The Great Soccer Forum Write Off (Group 2)

Dub13

The Great Soccer Forum Write Off (Group 1)

Again the top 2 go into the final.Here is a link to Group 1

Please use This Thread to discuss the article's.




Article 8

The rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool is legendary. For over 110 years, both of these clubs have pitted their respective wits against each other in the North West Derby. Both teams are the most successful clubs to come out of England, with a total of 74 major trophies between them.
The rivalry between both teams can be traced back to the rivalry between the cities, when Liverpool was famous for it’s port (which is now a World Heritage Site) Manchester had the edge in Industrial manufacturing and output (and was the centre of administration for the Industrial Revolution in Britain)
In more recent times, both teams have had periods of dominance in the English top flight, and there are various references on fora and websites to each team being the “Greatest English Football Team ever”
In the 1970’s and 1980’ Liverpool were the dominant team of the two. In the 72’-73’ season they won what was to become the first of 11 league titles, in this period, a run, which ended with the league win in the 89’-90’ season when they topped the league by 9 points.
They also won 4 European Cups and were the first team to claim the treble in that league, when they won the League, League Cup and European Cup in 1984, This treble is viewed as the plastic treble by Manchester United fans, as Manchester United were to go on to win The Champions League, F.A. Cup and League title in 1999.
From 72’ up until 89’ Manchester United and Liverpool met 30 times, with Liverpool winning 10 times, Manchester United winning 9 times and 11 draws between the teams. The results are an indication of the intensity of the rivalry between the teams, as their league positions showed that throughout that period Liverpool were by far the more dominant team.
Liverpool’s success is mainly attributed to two Managers. Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. While a lot of credit has to be given to Shankly, he took over in 1959 with Liverpool at the bottom of the 2nd division, by far most plaudits must go to Bob Paisley.
Paisley took over the club in 1974, when Shankly unexpectedly quit, and managed Liverpool for 9 seasons. He won a trophy in every season, bar one. Shankly is rightly praised for his bonding effect on the club, but it is Paisley who deserves the accolades for the dominance of the team in the 70’s and 80’s.
Many great games had taken place between the two teams in this period, not least of which was a game on the 4th of April in 1988. Liverpool had lost the previous year’s league to their local rivals, Everton, and were determined to take back what they perceived to be rightly theirs. Manchester United, who had not won a league title since the 66/67 season, were being managed by a young scot called Alex Ferguson, who had taken charge of the team in 1986.
The game was played at Anfield on a cold April Monday. England Captain Bryan Robson, gave United the lead after 2 minutes, after Gary Gillespie failed to clear a cross. Liverpool found their stride after the early knock back, and began to dominate possession, and Peter Beardsley scored a fantastic team goal after 37 minutes, to bring the sides level. 3 minutes later, Gillespie made up for his previous mistake, by heading home from a John Barnes cross. The half finished up, and straight after the break McMahon scored for Liverpool from all of 25 yards, to demoralize the United team.
United threw on Jesper Olsen and Norman Whiteside early in the second half, but the wind was taken out of Manchester United’s players and fans 5 minutes later, when Colin Gibson was sent off for a foul on Steve McMahon.
Undeterred, and driven by the belief of their captain, United threw themselves forward, and were rewarded by a goal from Bryan Robson after 65 minutes to bring the score back to 3-2. After 77 minutes, Gordon Strachan finished a fine pressing move by United, to get the scores even at 3-3. There then followed an intense period of ebb and flow where both teams had periods of dominance, and Liverpool appeared to capitalise when Steve McMahon netted against Chris Turner, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.
After the game, Alex Ferguson launched a stinging attack on the officials, and also had an angry exchange with Kenny Daglish as he was been interviewed. He claimed that he knew why most teams “came away from here biting their tongues and choking on their own vomit” and claimed that it “would have been a miracle to win here” while claiming that he was not “having a go at the officials”. Little did we know that this was a sign of things to come!
Liverpool won their last League title in 1990, with Manchester United winning their first since the 60’s under Alex Ferguson in the 92/93 season. They would go on to win 10 premiership titles under Alex Ferguson, while their bitter rivals would not win any, the closest they would come would be a 2nd place finish in 01/02 season.
Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United in 1986. He had quite an indifferent start to his tenure at Old Trafford, and there were calls for him to be sacked in the 89/90 season, after United suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat to their local rivals Manchester City. Ferguson would go on to say that while those times were difficult, he was never in danger of being sacked, and that the matter was never discussed by the board.
A lot of Liverpool fans give credit for Manchester United’s current dominance to an ex-Liverpool legend, Alan Hansen. Who played with Liverpool for 14 years between 77 and 91.
Manchester United were going through a period of change, and the average age of the team was less than 20 years. Stars such as Bryan Robson, Paul McGrath and Steve Bruce had long left and Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis were sold. Alex Ferguson had introduced an element of youth and urgency into the team. United were beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa, and on that evening’s Match of the Day, Alan Hansen (in)famously quipped that “you'll never win anything with kids” in reference to United. United went on to win the league title that year, the treble in 99 and to totally dominate English top-level football throughout the 90’s and into the new millennium. Alex Ferguson was given a knighthood in 1999 for services to football.
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Dub13

