AFTER that German win over Brazil, and with the second World Cup semi-final still to come, I was distracted from posting a tribute to the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano, who passed away, at 88, following a heart attack, this week.
The 'Blond Arrow' as he was named was very-much THE main man in the wonderful Real Madrid team, which won the first five European Cups on the bounce, completing their nap hand with that never-to-be-forgotten 7-3 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt, at Hampden, in May, 1958.
Now Eintracht had put 12-goals past a good Rangers team in the two-legged semi-final, so, the mainly Scottish crowd of over 128,000 who packed the Hampden terraces, expected a good game - instead, they got a classic, one dominated by Di Stefano.
Sure, our old friend Ferenc Puskas, the Hungarian "Galloping Major", scored four goals to his Argentinian team-mate's three, but, if you take cognisance of Di Stefano's "assists", he was the Man of the Match.
Who can ever forget that seventh Real goal, Frankfurt had just scored a second, but, straight from the re-start, Di Stefanjo and Puskas inter-passed their way downfield for Di Stefano to plant an unstopable grounder into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal at the Mount Florida end.
Real then took the trophy on Hampden's first lap of honour, to a standing ovation from the Tartan Army on the terraces. Most-memorably, as Hughie McIlvanney reported, one of the leading Scottish sports writers of the time was less than impressed.
"Aye, Scottish fans wouldnae pay to watch that kind of football every week", he opined. Would that we had been given the chance.
At Real, you kow-towed to Di Stefano, or you shipped-out. Puskas and he had a wonderful working relationship, so too did he and Raymond Kopa, a man who, with Michel Platini and Zinadene Zidane forms the French Holy Trinity of greats. However, Didi, the Brazilian midfield maestro of the 1958 World Cup winning side never got on with Di Stefano - the Argentinian/Brazilian mix didn't work, and he was quickly shipped-out.
Some say, Di Stefano was the greatest all-round player ever - he was as good in midfield as up front, he scored goals, and he made them. That's opinion. What we do know is that probably the first Scot to see him in action, Bobby Flavell, briefly a team-mate with Millionaros of Bogota in 1949 said he had never seen skill like that displayed by Di Stefano and an Argentinian team mate, as they inter-passed their way from half-way, for Di Stefano to score, the ball never touching the ground until it landed in the net.
Yet,he could be nullified. If Hampden, 1960 was his greatest match; then Hampden, 1957, is one he would rather forget. Di Stefano was in the Spanish team beaten 4-2 by Scotland in a World Cup qualifier, as we went on to take the sole qualifying spot from a group which comprised Scotland, Spain and Switzerland in the lead-up to the 1958 finals.
Geordie Young was Scotland's captain/manager, the game would be his last at Hampden, he had already decided to retire and he came-up with a plan to nullify Di Stefano. Briefly, this called for Tommy Docherty to man-mark the Argentinian, who had been naturalised to play for Spain, while Young himself played as a sort of sweeper. The plan wortked, as Docherty harried Di Stefano mercilessly, and, ok, kicked lumps out of him in the process - sometimes, needs must.
He also had a good, if not gret, managerial career, famously being out-flanked by the combination of Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein in Gothenburg in 1983, with Fergie carrying-out Stein's plan of pandering to Di Stefan's and Real Madrid's legend, by presenting Di Stefano with a bottle of malt whisky as a mark of his and his club's respect - thereby kidding Di Stefano and Real into thinking, they were playing some hicks from the sticks. The rest is historty.
Aye, I think he'd have got a game for Scotland.
SO, it was all Hector's fault - if the Big Tax Case - the 10,000lb gorilla - hadn't been in the room, Rangers wouldn't have been liquidated, relegated three divisions and pilloried.
Beleive that if you will Rangers fans. Carry-on the denial, deflect all you like. That's shite.
The BTC was one element among many in the demise of Rangers, but, the whole shambles was largely a case of self-inflicted horror. Deny that all you like Peepul, it won't change a thing.
And, don't think this week's Upper Tier Tribunal judgement in full-time. This case will run and run, all the way to the Supreme Court. Hector will not give-up, jsut because he is two down.
Mind you, maybe, by the time the Supreme Court in London finally gets round to issuing the final word on the matter, Rangerrs will be playing in an independent Scotland, so, even if, in the end, they lose - they just might get off.
Just imagine the irony - the great Unionist side, the Queen's XI, being saved further humiliation by FREEDOM!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment