Sports Then and Now

U.S. Gold Medalists & members of the USWNT, Alex Morgan and Sydney LeRoux paid HOMAGE to their fellow Olympians for Halloween.

Morgan & LeRoux Are NOT Impressed

Alex Morgan did her best McKayla Morgan “Not Impressed” smirk. Teammate Sydney Leroux also took her shot at the famous U.S. gymnast frown.

Makes you miss the Summer Olympics doesn’t it?

H/T Goes To Die Hard Sport.

Ronaldo Rules The Pitch & Social Media.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is ARGUABLY the best soccer player on the earth (unless you are a fan of Lionel Messi), but there is NO DISPUTING that he is the social media king. Ronaldo just eclipsed an eye popping 50 million fans on his Facebook page on Monday.

He thanked his fans:

Reaching 50.000.000 likes is unbelievable …I want to thank you, you you, you and everyone who have been supporting me all these years. I really want us to keep sharing all the good moments together – and the best is still to come. THANK YOU ALL

The post was shared 2,192 times, has 208, 934 likes and over 13,ooo comments. That is fan engagement at it’s BEST.

Ronaldo also took to Twitter to acknowledge his 13M followers for their support as well:

I really want us to keep sharing all the good moments together – and the best is still to come.THANK YOU ALL #50M

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 15, 2012

Ronaldo’s social media status is simply incredible. His 50M fans on Facebook accounts for 5% of users WORLDWIDE.

He has more fans than Real Madrid, the team he plays for.

Ronaldo is only 27 years old and he has many more years in front of him to dominate the pitch and the internet.

The world is his for the TAKING….

H/T To NESN.com.

As football fans all over Europe ready themselves for the Champions League Group Stage draw this week, Liverpool fans will be looking the other way whilst remembering those halcyon days of the late 70s, early 80s when it was their club who were the best in Europe.

Liverpool won the first of their five European Cups back in 1977 with a team that had been put together by their legendary manager, Bill Shankly. It was just sad that he had retired by the time the team won the Trophy and the plaudits were taken by his replacement Bob Paisley.

The 1977 team still had several of the greats Shankly brought to Anfield, players such as Tommy Smith, an uncompromising defender and dedicated Liverpool player. Ian Callaghan one of the most reliable of all wing players as well as captain Emlyn Hughes, known as “Crazy Horse” to his team mates. The star of the show however was Kevin Keegan who had announced some months previously that he would be leaving the club at the end of that season to play for Hamburg in Germany.

The Reds won the final against Borussia Monchengladbach by 3-1 with the goals coming from Terry McDermott, Smith and a penalty by Phil Neal. The win gave them the distinction of becoming only the third British Club to win Europe’s most coveted Soccer trophy, following in the footsteps of Celtic, winners 10 years previously in 1967 and Manchester United who won in 1968. Read the rest of this entry →

Some soccer players are born great, some achieve greatness and some players have greatness thrust upon them – in the case of French soccer legend, Michel Platini it was all three.

After making his professional debut, just shy of his 18^th birthday in 1973 for FC Nancy, the team his Italian father played for and later directed, Platini took a good year or two before making his presence and ability tell. He suffered an injury in his first full season, which saw Nancy relegated, but after returning to the side the following year, he became their most important player. That season, he scored 17 goals from midfield, many of them from free kicks, to ensure that Nancy went straight back up to the top flight of French soccer again, while at the same time capturing the attention of several of France’s bigger clubs as well as the French national side.

Platini was selected in the French squad to compete in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and although the French team did not achieve very much, Platini for reasons that remain spurious, because much of his personal play was outstanding, was made the scapegoat for the disappointing performances by the French fans. That situation was to come to a head the following season in an away game against St Etienne whose fans jeered Platini throughout the match until he was replaced after suffering an ankle injury.

It was with some irony therefore when Platini, whose contract with Nancy had ended, signed for St Etienne a year later in 1979. Platini stayed with St Etienne for three years during which time they won the French League title in 1981 and were runners up in two French Cup Final. However, the success the club craved for, a win in the European Cup, was not forthcoming and Platini was allowed to leave in 1982 ; his destination was Italy to play for Juventus. Read the rest of this entry →

Abby Wambach's improbable goal in the final seconds set up the USA for victory over Brazil.

On the 12th anniversary of the biggest victory in United States women’s soccer history, the USA women’s squad pulled off a miracle that may eventually prove to be just as significant as their 1999 World Cup win over China.

For most of their quarterfinal matchup against Brazil it looked like another nail was being put in the coffin of soccer in the United States.