Article 9

Football Nostalgia

Football in the 1980’s was a simpler game and in many ways a total opposite of today’s serious business. Liverpool ruled the roost and Man Utd fans were suffering long years without a league win. Attendances were falling even though tickets were affordable, but hooliganism played a part in driving attendances down. Brian Robson, John Barnes and Liam Brady were just great players, not bad managers, as they are often remembered as now.

On the face of things, things were worse then than they are now. Pitches were horrible in the winter, more resembling a ploughed field at times rather than a top flight playing surface. Hooliganism was rife in the game with incidents such as Luton’s ground being torn asunder by Millwall ‘fans’, and plastic pitches were booming with clubs such as Luton, Preston, Oldham and QPR installing them.

Most of these aspects are unrecognisable from the game now where TV dictates schedules and finances, and players are paid more per year that most clubs annual turnover back in the 80’s.

However, the romanticism of the game was heightened back then, or at least it was for an Irish kid growing up in fascination of the English League Division 1. Reading Roy of the Rovers and Shoot was a highlight of the week. Updating the simplistic league ladders or collecting the sticker albums was a near obsession. Fighting with an older sister as to whether the only TV in the house would be tuned into ITV’s Big Match or MTUSA on RTE on a Sunday afternoon was a weekly event.

Super Sunday on Sky Sports doesn’t quite live up to the memory of some of the anticipation of big matches then. Brian Moore and John Motson were not heard often enough to bore/infuriate like Martin Tyler has done in the age of saturation coverage.

The last few years, unless my team have been playing in them, the League Cup and FA Cup finals have been near non events, but in the 1980’s these were days that excited. Brighton in 1983, Coventry in 1987 (then getting beaten by Sutton in the 3rd round the following year), Wimbledon in 1988 all competed in cup finals that are remembered by many for various reasons, but I have to struggle to remember who played in the last few FA Cup finals. I still remember that Kevin Moran was the first person to get sent off in an FA Cup Final, and that John Aldridge was the first person to miss a penalty in one, whereas I can’t even remember the score from the Portsmouth - Cardiff one this year. Senility? Possibly. Over saturation diluting a once great spectacle? Probably.

This sense of almost apathy at times boils down to the over hyping of all things football by the media, both TV/Radio and print. The transfer window has added a new level of manic reporting to the seasons, with months of lead in speculation. Reading autobiographies of players from 20 years or so ago shows how much things have changed. Can you imagine Torres or Ronaldo ever having to clean senior players boots while being on the fringes of a first team breakthrough?

Some things don’t change though, and despite all the above, this boils down to the sense of nervous tension before a big game involving your team. The butterflies, hiding behind a pillow when holding onto a slender lead in the semi finals, the pits of despair when losing an important match, and the trips over to see the team you support from a foreign shore.

I think, though, that the sentiment in this piece can best be summed up with the following sentence:

Bring back League Ladders.

