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Home , 1995 in Russian football, Alejandro Sabella, Alex Chola, Anatoliy Konkov, Angelo Sormani, Arsenal Factory

ISSUE TWO BATTLES

1 THE SQUALL Matt Thacker

It's worth repeating here the reasons We are very grateful to all of the people who why we have set up The Squall, the have waived fees and donated to The Squall little brother to The Blizzard, a digital since we announced the project. football magazine to give freelance writers a forum for their work. Not just Special thanks go to: Nick Ames, Philippe so they can get paid to write, but so Auclair, John Brewin, Kieran Canning, they have something to aim for, a sense James Corbett, John Cross, Martin da of job satisfaction at a time when such Cruz, Miguel Delaney, Andrew Downie, satisfaction is in short supply. Peter Drury, Ken Early, Emmet Gates, Sasha Goryunov, John Harding, Simon Hart, The Blizzard has never been about the Gary Hartley, Ian Hawkey, Frank Heinen, here and now, it’s much more taken with Tom Holland, Adam Hurrey, Elis James, the there and then. And we see The Squall Neil Jensen, Samindra Kunti, Jonathan as serving the same function, showcasing Liew, Simon Mills, James Montague, David great football writing on subjects you are Owen, MM Owen, Simone Pierotti, Jack unlikely to read about anywhere else. We Pitt-Brooke, Gavin Ramjuan, Callum Rice- like to think of every piece written for Coates, Philip Ross, Paul Simpson, Marcus either publication as the one thing that Speller, Jon Spurling, Seb Stafford-Bloor, writer simply had to write, that nobody else Ed Sugden, Jonathan Wilson, Suzy Wrack, could do justice to. and Shinobu Yamanaka. And huge thanks to Getty Images, for use of the photos. We hope you enjoy this second issue of The Squall. As Jonathan mentions over there, despite the generous waiving of fees and donations to date, if The Squall is not to blow itself out, it will need further funding.

If you are happy to buy this issue, please do so by paying into our bank account with sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942, or you can pay via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall. Any money paid into either of these accounts will be used for the sole purpose of producing future issues.

June 2020

2 EDITOR'S NOTE Jonathan Wilson

As the daily death toll and infection rate budget, there is no prospect of a return to begins to decline in the UK, it’s possible what we understood to be normality for to see some sort of future for football. freelances for some time yet, if ever. Even in the third round of Bundesliga games since ’s resumption, So the function of the The Squall in providing the surroundings no longer seem quite at least some work for at least some people, so odd. Discussion has moved on from as a symbol that some opportunities do whether this should be happening to the still exist, remains just as relevant now as it best ways of managing it: piped crowd did when we launched a month ago. The noise or player grunts? Plastic seats or magazine been funded largely by writers for banners or cardboard cut-outs of fans? The Blizzard waiving their fees for last year, There is a basic acceptance that this is but also by kind donations from the public. how football has to be for a while. In addition, all editorial and design staff are working for free. Such sacrifices to help the The likelihood is that by the time Squall community of readers and writers suggests 3 comes out on July 1, football will be the initial spirit that fired The Blizzard’s back in , at least in the top two launch a decade ago still burns. divisions. At the same time, though, the economic picture is beginning to become But The Squall can’t be a charity. It has to clearer – and it is bleak. After all, if the stand as a magazine in its own right. We costs of putting on games without fans needed the donations to launch, but now and associated matchday revenue, with all we need people to buy the product. Each the associated additional costs of testing issue will be available on a pay-what-you- and creating a safe environment, are too want basis. We recommend £3, but if that’s great for lower-league clubs, they still will a stretch then pay what you can afford; be in two or three months when a new conversely, if you can afford more, then season would putatively begin. The crisis every extra penny is welcome. And please do for probably around half of English league promote us however you can. clubs has become existential. Hopefully we won’t need to exist for too For freelance journalists, this is all grim much longer. We’re a temporary product to news. Even with games being played, get us through the crisis and we urge you to few members of the media – quite support us on that basis. understandably and correctly – will be allowed to attend. Given the squeeze on June 2020 the advertising market that has already led to numerous outlets cutting their sports

3 AN UNMISSABLE HIGHLIGHTS PACKAGE

The Best of the First Five Years features 23 brilliant essays originally published between 2011 and 2016.

Buy now at theblizzard.co.uk 4 CONTENTS The Squall, Issue Two – Battles

8 David Squires, Estudiantes v 44 John Harding, Decency v An International Friendly The story of the 1969 Intercontinental When Nazi Germany played at White Cup Final Hart Lane

10 Cecilia Lagos, v 50 Joshua Law, Estudiantes v There is perhaps no game in history so Grêmio notoriously violent as the 1962 Battle of 3-1 down, four men down; the most improbable comeback in football history

16 Vadim Furmanov, Viktor 58 John Irving, v Kanevskyi v the USSR Gino Palumbo The title-winning captain The two giants of Italian football struggled constantly against ant- journalism who couldn’t stand each Semitism other

24 Matthew Gregory, Santos v 66 Joe Ronan, Lippman v GDR Skoglund The striker who The key battle of the 1958 World Cup defected after a defeat to Bayer final pitted a mercurial winger against a Uerdingen solid full-back 73 Simone Pierotti, Viareggio v 32 Thathe Msimango, Wanderers v Lucchese Blackpool How one of Tuscany’s oldest rivalries left The origins of the derby that dominated a linesman dead Zambian football in the sixties and seventies 78 Sasha Goryunov, Beskov v Lobanovskyi 38 Michael Yokhin, Lazio v Two great players, two great coaches, Themselves two different visions of the game How a team split into two factions won 86 The Contributors

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6 About The Blizzard

ABOUT THE BLIZZARD

Buy The Blizzard Contact The Blizzard

We want as many readers as possible for All advertising, sales, press and business The Blizzard. This is why we make three communication should be addressed to the free articles available to read for everyone, this office: every month, at www.theblizzard.co.uk The Blizzard Digital Version Unit 34, (Current & Back Issues) 4th floor Bedser Stand, All issues of The Blizzard are available Kia Oval, to download for Kindle, Android, iOS , and PC/Mac via the Amazon Kindle and SE11 5SS Google Play Stores. Email: [email protected] • RRP: £3 (or local currency Telephone: +44 (0) 203 696 5730 equivalent). Website: www.theblizzard.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/blzzrd Printed Version Twitter: @blzzrd (Current & Back Issues) Purchase a physical copy of The Blizzard About The Blizzard in all its luxurious, tactile, sensual glory at: www.theblizzard.co.uk. If you haven’t Editor Jonathan Wilson felt our cover-varnish and smelled Publisher The Blizzard Media Ltd the inner genius, you haven’t properly www.theblizzard.co.uk experienced its awesome true form. Design TriNorth Ltd Read it, or leave it on your coffee table to www.trinorth.co.uk wow visitors. Copyright • RRP: £12 (+P&P) All content is © The Blizzard Media Ltd and may not be reproduced without explicit consent. Thanks to Jeanette G Sturis at the Kingsley Motel, Manjimup, for kind use of Warren Walker’s original sketches of Dog.

7 ESTUDIANTES V MILAN

Mexico 86 and the brief glory of an unheralded Botafago right-back

BY DAVID SQUIRES

8 9 CHILE V ITALY

There is perhaps no game in history so notoriously violent as the 1962 Battle of Santiago

BY CECILIA LAGOS

English referee Ken Aston sends off , while an injured Chile player on the ground, Santiago, 7 .

The lines from David Coleman are money allocated for the World Cup given famous: “The game you are about to see to help rebuild the country. Alessandri is the most stupid, appalling, disgusting refused. They still had two years and the and disgraceful exhibition of football in president said the people needed football the history of the game. This is the first to bring them joy. He even sent a letter time these countries have met; we hope to Sir , then president of it will be the last.” It had taken two days Fifa, to tell him that, despite the terrible for the tape to get from Chile to the UK, events, Chile was still ready to stage but the impact the footage made was the tournament. The plan, though, was profound. Almost six decades later, the modified: rather than nine host cities, Battle of Santiago, in which Chile beat there would only be four. The others had Italy 2-0, remains perhaps the most either been destroyed of suffered such notoriously violent game of football damage as to make it impossible. ever played. Five months before the start of the World The 1960s were a decade of tragedy Cup, the draw took place at the Hotel and redemption for Chile. It had been Carrera in Santiago. Chile were grouped a time of striking underdevelopment: with Italy, Germany and . extensive poverty, a huge gap between the rich and poor (which remains today); And that’s how Antonio Ghirelli and a feeble healthcare system and precarious Corrado Pizzinelli ended up setting foot sanitary conditions; poor basic services, in Santiago. public transportation and communication networks; illiteracy and a low cultural level in general even before, on 22 May 1960, the country experienced the most Ghirelli and Pizzinelli were two veteran powerful and devastating in Italian journalists who travelled to recorded history: 9.5 on the Richter scale. Santiago to cover the World Cup. Ghirelli It lasted for six minutes. Two tsunamis, worked for the , based one 8m high, the second 10m, wiped out in Milan, and Pizzinelli for in whatever was left of the southern city of . After a few days in the Chilean , the epicentre. The final toll along capital, the two were frustrated. Some the southern half of the country was say that all it took was one night out that estimated at 2,300 dead and 2,000,000 went wrong for the journalists to unleash people left homeless. two terrible articles that attacked Santiago and the Chilean people. Even worse, they Chile had been named as host of the dared to question the decency of Chilean 1962 World Cup in 1956. Carlos Dittborn, women, while Pizzinelli made racist the former president of Conmebol and remarks and comparisons. head of the Local Organising Committee, who died a month before the start of the “They tell us Santiago resembles tournament, felt a moral obligation to like resembles Milan,” Pizzinelli suggest to President that wrote. “That means nothing… All that to the project should be halted and all the maybe make us forget about the reality

12 of this capital, a sad symbol of one of the considering the earthquake and a painful underdeveloped countries of the world, reconstruction with limited resources, their afflicted by all possible evils: malnutrition, articles were cruel and tone-deaf, unaware prostitution, illiteracy, alcoholism, of the consequences they would bring. misery... Whole neighbourhoods practice Such was the reaction they fled to Italy prostitution in the open… Let it be before the game, fearing for their safety. understood, they’re not Indians. 98 or 99% of the Chilean people are of European descent, which makes us think that Chile must be placed in its underdevelopment The buildup to the game was tense. It at the same level as Asia or Africa… The wasn’t only the Chilean media and public inhabitants of those continents are not who took it all personally, so did the progressive, but retrograde… Everything players. In the book Ceacheí – Palabra that Santiago shows is a pale effort that de Campeón” – [Word of A Champion], convinces no on.e”. Leonel Sánchez, Chile’s left winger recalls the whole episode mostly as an attack Ghirelli wasn’t so outspoken but he didn’t on Chilean women: “In Italy, they wrote exactly help. “A World Cup 13,000km that Chilean women were all prostitutes. away: just madness,” he wrote. “Chile We learned about it right before we had is a small, poor and proud country. It to play them. The Italian players were not has agreed to organise this edition of to blame for what was published in their the Jules Rimet Cup in the same way as country, but we had this anger inside us.” Mussolini agreed to send our air to bomb London. The capital city has 700 It was the second match of the group hotel beds. The phones don’t work. Taxis stage for both teams. Italy had begun with are as rare as faithful husbands. A cable a tough 0-0 draw against West Germany, to Europe costs an arm and a leg. A letter while Chile had beaten Switzerland 3-1. takes at least five days by airmail.” “Italy were a very strong team, in part because of the oriundi,” said the Italy It is said that Chilean citizens living in Italy defender Mario David. “Everyone had saw the publications and sent them to the included us among the first four favourites. Chilean ambassador who subsequently We were sure we could, if not win the title, forwarded them to El Mercurio, one of at least make a good impression.” the most important national newspapers in Chile. Once El Mercurio and other The oriundi were foreign talents of Italian media reported what the Italian journalists descent who played for the azzurri. had said, the whole country took serious In 1962, Italy went to Chile with four offence and saw the upcoming match oriundi: Omar Sívori and Humberto between the Azzurri and La Roja as an Maschio from , and José Altafini opportunity to put the in their and from . Their place and retaliate against the affront. origins fuelled the fire as many South Americans resented the practice. The Ghirelli and Pizzinelli weren’t entirely naturalised footballers would pay the wrong in their depiction of Chile but, price on the pitch.

13 On top of everything else, David also Within the first five minutes, David had believed there was a German conspiracy kicked Sánchez and the Jorge to put pressure on his side. “Upon , prompting a group of players returning to Italy, I read Ghirelli’s to cluster around Aston for the first article,” he said. “He did not only list time. Behind the crowd of players and the bad things about Chile. He also photographers who had encroached highlighted the good things. But the on the pitch, , one articles were relaunched in Chile by of the oriundi, walked up to Sánchez German news agencies which, because and punched him in the face. Sánchez the German community in Chile was fell and required medical assistance; he bigger than the Italian one, included wouldn’t forget. Only a couple of minutes only the sentences against the Chileans after play resumed, kicked that served their cause.” from behind, and Aston, aware this was threatening to spill over, The Italians knew that things had sent the Italian off. Ferrini refused to escalated and were getting out of hand. accept the decision. Players and dozens of reporters crowded around the referee and it took almost ten minutes for Ferrini to leave the pitch, escorted by police. At 3pm on Saturday 2 June 1962, the Chilean and Italian players walked onto The Chilean sports journalist Gonzalo the pitch, breathing the thick air of Fouillioux is the son of the late Alberto chauvinism and tension at the Estadio Fouillioux, Chile’s number ten in 1962. Nacional, packed with 66,057 people. “He told me there was lots of talk among Knowing they would face an extremely the players,” Gonzalo said. “They said hostile atmosphere, the Italians carried everything they could say to each other bunches of white flowers as gifts to the on the pitch, besides the kicks and the public. But the gesture of reconciliation tackles.” He also remembers that his failed as some fans threw the bouquets father used to say that Sánchez had back at them. thrown a terrible punch that no one saw. Not Aston, not the cameras. Injuries from the Germany game and, some say, overconfidence, led Italy’s Amid the pandemonium that followed coach to make six changes Ferrini’s sending off, Sánchez took to his line-up. , Omar Sívori revenge for Maschio’s earlier blow and and the goalkeeper , a struck so hard that he broke his nose. He cousin of Gianluigi’s grandfather, were also called him “traitor” because he was all omitted. , meanwhile, one of the oriundi playing for a European picked the same side that had beaten team. Aston, surrounded by irate players, Switzerland. After Italian objections about missed it all. “They broke my nose in the the Spanish referee initially assigned first 20 minutes and then they kicked to the game, Juan Gardeazábal, the my ankle,” said Maschio. “I played the Englishman Ken Aston was appointed at entire match totally wounded as there the last minute. were no substitutions. The referee was

14 an Englishman that killed us. Chileans the dressing room, leaving behind him a shouted at me, ‘Betrayer, you should trail of chaos and fights, with police on be at Rancagua.’ Rancagua was where the field. Argentina were based.” Aston was heavily criticised for his After Ferrini was dismissed, everything performance, especially for having let calmed down until the end of the half. Sánchez play the whole game after the Sánchez tried to go past David near the punch on David. “If the referee had sent left corner and the defender tried to me off, that would have been deserved,” stop him by kicking his legs. After falling Sánchez himself admitted. Later, Aston and receiving more kicks, Sánchez, who would acknowledge, “I expected a was the son of a South American difficult match, but not an impossible champion, got up and punched David in one. It did cross my mind to abandon the face. Fouillioux recalls, “My father was the match, but I couldn’t be responsible very close to them and he said the punch for the safety of the Italian players if I did. sounded like a hit on a piece of wood. It I tell you one thing: I didn’t add on any was really strong.” The US linesman Leo stoppage time.” Goldstein was right there and had already flagged when David started kicking Sánchez but, after being surrounded for a third time, Aston allowed both to go This was a generally violent World Cup, on playing. However, just a couple of with six expulsions and numerous serious minutes later, as Sánchez was challenged injuries, the worst that suffered by the for an aerial ball in his own half, David USSR’s Eduard Dubinski, whose leg was launched a brutal flying kick directly to his broken by Muhamed Mujić in the game head. This time Aston sent him off. Italy against Yugoslavia in , a few days ended the first half down to nine men. before the Battle of Santiago. He would never play football again. The second half was tense, but nothing compared to the first. Italy couldn’t afford Ken Aston went on to become a member to risk more damage and, considering of the Fifa Referees’ Committee. Inspired the circumstances, another draw wasn’t by the Battle of Santiago and various too bad a result provided they could beat controversies in 1966, most notably Switzerland in the last game. But Chile Antonio Rattín’s dismissal in Argentina’s won 2-0 with goals from Jaime Ramírez quarter-final defeat to England, he and Eladio Rojas in the last 15 minutes. devised yellow and red cards. They were through and Italy were almost certainly out. Aston blew the final whistle exactly on 90 minutes and ran quickly for

15 VIKTOR KANEVSKYI V THE USSR

The title-winning Dynamo Kyiv captain struggled constantly against ant-Semitism

BY VADIM FURMANOV

Viktor Kanevskyi scored 80 goals in 195 games for Dyanmo Kyiv from 1954- 1964. He went onto manage six clubs.

