and everything. I met him a few years ago in a hospitality tent at the Alfred Dunhill cup. I marked out, but he was cool about it, I'm sure he gets it a lot. Speaking of Van Basten and comprehending, I remember my 7 year old child mind not being able to comprehend how a guy scored 4 goals in one match like Van Basten did in a random European Cup match. At that age, for whatever reason, possibly because I hadn't seen it done before, scoring 4 in a professional football match was unbelievable to me. Then I heard George Best scored 6 in a match and I damn near wet myself, which was normal for me at that age but that's besides the point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Love that topic you guys are discussing right now. I can´t think of any German players, simply because while the majority of players I disliked were playing at Bayern, they sooner or later became part of the national squad, which is a team I supported and support vividly, making them part of a team I support. I would say there could be the exception of Stefan Effenberg from 1994 on (excluding a very short two game in stint in 1998), who was a great player I liked seeing despite playing for teams I rooted against or didn´t care for. I tried my best to dislike the original Ronaldo and even denied to admitting his class until the very late stages of his career, but as of now I think he might have been the best player to ever walk on any pitch on earth. The guy had consecutive career ending injuries BEFORE peaking and scoring 8 goals in a World Cup in 2002 (!!! not the high scoring eras of the 50ies to 80ies, in 2002 !!!), won European cups, national championships and was part of two WC winning squads, having a final appearance in 1998 aswell. He was part of numerous great squads and had an amazing career, he had speed, technique and strength and was a great finisher. But as I admitted (not without shame), when I was a teenager and young man, I was unable to accept his greatness, mostly because he didn´t play for teams I liked and because German media tends to overhype players from other footballing countries to a ridiculous degree. It was different with Ronaldinho, who afair never played for a club or national squad I care for but whom I always liked, simply because he seemed to have genuine fun while playing footie. Raul I respect and love. I don´t hate on the Spanish national team or Real Madrid, but I don´t support them either. I just think it´s really great to see a guy as loyal as him and I´m happy he had an amazing career, although I think it´s a shame that big WC or EC trophy eluded him.Speaking of Spanish players, I loved Gaizka Mendietta too! That guy was awesome I think. Out of the Netherlands, another of our big rivals, I respected and liked van Basten, Gullit and Bergkamp. All of the were tremendous players, especially the first two hurt as quite a lot in competetive games in the late 80ies and early 90ies. They probably got off easily because of Frank Rikjard taking all the heat for spitting on Rudi Voeller in the 1990 Round of the last 16 match in Italy. As of today, Pirlo is an Italian national squad player (Germany - Italy rivalry, I guess you guys know what I´m aiming at) and played for no club I ever thought positively off, but damn, that guy is such fun to watch and seems to have an incredible aura. Everything he does he seems to be using wits and grace for, and I admire him for it. That guy is amazing!Oh, and since we have a lot of England supporters around here, I have not forgotten about you and "our" rivalry. A former goalkeeper myself, I was always a big fan of David Seaman. He was not the great GK some try to make out of him, but he was good and to me, he had the most awesome looks I have seen on players. That hair, that moustache, amazing! There was a period where he looked like damned lion!Alan Shearer was an amazing type of forward who wasn´t afraid to go one on one and I really liked him for it. Also there was something about him that turned him into a likeable lad despite never being on any of "my" teams or clubs.Last but not least, I always found David Beckham a great player for his amazing vision and passing. He had severe lack in some departments and his image and his pretty boy looks did much damage in the eyes of many England supporters from what I gathered, but that guy was pretty damn good at stuff I hold in high regard and I liked him for it. I wish we could get his crosses and set pieces this upcoming WC... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo-Yo's Roomie Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Scholes is my favourite non-Ram. I always liked goal-scoring midfielders and Scandinavians, so I liked guys like Allan Nielsen, Oyvind Leonhardsen and, more obviously, Ljundberg. Davor Suker. Henry. Delvecchio, Montella and Buffon are my Italians of choice. I loved 'front-five' era Spurs, so am fond of a lot of those guys, Klinsmann and Ilie Dumitrescu in particular. Dan Petrescu. Weird guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Guillermo Amor, Sa Pinto, Rui Costa and Clarence Seedorf. And Del Piero. I'll stop now Nesta, Vieri, Thuram, Totti... Vieri was so awesome for a few years, damn it. Football has never been as fun for me as the mid to late 90s. I remember Match magazine doing a comic strip called Dan's Pet Rescue and I haven't called him anything else since. Although I probably haven't spoken about him in 15 years haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Guillermo Amor, Sa Pinto, Rui Costa and Clarence Seedorf. And Del Piero. I'll stop now Nesta, Vieri, Thuram, Totti... Vieri was so awesome for a few years, damn it. Football has never been as fun for me as the mid to late 90s. There's a magic spot from say, ages 10-16 where football was the greatest thing ever - going out in the morning with a ball, getting a bunch of lads together, and playing till the sun started to disappear. If you couldn't get enough guys, a few of you would