British-Jamaicans turned Jamaica around in 1997

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Canada or Canadian born Players

British Jamaicans

Jamaica international

Jamaica/Jamaican Diaspora, Caribbean Countries.

Black English players
   

     Jamaica is known for its fine athletes.  Several Jamaican-born footballers such as England's John Barnes became star players in the UK and the United States.  However, its football team never made almost any impact in the international stage.  Then, in 1997, after a 0-0 draw with Mexico, Jamaica qualified for the WC Finals in France.  Their success story was a mixture of a golden generation of homegrown talents and the mobilization of British Jamaican footballers in the English Preimer League.
        The road to the World Cup in France started four years earlier when Brazilian technical director René Simoes took over the Reggae Boyz . He turned the team from a team of "performing seals" into a team of professional players.  In 1997, they surprised everyone by finishing ahead of Mexico in the Third Round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualification and reached the Final Round.  Homegrown talents such as Warren Barrett, Theodore Whitmore, Ricardo Gardner, Walter Boyd and Onandi Lowe contributed to the campaign.

         The Final Round, however, did not go well for the Reggae Boyz.  Jamaica suffered 2 draws and 2 defeats in the first 4 games before beating El Salvador in the 5th game. On the 6th game, Jamaica began its turnaround.  They brought four British-born Jamaicans into the squad. Against Canada on September, 1997, Fitzroy Simpson, Paul Hall, Robbie Earle and Dean Burton made their debut.  The team remained undefeated for the rest of the WC Qualifiers.  They managed notable draws against the two CONCACAF superpowers, the United States and Mexico. Dean Burton would end the World Cup Qualifying campaign with 4 goals in 5 games.
           Jamaica's search for football talents in the UK did not end with the World Cup Qualfication.  They would bring in Frank Sinclair, Marcus Gayle and Darryl Powell for the WC Finals.  

Jimmy Hogan

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All-Time Team Under Bela Gutmann

Wunderteam

A relatively, unknown football coach by the name of Jimmy Hogan arrived in Vienna around 1911. Vienna in the 1910's was an interesting place.  It was the height of Viennese Coffee house culture where different ideas were exchanged.  Karl Kraus, Arthur Schnitzler, Hermann Broch, Egon Schiele, Stefan Zweig, Gustav Mahler, Ludwig Wittenstein, Gustav Klimt and Leon Trotsky were drinking coffee in cafes, developing their ideas.  This was the city where Carl Jung met Sigmund Freud in 1906.  Tito, Stalin and Adolf Hitler were also in Vienna around that period.

Jimmy Hogan was an Irishman from Lancashire who had a brief playing career.  He believed in the Scottish style of football, a game based in controlled, short passes.  His style of football was never appreciated in England. He had only brief coaching stints at the end of his career in England.  Perhaps under the free thinking era of Viennese Coffee house, his ideas were appreciated.   His arrival in Vienna would eventually lead to the evolution of both Total Football and Samba football.

A year earlier, he was coaching the Dutch national team, in which some credited him for setting up the foundation of Total Football.  Eight years after he left Holland, Jack Reynolds would take over the Dutch national team while managing the Ajax Amsterdam for 27 years.  He would build the foundation for Total Football.  At Ajax, he coached a player named Rinus Michels, who would be credited as the father of Holland's Total Football.  The connection between Jimmy Hogan and Rinus Michel's Total Football is perhaps stretched.  It was more about Jack Reynolds.

In Austria, Jimmy Hogan met Hugo Meisl.  Together, they would reshape the football system in Austria.  However, in 1911, war broke out in Europe. Hogan was forced to leave Austria as an enemy alien.  Hugo Meisl would take over the Austrian national team after Hogan's departure and held on the position for 28 more years.  The Austrians would later became known as the Wunderteam that went 14 games unbeaten between April 1931 and December 1932.  They played a beautiful style of football that were based upon Hogan's style of football, in which most historians believed to be the first Total Football.  Austria was heavy favourite to win the WC in 1934, but they were eliminated by host Italy in the semifinal by a questionable goal.  Ernst Happel who did not play under Hugo Meisl was a member of the Austrian national team from 1947 to 1958.  He later coached the Feyenoord team that won the European Cup in 1968 and then, Holland at the WC Finals in 1978.