17 October 1961. A sell-out crowd footballing hero to refusenik to Brooklyn of 67,000 are packed into Kyiv’s émigré. It was a trajectory familiar to Republican Stadium for Dynamo’s many Soviet Jews. penultimate match of the season, against Avanhard . A win would secure an historic first-ever league title for the home side. The match ends Kanevskyi was born in Kyiv in 1936, the scoreless, but shortly after the full-time second of three brothers. He grew up whistle an announcement rings through playing football in Kyiv’s courtyards and the ground with news from Tashkent: at 15 joined the local sports youth school. Pakhtakor had beaten Torpedo , Despite showing promise, he could not Dynamo’s only challengers. The title afford to dedicate his life to football. With was Dynamo’s. only one working parent – his mother had been left disabled after an accident – he The Dynamo supporters set light to took a job at the Factory at 16 as thousands of newspapers to use as an engraver of photographic equipment. makeshift torches. The man at the heart of the celebrations, hoisted aloft by the He kept playing football, but harboured supporters, carrying the bouquet of no dreams of making his career. “When flowers, leading the squad on its lap of I began to work, football faded into the honour, is Viktor Kanevskyi. ‘Kaneva’, background,” Kanevskyi said in a 1996 as he is affectionately called, is the interview with the Russian journalist side’s captain, leading goalscorer and Igor Rabiner. Then, in 1953, the 17-year- hometown hero. old Kanevskyi received an unexpected invitation to join Dynamo. Someone, Such a track record should have been somewhere, had spotted his potential. enough to secure a permanent seat in He was struck with the realisation that he Dynamo’s extensive pantheon of greats. could make it as a footballer after all. But by the 1980s Kanevskyi’s presence in that legendary Dynamo team had Kanevskyi made his first-team debut in been wiped from history. His name was 1955. By the following year he was a purged from the official record books regular. Dynamo were a mid-table side and banned from being mentioned in the in those years, finishing no higher than press. In an act of Stalinesque totalitarian fourth in any of Kanevskyi’s first four pettiness, he was even erased from the seasons as a starter. Despite their middling photograph of the 1961 title-winning side. form, Kanevskyi earned plaudits for his performances. In 1958 he was included in Kanevskyi had the misfortune of being the top division’s team of the season. Jewish in a nominally egalitarian society where the official stance was that anti- He drew the attention of scouts from Semitism did not exist. In reality, Soviet the Soviet capital and nearly moved to society was rife with systemic anti- Moscow to play for CSKA, but realised Semitism and Kanevskyi was one of its he could not leave his home city. “I grew many victims. His journey took him from up in Kyiv, my whole life was tied to Kyiv,

18 and without this city my life would be impressively two-footed. He acquired very difficult,” he said. Kanevskyi stayed a reputation as a natural , as well at Dynamo and became captain in as an all-round striker. “I still remember 1960. He was a popular choice, selected with pleasure how great it was to send unanimously by his teammates. The him through on goal with a long ball, next season Dynamo broke Moscow’s knowing that now there would definitely hegemony – for the first time in history, be a goal,” his former teammate Anatoliy the championship went to a club from Suchkov recalled. outside the capital. Playing alongside a young , Kanevskyi Valentin Troyanovskyi, another former netted a career-high 18 goals in the title- teammate, was even more laudatory. winning campaign. “Vitya,” he said, “was a player from God… an ordinary talented person who was His performances for Dynamo earned destined to become a universal idol.” Kanevskyi a call-up to the USSR national team and he was included in the squad that During his playing days Kanevskyi’s travelled to Chile for the 1962 World Cup. ethnicity was rarely an issue. There was He started the Soviets’ first two matches, one incident in a match against Kairat, but his enduring memory from the when Anatoliy Fedotov used an anti- tournament was sitting next to an injured Semitic slur. By Kanevskyi’s own account Pelé at the final and getting his autograph. he planted his head into Fedotov so hard that “he remembered it for a long time.” Kanevskyi also added a in 1964, scoring the solitary goal in the Even though this was an isolated incident, final against Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev. Kanevskyi knew there was a “particular But he could sense that his time at attitude” toward him. The warning signs Dynamo was coming to an end. He had were there. In an interview with Dynamo been suffering from injury problems for Kyiv TV, he revealed that the club were several years and the signing of promising pressured from above to strip him of striker Anatoliy Puzach before the 1965 the captaincy, but his loyal teammates campaign as an obvious replacement refused to entertain the idea. Additionally, convinced Kanevskyi to leave. After an despite captaining Dynamo to their first uneventful two seasons at Chornomorets league title, he was the only member of , where he was reunited with his the side to never receive the honorary former teammates Lobanovskyi and Oleh Soviet title Merited Master of Sport. “I Bazylevych, Kanevskyi hung up the boots had no illusions that what had happened his 1966 at just 29. was some kind of mix-up,” he said. “I understood full well what was what.” Footage of Kanevskyi’s playing days is hard to come, but there are plenty of glowing accounts from contemporaries of his qualities – both as a player and After his retirement Kanevskyi embarked as a person. He was known for being on a coaching career. The ‘Jewish issue’ technically accomplished, intelligent and came up immediately. In Russian, the

19 given and patronymic names are used club win promotion to the second together to address someone formally. tier. Kanevskyi then received a phone Valeriy Lobanovskyi, for example, was call from his friend Lobanovskyi, who “Valeriy Vasylyovych” to his players. had just been named Dynamo Kyiv As a coach, Kanevskyi’s players would manager and wanted Kanevskyi to take also use this form of address. In his charge at his former club Dnipro. He case, Viktor Izrailyovych – an obvious spent five seasons in Dnipropetrovsk. indicator of his Jewish ethnicity. As His side generally hovered around mid- Kanevskyi described it, “Somehow it table, but they did manage a run to the did not sit well with the policies of the Soviet Cup semi-finals. Nevertheless, Communist Party of the he felt his path to a more prestigious and the Soviet state.” appointment was blocked. “I knew they would not let me advance to a higher And so, Kanevskyi was heavily level. I could achieve any successes at encouraged to change his patronymic the local level, but I would never be to the more Slavic-sounding Illich. On given a big club,” he said. the inside, he was furious. But he knew he had to keep his emotions in check to Moreover, Kanevskyi felt he was succeed as a manager. repeatedly and intentionally passed over for the honorary title Merited Coach The beginning of Kanevskyi’s coaching of the Ukrainian SSR, even though he career coincided with a turning point in received a comparable title in Uzbekistan relations between the Soviet state and its after being an assistant coach there for significant Jewish population. In the midst just one season. of the Six-Day War the Soviet Union, which was backing the Arab countries in the conflict, severed its diplomatic relations with Israel. This coalesced into an anti- Kanevskyi’s patience ran out in 1979. He Zionist campaign in the Soviet Union which had just accepted the head coaching job often tipped into overt anti-Semitism. Jews of the Algerian national team. One week were excluded from many areas of public before he was set to board a flight to life. Universities implemented quotas to Algiers, he was told without explanation limit the number of Jewish students and that he would not be making the trip. avenues for employment in government The unofficial explanation was that even sectors and abroad were virtually closed off. though he was now ‘Illich’, the KGB was well-aware that in reality he was In this environment Kanevskyi’s ‘Izrailyovych’ so any appointment abroad opportunities for advancement as a was out of the question. coach were limited, even following the name change. In 1966 he took over Instead, Kanevskyi became head coach at Metalist Kharkiv, then in the third of a youth side of the Ukrainian SSR at a tier. He subsequently spent a year as minor friendly tournament in Sukhumi, an assistant at Pakhtakor Tashkent where he led the team to first place. in Uzbekistan where he helped the Again, he was supposed to become a

20 Merited Coach. Again, he was passed Kanevskyi thus joined the ranks of the over. This was the tipping point. He refuseniks, the individuals who were went to the secretary of the local party refused the right to emigrate by the organisation and declared his intent to authorities of the Soviet Union. His life emigrate to Israel. was turned on its head. For two years he suspected that he was being followed and It was a drastic step. The Soviet Union that his phone was being tapped. But he had heavy restrictions on emigration, was never an open dissident – just a quiet which was a long and arduous process, refusenik – so the surveillance eventually often with little prospect of success. died down. Applying for an exit visa was an act of conscious self-sabotage. It meant social It was during this period that any evidence ostracism, wrecking your employment of Kanevskyi’s existence was wiped from prospects and subjecting yourself to the records. A book about the history of surveillance. State officials were caught Dynamo released in 1980 did not mention by surprise. “For them,” Kanevskyi said, his name. Any materials published during “it was like a thunderbolt from a blue this time about the history of Dynamo sky.” He was promptly expelled from the or about the Soviet national team at the Communist Party. His application was 1962 World Cup did not acknowledge his rejected within two weeks. The official contributions. He was expertly airbrushed explanation was that he did not have out of the team photograph of the 1961 close relatives in Israel, an explanation Dynamo Kyiv side – without counting Kanevskyi did not buy. the players, you could not tell anyone was missing. Captain, leading goalscorer, Another theory has to do with the years hometown hero. None of it mattered. that Kanevskyi spent in Dnipropetrovsk, a Just like that, erased from history. city closed to the outside world because of its defence industry. The club Dnipro Kanevskyi’s footballing career was was itself affiliated with Yuzhmash, a seemingly over. After several years of ballistic missile manufacturing plant. unemployment he spent time in Perhaps he “knew too much” sensitive and Moscow as a construction worker. He information to be allowed to cut off contact with most of his friends leave. Kanevskyi himself speculated that and ex-teammates, for their own sakes: the authorities simply did not want to “I did not want to create unnecessary allow the emigration of such a high- trouble for people,” he said. profile former player. But one man kept in contact and even The party secretary of Kyiv tried to get visited his Kyiv apartment: Valeriy Kanevskyi to reconsider, promising him Lobanovskyi. By this point Kanevskyi’s that if he retracted his application things erstwhile teammate was well on his way could go back to how they used to be. to establishing his legend. He had already But Kanevskyi stood his ground. Once led Dynamo to five league titles, three he had made the decision, there was no Soviet Cups, a Cup-Winners’ Cup, and a going back. European Super Cup.

21 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

Lobanovskyi’s unassailable position meant Kanevskyi and his wife emigrated to he had little to fear from the KGB, but the in 1988 and settled Kanevskyi still recognised the courage in Brooklyn. He became a coach in a required to visit him. It is a testament youth sports academy serving the area’s to Lobanovskyi’s immense stature and large Russian-speaking community. influence that he was able to achieve Within a year he had opened his own the unthinkable: getting Kanevskyi back successful academy. into football. He made appeals directly to Volodymyr Scherbytsky, a member Months before his departure, a photo of the Politburo, the First Secretary of album of Dynamo’s history was the Communist Party of and, published. Not only was Kanevskyi back crucially, a massive Dynamo supporter. in the 1961 team photo, there was entire page dedicated to him. After nearly Lobanovskyi’s efforts were successful. a decade, he had been rehabilitated. He helped establish a new club, Dynamo He would return to Kyiv several times. Irpin, something of a ‘daughter club’ In 1991 he was invited to the 30-year for Dynamo Kyiv in a small town on the anniversary of that famous first title. He outskirts of the city. Kanevskyi was named also came back for the unveiling of the head coach. With great assistance from Lobanovskyi memorial where he laid a Lobanovskyi in terms of both material wreath of flowers dedicated to a man support and a steady stream of players, that proved himself to be so much more Kanevskyi achieved modest success, than just a teammate. winning promotion to the second tier of the Ukrainian Zone. Kanevskyi died in 2018 aged 82 in the small town of Bristol, Connecticut. His Kanevskyi took one last head coaching death led to an outpouring of tributes and position at Tavriya Simferopol, whom he mourning in his hometown. Kyiv never immediately guided to promotion from forgot him. ‘Kaneva’ had regained his the third to the second tier. He still never rightful place in history. They could not The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance received the coveted Merited Coach title. erase him forever. writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive By the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev had taken power in the Soviet Union and and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they ushered in the liberalising reforms of and glasnost, opening Soviet can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3. society to an unprecedented degree. Emigration restrictions were greatly eased. Kanevskyi was finally granted You can pay into The Squall's bank account permission to leave, along with tens of thousands of other Soviet Jews. (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out.

22 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. SANTOS V SKOGLUND

The key battle of the 1958 World Cup final pitted a mercurial winger against a solid full-back

BY MATTHEW GREGORY

Zito and Pele at their hotel having recovered from injuries received in a road accident in .

The pitch in the Råsunda Stadium, Solna, on the radio as he couldn’t afford tickets was sodden after a full day of continuous – he was able to turn to football. A rain. The downpour had at least stopped successful trial with Portuguesa allowed in time for the World Cup final itself – him to sign professional terms at the but the surface was a churned mess. age of 17, doubling his factory wage and letting him provide for his sister, Anésia. Brazil were the pre-tournament favourites, but found themselves facing Santos made the first of over a thousand on a dreadful pitch and with professional appearances in 1948 as a a partisan crowd of just under 50,000 centre-half, moving a year later to the cheering on the hosts. The Swedes of right-hand side of what was then a typical 1958 were a formidable side in their own three-man defence after Portuguesa right. They were famed for their fearsome signed Brandãozinho. The two defenders outside forwards – on the right, Kurt played alongside each other in the Battle Hamrin, and on the left, Lennart ‘Nacka’ of Berne at the 1954 World Cup, when Skoglund, already a legend at Inter. Lining Brazil had two men sent off on their way up opposite Skoglund was , to a 4-2 defeat to Hungary. It was that perhaps the first great right-back, in what black mark on his record, combined with would prove to be his defining match his part in a 3-0 defeat to Argentina which – but Santos wasn’t meant to be on cost the Seleção the 1957 Campeonato the field at all. And had it not been for a Sudamericano, which led to Santos being Turkish man with a pole in the right place dropped in favour of São Paulo’s Nílton de at the right time, he might not even have Sordi ahead of the World Cup in Sweden. been alive. By this point, Brazil had abandoned Dejalma Pereira Dias dos Santos – the the W-M formation which they’d used first ‘e’ seems to have slipped its marker in Switzerland, switching to the 4-2-4 somewhere along the road to Sweden system which had begun to emerge in – was born on 27 February 1929 in Bom Brazil in the late 40s. This new formation Retiro, São Paulo, in poverty. His father effectively invented the modern full- abandoned the family for another woman back. Santos suited the role perfectly when Santos was just three, shortly after – he was immensely strong and fit, and taking up arms in the Constitutionalist while his defensive qualities had earned Revolution. Both his mother and elder him the nickname el Muralha (the Wall) brother died while he was still a child. he was technically gifted and more than comfortable going forward to initiate The young Santos left school early and counter-attacks. That wasn’t enough to worked at a shoe factory, where he prevent him being punished for past sins dreamed of joining the air force – an and dropped. aspiration he was forced to abandon when he pressed his hand to a piece of Losing his place in the national side might machinery, costing him the use of one of have hurt, but Santos should perhaps have his fingers. Fortunately for Santos – who been grateful that he was alive at all by grew up listening to Corinthians matches 1958. In a 2011 interview with the football