Dub13

Article 10


How to Build a National League

In recent years, the FAI League of Ireland has seen just about every dark aspect of soccer that you can get. Clubs folding, registration issues, unpaid players and more recently, match-fixing issues, all against the backdrop of poor attendances and national apathy. Despite this, there has been a feeling of hope in Irish soccer, the 2005 Genesis report was damning of the National League structure, leading to the reorganization of the league into the FAI league of Ireland, a move which has seen a greater emphasis on marketing and branding of club soccer and a restructuring of the league aiming towards greater sustainability. However, even the most ardent optimist will admit that the process has been slow. Many of the problems have occurred since the FAI re-branding of the league and the premier division has yet to be reduced to 10 teams and the league suffers from a poor public perception, despite small rises in the club attendances in the last two seasons, continued glimmers of success in Europe, and a nation that is still obsessed with the beautiful game, the league teams rarely sees full houses unless playing meaningless friendly matches with their more glamorous English counterparts.

League of Ireland supporters will say that real progress takes time and for a prime example of how a league can blossom from an unfashionable amateur set up to a competitive multi-million dollar franchise, one need look no further than the MLS. Soccer, in the United States is a second-tier sport, unable to compete with the draw of mainstream college sports like football, basketball and baseball. Soccer is handicapped by the American college sports authority’s archaic rules preventing college scholars affiliating with pro-teams and locally the South American leagues have a longer history and produces better quality players than anything the USA could ever imagine. Against this backdrop, you would imagine a US national league would struggle to find any support or popularity. Despite these handicaps the MLS has managed the phenomenal feat of growing to a major franchise sport in the US in just 12 short years.

It has done so with many setbacks, Like the FAI league, MLS suffered from fluctuating support and fickle TV contracts, the desertion of key sponsors, dwindling crowds and a disastrous performances by the National team. The league itself has lost over 350 million dollars since 1996, but the signs are there that the MLS is now approaching profitability. While, like the FAI League, the MLS is founded on a backbone of homegrown players, in 2006 the league has changed salary caps to attract international superstar players (The Beckham Rule) raising the profile of clubs and attracting greater TV and sponsorship revenue. The league contrived and marketed local rivalries in order to generate local support while also focusing heavily on school and college outreach programs. The MLS also taps into local national rivalries and the large immigrant population in the 2007-initiated Superliga competition between MLS and Mexican league teams. All these have seen 2008 MLS attendances rise to an average of around 16,500, competing well with more established leagues like the NHL (16,000) and the NBA (17,000) with record attendances surpassing 54,000 (Dallas Vs New England).

So what could the FAI League do to emulate their US counterparts? The major factor influencing the US game is the fact that MLS is a single entity offering franchises for each team, as opposed to the FAI which is an umbrella body governing many individual clubs. It would be a bridge to far to hope that the Irish league ever goes down this route. One area the FAI league has emulated the MLS is in promotional strategies. With the FAI merger came a National Promotional Officer, League Director and promotional officers for each premier league clubs. Another area is the formation of the Setanta Cup a competition focusing on rivalries with the Northern Irish league. In this respect one feels the FAI League could aim a little higher with both English and Scottish league clubs offering a far more lucrative prospect for both the FAI league teams and their invited counterparts.

In the end, it all comes down to money and the FAI league simply doesn’t have the 350 million to invest in the national league to raise it to a profitable status. There is no money to improve old run down stadia (the MLS has built seven in the 12 years since formation) or to attract big name stars. Here is the real dilemma, in order to reach a higher standard, the league needs a huge investment and thus far this simply doesn’t seem likely. Better structure and funding from the FAI itself may allow improved ground facilities and better marketing strategies which will help the clubs grow. More support and coverage from the Irish media would certainly also help. If you want to see the difference this can make, you only need to look at the MLS attendance stats. In 1999, in its third season, over 32% of games had less than 10,000 supporters attending, in 2007, that figure was just 8.5%. A soccer naïve nation has managed to turn league soccer into a phenomenon in just 12 short years; a soccer obsessed nation could do worse than take notes.

Dub13

Article 11

Why do we do it?


The Beautiful Game; she can be a cruel mistress. She teases us, caresses us, taunts us and embraces us. But ultimately she abuses us and spits us out, tosses us to one side like an unwanted Christmas puppy. For every euphoric victory we experience, we know that just around the corner is the depression of a crushing defeat. So why do we keep on coming back for more?