Puskas

Meanwhile, Jimmy Hogan headed to Hungary to coach the MTK Budapest in 1914. His style inspired Hungary's football.   In 1953, Hungary destroyed England at Wembley with short passes, which marked the end of England's supremacy in world football.  Gustav Sebes , the coach of the Mighty Magyars, said after the game: "We played football as Jimmy Hogan taught us."

In Hungary, one of Hogan's players was Bela Guttman, who would became the game;s first superstar coach.  In 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary. Guttman was forced into exile.  A year later, he took a job with Sao Paulo FC in Brazil.  While in Brazil, he helped to popularise the 4-2-4 formation used by the Mighty Magyars.  Brazil would use the 4-2-4 formation to win their first WC in 1958. Brazil would also use variation of the 4-2-4 to win the World cup in 1962 and 1970.  The formation later evolved into 4-2-2-2, Brazil's iconic formation.

In 1925, Jimmy Hogan had a brief stay with Dresden SC, where he coached a young player named Helmut Schon.  In 1964, he would take over the West German national team in 1964. He took the Germans to WC victory in 1974 and an European Championship.  His team would play a German version of Total Football.  Again, the Hogan connection.

Forgotten Great Team: Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town

Bobby Robson 1981 UEFA Cup

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Ipswich Greatest All-Time Team
All-Time Team under Bobby Robson(Club only)
Manchester United All-Time Team Under Sir Alex Ferguson 
Manchester United All-Time Team Under Sir Matt Busby
Arsenal All-Time Team Under Arsene Wenger

In 1968, Bobby Robson was sacked by Fulham.  His managerial career seemed to be over.  He was married with a young famiy.  He was without money and out of job. Then, Ipswich Town gave him a chance in 1969.  He would repay them by turning the tiny club into one of the best in England.  Ipswich won the FA Cup in 1979 and then, the UEFA Cup in 1981.

1978 FA Cup

        Under Robson's 13 year-spell at Portman Road, he built the foundation of his successes through his academy.  It produced players such as Mick Mills, Alan Brazil, Trevor Whymark, Brian Talbot,  John Wark, Terry Butcher, George Burley, Mick Mills, Colin Viljoen, Kevin Beattie, and Eric Gates.   He only bought 14 players during his reign at Ipswich Town, including Allan Hunter, Paul Mariner, David Johnson and Bryan Hamilton.   Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen also arrived from Holland in an era where few foreigners played in England. 

Ipswich 1980-81

Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad: the Kuwaiti soccer chief and war hero

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West Asia(without Iran and Saudi Arabia),

     This was a well-known incident at  the WC in 1982. France was winning 3-1 against Kuwait when Alain Giresse scored a goal. However, before  the goal, some of the Kuwaiti players claimed to hear a whistle from the stands and stopped play.  Soviet referee Miroslav Stupar. initially awardedthe goal.  Then, came one of the most  bizarre moments in World Cup history.  Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad, the brother of the Kuwaiti Emir and the president of the Kuwaiti Football Association, rushed onto the pitch to remonstrate with the referee. He threatened to pull his team off the field.  Instead of standing firm, Stupar changed his mind and disallowed the goal.  France would score it again to make it 4-1.
     Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad's name would make the news again 8 years later. During the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the entire Royal family fled Kuwait,but Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad stayed behind to defend Dasman Palace, the royal residence. He died fighting the Iraqi invaders with his body guards. According to some reports, his dead body was placed in front of a tank and run over.  Allegedly, Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad had a peronal feud with Uday Hussein even before the invasion.  He was the President of the Olympic Council of Asia while Uday was was in charge of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.  The pair had clashed many times.  

Luis Suarez of Barcelona FC is named Miramontes

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Barcelona
Inter Milan
Barcelona All-Time Team for Spanish Players
Barcelona All-Time Team for Foreign Players
Inter Milan All-Time Greatest Players for Italian players
Inter Milan All-Time Team for Foreign Players
All-Time Team Under Helenio Herrera
Basque, Catalonia, Castile.
Spain without Catalan players World Cup 2010