26 historians Bernardo Buarque and Daniela He was a powerful figure with a ferocious Alfonsín, he recalls nearly drowning on left foot and mazy skills that no fewer than three occasions during his generally justified his desire to do it time with Portuguesa – perhaps coming himself - he scored an impressive 55 closest to an untimely demise on tour goals in his 241 appearances for Inter to Istanbul in April 1955. “[Our hotel] had Milan. His dancing feet and slightly sparse a little wall where we went to fish and a blond hair earned him his other, more little bar to eat fried foods. There, I got up improbable, nickname – ‘the Swaying on the wall – and I can’t swim – and fell Corn Cib’. into the Bosphorus, cold. The Portuguesa people crossed the avenue screaming, And while Santos was a consummate ‘He’s dying!’ professional, working overtime at the shoe factory as a teenager to make “I was thrashing. I was lucky… a Turkish up for time spent practicing football, man was going by, saw me and gave Skoglund was a party animal who had me a pole, which I grabbed. When I got been a regular in ’s dance back up, a wave came and crashed into halls as he rose through the ranks at the wall. If I was still there, I’d have been Hammarby and AIK. swept in the middle of the sea – bye! I wouldn’t be here, it was horrible.” After joining Inter in 1950, Skoglund added substance abuse to a growing On another occasion, Santos got himself problem with alcohol. Francesco into grief at a swimming pool in São Paulo. Morini, a team-mate at his next club, “[My team-mates asked] ‘Do you know Sampdoria, claimed that Skoglund kept how to swim?’ ‘Yes, I do.’ I even jumped a bottle of whiskey by the corner flag off the diving board. I came up screaming, during matches so he could take a sip and the guys said, ‘He knows how to while pretending to tie his laces before swim, he’s kidding.’ The other time was taking a corner. He was also in constant in Uruguay, in the sea there, also fishing, I financial difficulty. fell… Now, water is only for drinking...” Whatever his troubles off the field, he remained a formidable player. Many years later, the Inter chairman ‘Nacka’ Skoglund1 wasn’t just Djalma would describe Skoglund as one of the Santos’s opposite number for the day three greatest players to have turned – they were opposites in almost every out for the Nerazzurri: “Skoglund was aspect of life. Whereas Santos was a a player who possessed extraordinary hard-working team player, Skoglund qualities for his time – he was the one was a virtuoso soloist, often accused of who did not follow the tactics, but being selfish. instead offered the unexpected.”

1 For more on Nacka Skoglund, see Gunnar Persson’s piece “You are not Nacka Skoglund!” in Issue Nineteen of The Blizzard.

27 Either player could easily have missed the final in 1958. Santos only made the starting line-up in Solna because De Sordi, Two hours after Djalma Santos had his replacement at right-back, had picked promised himself that Skoglund would up an injury after the semi-final win over find no way past him, the Brazil captain . Skoglund, meanwhile, had been Hilderaldo Bellini was presented with the exiled from international football for Jules Rimet trophy. Braces from Vavá eight years after Sweden decided to ban and a 17-year-old Pelé, along with an professional players from the national side. opportunistic goal from Mário Zagallo, That policy was relaxed just in time to host had earned Brazil a comfortable 5-2 the World Cup and Skoglund was recalled. win. After years of near misses – and the bitter recriminations that would invariably Skoglund started the tournament in fine follow – Brazil were finally crowned form, scoring his only international goal champions of the world, and Santos had in the semi-final against West Germany - kept Skoglund virtually silent. but despite impressing, he found ways to infuriate. The Daily Express described him “Djalma put on a show… a game full of as “the most arrogant, petulant performer wonderful touches and passages that ever spoilt by fan worship” following made many people amazed,” reported the a 0-0 draw with in the group São Paulo daily A Gazeta Esportiva after stages, and he wrote a mid-tournament the match. column in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter condemning head coach George “Djalma played with that same firmness Raynor’s training methods. It’s a mark and serenity of his best times, not of his talents that Raynor seemingly felt allowing Nacka Skoglund, the dangerous compelled to keep him in the team. Swedish forward, anything,” they continued. “A great performance by the Brazil’s team ‘spy’, Ernesto Santos, was Portuguesa ace.” clearly aware of those talents and bore dire warnings of the Swede’s skills back So dominant was his performance that, to the Brazilian camp. “He’s strong. despite featuring only in the final, he was A dribbler! Naughty!” Djalma Santos named in the Team of the Tournament, remembers being told. “Go and be brave. as he had been in 1954 and would be Be careful with him.” again in 1962. He remains one of only three players to have made the World As they lined up for the first half on that Cup Team of the Tournament three times, soaking wet pitch in Solna, with 50,000 along with and Philipp Swedes screaming in the stands, Santos Lahm. Skoglund, superb in the earlier remembered, “I looked at his face and rounds but anonymous in the final, was said, ‘Today, this dude will get it’. I said, relegated to the tournament’s ‘B’ Team. ‘Now, you don’t have more skill, no. You will not pass here, no’.” In truth, Santos’s surprise inclusion in the Team of the Tournament has perhaps Santos was true to his word. elevated a strong performance to a

28 mythical level it doesn’t entirely live up Upon their return to Brazil, the victorious to. That isn’t to say he played poorly – Seleção were greeted as conquering after he let Skoglund past him to whip heroes and showered with gifts, although in a cross in the second minute, Santos not all of them were especially useful. barely put a foot wrong, and it was “We won a thousand and one things. him stepping out of defence to supply Land here, a house there… Until today, that led to Brazil’s equaliser in I saw nothing,” Santos laughed in his the ninth minute. 2011 interview. “They gave me land near Brasilia, so one day I took my car and went The fact remains, however, that Skoglund there. I got to a road and this guy said to was surprisingly becalmed throughout the me – it was late afternoon – ‘Look, friend, match – and he wasn’t helped by poor it’s dangerous here, because they put a service from the Swedish midfield that tree in the middle of the road, stop your routinely went either through the centre car and kill you.’ Up to today I still haven’t or down the right on the occasions that been there. I never found my land.” they were able to wrestle possession away from Brazil for any length of time. What Santos did get was a permanent place in the national side. From March Skoglund himself was full of praise for 1959 he was almost ever-present right Santos after the match, while excoriating through to 1964, winning his place back his own lacklustre display. “I practically again in time for the 1966 World Cup. couldn’t develop any plays. I feel like I He played every match as Brazil became was a disgrace,” he told reporters after world champions once more in Chile in the match. “I didn’t have many points of 1962, finishing his international career in contact with [Santos] during the match, 1968 with 98 official caps to his name and but his marking, it is evident, was perfect. two unofficial caps in tour games. He is a prodigy of a player, safe and calm.” Djalma Santos eventually retired, at the Santos certainly had some impressive age of 41, in 1970, having played nearly moments. Skoglund may have got the 500 matches each for Portuguesa and better of him to get that early cross Palmeiras. After his final season, when in, but when an angled pass fell to he won the regional championship with Skoglund on the byline a few minutes Atlético Paranaense, he gave an interview later, Santos was there with a perfectly to Placar magazine, telling them simply: timed sliding tackle. Later in the game, “I did everything a good player could do. with Brazil 4-1 up, Garrincha flicked a Now I want to say goodbye.” pass back to Santos with his instep and Santos daintily chipped the ball back to Santos, who was named in Fifa’s World the winger over Skoglund’s head. Given Cup All-Time Team in 1994, retired quietly the abysmal condition of the pitch, it to the city of Uberaba, in Minas Gerais. was a remarkable piece of composure The first great right-back passed away at and technique. Brazil had won the the age of 84 on 24 July 2013, a little over World Cup, and Santos had won one of 58 years after narrowly escaping death in the key battles. the choppy waters of the Bosphorus.

29 , Santos’s adversary she left him and Skoglund entered a that evening in Solna, never had an downward spiral. easy life. He departed Inter in 1959 and had spells at Sampdoria and Palermo Skoglund was found dead on his kitchen before returning home to his first floor on the 8 July 1975. He was just club, Hammarby. He retired in 1968. 45 years old. He is commemorated by With his playing days behind him, a statue outside his childhood home in he continued to fight a losing battle Stockholm, and every December 24 – his against alcoholism. In 1970 he sought birthday and the day Sweden celebrates help from the sobriety organisation Christmas – hundreds of Hammarby Länkarna, and in 1972 Skoglund, who supporters gather around it to remember had divorced his first wife, met and one of Sweden’s greatest ever players. fell in love with a woman who tried her best to keep him on the straight Thank you to Bernardo Buarque for and narrow and found him work in a permission to use his work, and to bookstore. When she found out that João Choça for helping with several of he had been drinking again in secret, the translations.

Brazil's captain Hilderaldo Bellini shakes hands with his Swedish counterpart

30 31 WANDERERS V BLACKPOOL

The origins of the derby that dominated Zambian football in the sixties and seventies

BY THATHE MSIMANGO

Former African Footballer of the Year following 's victory in the 2012 African Cup of Nations.

Mufulira lies in north-central Zambia, employed by the municipality, whether near the border with the Democratic they were teachers, council employees, Republic of Congo. By road, Lubumbashi or policemen would be dismissed as is about a four-hour drive to the north- bakaboyi – house-servants; while miners west. It was given its name – which were mocked as fishimine, suggesting comes from a Lamba word, mulifulile, they were illiterate and good only for meaning place of abundance – by a pair hard labour. “Their rivalry stemmed from of prospectors, Moir and Grey, working the fact that Wanderers claimed the for the Rhodesian Congo border bragging rights, not only as of the town’s concession, who discovered copper biggest club but because it was a giant there in 1923. in the country’s history dating back to the early 60s,” said Humphrey Lombe, The population is now 120,000, making the former sports editor of the Times of the sixth-largest town in Zambia. Zambia, the country’s oldest and most Smelting and refining copper remain prestigious newspaper. the major industries and there is also an explosives factory in the town, serving The game that cemented the status of the mines. Mufulira also has a reputation Mufulira Wanderers came in 1965 when as the home of champions, from Levy they played Salisbury City Wanderers Mwanawasa, the county’s third president, for the Inter-Rhodesia Castle Cup. The to Kalusha Bwalya, the great former PSV Castle Cup had been established in forward who was named African player of Northern Rhodesia (modern-day Zambia) the year in 1988. And then there’s Chris in 1961 and Blackpool had twice reached Katongo, who captained Zambia to the the final, winning the competition in Cup of Nations in 2012. 1963. Wanderers beat City of in the 1965 final, qualifying them for a Mufulira is also home to Mufulira game against the champions of South Wanderers, nine times the national Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe). In champion.They have fallen on hard times front of a racially segregated crowd of and haven’t won the league since 1996, 18,000 in Salisbury (now Harare), Mufulira but for three decades their derby with Wanderers, inspired by Samuel ‘Zoom’ Mufulira Blackpool, who have fallen on Ndhlovu won a thrilling game 4-3. They even harder times, was the most fiercely left the pitch to discover Ian Smith, the contested in the country. Wanderers were leader of South Rhodesia, had made a founded in 1962 when Mufulira Mine Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Football Club signed a number of leading The players rushed to the airport and players from Blackpool. boarded a plane back home. The Cup was never played for again and remains in the Blackpool were funded by the municipal club’s possession. Mufulira Wanderers council, the economic distinction would go on to dominate Zambian from the mines made concrete by football for the rest of the decade. the Mufulira-Sabina Highway, which separated the mining area from the Despite their successes in the early area run by the municipality. Those 60s, Mufulira Blackpool were a much

34 smaller concern. Their victory in the reasons. Apart from that, the miners who 1974 Champion of Champions trophy, supported Wanderers would engage in though, made the rest of the country serious banter with the Council workers take note. “All roads used to lead to who support Blackpool. On match day, Mufulira, whenever Mufulira Wanderers fans trooped to the stadium as early as drew daggers against rivals Mufulira mid-morning. I witnessed cases where Blackpool,” said Lombe. “Blackpool was the Mufulira-Sabina Road was practically just an inconsequential side playing in designated as a boundary and no rival the lower leagues but they burst on supporter was to cross the line or they’d the scene with giant-killing acts and be beaten. won a major trophy beating seasoned United on their home turf. A “This is a derby which rarely ended clash between these two clubs attracted without drama on the pitch and growing soccer fans from as far afield as Lusaka up as a kid, that was good entertainment and Kabwe. for me. Almost all the fixtures I watched had stoppages due to high tension, crowd Wesley Kapatanya Mutembo is a trouble and so on.” board member at Wanderers, but his grandfather ‘Knife’ Chalubingu Sepa was Lombe’s recollection is more of the a life member at Blackpool. “Derby day games and the stars that graced them. brought a serious divide in town,” he said. “Pool made rapid progress due to their “The hype before and on match day was recruitment of talent from rural areas. simply electric. The banter between the They brought very exciting players with two rival teams and bragging rights post- defenders of robust physicality like the match really made me fall in love with the centre-back Leo Kamona. But a stand- derby. It was the talk of the town and the out player was the late . Chola nation at large. was stylish, skilful, with fantastic dribbling skills, who mesmerised many soccer fans “My late uncle was treasurer for Mufulira across Africa. Wanderers in the 90s and he and I were obviously Wanderers supporters. But my “He was a household name. The grandfather was a staunch Blackpool Wanderers defence was spearheaded by supporter. Grandpa would be so upbeat Dickson Makwaza, a skipper for club and about the derby and we would engage country, a cool but solid centre-back, in a lot of wars of words because he was aided by the effervescent Patrick Nkole such a stubborn but nice guy. Whenever at right-back, with his young brother, Blackpool won, it was hell for me, my Abraham, who later turned striker, as uncle and my cousins. goalminder and another brother, Edward, as left-back. Such were the stars on the “The banter was in most cases field who produced thrills and spills. But exaggerated in my view to the extent players belonging to that generation of stopping diehards of rival supporters retired, and the team slid into the lower and officials from being seen near echelons never to return to the levels of each others’ stadium for superstitious the 70s and 80s.”

35 Wanderers maintained their level for relegated from the top flight in 2019-20. longer. “Wanderers kept evolving from Blackpool haven’t been in the first division one generation of players to another,” since 2015-16, a chastening experience as said Lombe. “One such notable was they failed to win a single one of their 34 Efford Chabala who was rated as one of games and set a record low points total. the best goalkeepers on the continent. As the mines were privatised, Wanderers He died in the aeroplane disaster off the lost funding. Blackpool faded because coast of in 1993. Kalusha Bwalya the municipality could no longer afford to and his teammate Charles Musonda support them. carried on as flag bearers for both club and country from the mid-80s until early Memories of the derby, though, remain, 90s when they joined European clubs.” of the days when Mufulira was the centre Significantly, though, Bwalya started his of the Zambian football universe, when career at Blackpool. Wanderers and Blackpool were kings.

But Wanderers have gone more than 20 years without a trophy and were

36 THE BLIZZARD DOES BOOKS!

Dominic Bliss, through a combination of interviews, painstaking archival research and careful detective work, pieces together the lost history of one of football's most influential early heroes - Ernő Egri Erbstein.

Iain Macintosh's comic novel. It’s that old-fashioned rags-to-rags, boy-has- girl, girl-doesn’t-like-boy, boy-wants- to-keep-girl, girl-wants-a-boy-who- doesn’t-use-farts-as-punctuation story, juxtaposed against the top level of English football and set to the music of Supertramp.

Check out the latest releases at www.theblizzard.co.uk theblizzard.co.uk/shop 37 LAZIO V THEMSELVES

How a team split into two factions won Serie A

BY MICHAEL YOKHIN

Giorgio Chinaglia's son Anthony and Claudio Lotito, the President of SS Lazio, with jersey.