just play "volleys". Flipping immediately to the back pages of the evening newspaper during the summer to read all the latest transfer gossip. Watching Football Focus every Saturday. The FA Cup Final being a huge thing, and sitting watch the hours of pre-game buildup. Getting Match or Shoot or 90 Minutes and plastering your room with posters. Watching a scrambled Sky Sports because it cost too much to actually get it. And then at a certain age, other interests attract your attention - music, girls, university. And then at some stage, football brings you back in and you spend your later years trying to relive that childhood magic. But it never feels the same. I remember before we had cable, going to a friend's house and he had Eurosport, showing highlights from various leagues around Europe. The Dutch league, the French league, the Portuguese league. THE PORTUGUESE LEAGUE!! It was all so amazingly exotic. Nowadays, I theoretically have access to whatever I want, and a handful of games a week is all I can manage. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo-Yo's Roomie Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Don't forget Chinese football on Channel 4. With Statto on commentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Guillermo Amor, Sa Pinto, Rui Costa and Clarence Seedorf. And Del Piero. I'll stop now Nesta, Vieri, Thuram, Totti... Vieri was so awesome for a few years, damn it. Football has never been as fun for me as the mid to late 90s. There's a magic spot from say, ages 10-16 where football was the greatest thing ever - going out in the morning with a ball, getting a bunch of lads together, and playing till the sun started to disappear. If you couldn't get enough guys, a few of you would just play "volleys". Flipping immediately to the back pages of the evening newspaper during the summer to read all the latest transfer gossip. Watching Football Focus every Saturday. The FA Cup Final being a huge thing, and sitting watch the hours of pre-game buildup. Getting Match or Shoot or 90 Minutes and plastering your room with posters. Watching a scrambled Sky Sports because it cost too much to actually get it. And then at a certain age, other interests attract your attention - music, girls, university. And then at some stage, football brings you back in and you spend your later years trying to relive that childhood magic. But it never feels the same. I remember before we had cable, going to a friend's house and he had Eurosport, showing highlights from various leagues around Europe. The Dutch league, the French league, the Portuguese league. THE PORTUGUESE LEAGUE!! It was all so amazingly exotic. Nowadays, I theoretically have access to whatever I want, and a handful of games a week is all I can manage. I barely watch anything that isnt Liverpool and dont care about internationals. The 10 year old FSW would be disgusted. Thzt post is exactly dead on though, maybe the most nailed on summary of my childhood I could even consider haha. Except I never read Shoot... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Great to hear others played volleys aswell. Since I read about the Swedes from the mid 90ies, I wanted to add they had a tremendous goalie in Thomas Ravelli and "Henke" Larsson (back when he had the dreads and was more of a "young talent super sub") aswell. It´s a shame they couldn´t string together a run their quality of players deserved, but Brolins horrific injury ripped out their heart and basically left the team for that. They were a fun team and I vividly remember their third place finish in 1994. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Magnificent 7 Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 I liked the Swedes as I saw Sweden v. Russia in Detroit (Silverdome) in '94. Dahlin was great. That was the first match that ever had natural grass indoors. Swede fans outnumbered the Russians about 3-1. I also had the fortune to see a young Henrik Larsson play ( a late sub), before he came to Celtic...not knowing he would be my all-time hero in a few years time. Other players I loved were Romario (I have a Barca shirt with his name on it from that era), Prosinecki (awesome player), Faustino Asprilla, Hagi & Stoichkov, Ivanov (Werewolf guy), Sammer, Ariel Ortega, Riquelme more recently, Dino Baggio instead of Robert, Donadoni, McGrath and all the Irish players, Bergkamp, etc. etc. I love International football, and don't and will never get why a lot of people dislike it these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Roy Hodgson, CAHM ORRRN INGURLAND ETC. Also you know who was awesome? Temuri Ketsbaia. Crazy fucker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 I liked the Swedes as I saw Sweden v. Russia in Detroit (Silverdome) in '94. Dahlin was great. That was the first match that ever had natural grass indoors. Swede fans outnumbered the Russians about 3-1. I also had the fortune to see a young Henrik Larsson play ( a late sub), before he came to Celtic...not knowing he would be my all-time hero in a few years time. Other players I loved were Romario (I have a Barca shirt with his name on it from that era), Prosinecki (awesome player), Faustino Asprilla, Hagi & Stoichkov, Ivanov (Werewolf guy), Sammer, Ariel Ortega, Riquelme more recently, Dino Baggio instead of Robert, Donadoni, McGrath and all the Irish players, Bergkamp, etc. etc. I love International football, and don't and will never get why a lot of people dislike it these days. I think it is partly because it feels so economic these days and while people get that club footie is a business, it´s kind of hard to see international footie the same way. Especially the politics surrounding World Cups and EUROs disgust me, but I still love the game and the vibe, especially during the group stages of a tourney. And despite my personal concerns about "my" team, I´m going to enjoy this summer and the upcoming World Cup quite a bit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 