WS already described Moore as perhaps the greatest captain of all time, and he played "magnificently" throughout the Euros, so he's a lock for my first 11. Nene I don't think is a Ballon-class performer. Bercellino was described as practically winning the scudetto by himself, though that was last season. Is it me, or does this happen a LOT in old matches? Haven't seen the game you described, but all the matches I've watched lately have been orgies of hopeful long balls that lead nowhere. The players don't seem to value possession that much, really, and are more likely to take risks. A modern coach would get an aneurysm in five minutes if his team played old style soccer.
Yeah, as said above I think the following from the Benelux merit to be looked at (or stand out). I'm sure you will work it out properly (or I'll give feedback). Paul van Himst - was joint league topscorer, scored in every European game he played, some decent/good games against Yugoslavia, West Germany, Poland, Netherlands. A bit surprising the Hungarian journal selected him for 1967, since that was one of his weaker years/seasons, I think. He really wasn't playing and scoring that well, but I guess it helped his career had been launched for a few years already and wasn't totally new. Claesen - the other guy who was topscorer. Forced Milan to a replay (if you have to believe Glanville an achievement in itself), and he features in Rethacker's book I saw. Polleunis - skilled midfielder and footballer of the year. Played maybe for a too low team to really break headlines, but immediately started scoring for the national team with 6 goals in the first 5 matches. Cruijff - despite 'footballer of the year' for the first time not as good as the season before I think and sadly banned for his national team, but played very well and scored against Real Madrid while losing etc. and remained very influential of course (club team still ranking very well in FF vote) with some high peaks that not more than 10 players could approach (in my perception). Overall maybe a step down in terms of production against top sides (including the friendlies). Led his team to the cup final but couldn't play there and a full-strength Ajax - typically - lost the match. Van Hanegem - almost topscorer of the league for lowly Xerxes (who had only 45 team goals). Team got eliminated in the group phase of the domestic cup, in which he was suspended. Only made his NT debut in may and no European games, so hard to envision him for the 23 but this episode in his career adds to his body of work for sure (that is: if played that way he could score goals). Should have been footballer of the year, it can be said, but would get it in a later year. Kindvall was apparently the highest ranked center forward in the 1968 Ballon d'Or but is imho just a step below. He is in Rethacker's book though (as well as other works obviously). For clarity: I don't claim they are all 23 material but I'd say these as a minimum (I saw PDG already had made a similar-but-not-same distinction - he spotted that well imho).
In the magazine France Football the individual votes of all the judges of each country and a short commentary were published. It would be interesting if someone had these cuts and could place them in this thread.
I comment briefly the ranking of the best footballer of the League published by the Barcelona newspaper "El Mundo Deportivo". Each day, the aforementioned newspaper gave grades from 1 to 6. When they finished each day, they made a team of the week and accumulated the average scores. It is observed that this year, the best rated players were those of the U.D. Las Palmas (Guedes and Tonono), which was the revelation team of the league. It is possible to notice that the soccer players of Real Madrid, in spite of being the dominating team of the championship are not in the positions of head. I do not know if it can be due to a lack of objectivity. I think I have the "Marca" newspaper of this season. I will be looking at the day by day and scoring the qualifications of the most outstanding players in order to make a comparison with them. It will take me several days, if you can wait before the voting starts. A priori, what I see is that the world-class footballers and that Ton has nominated appear in these positions: 19th.- Pirri: 96 points in 28 games played: an average of 3.42 points per game. 48º.- Amancio: 82 (28): 2.92 118º.- Gento: 63 (24): 2,62