Lazio were relegated in 1971 at which but he was an extremely strong character they appointed as with a great will to win. manager. He led them to promotion in 1972. They nearly won the scudetto in They had one thing in common, though, 1973 and then they did win it for the and that made them inseparable. first time in 1974, a feat all the more Chinaglia spent his childhood in Wales, extraordinary because Lazio was a club while Wilson was born in Darlington to at war with itself. an English father and Italian mother. They met at Internapoli and moved to Lazio Maestrelli arrived at Lazio from another together in 1969. Before Maestrelli arrived, relegated club, Foggia, which may not the pair were used to deciding everything have seemed promising. Even worse, he in the dressing room. had once been captain of Roma. But he proved the decisive presence. “We owe Some of the players liked Chinaglia. Felice everything to him. It was all thanks to Pulici, the goalkeeper who joined Lazio him,” the captain said. from Novara in 1972, was amused by his temperament and admired his emotional After promotion, many expected Lazio style of play. A northerner from the to go down. The squad had 20 Italy caps outskirts of Milano, Pulici studied law and between them, 14 of those belonging – unlike most of his teammates – wasn’t to the enigmatic forward Giorgio fond of . His bond with Chinaglia Chinaglia. When such unheralded players was unusual but proved extremely strong. overachieve, the whole is obviously greater than the sum of the parts. The same went for Mario Facco. Stefano Discipline and unity are usually vital. Lazio Greco, the veteran journalist and historian had none of that. who wrote eight books about Lazio, describes the defender as “a philosopher On one side there was a group led by and a gentleman who was completely Chinaglia and Wilson. In many ways, they different from Chinaglia” – but they were opposites. The burly centre-forward, became close friends. Giancarlo Oddi, the nicknamed Long John, was volatile, tough centre-back who excelled at man- emotional, unpredictable, arrogant and marking, grew up at the club and became charismatic. He grew up in poverty, one of Chinaglia’s closest allies. and football was his way of expressing himself. He bragged, he fought, he On the other side, there were players quarrelled. He could only be loved or opposed to Long John, led by Luigi hated. Lazio fans idolised him. Martini, the energetic left-back who arrived at Lazio in 1971. “I caused the The was quieter and more split,” he said recently. “It was obvious composed, a clear leader. Not for nothing that the team was run by Chinaglia and was Wilson nicknamed Il Padrino – the Wilson, and I didn’t like that at all. Giorgio Godfather. Raised in a stable family and had the habit of laughing at teammates. well-educated, he saw football as a He wasn’t doing it out of malice, but I hobby before it became his profession – hated it nevertheless.”

40 Martini’s closest ally was the tireless teammates nicknamed them ‘the cat and midfielder , whom the fox’. They loved playing practical jokes Maestrelli bought from Foggia in 1972. on Chinaglia. On one occasion, when They had been friends ever since the forward was bragging about his new doing military service together, and shoes too much, they stole those shoes shared numerous hobbies, including and nailed them to the wall.” parachute jumping. “It was a dangerous adventure,”Martini said, “and we could But it wasn’t just jokes. The rivalry could have injured ourselves. But the club become uncontrollably violent – as in the president Umberto Lenzini encouraged us incident that occurred during a Uefa Cup instead of opposing us and issuing fines. tie at Sion in 1973. “I was a substitute that He was amused by the madness.” day,” Vincenzo D’Amico, the youngest member of the squad, told Greco for But perhaps the craziest member of the his book Maledetto nove. “Chinaglia squad was Sergio Petrelli, who flourished approached the bench and told Maestrelli in the light blue shirt after being discarded something about Martini. As soon as the by Roma, then under . referee blew his whistle, Martini came to The right-back was obsessed with guns Maestrelli and shouted, ‘I will kill him. This and he was the one to introduce weapons time I swear I will kill him.’ He then ran into Lazio dressing-rooms. There are towards the dressing room and his face numerous legends about Petrelli, who did not promise anything good at all. He liked to open fire from team hotels when was hysterical. At a certain point, after bored and once allegedly even shot the exchanging insults with Chinaglia, Martini light bulb from his bed because he was totally lost his head, broke a glass bottle too lazy to get up and turn it off. His fiery and – with that bottleneck that looks like a character and coarse sense of humour dagger – threatened to slaughter Giorgio. were important to the Martini camp, Luckily, nothing serious happened, which also included the forward Renzo because Chinaglia lowered his head.” Garlaschelli and the holding midfielder Franco Nanni. On match days, the rivals had to share a dressing room, but that wasn’t the case Petrelli’s best friend was the graceful at the training camp at Tor di Quinto, midfielder Mario Frustalupi. One of the where the factions were given a room oldest members of the squad, he joined each. They were just a few yards apart, Lazio at the age of 30 from Inter and but players were forbidden to enter the was crucial in terms of ball distribution ‘wrong’ room. According to Pulici, Martini – but also a vital member of Martini’s once went to the wrong room to use a camp. “Like Re Cecconi, Frustalupi was of hairdryer and was brutally attacked for humble origins, raised in a hard-working doing so. (The defender denied in his family,” said Greco. “He hated everything autobiography this ever happened.) Chinaglia represented with all his heart, and couldn’t stand the striker’s arrogance It’s hardly surprising, then, that training and star-like behaviour. Frustalupi sessions were at least as competitive became close to Petrelli, and the as the actual Serie A fixtures. Players

41 didn’t wear shin pads for league “Maestrelli was a great leader,” recalled matches, but put them on when the Lazio journalist and historian facing each other because the tackling Vincenzo Di Michele. “He appeared could be vicious. “Those were real mild but was actually very strong. battles,” said Greco, “especially on Psychologically, he was a very wise Thursdays when about 10,000 fans person, who pretended to allow players came to them. Maestrelli was to do what they wanted, but in reality the referee and the unwritten rule the team always did what Maestrelli told was that training matches didn’t end them to do. The coach was calm and until Chinaglia scored. Sometimes let the players vent their frustrations. He they started in the afternoon and went seemed to agree with everything they on until the evening. There were no said – but then made all the decisions floodlights, so players turned on the himself. He was very communicative and headlights of their cars in the parking had a word for everyone. He was the lot to illuminate the pitch.” father of that team.”

“Maestrelli was the only person capable At times, unconventional steps were of managing those training sessions,” necessary to keep the peace. In a home Martini said, “and at times they ended fixture against Verona, Lazio were playing earlier than scheduled because tension poorly and trailing 2-1 at half-time. became unbearable. The mister was a Maestrelli smelled trouble and realised person of remarkable intelligence. He that letting his troops into the dressing was the first to understand that Chinaglia room would be unwise. “We would have had to be treated like a child. Giorgio slaughtered each other,” Martini said. So needed to be guided and taken care of, the coach ordered the entire team to stay because he was emotionally unstable. on the pitch during the break. The fans In order to solve internal problems, loved it, the players remained united and Maestrelli invented the method that Lazio eventually won 4-2. always worked – he invited players to eat at his house. Whenever something was They won more often than not, because wrong, a dinner invitation followed.” they played for each other. “Maestrelli understood that the huge rivalry was Chinaglia visited Maestrelli’s home a actually our biggest strength,” Martini few times every week, but Martini and said. Lazio were oddly empowered by Re Cecconi were frequent guests as their internal conflict. well. The coach’s wife Angela and his two sons, Massimo and Maurizio, were His tactical innovations were important essentially part of the team and the boys as well. Martini started his career as a even spent a lot of time at the camp, centre-back, but Maestrelli convinced him taking part in training. “There were to switch to the left. He was responsible almost no borders between the team for turning Re Cecconi into a dominant and the family,” Massimo Maestrelli said. all-around player who seemingly covered “My father trusted his players and they the entire pitch. Lazio’s 1-3-3-3 formation trusted him.” was extremely forwards did a lot of work

42 without the ball. Even Chinaglia was 45 goals that season and it was only happy to participate in the team effort, fitting that he converted the penalty in because he was ready to do whatever his the final home fixture against Foggia to mentor told him. secure a 1-0 win that sealed the title.

Chinaglia was initially outraged by But that was as good as it got. Maestrelli ’s dismissal in was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer 1971 and wanted to leave after Lazio a few months later and as he was were relegated. But the first meeting hospitalised Lazio’s title defence faded. with Maestrelli changed his attitude They finished fourth. Oddi, Frustalupi completely. “You are the key to our and Nanni were sold that summer and success,” his mentor told him. He Chinaglia left for Cosmos soon managed to give that feeling to every after, writing an emotional farewell letter player. They might have hated each other, to Pulici and Wilson on his way to New but they loved their softly-spoken coach. York Cosmos: he simply could not bear life at Lazio without his mentor. In Lazio’s first season after promotion they went unbeaten at home and Maestrelli returned to save Lazio from conceded only 16 goals in 30 Serie A relegation in 1976, but he died that fixtures. Eventually, they finished third December aged 54. A few weeks later, Re with 43 points, the same total that was Cecconi was shot dead when pretending enough for them to win the league in to rob a jewellery shop and the fairy story 1974. Chinaglia scored 24 of the team’s had reached its tragic end.

43 DECENCY V AN INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY

When Nazi Germany played at White Hart Lane

BY JOHN HARDING

The German team give the Nazi salute at White Hart Lane before playing England, who went on to win 3-0.

When it was announced in October admitted, “Apparently, 50-odd letters 1935 that England football’s next home had been sent to Spurs from individual match would be against Germany, there Jews and Jewish organisations, were misgivings; when the venue for protesting against the match. A boycott the match was confirmed as White Hart is suggested and protests on the day Lane, home of Tottenham Hotspur, a threatened. Spurs simply sent them on club noted for its significant Jewish to the FA and reminded the latter that it following, there was consternation. was their responsibility to keep order.” As far as direct action was concerned, In September that year, Germany’s at the forthcoming Spurs versus Burnley Nuremberg race laws had prohibited match “a bugle would be sounded intermarriage and criminalised sexual and 6,000 Jews would walk out of the relations between “Jews” and “persons ground as a protest against the England- of German or related blood” effectively Germany match.” Elaborate police turning Jewish Germans into second-class precautions were taken to prevent citizens. What was disturbances but nothing happened. thinking? Not much, was the answer. The controversy prompted an outpouring There was, it was explained, no underlying of letters to the Weekly Herald whose malicious intent. The choice of venue had football correspondent concluded: “The been made on purely utilitarian grounds. Jews complain of the Nazi treatment Between the wars matches between of their compatriots in Germany and England and foreign nations were played demand that the match be cancelled! not at Wembley but at prominent League The Jewish protest has received little grounds, almost always in London. Arsenal sympathy amongst the general football had already hosted three such games public who resent the introduction into and Tottenham one. It was simply Spurs’s sport of such a controversy.” turn. As the FA considered politics to have no place in sport, the match had To prove the point the News published been arranged without involvement or a score of letters from ‘fans’, the vast discussion with the government while majority of which were against any sort the club itself appeared to harbour no of protest and a number quite openly misgivings. In fact, it immediately hiked racist. Under the heading “England For admission prices. As for Jewish sensibilities, England”, one read: “As one of the oldest the Weekly Herald for Tottenham reported, season ticket holders of the Spurs it “The extent of the Spurs Jewish following greatly amused me to read of the Jewish has often been discussed. Someone proposed boycott of next month’s within the inner councils of the Spurs match. I am in every way with them that told me this week that the size of this they should walk out at a given signal following was not nearly so large as was but with a one way ticket and not come popularly imagined…” back…. It is up to the English boys to turn up as many as they can; it will be There were protests, the Herald very nice to watch an English match acknowledged. On October 18 it with only English supporters.”

46 But it wouldn’t only be English supporters haired” extolled “wonderful London… I standing on the terraces. Close on the am a footballer. I know nothing about heels of the fixture’s announcement politics… After all, the game is the thing, came the news that upwards of 10,000 is it not?” – perhaps a many as 20,000 – German supporters would accompany the team, The only note of scepticism in the something quite unprecedented. popular press came in the Evening Standard, where David Low’s cartoon The Jewish Chronicle understood the appeared beneath the caption “Germany implications: “It is idle to suppose that the Discovers Sportsmanship”. It depicted great German descent on London has a football team of Jewish East Enders been organised and encouraged – even striding out to play surrounded by Nazi to the extent of providing cheap travel – Storm troopers hurling abuse. The out of pure love of the game... there can accompanying text read, “ press be little doubt that the ulterior purposes appeals to British sportsmanship to in the present instance is to present give the German footballers fair play. to the world the spectacle of mass That’s the way to talk. Berlin of course Anglo-Nazi fraternisation, to blanket the will respond when we send a team of protests against Nazi tyranny by English Whitechapel boys over on a return visit.” churchmen and others and to create the impression that this country is reconciled As kick-off approached, it was clear that with and all that it implies.” fair-play or not, the authorities were taking no chances. According to the Daily In fact, it would be the invasion by Worker, “The concentration of police thousands of German supporters that and plains clothes detectives was one would arouse the most intense media of the largest yet organised in London interest. The football, by contrast, paled with scarcely a turning or side-street left into insignificance. The preparations for uncovered.” Police were stationed every the trip, the feeding, accommodation ten yards along the road leading to the and travel arrangements for such a large ground while inside they were positioned number of people arriving all at once every eight yards around the pitch took up swathes of newspaper space. On perimeter. In all, almost 1000 officers the day of the match, December 4, the were on duty in and around the ground. Daily Express revealed beneath a headline A temporary police station with cells “Hans Across The Sea!” that a score of was provided in one of the out-buildings cross-Channel steamers had already in the Spurs car park while reserves of disgorged up to 16,000 Germans and that police were secreted in the pavilion on a air-liners, trains and coaches were now neighbouring school ground. relaying them into London. Two hours before the match, an anti-Nazi Crucially, the visitors were polite, they parade left Bruce Grove railway station didn’t wear Nazi badges and they praised and proceeded towards the ground everything they saw. The captain of handing out leaflets and carrying posters Germany, Fritz Szepan, “wiry, flaxen- proclaiming “Fascist Sport is Jew-Baiting”,

47 “Our Goal, Peace: Hitler’s goal, War”, the thousands of German visitors were “Hitler Hits Below The Belt” and “Keep swiftly hustled back to their coaches Sport Clean, Fight Fascism”. and thence onto trains for the return journey. By 11 o’clock that same night, Close to the ground, police moved in on they had vanished from the capital, the march, tore down the posters and sent on their way by a flurry of protests arrested those shouting slogans. Leaflets at Victoria station where more leaflets were grabbed and torn up. Undaunted, were distributed and large banners protestors handed out leaflets at Manor proclaiming “Free Thaelmann” displayed. House and Stamford Hill while others Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the German showered leaflets from the open windows Communist Party leader had been of buses onto the crowds below. Men imprisoned since 1933. He was murdered with sandwich boards proclaiming “Stop in Buchenwald on 18 August 1944. the Nazi Match” chanted at the visitors; there were regular scuffles with lone pro- The day after the game those who Nazi sympathisers. had been arrested were dealt with at magistrates courts in Tottenham and Inside, the vast German contingent Westminster. They were, for the most was accommodated in the New Stand part, veteran Communist demonstrators: where they waved little flags bearing the Sid Elias, William Morris, Barnie Bercow swastika. When the band struck up the and Herbert Ettlinger had all served prison German national anthem, they gave the sentences for various offences connected familiar Nazi salute. Above the ground, with anti-Nazi demonstrations in recent two flags were displayed side by side: months. The Westminster contingent the Union Jack and another bearing the were charged with scattering “offensive swastika – although the latter would and insulting” literature at Victoria station experience a brief moment’s absence. and hurling insults such as “Down With Hitler”. All were working-class, including a Of the match itself, little need be said. labourer, a hairdresser and a carpenter. England ran out 3-0 winners, although it wasn’t a vintage performance: the forwards At Tottenham the charges were mainly and Raich Carter of obstruction and refusing to take down endured poor games, with Matthews banners. The star, however, was Ernie uncharacteristically missing three good Wooley, a 24-year-old Shoreditch turner. early chances. Szepan, interviewed Wooley was charged with maliciously and afterwards exclusively for the Daily Express wilfully doing damage (to the amount of declared that it had been an “honourable 3/6) by cutting the lanyard which held up defeat”. He praised the English players’ the Nazi flag over the East Stand. “clean play and fine sportsmanship” and said that his abiding memory would be the In evidence, Detective Sergeant Wilkinson “enthusiastic cheering from the spectators”. explained, “I was near the turnstiles at the main entrance. I saw prisoner walk to the While the two teams and officials end of the stand and after loitering about gathered for a post-match banquet, for a few minutes he clambered onto the

48 gutter at the end of the stand and edged Post Script: his way along the gutter towards the lanyard supporting the German national The only Jewish player on the Spurs’ flag. He produced an open knife from his books in December 1935 was the pocket and cut the lanyard causing the centre-half David Levene who soon left flag to fall onto the roof of the grandstand. the club for Palace. The Weekly He was seized as he climbed down. Upon News commented that his transfer just being arrested, Wooley remarked, ‘You’ve at the time of the threatened Jewish got thousands of police about the ground demonstration was a “pure coincidence”: but no-one to watch the flag…’ Wooley “He was one of half a dozen players claimed, ‘I did not maliciously cut the selected a few weeks ago as likely to do rope. I was merely going to unfurl that flag better elsewhere.” by untying the knot of the lanyard. That Nazi flag is hated in this country.” Fritz Szepan went on to enjoy a celebrated career with Schalke 04 and A Spurs official present said there was no the German national side. He joined the evidence that the rope was worth 3/6 nor NSDAP on 1 May 1937 and in 1938 he was the rope produced in evidence. There bought an expropriated Jewish textile followed some confusion concerning shop under the “Aryanisation” programme the exact knife used (the police had lost for a nominal sum. After the war he was the original) and the case was dismissed. paid compensation. Wooley apparently smiled broadly as he left the dock.