Is it the ecstasy of hope? In the run up to the next game, be it the seven-year-old playing his first season in the under-8s six-a-side league, or the fifty-something die-hard fan in his tattered beanie-hat waiting for three o'clock on Saturday, each and every one of us has the thoughts of the goal we'll witness to clinch the victory. The little boy's mazy run before slotting it home, he can imagine himself punching the air and running over to his Dad, that proud moment. Or to be sitting in the stands of a packed stadium with the same bloke you've been going with for thirty years, the anticipation of that eye contact you make before exploding with jubilation.

Perhaps it's the delight in triumph. The elation in grabbing a win, even though the referee has unjustly sent off your central defender for an innocuous tackle. The pain we feel when a wrong has been done to us, in circumstances beyond reality, is inestimably countered the minute that whistle signals the end of the game.

Could it be feeling of schadenfreude we get when our rivals capitulate? Do we wallow in the pain of other's misery, even though we know that next week it just might be us on the receiving end of a sharp slap to the face? It certainly brings a certain sense of justification in the hatred we feel for that lot down the road when we see them crying on the television, knowing that only last week they were deriding our latest result.

Maybe we actually need the depths of the bad times, maybe we need to feel the despair of a drastic downturn in fortunes, when we know the whole world is against us. The referee and the opposition have conspired to make our worst nightmare a reality, nothing else can go wrong. And then it's six nil. Maybe we need to feel like that just so we can truly appreciate the good times for what they are, because we know they won't, they can't, last forever.

There will always be more bad times than good. Our team can't win every week, can't win every trophy on offer. We'll be knocked out more often than we'll get through to the next round, we'll finish second or third or fifteenth more often than we'll finish first. We know this, we know we won't always be on top, we know we won't always be the best. But still we return, every week, hoping for a result, delighting in triumph, because that's what keeps up going when the chips are down and the opposition fans are sticking the boot in. While the highs are few, they are always better than the lows.

Yes, The Beautiful Game has many ways of seducing us. None of us knows exactly when she started to tempt us, but all of us know that we are forever under her spell, we will keep coming back to her, no matter how she mistreats us. We love her and cherish her, nothing she ever does to us will make us look to another.

Dub13

Article 12

Moukoko's Lament

The name Ton-Ton Zola Moukoko may not mean anything to most people, yet to some he ranks with the Peles and Maradonas of this world of ours. Moukoko is probably the best example of what can happen when the line between fiction and reality is blurred.

Moukoko was born in Kinshasa in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, and at the age of 7 emigrated to Sweden with his family. In Sweden he began to play for local youth teams, and by the age of 15 was playing for Djurgardens of Stockholm. Juventus were among the clubs reporetedly interested in young Ton-Ton, but a year later he plumped for a move to Derby County.

Around this time, the legendary Championship Manager 01/02 had been released, and Moukoko was earmarked by players as a "wonderkid". Everyting began to move quite quickly for the young attacking midfielder; he was called up to the Swedish under-16 team, and at one stage was captain of Derby's under-17 team.

Just as Moukoko began to break into the reserve team, in thousands of virtual-realities; he was winning league titles, playing "in the hole" and keeping Figo and Zidane out of teams.

In actuality, Moukoko was far away from his glamorous second career. Ton-Ton had a disagreement with the Derby management over wanting to take up part-time study alongside his playing career.

Trials with several clubs followed, eventually a return to Sweden was organised by none other than Sven Goran Eriksson. A journeyman career across the Swedish lower leagues followed, with Moukoko currently plying his trade at IK Sleipner of Swedish Division 2.

The player once dubbed "The Swedish Ronaldo" had been hyped up beyond belief, with fans of one Scottish club reportedly even begging their club to take Moukoko on trial, despite having never actually witnessed him playing.

Moukoko has joined the Valhalla of former Championship Manager gods, alongide such luminaries as Nil Lamptey and Michael Duff.

Lamptey must rank as one of the most prime cases of wasted potential in footballing history. Aston Villa fans may remember the name- in fact in a 2007 poll, Lamptey was cited as one of the biggest flops in Villa history.

Lauded by Pele on his 17th birthday, Ghanaian Lamptey had the world at his feet at one stage. Scouts from Madrid to Milan salivated over his potential. Men in their underwear scoffing Pot Noodles from Aberdeen to Wexford salivated over his ability to score 40 a season on CM 00/01.

The young prodigy bided his time, eventually chose what turned out to be the wrong move, and ultimately played out his career in ther Kuwaiti and Qatari leagues. On CM, Lamptey remained a god long after his fall from the limelight.