For the younger generations, Luis Suarez of Barcelona was a Uruguayan forward who also played for Liverpool.   They probably never heard of Luis Suarez Miramontes, the Barcelona's midfield general playing in the 1950's. 
     The original Luis Suarez was probably one of Barcelona's greatest players.  He was the "Xavi" of his time.  He joined the club in 1954 from Deportivo La Coruna. Along with László Kubala, Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis, Ramallets and Evaristo, Barcelona of 1950's was considered one of the most glorious period in its history.  They won a La Liga/Copa del Generalísimo double in 1959 and a La Liga/Fairs Cup double in 1960 . Luis Suarez was crowned European Player of the Year in 1960, the first Spanish player to win the award.  In 1961, they beat Real Madrid in the first round of the European Cup.  It was Real Madrid's first ever defeat in the completion.  It marked the end of an era for the great Real Madrid side of the 1950's.  However, it did not give the Catalan side their first ever European Cup glory.  They lost to Benfica in the Final.  Benfica would win its second European Cup a year later and replaced Real Madrid as the king of Europe.  Meanwhile, Barcelona was hit with financial crisis.  They sold Luis Suarez for a world record transfer fees to Inter Milan shortly after the 1961 European Cup Final.  
       At Inter Milan, he was reunited with manager Helenio Herrera. The team would become known as "La Grande Inter".  Herrera would modify the Catenaccio system into his own style.  He would use a libero at the back so that his leftback Giacinto Facchetti could have the freedom to attack on the wing.  Luis Suarez was transformed into a deep lying playmaker and served as the main organizer on the team.  Inter Milan would win back-to-back European Cups in 1964 and 1965. 

 
          For the national team, Luis Suarez went to the World Cup in 1962; also playing under Helenio Herrera.  The team was famous for its foreign contingency that included Ferenc Puskas, Jose Santamaria and Alfredo Di Stefano, but failed to perform on the field.  Two years later, Luis Suaraez won the European Championship with Spain on home soil by beating the Soviet Union.  The Final was marked as a battle of ideologies.  Spain was under Franco's right wing government in 1964.  Spain would not win an international trophy for another 44 years.

Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona

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Real Madrid, Barcelona
Basque, Catalonia, Castile without Madrid players, Madrid Community, Andalusia
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Florentina Perez
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Miguel Munoz
Real Madrid Argentine Best XI
Real Madrid Castilla Greatest All-Time
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Foreign Players
Spain without Real Madrid and Barcelona players
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Spanish players
Barcelona Dutch Best XI
Barcelona All-Time Team for Spanish Players
Barcelona All-Time Team for Foreign Players

This blogger Artur Yanturin copied my blog page.  His entry was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.  He also copied many many of my blog entries.

Голландско-немецкое соперничество между Реалом и Барселоной

Этот блогер Артур Янтурин скопировал команду моего блога. Его запись была написана в 2020 году, а моя была загружена в 2014 году. Он также скопировал многие из моих записей в блоге.

       In the early 1970's, Barcelona became a "Dutch club" when they signed Rinus Michel, Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens. Real Madrid responded by going "German". Gunter Netzer joined Real Madrid in 1973 shortly after Cruyff signed for Barcelona. A year later, Paul Breitner arrived from Bayern Munich on the same summer that Neeskens went to Barcelona. Breitner was considered one of the most controversial transfers in football history. He was a Maoist while Franco was still alive in 1974. In 1976, Real Madrid signed Henning Jensen, a Dane playing for Borussia Mönchengladback, and then, Uli Stielike a year later, also from the same club.

      This Dutch-German rivalry in La Liga lasted from 1973 to 1979. In Cruyff's first season, Barcelona won La Liga, their first title since 1960.  However,that was Barcelona's only La Liga title(1972-73) during this period.  They also won a single Copa del Rey 1977-78. Meanwhile, Real Madrid won 4 out of the 6 league titles. They also won two Copa del Reys.  Netherlands played against West Germany in the Final of World Cup 1974. Cruyff, as most of you probably knew, was a star of that WC Finals. Netzer, however, lost his place to Wolfgang Overath.

      After Neeskens left Barcelona in 1979, Barcelona actually looked at the Bundesliga for players. They bought Allan Simonsen, a Danish teammate of Jensen and Stielike from Borussia Mönchengladback in 1979. A year later, they signed Bernd Schuster.  

