Forgotten great teams

[Excape Goat]

This thread is to educate us on great teams that are forgotten(or perhaps overshadowed by greater teams). In their time, tghey were respected and loved. In time, the fans forgot about them because of various reasons.


Barcelona 1958-1960: Perhaps, this team is not forgotten by Barcelona fans and people in Spain. Howwever, outside of Spain, people talked about Real Madrid of the same period. This was perhaps one of the greatest Barcelona team ever assembled. They won back-to-back La Liga titles against Real Madrid. Thery also won two Fairs' Cups. Unfortuniately, Real madrid won five straight European Cups in the same period. In 1961, Barcelona reached the European Cup Final, but met the great Benfica in the Final. The team included Ladislao Kubala, Luis Suárez, Czibor and Kocsis.

River Plate of 1940's La Máquina: Outside of Argentina, very few fans would remember them.

[Cassano]

The Sampdoria side that from 1988-1992 won the Scudetto, Coppa Italia twice, the Cup Winner's Cup, and reached the Champions League final only to lose to Barcelona on an awesome goal by Ronald Koeman.

[jerrito]

The Sampdoria side that from 1988-1992 won the Scudetto, Coppa Italia twice, the Cup Winner's Cup, and reached the Champions League final only to lose to Barcelona on an awesome goal by Ronald Koeman.

Wow. I really had forgotten about that Sampdoria side. Good example.

[Bauser]

Hamburger Sport-Verein ca. 1976-83:

International:
European Cup champions 1983
European Cup finalists 1980
European Cupwinners cup champions 1977
UEFA Cup finalists 1982

Domestic:
Bundesliga champions 1979, 1982, 1983
German Cup champions 1976

[Excape Goat]

Both Hamburger Sport-Verein and Sampdoria are better examples than mine. I would liketo add Real Madrid of the 1980's. They won liked 5 la Liga titles and 2 back-to-back UEFA Cups. They lost out the eventual champion PSV by away goals during the semi-final in the 1987-1988 European Cup. The following year, they were embarassed by AC Milan, one of the best ever european side, at smae stage of the tournament.

[lanman]

Wolves under Stan Cullis in the 50s were a great side. They beat Honved (coming from 2-0 down), Spartak Moskow and Real Madrid in friendlies before the advent of the European Cup.

[Gregoriak]

Wolves under Stan Cullis in the 50s were a great side. They beat Honved (coming from 2-0 down), Spartak Moskow and Real Madrid in friendlies before the advent of the European Cup.

They certainly were. But in that game against Honved (with Puskas,Czibor, Kocsis), their first goal came from a questionable penalty. Plus, Stan Cullis ordered his then assistant Ron Atkinson to get the pitch watered so that Honved's sophisticated passing game would suffer. It did, but in the first half the pitch was still good enough for Honved to score to goals. For the second half, Cullis ordered his team to play more long balls, as the ground got muddier and muddier. Wolves scored the equalizer and the winning goal within a 120 second spell in front of a fanatical supporting home crowd 15 minutes before time.

This was a pivotal event for English club football before the European Cup era. Daily Mail's headline the following day read: "Hail Wolves - Now Champions of the World".

Gabriel Hanot of France's leading sport paper "L'Equipe" was at Molyneux that night and he was not pleased to read the headlines in the English press afterwards as he had seen that Honved were - despite the defeat - clearly the better side. Hanot was motivated to get a European Cup competition started with home and away ties, to determine which club really was the best in Europe. On 15 December 1954, Hanot wrote a letter to the English press, puplished in "L'Equipe", stating that "We must wait, until Wolves played in Budapest and Moscow, before we can declare them invincible. And then there are other sides of international class, like AC Milan and Real Madrid. There are strong arguments for the adoption of a European Championship of clubs. Bigger, more important and less irregual than the Mitropa Cup." On the next day, "L'Equipe" already presented a detailed system how such a European Club Championship could be staged...

[argentine soccer fan]

Boca Juniors and River Plate are historically the two best known teams from Argentina. But one great team that is often forgotten is Independiente of Avellaneda, of the early 70's.

In the 70's, Independiente won four Argentine titles, four Copa Libertadores in a row (1972, 73, 74, 75), and the Copa intercontinental in 73. They also won three copas Interamericanas.

The team was led offensively by the brilliant dupla of Ricardo Bochini and Daniel Bertoni.

Here is Independiente of 1973:
http://futbolfactory.futbolweb.net/eq_legend/images/independiente_1973.jpg

Goalkeeper:José Alberto Pérez,
Defense: Commisso, López, Sá and Pavoni,
Midfield: Semenewicz, Galván and Bochini,
Attack: Balbuena, Percy Rojas and Bertoni.

[Highbury]

Leeds United!

[unclesox]

Leeds United!
1965:
League runners-up
FA Cup finalist

1966:
League runners-up
Fairs Cup semi-finalist

1967:
Fairs Cup finalist
FA Cup semi-finalist

1968:
Fairs Cup WINNERS
League Cup WINNERS
FA Cup semi-finalist

1969:
League CHAMPIONS

1970:
League runners-up
FA Cup finalist
European Cup semi-finalist

1971:
Fairs Cup WINNERS
League runners-up

1972:
FA Cup WINNERS
League runners-up

1973:
Cup Winners Cup finalist
FA Cup finalist

1974:
League CHAMPIONS

1975:
European Cup finalist

[unclesox]

1976-78
While Anderlecht captured Europe by playing in three consecutive Cup Winners Cup finals (winning twice) with players like Van der Elst, Haan and Rensenbrink, Club Brugge was finishing ahead of them in the league to become Belgian champions in each campaign while also reaching finals of the '76 UEFA Cup and '78 European Cup, only to lose both to Paisley's Liverpool.