I love International football, and don't and will never get why a lot of people dislike it these days. I've mentioned this before, but the Spain/Ireland round of 16 game at the 2002 world cup was the game where I went from being moderately interested in that game from Yurop like I had been since the 94 world cup, playing a video game of it every couple years, and instead became a real fan of the sport. Then again I also remember pissing around in a computer class in high school 1998, following text updates of Scotland/Brazil from the France world cup. I was always a hard worker when it came to finding ways to avoid work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy Dunlop Posted June 9, 2014 Share Posted June 9, 2014 Speaking of Shoot magazine, I remember when Joe Cole was 15 or 16, they said unequivocally that he'd be football's first £30 million player and was as much a guarantee to be the best player in the world as you could get. 15 years later and he couldn't get a game for West Ham. On a disappointing note, during Soccer Aid yesterday, Edgar the Pitbull Davids allowed lower than Z list 'friend' of Robbie Williams, Jonathan Wilkes (you know, THE Jonathan Wilkes) to go toe to toe with him. http://youtu.be/F6oq3iJaKzM I haven't decided yet whether getting booked during a fucking charity match for UNICEF redeems him or not, I do know Jaap Stam would have gutted Wilkes with his bare hands and used his femur as a toothpick though. Also, allow me to take a second to big up the postal workers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-27761336 Wouldn't use that rag to wipe my arse with and not just because I find toilet paper to be a much better option for that particular job. The fuck would anyone even want a free copy of that dogshit newspaper? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red is Dead Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Soccer aid was a fun match to watch - mourinho coming on pitch to hack down olly murs. Adam Richmans blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance. Nicky Byrne scoring a peach of a goal against Theakston. Couldnt have done it any better if he'd taken it up and put it where he wanted to... And Clarence Seedorf steamrolling over the english defence to get onto a beautifully weighted cross by Cabrera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 EDIT, got mixed up and put this in the wrong thread, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy Dunlop Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 For no other reason than YouTube exists and has stuff like this on it, Muhammad Ali takes time out from training for a fight to smack talk his most formidable foe yet: I'm pretty sure Clough could have taken him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 You haven't seen the Cloughie movie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReiseReise Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 That´s so amazing for I checked out a Clough documentary just yesterday. Seemed to be able to do a lot with very little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy Dunlop Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Aye, I'm a complete Brian Clough nerd. Saw The Damned United, I like Sheen as him and he probably did a better job as him than anyone else could have because no one could do Clough justice and you can't go wrong with Broadbent/Meaney/Spall/Al Capone in a really bad ginger wig as Bremner but it still felt, I dunno, bland. Reise, not sure if it was this one you saw, but ITV did a documentary few years back that's pretty much one of the best sports documentaries I've ever seen. Part 1 of 7: http://youtu.be/szDtu9EENQA The press treat Mourinho as a one man rent-a-quote talking head God but he ain't got shit on Clough. I know his pals in the press like to lick Redknapp's old balls too and use the 'greatest manager England never had, with respect to Brian Clough' schtick about him all the time but it's, like, shit, Brian Clough won league titles with Derby and Notts Forest, Brian Clough won the European Cup twice running, Brian Clough had Muhammad Ali cut a promo on him and Harry Redknapp got hit with a football during an interview once (NSFW due to his blue language): 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 I've never seen a "Redknapp is the greatest manager England never had" talking point. That would infuriate me beyond all known levels considering Redknapp isn't great by any possible metric. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Yeah, never heard of that one either. Who's ludicrous enough to even claim that shit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Henry Winter. Martin Samuel. I keep forgetting his name but theres the dickhead who just wrote a fucking love letter to the owl congratulating him for making the world cup with England. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 PADDY FUCKIN BARCLAY everyone go look it up. It's amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuzzy Dunlop Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Bunch of the red top 'journalists' (which might explain it actually). I only mention that '...with respect to Brian Clough' line in particular because guy from the Daily Mirror (I know, I know) used that exact line in an article the day after QPR got promoted and was damn near orgasmic because his pal was back in the Premiership. But yeah, their indignation when the the FA dared not give him the England job was hilarious, he was compared with Clough probably since Portsmouth won the FA Cup but it got worse after the England thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Yeah one FA Cup in a billion years with a squad that cost more than the club could afford...or two European cups with a bunch of nobodies and journeymen. Redknapp is a droopy faced bung taking cunt. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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