Michael Duff is probably one of the more positive stories to come out of the aspects of CM-Superstardom. Duff began with Cheltenham Town, where he became a favourite with players of CM4. Soon Duff moved to Burnley, where he is now a regular, and has won 22 caps for Northern Ireland. CM4 fans, however, disregard his other honours and still refer to his ability to withstand 2 weeks of fines without complaint.

The one thing that ties these three players together is that their virtual careers far outstripped their real-life careers. It is perhaps a symbol of how much football has changed that a player can have a second career (sometimes without even knowing it, as in in the Moukoko case) in another world completely to the one he inhabits.

Dub13

Article 13

Has it really been only 13 years?

It was in 1995, when I was six years old, that the game of football seized me with a vice-like grip and, to this day, it refuses to let go. It has been my raison d’etre for over 13 years through my childhood, right up to the end of my teenage years this coming Saturday and surely beyond. People and places will inevitably undergo radical changes in a 13-year time period, but football is almost unidentifiable now in comparison to that life-changing summer of ’95.

Blackburn Rovers were champions of England. Chelsea and Arsenal finished 11th and 12th respectively in the Carling Premiership behind teams such as Nottingham Forest, QPR, Wimbledon and Southampton. The concept of a ‘Big Four’ did not exist. The champions one season could easily end up 7th or 8th the next, and vice versa. Of the ten league games every weekend, on average seven or eight would kick off at 3pm on Saturday. Sky Sports’ Super Sunday could come from Highbury, Burnden Park, The Dell, Filbert Street or Maine Road. Hull, Wigan and Fulham were in Division Three playing in front of crowds of less than 4,000 against Scarborough, Walsall, Cambridge and Exeter. Foreign imports were of such rarity that even the most rudimentary incomer arrived with much fanfare. The average weekly wage for a top-flight player was £3,000. And no, I did not leave out a zero.

The UEFA Champions League was very much in the growth stage of the life cycle and consisted of just 16 teams. Even the top European leagues had just one entrant to the tournament, meaning that second-placed Manchester United, AC Milan and Barcelona would have to content themselves with competing for the UEFA Cup while the likes of Grasshoppers Zurich, Rapid Vienna and Legia Warsaw were in to win the biggest prize. Bosman was a run-of-the-mill Belgian footballer striving away in his country’s domestic league and not some cheap transfer. The world record transfer fee was £13million for Italian striker Gianluigi Lentini. Serie A was widely regarded as the best league in the world and, thanks to James Richardson on Channel 4, we got to see Roberto Baggio, George Weah, Gabriel Batistuta, Gianluca Vialli and their like mesmerising us with skills that were alien to the Premiership. Remember ‘goooooooool-lazzooooo!!!!!’?

England was preparing to host the first 16-team European Championship, the expansion due to the emergence of new entities after much political upheaval in the continent earlier that decade. Nations such as Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Croatia were beginning life in modern international football. For many of these new entries, the scale of potential improvement was best highlighted by Azerbaijan’s 10-0 hammering by France. When it came to the big tournaments, there were only three or four teams with a realistic chance of winning the final. Second-tier nations were exactly that; Greece-style miracles just didn’t happen. Jack Charlton was coming to the end of his ten-year stint as Ireland manager. Roy Keane was the bright young thing of Irish football in a team that could boast experienced internationals in Ray Houghton, Packie Bonner, Andy Townsend, Niall Quinn and Paul McGrath.

What about those days when the weather was too bad to kick a ball around outside? Championship Manager and Pro Evolution? You’re having a laugh! No, chances were the rainy/cold days were passed by enjoying a good-natured game of Subbuteo. As for logging onto uefa.com to get results? Forget it; we just had to rely on magazines like Shoot and Match. On Saturday afternoons when you wanted to find out how your team was getting on, you tuned into Sports Stadium on Network 2 with Michael Lyster.

And a young boy named Theo, who is the same age as me, would have a game of football wherever he could, always dreaming of the day he turned professional and played for Arsenal and England. Even while you are reading this, there is another six-year-old out there who, in 2021, will be world famous for playing the game he loves. They say a week is a long time in politics. The last 13 years have been an eon in the world of football.