[Manyaraña Recargado]

notts county! :P responsible of juventus jerseys.
corinthians (eng) now corinthian casuals,responsible for real madrid jersey

[deejay]

Hmmm. If we're mentioning Independiente of the 70's then maybe we should mention Estudiantes de la Plata of the 60's. Well then again maybe we shouldn't.

[Bauser]

1976-78
Club Brugge was finishing ahead of them in the league to become Belgian champions in each campaign while also reaching finals of the '76 UEFA Cup and '78 European Cup, only to lose both to Paisley's Liverpool.

And Brügge had Ernst Happel as manager. A man who could fit well in as an opening chapter of a thread of "Forgotten great managers".

[argentine soccer fan]

Hmmm. If we're mentioning Independiente of the 70's then maybe we should mention Estudiantes de la Plata of the 60's. Well then again maybe we shouldn't.

Why not? Estudiantes was the best at winning ugly. They won one Argentine title in the sixties, plus four Libertadores and one Intercontinental. But they were hated by most fans in Argentina because of their dirty play.

Their gamesmanship is legendary. Not only they were hacks, but they used to study the private lives of their opponents, whether their wives had cheated on them, a relative had died, or any other personal problem, so they could bring it up during the match. It was said that they took needles to the field to pinch opposing players. One particularly brutal performance at the Intercontinental Cup against ACMilan was so disgraceful that after the match the Argentine police arrested all the players of Estudiantes. Poletti, the goalkeeper, was suspended for life.

There were some good players on that team, particularly goalscorer Juan 'Bruja' Veron, father of the 'Brujita' Veron who is playing for Estudiantes today. Also Carlos Bilardo, who later coached Argentina to a world cup title, played for that team. The defense was very solid, although also very dirty.

But I would hardly mention them among the great teams. Not nearly the class of Bochini's Independiente in terms of playing good football. The way Estudiantes usually won was, Veron would score one goal and then they would all track back to defend, and win 1-0.

Here it is, the team that belongs in the hall of Infamy:

http://futbolfactory.futbolweb.net/eq_legend/images/estudiantes_1968.jpg

[Cassano]

Referring back to Italian teams, I think you have to give Parma their due. Think about this- they were only promoted to Serie A for the first time in 1990.

From 1992-1999, Parma won 2 Coppa Italia trophies, a Cup Winner's Cup (and getting to another final but losing to Arsenal), a European Super Cup, 2 UEFA Cups, and an Italian Super Cup. They also finished second place in Serie A in 1997, only losing the championship to Juventus by 1 point. They also have had so many great players play for them, Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Crespo, Dino Baggio, just to name a few.

In the Champions League, in 1997-98 they finished second in their group, but the group stage had a different format and not all second placed teams went to the next round.

[dor02]

I think most people will still remember Parma but they may fit in this catagory within a few years.

Independiente 1970s and River Plate 1940s are the most forgotten. Independiente has more Copa Libertadores than anyone else and not many people outside of Argentina could see River in that era play.

Millionarios of the early 50s from Colombia are a forgotten team. Di Stefano, Pedernera and Nestor Rossi formed a part of the Blue Ballet.

In Italy, I can think of four more. Genoa and Pro Vercelli until the 1920s, Juve in the early 30s which won five titles in a row and "Il Grande Torino", which provided the nucleus of the Italian NT in the late 1940s. Before the professional Serie A started in 1929, Genoa had nine titles, Vercelli had seven and none of them have won a title since.

[unclesox]

And Brügge had Ernst Happel as manager. A man who could fit well in as an opening chapter of a thread of "Forgotten great managers".
I'm totally with you on this. ;)

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3717132#post3717132

[Excape Goat]

From the NT level, I came up with the Soviets in the 1960's. They were dominating the European Championship, but got forgotten because of poor WC performances and perhaps onetwo many 2nd places finish at the European Championship. Their players were not really star players.

[unclesox]

From the NT level, I came up with the Soviets in the 1960's.
You could also extend that into the early 70s as they controversially lost to Uruguay in '70 and finished runners-up in '72 to the finest German side to have ever graced a pitch.

I think a case could also be made for the 80s team as well.
At Spain '82 they made Brazil sweat it out til the end. And they possibly went out to Poland because of (dare I say) intimidation. They knew that match meant a lot to the Poles because of what was happening in Poland at the time (Solidary movement/Soviet invasion) and it seemed everytime a Polish player was fouled the Soviets would help him up with an apology.
The Soviets had a very strong side in Mexico '86, built around the Dynamo Kiev squad that had stylishly won the Cup Winners Cup that year. France v USSR in the first round was arguably the best of that tournament. And many felt Belgium's equalizer at 2-2 was wrongfully given (offside).
And although Holland won EURO 88, the USSR was probably the best side throughout that tournament. I actually thought they were the better side in the final itself.