After the U.S. men’s team was the victim of awful officiating during the 2010 World Cup and FIFA by-passed the U.S. for hosting a future World Cup, the way it appeared the U.S. women were going to lose to Brazil would serve as another blow against keeping the casual fan interested in soccer.

The U.S. scored early following a defensive miscue by Brazil and maintained that lead midway through the second half.

Then as Brazil superstar Marta and American Rachel Buehler raced with their arms seemingly connected into the box, Marta fell to the ground and earned a penalty kick. While it wasn’t shocking that a penalty was called, it was a bit surprising that Buehler was given a red card considering that both players were going for the ball and there didn’t appear to be any malicious intent.

But if that wasn’t bad enough, what transpired next was even more frustrating for fans of the USA. Read the rest of this entry →

Of course the Champions League was not the original name of Europe’s premier soccer competition before it changed from the European Cup in 1992 after the new format and Champions League name was introduced by UEFA. Before that, it had always been a straightforward knock out competition, with each round being played over two matches on a home and away basis, until the final which was just one match. It was competed for by 16 teams who had won their country’s domestic championship with the final, like it is now, played in a stadium of a pre-selected country.

Celtic, as all involved with Soccer will know, became the first club from Britain to win the European Cup, which they achieved in 1967 against the formidable Inter Milan team, who had won the tournament in both 1965 and 1966. Celtic were complete underdogs, but few outside Scotland realised that the team, that would become known as the ‘Lisbon Lions’ had developed hugely and quickly under the guidance of their manager, Jock Stein and boasted a squad of players that could play at International level with many of them being the best in Europe in their positions.

Celtic in fact in 1967 had only just begun their run of success under Stein that eventually brought them nine consecutive Scottish League titles, between 1966 and 1974, Under Stein they also won eight Scottish Cups and six Scottish League Cups and reached a further European Cup Final in 1970 becoming the first British Club to reach two European Cup Finals; unfortunately they lost that one by 1-2 to Dutch side, Feyenoord.

In the first round of the 1967 competition, Celtic easily saw off the challenge of FC Zurich, winning 5-0 on aggregate, while the other two British teams who had qualified, Liverpool from England and Linfield from Northern Ireland, also qualified.

Celtic also won their second round tie with French Champions, Nantes, winning both legs 3-1, but Liverpool under Bill Shankly were knocked out by an Ajax team that included a certain Johan Cruyf in their team, but Linfield shocked everybody, upsetting the Euro odds, qualifying for the Quarter Final after an emphatic aggregate victory over Valerenga of Norway.

It was a lot tougher for Celtic in the quarter final, particularly after losing the first leg by 0-1 to FC Vojvodina of Yugoslavia. They managed to equalise that score after an hour of play in the second leg in Glasgow, but they had to wait until the last minute to win the match when captain, Billy McNeil headed home. Linfield very nearly qualified too only losing on aggregate by 2-3 to CSKA Sofia.

Celtic were drawn to face the great Czech side of the day Dukla Prague and won the first leg by 3-1 in Glasgow meaning that they had one foot in the final with a resolve that told football followers everywhere that they were not going to fall victim of fate like other British clubs had at this stage in the tournament in the past. Far from it, Celtic were going to the final in Lisbon and were not going to be stopped by any team; and as we all know they got there by drawing the away leg 0-0 and creating history by becoming the first British team to make the final. It was now just a question of winning the final against Inter.

Celtic fans arrived in the Portuguese capital in their thousands, many without tickets, but such was the optimism it became difficult to believe that Celtic could actually lose. However, a bad tackle from full back Tommy Craig on the skilful winger Capellini, in the box gave the Italian Champions a penalty which Italian International, Sandro Mazzola converted to give his side the lead, which stayed that way until half time.

Celtic who played a very quick passing game in a 4-2-4 formation began to get to grips with the match in the second half. Being behind possibly helped their cause as they knew that they had to attack to get on level terms and attack they did. They ran the Italians ragged until finally in the 62nd minute Full back Tommy Gemmell smashed the ball past the hapless Inter goalkeeper from 25 yards.

After that the game was all but over, Inter had no idea how to stop the Celtic momentum and the ‘Hoops’ just continued where they left off, with wave after wave of attacks. The game was decided with five minutes to go when Gemmell slid the ball into the path of Bobby Murdoch whose subsequent shot was deflected in by top scorer Steve Chalmers. Celtic had won, and the ‘Lions of Lisbon’ legend was born. Amazingly the Celtic team that day of Simpson, Craig, McNeill (capt.), Clark, Gemmell, Murdoch, Auld, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox were all born within a thirty mile radius of Glasgow and most had been nurtured by the club from youth level upwards, an amazing achievement for home grown talent in any sportnot just soccer and one that should and is still fondly acknowledged and remembered to this day.

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