Breitner vs Cruyff, Camacho looked on

Netzer and Cruyff

The Dutch legacy would continue in Barcelona. Johan Cruyff returned to Barcelona as the manager in 1988.  He  won the first ever European Cup for Barcelona in 1992 with his "Dream Team".  Ronald Koeman scored the winning goal at Wembley that night.  Louis van Gaal also had two spells as Barcelona's manager from the late 1990's until 2003.  Under him, Barcelona was loaded with Dutch players.  Ruud Hesp, Patrick Kluivert, Philip Cocu, Michael Reiziger, Winston Bogarde,  Ronald de Boer, Frank de Boer, Boudewijn Zenden, Marc Overmars and Giovanni van Bronckhorst all played for Barcelona during or between his two spells.  Frank Rijkaard took over in 2003 and he brought Edgar Davids to the club in 2004 and Mark van Bommel in 2005.

Robben and Sneijder

      Meanwhile, Real Madrid's German connection did not expand after the 1970's.   Bernd Schuster joined from Barcelona in 1988 and Bodo Illgner came in 1996.  Real Madrid had no other German players until Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira joined in 2010, and Toni Kroos in 2014.  Schuster's transfer was controversial, but it was not the same epic proportion of the transfer of Luis Figo in 2000.  Illgner would win a Champions' League trophy in 1998.  In fact, Real Madrid bought a lot of Dutch players between 2007 and 2009 when Schuster became the manager.  Royston Drenthe, Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart  joined the club in that period.  Schuster only signed a single German, Christopher Metzelder. On the other hand, Rijkaard was managing Barcelona at the same time.  He only had Van Bommel on his team(Davids was on half a season loan deal).

Spain without Real Madrid and Barcelona players

Inspiring stories of three fullbacks and a centre-back at the WC Finals

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     Playing against Denmark at the quarterfinal of the World Cup in 1998, Cafu picked up a silly yellow card that would keep him suspended him for the next match. Suddenly, Ze Carlos, Brazil's backup rightback, found himself on the starting lineup vs Holland in the semi-final.  Brazil in 1998 was loaded with superstars.   Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Bebeto, Dungo and Cafu were multi-millionaires.  Ze Carlos, however, was different.  He was a career journeyman.  A year before the WC Finals, he was playing for Matonense in the lower division and his salary was not enough to make ends meet.  So he sold melons in the street.  Then, Sao Paulo signed him in 1997.  Somehow, his performance caught the attention of Mario Zagello.  After a series of injuries within Brazil's player pool, Zagello called him up for the WC Finals.  He had never played for Brazil at any level.  Suddenly, he found himself in France playing with the defending WC champion.

      In 2002, there was another fullback named "Carlos" with a similar story.  Carlos Llamosa, a native of Colombia, gave up soccer in 1991 so that he could join his family in Queens, New York.  He had played for Atletico Huila in Colombia previously.  In 1991, there was no professional soccer in the United States.  The Major League Soccer did not start until 1996.  He worked as a janitor at the World Trade Center during the 1993 terrorist attack.  In 1995, he started playing again by joining New York Centaurs of the A-League.  Bruce Arena liked what he saw and brought him to DC United in 1997.  In 1998, he earned his first cap for the USA after becoming a citizen and would make the World Cup team in 2002 where he made two appearances.  

     Four years later, yet another fullback had a similar story.  In 2001, Fabio Grosso was an attacking midfielder playing for Chieti Calcio in the Serie C when Perugia in the Serie A signed him. He was almost 24 years old. Perugia converted him into a leftback.  He found some degree of successes in Serie A.  He earned his first cap for Italy.  However, in January, 2004, he was sold to Palermo, which was playing in Serie B.  Palermo won promotion in his first season there. In 2006, Marcello Lippi selected him for the World Cup Finals. He scored the winning goal vs Germany in the semi-final.  He screamed "I don't believe it!" as he ran across the field to celebrate. In the Final against France, he found himself taking the last penalty, the penalty that would decide the World Cup as the whole of Italy was watching.  Five years ago, he was an attack midfielder playing in Serie C.  And two and half years ago, he was still playing in Serie B.  And then, he was Italy's hero as Italy won its 4th World Cups.

 

     Jay DeMerit went undrafted after his college career finished in the United States,  He went to England to try his lucky.  He first joined Southall in 9th tier and then, Northwood in 7th tier of the English football.  In July, 2004, he played against Watford, a team in the English Championship, in na preseason match.  he impressed Watford's manager, Ray Lewington.  He was given a 1-year contract, but he ended up playing 6 years for them. In his second year, he would score the winning goal at the promotional playoff against Leeds United and Watford moved up to the Premiership the following year.  Two years after leaving the 9th tier of the English football, he became a player in the Premier League.  In 2010, he would play in the World Cup for the USA.