49 ESTUDIANTES V GRÊMIO

3-1 down, four men down; the most improbable comeback in football history

BY JOSHUA LAW

Former Estudiantes player Miguel Angel Russo.

They were 3-1 down with 15 minutes to them this time around the club president go. They had had four players sent off. It Fábio Koff brought in , who had won was seven against eleven. Even with the the Libertadores with Flamengo in 1981, backing of 35,000 ferocious fans, this and Mazarópi, a reliable goalkeeper from shouldn’t be possible. But if they had Vasco da Gama. lost, Estudiantes would have been out of the and that gave “I had played in the Libertadores for them the conviction of the damned. Vasco,” said Mazarópi, “but in Brazil, it was not taken so seriously. Brazilian clubs didn’t plan with the Libertadores in mind. They planned for the state and national Estudiantes had won the 1982 championships.” But things were different Metropolitano, earning their place in the at Grêmio: “I found a group that had 1983 Libertadores, under . technical quality and was highly focused. The coach was then whisked off to The Libertadores was the club’s main aim, become the manager of his country, and Grêmio understood its importance.” was replaced by Eduardo Luján Manera, who had played under both under Bilardo Grêmio beat Estudiantes in Brazil; and his mentor Zubeldía. The identity América beat Grêmio in Cali; Estudiantes remained unchanged: organisation, beat América in La Plata. All was equal. discipline and an uncompromising will to Then, in the last game before they win – anti-fútbol, as their critics called it. travelled to Argentina, Grêmio overcame América in Porto Alegre. Every tie had Despite gaining just one point from gone to the home team, but if Grêmio their opening three Libertadores group could break that streak in La Plata their games, Estudiantes won the next three place in the final was guaranteed. to progress to the semi-final stage, a three-team group with Grêmio and Both their opponents, Mazarópi América de Cali. América were the emphasised, “had great quality. América nouveau riche, funded by narcodollars of had eight or nine players in the Colombia the Cali drug cartel. Grêmio, from Porto national team. Estudiantes had players Alegre, capital of Brazil’s Rio Grande from the Argentina national team. They do Sul state, had a reputation as the had more experience of the competition, country’s rough outsiders, flag-bearers too. You need to know how to play the for a specific gaúcho brand of football Libertadores. It is really difficult and that mixes rioplatense robustness and throws up surprises.” Brazilian technique. Grêmio did manage to dodge one Grêmio had breezed through their bullet. On their away day in Argentina, group, winning five and drawing one, América had accepted Estudiantes’ and, unusually for a Brazilian team at the offer of a bus to transport them from time, were fully focused on continental their hotel in to the glory. They had been dumped out at the Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi, an hour’s first stage the previous year, so to help drive away. They accepted and left early

52 enough to get there for a thorough At first, the journey was smooth. “We got warm-up. But, after three hours driving the bus to the stadium, walked to the in circles, they arrived with barely dressing rooms and it was all calm,” the enough time to change. América’s Grêmio manager told directors warned their Grêmio SporTV. “We thought we were at home. counterparts of the ploy and private The trap was perfect.” transport was booked instead. As soon as they ran out onto the pitch, Still, there were two complicating they realised their naivety. “The fans factors. Grêmio’s games with América were furious,” said Mazarópi. “Not just at home and Estudiantes away had been with us but with Brazilians. Before the scheduled for the Tuesday and Friday of game, I received a death threat. When the same week in July. Owing to heavy we came out of the tunnel there was rain, the first of the two was postponed one Estudiantes player next to each by 24 hours. Naturally, Grêmio’s directors Grêmio player and they came out kicking, asked for the second to be pushed back punching and intimidating us. Then I saw a day, too. But Conmebol refused. They something that I’d never seen in football. would play twice in 48 hours. The Estudiantes forward Trobbiani received a yellow card before kick-off.” Secondly, and more worryingly, photos had emerged earlier in the week that The Uruguayan referee Luis da Rosa, an stoked political tensions between the inexperienced official who was called Brazilian and Argentinian regimes. in as a last-minute replacement, was “Before our trip,” Mazarópi said, “three clearly eager to assert his authority. It British air force planes landed here in is not exactly clear why the card was Canoas on the outskirts of Porto Alegre brandished but, whatever the motive, to refuel.” The Falklands War had ended the wisdom of such an act in a stadium 11 months earlier, so hard evidence that that was already at boiling point must be the Brazilians had been aiding the British questioned. “I have no doubt,” Manera – something Brazilian military rulers had told El Gráfico, “that this señor came always denied – was certain to send fury predisposed. He conducted the game rippling across the nation. with complete ill intention.”

Still, Grêmio were focused on the result. Both teams could play, of that there was Before they took off, the forward Renato no doubt. In the midfield, Estudiantes Portaluppi told journalists that, “I’ve had a quartet of internationals, Miguel always liked going out at night, but now Ángel Russo, José Daniel Ponce, it’s time for the title. Women are not and . all that I think about. They may have As well as Renato, Grêmio boasted chosen me as the most handsome lad in the fleet-footed attacking talents of the city, but that will not influence me. Caio, Osvaldo, Tita and Tarciso. In the What is important is following my team- opening exchanges there was quality to mates and coming back from Argentina go alongside the cynical fouls. But the having qualified.” descent was inevitable.

53 After half an hour, the Grêmio midfielder we realised and opened the door, Caio China went in hard on Trobbiani, who was there on the floor, in tremendous reacted by kicking out. The referee was pain,” Mazarópi says. The Estudiantes decisive: a yellow for China, a straight red right-back Julián Camino had attacked for Trobbiani. In the ensuing fracas, Da Caio, kicking him so ferociously that it Rosa was pushed in the back by another fractured his fibula. Estudiantes player. Even with the benefit of video, it is not entirely clear whose hand Undeterred, Grêmio came out on the it was that shoved him and with so many front foot, constantly feeding Renato players around him, it is difficult to imagine down the right. “Renato was unmarkable,” that da Rosa knew for certain. But he did said the Estudiantes left-back Claudio not hesitate to wave the red again, this Gugnali. “He beat me constantly.” And time in the direction of Ponce. Estudiantes’ after seven minutes, his cross from the sense of injustice was heightened still Seleção player was met by César, who further. El Gráfico’s take again: “It was an had replaced the injured Caio. Grêmio ugly error. [A referee] cannot act for the were ahead. sake of it if he has not identified the culprit.” 11 minutes later, Tita again played it to The free-kick was in Estudiantes’ Renato on the . This time, he cut favour and after five more minutes of in, leaving Gugnali scrabbling around on protestation they lined up to take it. the floor, beat the centre-back Rubén Sabella floated a pin-point ball to the Agüero and blasted it low into the corner. far post, it was knocked down to Sergio He ran away with one finger in the air Gurrieri and he poked it into the gaping and the other on his lips, shushing the net. “Estudiantes, with nine, one,” wailed home support. Bottles and stones rained the Argentinian television commentator, down on Mazarópi at the other end and “Grêmio of Porto Alegre, zero.” even journalists got involved. “I was on the edge of the ‘D’ and a photographer Two men up, Grêmio immediately ran onto the pitch and kicked me and wrested control of the ball and before punched me in the back,” he said. half-time they were level through Osvaldo, who shot home from a tight All control had been lost. A coin launched angle after being put through by Caio. from the stands hit the linesman Ramón With the equaliser under their belts, the Barreto and the game was stopped while visitors were ready to escape to the safety doctors attended to him. A further bout of their changing room for some respite, of pushing and shoving followed, and and after the players and coaching staff Caio’s assailant Camino became the third had filed in, the door was slammed shut Estudiantes player to be dismissed. by the club’s security guards. The noise from outside was ignored and Espinosa Minutes after the restart, Hugo Tévez got on with his team talk. violently upended Renato and the referee reached for his pocket once more; eight After a few minutes, though, the manager became seven. At the start of the half, the noticed someone was missing. “When Argentinian television commentator had

54 said, “The great teams become greater in lips; the seemingly impossible was done. adversity,” implying that there was still a “It was the match I remember best from glimmer of hope: two goals and four men my career,” Russo told Clarín in 2003. down, they needed a miracle. “I won various championships, but that night was incomparable.” By this time, El Gráfico reported, it was approaching midnight but, “the sun was “It’s impossible to explain,” said Gugnali. rising on a great feat.” Gugnali lifted a “I always talked to Sabella. How did we pass to Guillermo Trama, whose cross do it? How were we positioned? It was slipped through Mazarópi’s hands. a 2-2-2 and the goalkeeper. Sometimes Gurrieri was lurking at the back post and people ask why there wasn’t five more scrambled the ball across the line. minutes of extra time. I think if there had been, Grêmio would have won 7-3.” Then, with 14 minutes to go, Estudiantes had one of those let offs that must have In the immediate aftermath, El Gráfico given them belief. Renato ran free down blamed the referee while Tiempo the wing once more. He found Osvaldo, Argentino declared that “seven heroes, who knocked it over the diving Carlos only seven,” had overcome “eleven Bertero and in. Osvaldo was onside by spineless Brazilians”. Clarín was similarly perhaps two metres. But Barreto, bandage scathing in its assessment of the Grêmio round his head, stuck his flag in the air. players but balanced praise for the The pressure from players and fans was courage Estudiantes had shown end with proving too much. the admission that the first 70 minutes had been “shameful”. Grêmio kept pushing for a fourth, only to be thwarted again and again by Barreto’s The Grêmio captain Hugo De León flag. Estudiantes rallied. The Argentinians told Placar, “It’s incomprehensible. surged forward and won another free- We were too naïve, we were stupid.” kick. Sabella found Trama, who headed Espinosa agreed: “Violence, tough play, narrowly over the bar. punches, kicks: it is all expected in a key Libertadores game. What should not have Then, three minutes from the end, Sabella happened was our withdrawal.” worked space down the right for Agüero to cross. The ball was headed away, but Yet Mazarópi, looking back, does not fell to Gurrieri, who wriggled his way back believe his teammates were cowardly. into the box. His shot was blocked, but “We battled until the final whistle,” he said, bobbled invitingly towards the penalty “but subconsciously we were taken in by spot. Russo came in, beat Osvaldo to the the pressure. Your subconscious works ball and poked it home with his left toe. to defend you. It’s as if there are lots of caged beasts trying to get to you and The remaining six minutes, including you start to notice that the bars of the injury time, dragged by, Bertero doing cage could break at any moment. You’d his best to waste time by lying prone. be devoured. If we’d won, I don’t know Eventually de Rosa put the whistle to his if we’d have got out in one piece. The

55 little old fella up there pointed his finger Grêmio would be involved on the and said, ‘It’s not your time yet.’ After the other side of a similar story in 2005 – a game we stayed in the changing rooms game known as the Batalha dos Aflitos for an hour and on the way out of the (Battle of the Afflicted). After being stadium we all had to squat in the aisle on reduced to seven men, an 18-year-old the bus as fans demolished it.” Anderson scored a vital late goal in Série B promotion play-off against Náutico Estudiantes, without their four suspended to seal Grêmio’s return to the top flight. players, travelled to Colombia the As the goal went in, the Rádio Gaúcha following week. But after the treatment commentator Pedro Ernesto Denardin they had received in La Plata, América had screamed, “Grêmio are performing an vowed to do everything they could to stop extraordinary feat, a feat that has no them and held the weakened Argentinian precedent in the history of football.” champions to a 0-0 draw that put Grêmio And yet it had happened before, and to through to the final in which they beat Grêmio, 22 years earlier. Peñarol after two more brutal legs.

Former Estudiantes player Marcelo Trobbiani, who went on to manage Argentina under 20s.

56 57 GIANNI BRERA V GINO PALUMBO

The two giants of Italian football journalism who couldn’t stand each other

BY JOHN IRVING

Gianni Rivera, nicknamed "Abatino" by Brera

The term Scuola napoletana, a native of the province of Salerno but Neapolitan School, means different a Neapolitan by adoption. It was like a things to different people. For art microcosm of the North-South division lovers it conjures up the paintings of that has existed in Italy since unification. Caravaggio, say, or Jusepe de Ribera, Only it turned stereotypes on their ‘Lo Spagnoletto’, for music lovers the heads: Brera was loud and larger-than- cantatas of Pergolesi or the sonatas life, while Palumbo was noted for his of Alessandro Scarlatti. For Gianni understatement – ‘il napoletano freddo’, Brera, the doyen of Milanese football the cold Neapolitan, they called him. The journalism, it was the term he used to only thing the two had in common was mock a group of southern colleagues their build: neither was particularly tall headed by Luigi ‘Gino’ Palumbo, who and both were distinctly portly. moved north in the 1950s and 1960s to promote a of the game that was As a young man in , Palumbo diametrically opposed to his own. When worked at and founded the Brera wrote, “Loving football doesn’t football weekly Sport Sud before moving always mean understanding it,” he had to Corriere della Sera in Milan in 1962. the Neapolitan School firmly in his Corriere was then Italy’s leading daily, but sights. The antipathy was mutual. locally it was embroiled in a circulation derby with the new kid on the block, Il During the post-war economic boom, Giorno, founded in 1956. Milan established itself as Italy’s capital of industry, business and publishing. Just Palumbo’s job was to edit the sports as hundreds of thousands of southern section, which he transformed into a paper workers flocked to its factories, so within the paper. In those days all Italian southern journalists were drawn to its league fixtures were played on Sunday newspapers. Football also flourished and afternoons and on Monday mornings the city’s teams dominated the world Palumbo bombarded readers with striking game for the best part of the 1960s, with headlines, photos and reports written in ’s AC Milan winning two simple unrhetorical language. In Turin, scudetti, a , two European Palumbo’s fellow Neapolitan and ally, Cups, a Uefa Cup and an Intercontinental Antonio Ghirelli, was editing the football Cup, Helenio Herrera’s Inter three daily according to similar criteria. scudetti, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups. There was plenty to The sports editor attempting to popularise argue about on the Milanese football front was Brera, who clearly felt the and, as Nicola Cecere of La Gazzetta dello Neapolitans were invading his patch. “Out Sport recalls, “Verbal duels were of a level of pure Mediterranean instinct, he threw that isn’t remotely comparable to the bar himself into the fray against Il Giorno,” he room brawls we witness nowadays.” wrote snottily of Palumbo, sarcastically referring to Il Corriere della Sera (Evening No journalistic rivalry was fiercer than the Courier) as Partenope Sera (Evening one between Brera, from San Zenone al Parthenope, after the siren of Greek Po, in the province of , and Palumbo, legend who gave her name to Naples).

