There are things which regardless of how often you try, will never work, you will always fail. Rico Schmitt, the coach of SV Meppen must have felt as though he is living a groundhog day when he faced FC Magdeburg. The away side went home with three points in the bag and hosts made long…
Ever wondered who scored all these goals for Germany at the World Cup? The video shows in roughly 62 minutes every goal scored since 1954. There is one omission though, East Germany beat West Germany in 1974 and the goal is missing. Besides this arguably disputable fact this is a very good collection.
Just before the EURO 2016 gets underway for real, the French Sports Writers Association hosted the German national writers’ team in Paris as a warm up for EURO 2016. The match was a game of German organisation vs. French improvisation. There are stories that are simply unbelievable. Playing for your country is one of those.…
When Liverpool play Borussia Dortmund tonight, there will be the odd mention of 1966 when both teams met in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The game 50 years ago was played under entirely different signs. Liverpool were favourites and Dortmund had nothing but the role as outsider to play. Originally, it was thought that West Ham would play Liverpool in the final but the Germans had other ideas.
The final of 1699 was decided by Stan Libuda’s long range kick from roughly 25 metres. Normally, this was not his habit. He was a dribbler and a fine technical player. If he got past one defender, he waited until the opponent got up to his feet again, only to fool him again before he passed to his team mates. The goal in extra time secured Dortmund’s win and the first European trophy for a German club at the third attempt after Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 and 1860 Munich in 1965 lost their respective final matches.
The game today sees Dortmund being the favourite even though they have a new coach, Thomas Tuchel who has replaced Jürgen Klopp, the current Liverpool coach. That makes this match tonight a rather special occasion.
There are days that are best described as black. January 7, 2015 was one such day. Not only were ten journalists killed in an unprecedented attack in Paris. On that day news broke that Oldham Athletic FC were about to sign Ched Evans.Read more →
…we’ll settle for nothing later… Rage against the Machine appeared to be the right sountrack for the day when it must have become clear even to the last person with the slightest interest in football, that something is rotten at the core of the organization claiming to represent football: FIFA. The report into the investigation…
In the last week of October, FC Magdeburg had their biggest game of the season: a Cup tie against Bayer Leverkusen, a team from the top range of the Bundesliga and regular Champions League participant. It was a fight David vs. Goliath with an unlucky ending for the small club. It was however, a sign…
There has been a trend appearing recently: blogs on football that used to provide excellent content are being discontinued for various reasons. An Old International will also take an extended break. You may have noticed that since July there have been less posts than the usual a-post-a-week. This was initially only seen as a summer…
Benfica’s presence in this year’s Europa League Final is for many a right response to last year’s disappointment when they lost their final against Chelsea in injury time. Conspiracy theorists however, saw themselves confirmed. And their thoughts have been confirmed. Second Best by Nature This little story goes back until the 1960 when a Hungarian…
