[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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:


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]

Originally Posted by Highbury

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