60 Ghirelli complained of Brera’s “He’ll be printing out the alphabet next,” “domineering hegemony over the quipped Brera. “Palumbo is a reporter, profession of sports journalism”, while Brera a writer,” wrote the radical novelist Palumbo insinuated that Brera was Luciano Bianciardi. “Palumbo relates, the leader of a football writers’ mafia. Brera creates.” Brera warned Palumbo not to bring his Neapolitan “con-tricks” to Milan. Hence Brera’s invention of a whole new Italian football terminology. Melina (time- Brera was a brilliant writer who peppered wasting football), goleador (goalscorer), his articles with classical citations, centrocampista (midfielder) and pretattica neologisms, Lombard dialect and (roughly translatable as ‘mind games’) are foreign idioms. He referred to Palumbo just some of the words he coined that himself as Aluisinus Avis Columba (the have entered common parlance, while ‘Palumbo’ derives from the libero has been international for decades. palumbus, ‘wood pigeon’, so Brera simply tagged a mock-scientific name for the Brera mocked the Neapolitans for their bird onto his own cod Latin rendering “technical incompetence” and prided of ‘Luigi’). The literary critic Beniamino himself on his own credentials to speak Placido called Brera’s style “rustic about football. A player once asked him, baroque” and Umberto Eco famously “You’re always pontificating about football described him as “Gadda made easy for but have you ever played the game?” the people”, a reference to the novelist Carlo Emilio Gadda, whose convoluted “You’re right,” Brera replied. “From now writing is also interpolated with dialect and on we’ll get horses to write the racing inventive wordplay. When I studied Italian reports!” But he was being sarcastic. at university, revising The Divine Comedy In reality, he liked to boast that he had for exams was easier than reading Brera’s played as a centromediano in a Milanese football reports for pleasure. Brera wrote youth team before his parents forced him many books, including four novels, but to devote himself full-time to his studies. none of them have been translated into “I reckon that to understand football English, nor could they be: the translators’ you’ve got to have played a bit,” he notes would take up more space than the argued. “If you left a ball in the corridor, texts themselves. you couldn’t be sure Palumbo wouldn’t trip up over it.” Ghirelli retorted that, given Lacking his rival’s culture and literary the huge popularity of some sports, “The bent, Palumbo wrote no books and reporter has to come to terms with a few memorable articles. Brera himself range of experiences much broader, more joked that, “Palumbo wasn’t a writer. numerous and more complex than the He contented himself with being clear, technical dimension alone.” but the things he said were so simple he couldn’t help being anything else.” Brera placed the emphasis on ‘critical’ Before every Milan derby, Palumbo analysis. He wrote a famous essay on would offer Corriere della Sera readers “The Critical Interpretation of a Football instructions on how to get to . Match” and it’s no coincidence that his

61 magnum opus is entitled Storia critica Democrat Party in politics, so difensivisti del calcio italiano (A Critical History of were pitted against offensivisti in football. Italian Football), published in 1976. It’s a Ghirelli even brought politics into the rambling manifesto of his own personal football: “You played for a 0-0 draw just vision of the evolution of football tactics, as you voted Christian Democrat, to earn packed with anecdotes and asides. 20 a lot by not working much and risking years earlier, Ghirelli had written Storia even less… to free yourself of your moral del calcio in Italia (A History of Football in and professional responsibilities.” Italy), which is painstakingly researched and objective. Ghirelli’s book is a history, In an article for L’Europeo magazine Brera’s a miscellany. entitled “The Two Parties of the Sporting Press”, Guido Gerosa spoke of a country Brera, a convinced difensivista, was divided into two factions, one headed by opposed to the W-M system which, as he Brera, the other by Palumbo. The Breriani saw it, brought Italian teams more defeats were the football connoisseurs, the than victories. When he became editor Palombiani were more concerned with of not long after the game as a social phenomenon. England’s historic 4-0 trouncing of Italy in Turin in 1948 (“la Waterloo torinese,” Brera’s defensive theories were partly he called it), he set about promulgating based on his dabbling in ethnology. He what he defined as calcio all’italiana, believed that Italianuzzi, as he called based on , bolt defence, his compatriots disparagingly, were and contropiede, counter-attack. Don’t unsuited to attacking tactics that relied on concede goals and you can’t lose, he athleticism and stamina. “We are among posited, snatch a goal on the counter- the worst specimina of humankind,” he attack and you can win – though for him wrote, “on account of the diseases that the perfect game was a 0-0 draw. He have afflicted us for centuries, indeed recognised Nereo Rocco as the finest millennia, malnutrition and the precarious interpreter of the tactic (“He coaches with state in which we have always lived, astonishing pragmatic genius”) but also socially, politically and economically.” He boasted that, “Immodestly speaking, I’m also made analogies between football and the theorist.” sex. An Italian team had to be femmina, female, capable of defending its honour Palumbo and Ghirelli championed – i.e., its goal – from the “virile vigour” of attacking football and the beauty of physically stronger opponents. scoring one more goal than your opponent, not one fewer. “The rubbish In “Arcimatto”, the weekly letters column that’s spoken about goals as being he wrote for magazine, entertaining is indicative of vacuous Brera gave full vent to his half-baked ignorance,” thundered Brera. “It’s like ethnographic theories but sometimes he expecting an opera to be all arias.” contradicted himself: on the one hand he scorned the “Italian race”, on the other he Just as Italy was divided between the recognised that it isn’t a homogeneous Communist Party and the Christian entity. He always had an obsessive

62 attachment to the village of his birth in proceeded to slap him across the face. particular, and to the region in Brera reacted immediately. “Brutt teron!” general. His oeuvre includes a Storia dei he exclaimed and punched Palumbo in lombardi (A History of the Lombards) and the eye, drawing blood. (Teron being he used to refer to , the Po Valley, Lombard dialect for terrone, a derogatory as “the most wonderful valley in the term for southerners.) “I’m going to eat world”. Massimo Raffaeli, a literary critic your liver,” growled Palumbo but by now who has edited an anthology of Brera’s Brera had pinioned him. “Are you going articles, described him to me as a ‘holder to take him away?” Brera asked the other of Padania-centric “ideas” that, not by journalists present, “Or are you going to chance, have since been instrumentalised let us kill each other?” Duly separated, the and, to some extent, inherited by the two eventually made up but they were “green shirts”’ (a reference to Matteo never friends. Salvini’s Northern League). In fact, at the 1970 World Cup in Brera compounded his Lombardismo they were at daggers drawn again. In with antipathy towards Naples and the Italy’s epic semi-final against Germany, South. “His anti-southern prejudice was as Palumbo swallowed Coramine pills the most unpleasant trait of his vision and Brera gulped down whisky in the of football (and the world),” Raffaeli told stands of the Estadio Azteca, Gianni me. Brera sang the praises of “strong” Rivera scored the winning goal in the northern strikers such as Schiavio, 4-3 victory in extra time after coming Meazza, Piola, Mazzola senior, Riva and on as a sub. Brera was famous for giving Prati, and believed that “the southern players nicknames, the most memorable climate shortened the career of southern of which was Rivera’s: “Abatino”, literally athletes.” He even wrote that Naples a “young prior”, a term he borrowed “ought to import 500,000 women of from the Romantic poet Ugo Foscolo the Nordic race, already inseminated to describe talented but half-hearted by Nordic men, and hope that their . “Abatini animum vicendi non sons grow up into a Dennerlein or a habent,” he scoffed –abatini lack the Schnellinger”. (Fritz Dennerlein was an spirit of conquest. But this time Palumbo Italian swimmer and water polo player had a nickname to offer back. For him of German-Romanian origin, Karl-Heinz Rivera was the “Golden Boy”, the epitome Schnellinger the German full-back who of his ideal of skilful, attacking play: surely played for Roma and AC Milan.) Ghirelli commissario tecnico Ferrucco Valcareggi complained of Brera’s “manic hostility, would pick him for the final against Brazil. verging on racism”. “Even if I wasn’t Neapolitan,” he said, “it would disgust me.” In the event, Rivera stayed on the bench and only came off it to replace Sandro The storm that had been brewing broke Mazzola six minutes from the end, with at the Stadio Rigamonti at a Brescia- Italy trailing 4-1. Palumbo, who could Torino match in the late 1960s. “Here’s recognise a news story when he saw one, Brera,” shouted Palumbo when he caught turned this so-called staffetta, or passing sight of his rival in the press box and of the baton, into the scandal of the year.

63 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

He sensed it would sell newspapers and giant with whom Palumbo couldn’t hope ignite debate, and he was right: people to compete.” still talk about it today. The fact that public opinion generally sided with Rivera In the meantime, Brera’s anti-Neapolitan was another slap in the face for Brera, this barbs showed no signs of letting up. time metaphorical. “Poor souls,” he said after Napoli’s scudetto victory in 1987, “they used to Despite everything, in 1976, when the have a capital city with factories and editorship of La Gazzetta dello Sport trains. Then everything was taken away became vacant, Brera magnanimously from them. All they’ve got left is pizza, recommended Palumbo for the job but, mandolins and Maradona.” when offered the chance, refused to work under him. “He’s a perfect editor,” he said, When Palumbo died on September 29 “but too Neapolitan for my liking.” With of the same year, Brera wrote a grudging his customary popular style, Palumbo obituary in Repubblica, though a hint revolutionised the paper, achieving record of pathos shone though in the epitaph: circulation figures, so much so that when “Che ti sia lieve la terra”, from the ancient he retired with health problems in 1987 Roman funerary inscription “Sit tibi terra La Gazzetta was Italy’s best-selling daily levis”, may the earth rest lightly upon you. newspaper. “He devoted more space to Brera himself was killed in a car crash on the players themselves, with interviews 19 December 1992, on the way home galore, than to analysis and comment,” from a dinner of goose ragout at the Il Gigi Garanzini, now of , told Sole restaurant in Maleo, in the province me. “He achieved success from the point of Lodi. During the evening, he had of view of circulation but not, in my interviewed Ambrogio Pelagalli, a holding opinion, from that of quality.” player in Rocco’s AC Milan side, and intended to write up his notes the next Brera was similarly critical of Palumbo day. It was the one article he never wrote: at the time: “He’s cancelled technical an era in Italian sports journalism had The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance concepts from the paper because they’re come to an end. hard for him to grasp, and he thinks the writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive same applies to readers.” Gigi Garanzini, who knew both men, sides with Brera. “A and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

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64 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. LIPPMAN V GDR

The Dynamo Dresden striker who defected after a defeat to Bayer Uerdingen

BY JOE RONAN

Dynamo Dresden line up to play FC Bayern in the European Cup Final at 's Olympic Stadium

It is the 35th minute of the 1986 Cup- secret police leader who between 1932 Winners’ Cup quarter-final second leg and 1936 had studied at the Lenin School, between Dynamo Dresden and Bayer a Komintern training centre in the Soviet Uerdingen. Uerdingen have a corner. Union. Following the A dirty goalmouth scramble ensues; he was convicted of a murder that had bare skinny legs hack and long-sleeved, taken place in 1931. This was the man Adidas-clad arms flail. The ball is who dominated East German football. cleared and 15 seconds later it is in the Uerdingen net. Having slid in at the back In 1968, Mielke had told the Presidium post – concluding a beautiful counter- of the Dynamo Sports Association attack – the 24-year-old Dynamo winger that football success was expected to Frank Lippmann leaps to his feet in demonstrate “the superiority of our celebration. It was his fifth goal in six socialist order”. Fundamentally, he games. He would finish as the joint top conceived of football as part of the class scorer in the Cup Winners’ Cup that struggle. In the eyes of the state at least, season, but he would never score for the ideological battle between capitalism Dynamo again. and communism extended to the football pitch. Only once did East and The East German side were in control. West Germany meet on the international They finished the half 3-1 ahead on the stage, a 1-0 win for the GDR at the 1974 night and had won the first leg 2-0 in World Cup. Dresden. But their goalkeeper Bernd Jakubowski had his shoulder broken in a At club level, state control over football collision with Wolfgang Funke and had to was absolute. The 1953 founding go off at half-time to be replaced by Jens articles of Dynamo Dresden stated: “the Ramme, who had only ever played one sports club Dynamo, is an organisation match before. Dynamo let in six in the built on the principles of democratic second half to lose the tie 7-5. centralism. Members of the Sports Club Dynamo would be characterised by their That same night, Lippmann fled his team revolutionary vigilance.” hotel and defected to West Germany. He left behind his home, his club, his Whether through vigilance, effort or fiancée and his three-month old baby. ability, Dresden won the East German Lippmann’s story of Republikflucht (‘flight Oberliga in 1954. In response, Mielke from the republic’) is one of contested moved the entire team en masse to allegiances, strange power struggles and BFC Dynamo in Berlin. He believed the the world of football under communism. capital city should play host to the best club in the land. Likewise, after Dresden Dresden were part of SV Dynamo, the were celebrating their 1977-78 Oberliga sports association of the East German triumph, the secret police chief entered security agency, commonly known their changing room to instruct them that as the . This put them under the Dynamo Berlin would have to win the direct purview of , the Stasi’s following year. In fact, BFC would go on notorious head. Mielke was a ruthless to win the subsequent ten Oberliga titles.

68 Yet, for all this control, football held the day to day life of footballers. “Dynamo a uniquely independent position in clubs were always confronted by these the GDR. Footballers were relatively people,” Lippmann explained, as part of autonomous beings, despite being the ‘Memory of a Nation’ archival project subjected to strict surveillance. They were run in cooperation with the German paid four times the salary of the average broadcaster ZDF. “People in the stadium East German. They were able to travel – were interrogated time and again. Permits football was one sphere that could not be were issued for business trips, afterwards held in socialist isolation. the people were interrogated. We were told that it was the evil West that we were If successful, footballers received praise, crossing over into and that was why we fame and adulation. In this sense, they had to behave accordingly.” occupied a liminal position between state and society, and a bizarre space Other issues in Lippmann’s life had begun between the communist and capitalist to converge too. Three months earlier worlds. It was their prominence that he had been driving home drunk from a granted footballers their constrained party and crashed into a police transport freedom, but also that same publicity van. Now, after such an improbable that brought them to the attention of sporting and ideological humiliation, an the state. It is thought that up to a third opportunity presented itself. of Oberliga players were Stasi informers. In 1981, three other Dresden players had Had it been up to his coach, Klaus been implicated in a prospective case of Sammer, this alcohol offence would Republikflucht. The Dresden midfielder have kept Lippmann out of the team. Gerd Weber was sentenced to 27 months But the Stasi ordered Sammer to play in prison. Two of his teammates were Lippmann against Uerdingen – a side that also arrested, deemed guilty of knowing for one night represented the ‘evil West’ Weber’s intentions and failing to inform – because of his good form in Europe. the state. Just a month earlier the players He had scored in the first leg and, in such had flown to Argentina with the national high-profile clash against the class enemy, team, now they returned to the work ideological victory on the sports field was force as manual labourers and were made deemed of greater priority than Sammer’s eligible for six months military service. attempts at creating a squad culture. “In sporting terms,” Lippmann told Die Welt All this Frank Lippmann knew. The potential on the 30th anniversary of his flight, “the repercussions were clear. Lippmann had Stasi did everything right. They just didn’t been contacted by the Stasi regularly since think that there could be a third half in 1981, although he had consistently refused which I would play my game alone.” to cooperate as an informer. He would have been painfully aware of his unique He had told nobody of his intentions. and circumscribed liberty. Lippmann was Indeed, his plans had been vague and also known by the Stasi to have numerous noncommittal. Lippmann’s intended contacts in the West, including family in escape remained hypothetical until the Nuremberg. The Stasi were all pervasive in last. Asked whether he would have still

69 fled had Dresden progressed, Lippmann to escape, his efforts on the pitch were said, “I can’t answer that.” sincere enough. Watching the footage, the battle on the football pitch look real. But Dresden did not progress, and the The celebrations are authentic: upon second-half collapse triggered action. scoring the yellow-shirted Dynamo Lippmann was able to contact a DJ players leap simultaneously into the air in whom he knew from Dresden, who had comic and textbook 80s fashion. “It was all also fled and was staying about performance. If you want to achieve in the same hotel. In fact, Lippmann has something in competitive sport, you have since suggested that perhaps the defeat to be able to push private problems away,” distracted the Stasi. “Certain people, said Lippmann. Here the tensions of life whose purpose was surveillance, were as a footballer become apparent. “We had too frustrated after the defeat against politics lessons in the GDR, I didn’t want Uerdingen and so some people managed any of that,” he told Die Zeit. “Week after to get into the room without being week, as football players and adults, we monitored. This gave me the opportunity.” had to go to a politics class, which in my opinion was simply ridiculous.” Still, the escape was no formality, nor the decision to make it. You can imagine him As the second half collapse gathers vainly to balance opportunity with pace you can detect fatalism in the body risk, personal circumstance with the pull of language of the Dynamo players. Such a family and friends. He could have had no public embarrassment would be the end assurances he would see any of them again. of many careers. “Nothing excuses it,” club officials said afterwards. The head coach Then, the reckoning arrived. “I took Klaus Sammer (the father of Matthias) was advantage of the moment,” he said. “It soon pushed into an irrelevant youth- was a decision born a bit out of fear. I team role, while the 35-year-old captain had a lot of sweat on my forehead. When Hans-Jürgen Dörner was phased towards it started, I didn’t know what was really retirement. Reportedly, the Stasi collected going to happen.” the West German news clippings that heralded the “miracle of the Grotenburg”. The DJ was staying in the same hotel. For the communist state it had been an “I remember him saying to me in the ideological disaster. hallway, ‘Now or never. Down into the underground car park, there is my car, Watched from afar by the Stasi, Lippmann everything is sorted.’ To which I replied, played out the rest of his career in relative ‘Okay.’” He took the elevator to the obscurity in West Germany. He was hotel’s underground car park. He and plagued by injuries. “I never regretted the DJ drove straight to Nuremberg. The my escape,” Lippmann said. “I would Bild headline the subsequent day read: do it again and again, without ifs and “Lippmann with the lift to freedom.” buts.” Nevertheless, he admitted, “It’s a strange feeling. First the disaster against Nevertheless, while Lippmann may have Uerdingen, then the flight, somehow, I arrived in Uerdingen harbouring intentions feel a certain sadness.”

70 In the summer of 1989, months before Sadly, such a lopsided picture only mirrors the Berlin Wall fell, he was finally reunited the social and economic divides that still with his fiancée. Annett and their child afflict German society. Even in Dresden – had driven to Hungary, before crawling championed as the economic miracle of through holes in the Hungarian border the old East – the GDP per capita remains fence into West Germany. 30 years later, lower than the average of the largest when asked whether he would toast his West German cities. Politics too remains escape, Lippmann replied, “No. My wife is shaped by old divisions. The not very proud of this day.” populist right wing party AfD (Alternative for Germany) enjoys around double A year later, in 1990, Germany was the vote share in the old GDR as it does reunited. His career now over through in the west. In 2018 there were racist injury, Lippmann and his family returned riots in Chemnitz and 20,000 members immediately to Dresden, the city he had left of the far-right group Pegida marched three years previously. “Once a Dresdener through Dresden chanting Islamophobic always a Dresdener,” he said. The songs. Once united in profound political international ideological battle between solidarity, Union and Hertha are now East and West was over. So was Lippmann’s bitter rivals. In this season’s derby Hertha personal struggle for autonomy, but a new fans could be seen burning Union shirts, battle had begun: the battle to reunite flags and scarves from the stands. German football and society. Frank Lippmann used the sporting arena to When Germany won the 2014 World bridge the divide between East and West. Cup it should have been the joyous He fled from the scene of a footballing triumph of a reunified country. As it disaster that he knew would have wide happened, Toni Kroos was the only reaching political ramifications. In doing player born in the old East Germany, so, Lippmann demonstrated in microcosm as he had been in 2010 and would be the tensions that existed between the again in 2018. Likewise, not one of the individual and the state in East German 18 clubs that made up the Bundesliga football, and the tangled web of loyalties – in 2014 was from the old GDR. In fact, to teammates, families, clubs, nation and only five East German clubs have ever state – that all players grappled with. In played in the Bundesliga, and two – Germany, the shadows of the past lie long Dynamo Dresden and Hansa and they serve as a reminder that football – were automatically admitted upon remains a conflicted sport, one in which reunification. Today, RB Leipzig are the old divisions are hard to reconcile and new sole East German representative. This is ones quick to form. neatly ironic. Leipzig are a club whose controversial and meteoric rise has been With thanks to Ben Morgan and Ffyona fuelled by the financial might of the Ferguson for help with translation capitalist giant Red Bull. It seems bitterly telling that it has taken investment from a global mega-brand for an East German club to compete.

71 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

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How one of Tuscany’s oldest rivalries left a linesman dead

BY SIMONE PIEROTTI If you’re looking for vibrant city derbies Clapton and Elton John performing in an in Italy, go to Milan, Rome, Turin or enclosed square or below the centuries- . But for derbies between clubs old walls encircling the historic centre. The from different towns, Tuscany might local football club Lucchese was founded be the place to be – and not just for the in 1905, when the sportsmen Ernesto sunflower fields, the rows of cypress, the Matteucci and Felice and Vittorio Menesini abundance of smooth red wine and fine came back to their birthplace after art. Embedded between the Northern spending a few years in Brazil, introducing and the Southern regions of Italy, it a new pastime they had seen there. defines itself a nation within the country, with its entrenched campanilismi Talking about Viareggio and Lucca is – benign parochialism between sometimes like comparing night to neighbouring towns and villages. You day. For many centuries, Viareggio have flag-waving between Livorno has been a village of fishermen, naval and Pisa, which for its part conducts a workers and sailors who jeopardised rivalry with Florence, which finds himself their lives crossing seas to make a living. against Siena, which is opposed to The wealthy families of merchants in Arezzo, and so on. They may always have Lucca had nothing to do with that. In been confined to lower leagues, and several vernacular theatre plays staged Viareggio may not exist any more, but in Viareggio during Carnival, lucchesi are their derby against Lucchese 100 years generally depicted as rich scrooges, who ago prompted one of the most tragic look snobbishly at viareggini for being and extraordinary stories in Italian sport. lazy and squanderers. Little wonder that, when a football club came into existence Viareggio is a town of 65,000 inhabitants in Viareggio, local fans wanted it to on the northern shores of Tuscany. One mark their difference from Lucca. The of the very first seaside resorts to blossom 1919-20 season presented them with an in 19th-century Italy, it is nowadays extraordinary chance. renowned for its shipbuilding and its carnival in which giant papier-mâché Shortly after its foundation in March floats are paraded along an art-deco 1919, Viareggio – the zebre, as they esplanade. Football docked in Viareggio became known for their black-and-white thanks to British sailors who made their stripes – were admitted to compete in mark on the local dialect: mackerels are the Promozione, the national second tier here called ciortoni – ‘short tuna’– and sub-divided on a regional level. Seeded one of the most popular sailing ships was in a group with Lucchese and Pontedera the barcobestia – from the English term in 1919-20, Viareggio dominated their ‘the best bark’. A 90,000-inhabitant town, round-robin with four straight wins and Lucca lies in the valley of the Serchio river took their spot in the Prima Categoria, surrounded by hills, away from the sea. the regionally-divided top flight, for It has gained worldwide fame thanks to the following year. That season, they the annual Lucca Comics & Games event inaugurated the new ground at Villa and the Summer Festival at which you can Rigutti, a stadium with a wooden stand see the likes of the Rolling Stones, Eric and a small barrier between it and the

74 pitch. After the league came a sort of leg, with a handful of fans coming from appendix in the Coppa Olivo, a competition Lucca – as did the referee Rossini. organised by the Tuscan football According to the Viareggio-born poet and committee, with another two-legged clash psychiatrist Mario Tobino in his book Sulla between Viareggio and Lucchese. spiaggia e di là dal molo [On the Beach and Beyond the Pier], the home team The rossoneri of Lucchese, their colours appeared inferior to their arch-rivals, their being a homage to AC Milan, overcame players employed in humble jobs. Still, their opponents for the first time with a Viareggio scored the opener and added 2-1 victory as Viareggio supporters were a second before half time, sending the given a hostile reception by opposing crowd wild. Lucchese were not finished, fans. They promised to seek revenge though, and scored shortly after the break during the second leg and Lucchese through the centre-forward Giovanni directors worriedly informed the regional Moscardini. Nicknamed ‘Johnny’, he had committee, which dissuaded away fans been born in Scotland to a couple from from travelling to the seaside. Barga, a hamlet close to Lucca, before joining the Italian Army at the outbreak of Viareggio was dramatically affected by war. He was wounded during the Battle the fall out from the First World War of Caporetto, which stands in Italy’s with cuts to the merchant fleet leading collective consciousness as the great to mass unemployment and shortages. military debacle. Moscardini subsequently Strikes against the high cost of living returned to Barga, where he started were common as Viareggio aligned playing football before being signed by itself with the rest of the country in the Lucchese. Later, he would be capped so-called biennio rosso (‘red two years’), by the national team, becoming the first which were characterised by worker non-South American – a foreign demonstrations and experiments in self- footballer of Italian descent – to wear the management through soviet-style factory azzurri jersey. councils and plant occupations. “Around twenty strikes, including political ones, With ten minutes still to be played, referee took place in town from 1919 to 1920,” Rossini awarded Lucchese a free-kick the Viareggio historian Andrea Genovali that was bitterly contested by local noted. “There were strong conflicts and players and fans. From it, they scored many families found themselves in a the equaliser. Tension mounted in the desperate situation. Workers occupied stands and escalated further when the and eventually self-managed, although Lucchese striker Ernesto Bonino, who for a short period, the Ansaldo shipyards had scored the second goal, began to in what was one of the very first cases of argue with the Viareggio-born linesman similar incidents in Italy.” The spirit, or at Augusto Morganti. A discharged former least the myth, of the October Revolution lieutenant of the bersaglieri, a specialist hovered around the country. unit in the Italian Army’s infantry corps, Morganti had fought in the Great War On 2 May 1920, around 300 people and had tried to pass himself off as a gathered at Villa Rigutti for the second captain to receive compensation. Once

75 his scam was uncovered, he was arrested A football derby had served as the and sentenced to three years in prison, casus belli for what has gone down only to be released after a general into posterity as ‘le giornate rosse di amnesty for military crimes issued by the Viareggio’ (the red days of Viareggio). Prime minister Francesco Saverio Nitti in “Before that, nobody in Italy had ever September 1918. occupied an entire town,” Genovali said. “Furthermore, viareggini did it In such a fraught atmosphere, the without spilling blood. They erected referee opted to abandon the match, rudimentary barricades against the aggravating the crowd which invaded intervention of the troops, while a the pitch, prompting a mass brawl. committee made up of the socialist Police and carabinieri stepped in and, deputy Luigi Salvatori and the although many were disarmed by anarchist-led chamber of labour Viareggio fans, they managed to escort board started negotiations with the players to the dressing-room and representatives of the government, the then the Lucchese side and supporters Italian monarchy and the armed forces.” to safety. At some point in the chaos, the carabiniere Natale De Carli shot and The revolution ended on May 4, with killed the linesman Morganti, with what Morganti’s funeral. It had lasted only level of intent is unclear. three days. Still, it was enough to panic the establishment. “Salvatori endeavoured Nobody had previously been killed to pave the way to a revolution in during a football match in Italy. The news Viareggio and hopefully in the rest of reverberated around the world. “Football the country,” Genovali noted. “As soon referee shot,” said the Times, adding that as he realised it was not possible, due to De Carli “was injured by a stone.” The the gulf between the forces in the field New York Times wrote, “Tuscan city in and the lack of organisation within the revolt over football game” and introduced uprising, he prevented possible carnage. the unnamed Morganti as the “umpire”. At the same time, the authorities feared that Viareggio could become a model for In Viareggio the death deepened the other, larger cities, hinting at the potential sense of anger. “They felt they had just for a Soviet-like revolution in Italy as suffered the umpteenth injustice by well.” The army calmly restored normality the royal army,” said Genovali. People and a subsequent trial imposed small- besieged the carabinieri station, then scale punishments – 17 men and four occupied the town hall at Palazzo della women were taken to court, but only five Cittadella. The royal commissioner Gino were convicted for insurrection against Sartori ordered troops to charge before the state with sentences ranging from he and the other authorities were forced three to eight months. Meanwhile, De out. The anarchists’ black flag began to Carli was acquitted by the military court flutter outside the town hall, telephonic that found he had fired in self defence, and telegraphic communications were although a number of reports noted that cut. The insurgents proclaimed Viareggio no assault or provocation against him as an independent republic. had occurred.

76 The match was awarded by forfeit as a are in the Serie D after their third 2-0 win for Lucchese and for a few years bankruptcy over the last 12 years and derbies were played at neutral grounds Viareggio were liquidated. until a ‘pacification match’ during the Christmas holiday in 1925. That same However, memories of the Augusto year, Lucchese hammered their rivals 5-0, Morganti incident remain vivid, thanks a feat tarnished by alleged match-fixing to a number of local associations involving Viareggio’s goalkeeper Andras who unearthed that derby and, more Werzer who was reportedly awarded importantly, its aftermath. 1,000 lira for each goal conceded. But that was nothing like Lucchese’s biggest success in the fixture: in February 1921 they had won 11-1 with the brothers Ernesto and Armando Bonino scoring six goals between them.

Viareggio had the momentum in the following decade, though. On 21 May 1933, the rivals clashed in Livorno in a play-off for promotion to . Lucchese struck after a quarter of hour and kept their lead for 78 minutes, when the Viareggio forward Vinicio Viani levelled. Viani, who would later play for Lucchese, soon added a second and gave his side a historic win. Viareggio fans painted the words, “Here lies Lucchese” on the stands of Stadio Porta Elisa and carried a giant papier-mâché zebra across the iconic Lucca walls to enter the historic centre.

Since then, the derby has mostly taken place in lower divisions. While Lucchese took a more glorious path, as they competed in Serie B in the 1990s – they even faced Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle in the Anglo-Italian Cup – Viareggio largely floundered between Serie C2 and semi-professional leagues. They played each other for the last time nine years ago in the third division, the passion and the ferocity of their rivalry diminishing. Nowadays it is even worse, as Lucchese

77 BESKOV V LOBANOVSKYI

Two great players, two great coaches, two different visions of the game

BY SASHA GORYUNOV

Valeriy Lobanovskiy

“How many times have you heard this? Valeriy Lobanovskyi and Oleh Bazilevich We pass our way through the middle gained prominence through their of the park! But you decided to take collaboration with Anatoliy Zelentsov, someone on.” With his team 1-0 up a scientist from the Kyiv Institute of Konstantin Beskov was berating one of Physical Culture, who was keen to apply his players at half-time in the changing mathematical analysis to football and rooms at the Republican stadium in Kyiv. impressed Lobanovskyi and Bazilevich. It was September 1987, were They arrived at Dynamo Kyiv in 1973-74. going for the title and they had to win Zelentsov’s job was to analyse and design away to the reigning champions, Valeriy the most optimal training – sessions Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kyiv. Indeed, a became shorter but more intense – and draw would not even get them a point. later in-game methodologies, using computers to crunch the numbers Konstantin Beskov was a football man of and also provide feedback on player great pedigree. He had been a centre- performance. This was revolutionary. forward in the excellent post-war Dinamo Moscow team that toured Britain in 1945 Remarkable success followed as Dynamo and battled it out with CDKA Moscow for swept domestic and European trophies, supremacy in the USSR. His results as a winning the Cup Winners’ Cup and the coach were mixed before he returned to European Super Cup in 1975. Dinamo Moscow in 1967. There he won two Soviet Cups but blew the title-decider The Spartak full-back Evgeny Lovchev against CSKA in 1970 (with his son-in-law, remembers being on the receiving end of , scoring the winner for the Kyiv pressing game. “So, I am the full- the opposition) and lost the 1972 Cup back with the ball, playing against Dynamo, Winners’ Cup final against Rangers. and I roll the ball to the centre-back, a little slower as there is no one [from the But Beskov was about more than just opposition] in our half. If you time it, it results. He developed players. Yury would take about four or five seconds Gavrilov was plucked from non-league for the ball to get from me to the centre- Iskra Moscow, arriving to play for the back. In four or five seconds sprinters run reserves in 1972. He observes, “His most 50m, footballers 30. The moment the ball important quality was the ability to leaves the full-back’s foot, [the stopper recognise a player. He brought so many Anatoliy] Konkov screams “TOPTAT’!” through. If you take Dinamo back in the [“Flatten them!”]. Then Blokhin, the left- day, we had four sides of equal strength. sided forward, runs to cut off the right- It was not uncommon for the reserves to back, [Volodymyr] Onyshchenko dashes beat the first team.” on the other side to cut off the pass to the left-back, [Viktor] Kolotov goes straight for Beskov took over the USSR again – he the centre-back, who is still waiting for the had had a stint in 1963-64 –but lost his ball to arrive, and Konkov moves forward job after an embarrassing 3-0 away defeat to take over from Kolotov, covering yet to Ireland in the Euro qualifiers in 1974. A another passing lane… they cut off all the duo from Kyiv took over. players closest to the ball!” ”

80 When Lobanovskyi and Bazilevich took for so long the spirit of the club, was over the USSR, Dynamo effectively shunted out and a year later, on the final became the national side. But this was not match day of the autumn 1976 season, enough for them. After the USSR Olympic Spartak lost 3-1 in Kyiv. Results elsewhere team with a core of Spartak players went against them and they were qualified for the Montreal 1976 Olympics relegated for the first time in their history. under Beskov, it was announced that the two teams would be merged. Dynamo became the national side for both the Euros and the Olympics and Beskov was Remarkably, given what happened out of a job again. the year before, Dynamo Kyiv won 14, drew 15 and lost just once en route to At the behest of Lobanovskyi and clinching the 1977 title. In Europe, Bayern Bazilevich, the 1976 season was split were beaten once again, but Borussia into two parts – spring and autumn. Mönchengladbach edged past the There would be no relegation in the Ukrainians into a final against . spring campaign as the Dynamo Kyiv reserves would compete in the league, In the meantime, Beskov, after much while the first teamers would play in persuasion, agreed to join Spartak. Nikolai the European Cup and for the national Starostin was not sold on the idea, given side in the Euro 76 qualifiers as well as Beskov’s Dinamo past and dictatorial preparing for the Olympics. approach, but his brother Andrei, who had worked with Beskov with the The experiment was a disaster. In national team, convinced him. Even the March, Dynamo were knocked out of opinionated Lovchev, who already had the European Cup by St Étienne. Then history with Beskov, advocated for his the USSR lost to Czechoslovakia in the appointment. In fact, he points out that it quarter-finals of Euro 76, which left the was a condition of Beskov’s appointment Olympics, apparently the actual goal that Nikolai Starostin returned to the club. throughout. There were 11 Dynamo players in the 17-man Olympic squad. The new head coach went about They went to North America a month modernising the facilities at the Tarasovka before the tournament and the coaches training base, introducing video analysis ran the players into the ground As equipment. His signings were unusual. the result, the team lacked any sort of He brought in the likes of the striker freshness or fluidity and lost to East Georgy Yartsev from third-tier Spartak Germany on a terrible pitch in Montreal Kostroma and midfielder Sergey Shavlo in the semis. A player rebellion followed from Daugava Riga, who had just been on return to the USSR. Lobanovskyi only relegated from the second flight. just kept his job but lost Bazilevich and another coach, Oleksandr Petrashevskyi. As Beskov instilled the short passing game, some, like Lovchev, saw this as a link to Spartak, meanwhile, slipped to mid-table Spartak’s traditional style. Others, like the in 1975. The president Nikolai Starostin, journalist Oleg Vinokurov, viewed it as

81 more of a practical step – given the ability fault. It’s a psychological moment. Have a of the players at his disposal, this was the go at those who can do more but also at easiest game to play. The only piece that the senior pros, so that the junior players was missing was a . Beskov would keep their mouths shut.” finally landed Yury Gavrilov from Dinamo midway through the season. With Gavrilov laying on the passes for Yartsev and Vadim Pavlenko, Spartak scored almost a goal a Sergey Baltacha arrived in Kyiv from game more than before and comfortably the Kharkov academy in 1976. He was won both crowds and promotion. well-prepared, having spent the previous four years under the tutelage of Nikolay But Beskov was not easy to deal with. The Koltsov, the right-back in the Dynamo’s respected coach Yuri Morozov arrived 1961 side; however, there was still much in January 1977 but left in March after to learn. “The philosophy was that we being harangued by Beskov in front of could play every position,” he said. “I the players. Lovchev, fed up with Beskov’s could play right-back, centre-back, management style, left a few games into midfield. It was a quality that Lobanovskyi the following season. Gavrilov is almost wanted. He spoke a lot about it. It was unique: “I was comfortable around a team effort. For example, we are Beskov. When I arrived at Spartak I already defending a corner, all eleven of us (OK, knew him as a person, as a coach, knew maybe, ten with Blokhin left up the pitch). what he wanted and demanded. So, it When we can break, the ones who are was all relatively calm between us. Some nearer the ball should be going on the of the others feared him, their relationship counter. As soon as we got the ball, if was strained. I were closer to the centre of the pitch than Belanov or Vadik Yevtushenko, “I can only really say one thing. He really then I had to attack. We were good at did not like it when anyone started arguing this! Yevtushenko would then cover my with him. He thought that his instructions position. If you counter-attack, you also had to be carried out as he set them out. need to think about defending. Three We could win a game and afterwards he or four players need to think (and act) would approach players and point out in case we lose the ball. So, a nominal their mistakes. I once called him out on forward could end up as a centre-back it: ‘Konstantin Ivanovich, why are you for 20-30 seconds. berating us? Everyone makes mistakes and we won anyway!’ He responded in a “When I first arrived in the reserves, I did steely voice: ‘How could you not win? I not understand this. I was technically explained to you how you should play. So, good. I got my 10,000 hours with the don’t tell me that you won!’ ball. During my first training session with the first team, I pinged a couple of “I just learned not to take it to heart. I saw 60m passes, first with my left, then with him tear strips off the players of the great my right. As soon as I said where I was Dinamo Moscow side [of the early 1970s]. from, they knew my level. I did not have They would play fine but he would find a a stronger or a weaker foot. I had a right

82 and a left. I was good in the air, one of ball, have any time but [that day] for one the best in Europe. I arrived as a universal reason or another we just were not ready player. That was Lobanovskyi’s motto: you physically. I remember that game. We have to be universal.” were sort of pressing but not as a team. The point is not just to run around but to Baltacha made his first-team debut at run around correctly. At a certain moment centre-back in April 1978 against the the entire team needs to decide to press newly-promoted Spartak. His summary of NOW and we all move accordingly. For the Dynamo approach sounds remarkably example, if a Spartak full-back is on the modern. “We had the pressing game,” ball on the left, you move towards that he says. “We could apply a high press corner – you can’t press an entire pitch in the opponent’s half, or we could go – and deny him the opportunity and time for medium block on the halfway line. to switch the ball. On this occasion we let We could also drop deep, like we did them do it as several players were just too in Europe if we needed a result, and slow to execute.” play on the counter. Before the game Lobanovskyi would always clarify how we Gavrilov observed: “It is precisely because play the back. We worked on this during of the press that Kyiv frequently lost to the week prior to the game. It depended us at home. So, imagine two or three on the opposition, their coach and where players attacking an opponent to get the we were playing. We always pressed at ball from him. Spartak’s style, all those home. With 100,000 fans behind us, we one-twos and so on, meant that if one of pressed from the off and few teams could those players were late, then those two cope psychologically.” or three could be bypassed. You can take out at least one of those players with a In 1978 Spartak were not ready to one-two or even all of them if they have compete but they were quick learners. mistimed their runs particularly badly.” “We actually found it easier to play them No other team could even attempt this away than at home,” said Yury Gavrilov. against Spartak: “No Soviet team, other “We knew the way they played at home, than Kyiv, pressed us. They were probably with the crowd urging them forward, afraid to play against us like that.” and we spent a lot of time studying their weaknesses. So, we took care to carry out For their method to work, Dynamo Beskov’s game plan perfectly. We even Kyiv players had to be right on top of beat them 3-0 once [in 1984].” their game. Their peaks came in cycles around with pairs of titles in 1980, 1981 That game stuck in Baltacha’s mind too: and 1985, 1986. 1985-86 also brought “It was always tough for us to play against glory in the Cup-Winners’ Cup as one Spartak and for them against us. At home team after another was blown away at we usually tried to press them, to outrun the Republican stadium. “They come them, to seize the initiative. We did once on the pitch, 100,000 people chanting lose 3-0, when they really picked us apart. ‘Dynamo, Dynamo’ at them, and after 15 This is the whole point of pressing, when minutes it is already 3-0. After that we you don’t let these players receive the just hold the ball,” said Baltacha. While

83 there might be a slight exaggeration, draws for which a team would be awarded European visitors were, on average, three a point to eight. Lobanovskyi was frequently down by half-time. criticised for encouraging negative football with his ‘away’ model and occasionally Dynamo-Spartak encounters were usually hauled in front of the authorities to explain hard-fought with just one or two goals in himself. Needless to say, this did not help it. Draws were rare. In fact there was only his relationship with Moscow. one in twenty league matches between Beskov and Lobanovskyi – curiously, In addition to the league, Beskov and when Lobanovskyi was away in 1983 Lobanovskyi found themselves in a and Morozov was in charge, both games ménage à trois with Dinamo ’s head finished level. coach at the 1982 World Cup. Officially, Beskov, who was the The dynamic of the two sides in the USSR head coach and already had two decade from 1978 is very different. While assistants, came to Vyacheslav Koloskov, Spartak finished in the top three every who was in charge of Soviet football at season between 1979-1987 but only won the time, and asked for help, given the the league twice, Dynamo sank as low as number of Kyiv and Tbilisi players in the tenth (in 1984) but claimed the title on squad. This seems unlikely for Beskov. four occasions. Spartak faced Dynamo Both Baltacha and Gavrilov played at the late in the season in 1980 and 1985 three 1982 World Cup in and stress that points behind and needed a win to stay in the message from the three coaches contention for the league. The Kyiv side remained consistent but after the USSR won both times. Spartak’s lot in 1980 was exited the tournament in the second compounded by a terrible error from the phase following a drab 0-0 draw with goalkeeper Rinat Dasaev in the opening Poland, Beskov took the fall. Gavrilov still minutes. Still, matches in Kyiv were also feels that the team for that match was set decisive for Spartak in both title-winning by Lobanovskyi and, with just four out- seasons, in 1979 (when they went top and-out attacking players, too negatively for the first time, replacing Dynamo and at that. Baltacha is convinced that the staying there until the end of the season) USSR could have beaten Italy, who faced and in 1987 (when a Cherenkov header Poland in the semi-final. gave them a tense 1-0 win). Despite the frustrating exit, Baltacha Curiously, both times Spartak could enjoyed playing Beskov’s football, even if not afford a draw, thanks to… Dynamo. it was different from Dynamo’s: “Beskov Dynamo’s 15 draws in 30 games in 1977 had high standards – head up, playing wasn’t even the highest number in the technical, fast, beautiful football. It was league. Four clubs managed 17. The different. In my coaching I try to use a total number stood at a record 107 in mixture of the two approaches.” 240 matches (45%). The Soviet football authorities decided to act, trying to make Lobanovskyi took over for the Euro 84 the league more competitive and weed qualifying tournament and was sacked out corruption. They limited the number of after the USSR failed to make it through. He

84 would get his semi-final with Italy, though, 38-year-old Yury Gavrilov, who answered in 1988, a match that would go down as his call for a playmaker. Beskov returned one of the great Soviet performances. to Dinamo Moscow in 1994, tried and failed to re-sign Gavrilov and won the 1988 was also the last year of the Beskov- in 1995, Dinamo’s last trophy Lobanovskyi head-to-head in the league. to date. He died in May 2006, aged 85. In March Dynamo battered Spartak in Kyiv but somehow lost 2-1. Lobanovskyi Lobanovskyi failed at Italia 90, where suffered a heart attack in the aftermath the USSR did not get out of the group, of Sergey Rodionov’s winner five minutes then left for the Middle East, where he from time and was rushed to hospital. coached the UAE and Kuwait, ruining his health in the process. He returned to Spartak faded in the closing stages of the Dynamo in 1996. He built his third great season, winning only two of their final team with and Andriy six games, and finishing a disappointing Shevchenko, reaching the Champions fourth. This convinced Beskov that an League semi-final in 1999. He suffered a overhaul was required and he effectively stroke during a match against Metalurh transfer-listed eight players before going Zaporizhzhya on 7 May 2002 and died six on holiday; however, Nikolai Starostin days later, aged 63. took the players’ side and pensioned off his head coach. Valeriy Shmarov recalled returning to pick up his employment record book after the holiday, expecting to leave. Starostin told him to wait. That evening the players were told that they would have a new manager.

THE RESULTS The new Spartak manager, , brought back a number of USSR Supreme League: exiles, introduced elements of pressing Beskov wins 10, Lobanovskyi wins and shocked Dynamo in Kyiv in April 1989, 9, Draws 1 4-1. The teams met again in Moscow in late October with Valery Shmarov’s injury- Soviet Cup: time free-kick winning the game and the Beskov wins 2 (1 on penalties) title for Spartak Moscow. Trophies: Dynamo Kyiv won the Supreme League Beskov – 2 Supreme League in 1990, finishing one Soviet title ahead of titles, Lobanovskyi – 4 Supreme Spartak (13-12). League titles, 4 Soviet cups, 1 Cup Winners’ Cup Beskov went on to manage Asmaral in 1991, where he was reunited with the

85 ISSUE TWO BATTLES CONTRIBUTORS

Vadim Furmanov is a football writer Joshua Law is a sports journalist currently originally from Ukraine, currently living based in São Paulo. He edits the website in North Carolina, USA. He supports Yellow and Green Football and has Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine. @vfurmanov. written for a variety of other publications, including Forbes, the Guardian and UOL Matthew Gregory is a freelance journalist Esporte. @JoshuaMLaw and researcher, primarily with BBC Sport. He supports Rovers, but Thathe Msimango has been a freelance doesn't know why. @mattgregoryuk sports writer/podcaster for the South African commercial radio station Kaya FM Sasha Goryunov can usually be found for the past four years. covering the for whoever has the broadcasting rights for Simone Pierotti is an Italian freelance (currently Okko Sport) but Soviet football journalist based in Tuscany. He has remains his guilty pleasure. @Slasherrrr contributed to the likes of The Blizzard in the UK, Líbero and in Spain, John Harding is a freelance writer living Football Club in the Czech Republic and in North London. His last book was Taking Howler in the USA. @GorskiPark No Prisoners: the Legend of Frank Barson. Joe Ronan is a 21-year-old freelance and John Irving is a football and food writer history graduate from Manchester. based in Piedmont, Italy. He is the author @JoeRo99 of Pane e football (Slow Food Editore, The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance 2012). @irving_john Michael Yokhin is a European football writer with a keen interest in the history writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive Cecilia Lagos is an international football of the game. He contributes to the likes correspondent based in Europe. A judge of BBC, FourFourTwo, the Guardian, and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they for the Guardian’s World's Top100. Seen, ESPN, Independent and Josimar. @Yokhin heard, read on Fifa, BBC, ESPN, the can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3. Tactical Room, TUDN, etc. @CeciliaLagos You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out.

86 ISSUE TWO BATTLES

The idea of The Squall is to help out freelance writers during the Covid-19 crisis. For it to survive and thrive, we are asking readers to pay what they can and we suggest a minimum donation of £3.

You can pay into The Squall's bank account (sort code 40-05-17 and account number 71515942) or via PayPal to paypal.me/thesquall.

Thank you in advance for helping out. Issue 2, June 2020, Battles

Featuring:

David Squires, Estudiantes v Milan

Cecilia Lagos, Chile v Italy

Vadim Furmanov, Viktor Kanevskyi v the USSR

Matthew Gregory, Santos v Skoglund

Thathe Msimango, Wanderers v Blackpool

Michael Yokhin, Lazio v Themselves

John Harding, Decency v An International Friendly

Joshua Law, Estudiantes v Grêmio

John Irving, Gianni Brera v Gino Palumbo

Joe Ronan, Lippman v GDR

Simone Pierotti, Viareggio v Lucchese

Sasha Goryunov, Beskov v Lobanovskyi