Thanks Titanlux. I think at this point, I am probably ready to commit to this as my submission of the 23 players (but will wait a bit longer to post the list in the format with clubs/countries etc for Tom). Those ratings don't change too much for me, and anyway my list would be in approximate order and we are not awarding points from 1 to 23 or something like that. I'm now going with Prati rather than Lennox, and while I remove the left back (and I will decide later on one for the honourable mention and place in my TOTS but Gemmell still seems fairly likely for that), I have decided that by the end of the period I can be finding a place for Jairzinho probably - coming into the Botafogo team as a central forward and scoring plenty, as well as setting goals up (not sure how many obviously), while winning trophies, and having a good run in the Brazil team too in the same role. Maybe tournaments like the Mexican Hexagonal (inlcluding Ferencvaros and Red Star Belgrade) which he scored freely in, and one involving Argentina and Benfica which Botafogo also won, add a little to expand his resume for the 'season'. So I'd be going with this (not sure I'll write something like this every time but obviously I did for 66/67 too so I'll do it here the same way)…. 1 - George Best - A more decisive season than ever for the young talent from Belfast, scoring many goals and also conjuring up several crucial plays during Manchester United's successful European Cup campaign. Gets my verdict as the Player of the Season. 2 - Bobby Charlton - A glorious swansong or a hint that he can maintain a world class level for years yet, but anyway a campaign full of goals (high quality quite often, crucially decisive at times including in the European Cup Final) and a high level of midfield play, delivers him a vote for a podium place. 3 - Dragan Dzajic - Adding to a very good season with Red Star Belgrade, where his many assists and goals helped them rise to the top of Yugoslav football, he had a Euros qualifying campaign in which his quality assistances from the wing were very valuable and a Final tournament in which his sharply taken goals got his nation very close to winning the trophy. Established now as one of the game's great wing players, and worthy of a podium vote. A top 10 would be made up with these players too: Gianni Rivera Gerson Eusebio Juan Roman Veron Wlodzimierz Lubanski Johan Cruyff Pele And these players also received a vote for the 23: Amancio Sandro Mazzola Gunter Netzer Franz Beckenbauer Elias Figueroa Pirri Nene Billy McNeill Pierino Prati Carlos Alberto Dino Zoff Colin Bell Jairzinho (So, I've revealed my likely podium vote now! Team of the Season might still be a bit uncertain - I'm considering if I might actually put Beckenbauer in the midfield myself this time, with a number of games there for the NT, and seemingly having a good influence in the role against Brazil, England etc). Sorry, I know many of you are just beginning with this: anyway I'll take a back seat for a bit now!
Yes I've used that too, although that are assists per a wide definition (e.g. rebound = assist). Also note 8 of his 13 goals are penalties.
Of all the EC1 quarter finalists, EC2 semifinalists and Libertadores and EC3 finalists, I rank the following players as best: AC Milan = Rivera Bayern Munich = Beckenbauer Benfica = Eusebio Braunschweig = Wolter (2x international class rating) Cardiff = Torpedo = Streltsov (euro representative as well) Estudiantes = Verón Ferencvaros = Szűcs Górnik Zabrze = Lubański HSV = Schulz Juventus = Bercellino Leeds = Lorimer Lyon (QF playoff) = Di Nallo Manchester United = Best Palmeiras = Tupãzinho Real Madrid = Amancio or Pirri? Sparta Prague = Táborský (euro representative as well) Standard (QF playoff) = Claessen Vasas = Korsós If I'm not overrating EC/Euro, the remaining players will be Euro or combination players. Peñarol might deserve a mention as well.
To complete the puzzle, I struggle with Riva vs Mazzola and Pirri vs Amancio. Charlton, Fazlagić, Džajić and Prati are locks. For the podium, I am quite set on Charlton, Best, Verón, respectively. XI 1 Wolter 2 Fazlagić 3 Táborský 4 Schulz 5 Bercellino 6 Beckenbauer 7 Best 8 Charlton 9 Eusebio 10 Rivera 11 Verón
I think you have probably helped me finalise my Team of the Season choice with this post too annoyed! Since I had been thinking along the lines of a typical 4-2-4 with Lubanski joining Eusebio, but if Rivera is available as a forward (come attacking midfield) option, which I don't see why he shouldn't be (either Tom included him for forwards as well as AMs last time, or it wasn't tested since only me and comme had him in a 23 and I suppose wouldn't consider putting him in our XI for 66/67 - I was certain on picking Albert and Cruyff anyway) given Tom's guidelines on the forward choices, I'd think I'd decide to put him in as I'd feel more convinced about him than Lubanski for the season even if a disparity of available footage could mean that call was a bit harsh on the Pole. Maybe in real time back in 67/68 there wouldn't be quite that disparity, but I'm not sure. So it'd end up seeming more like the 4-3-3 option in effect (or basically 4-2-3-1 with Rivera positioned as a number 10 would be today in that system). Giving Eusebio and Charlton these numbers seemed right, but obviously Eusebio would be a central forward and Charlton a midfielder: 1 - Zoff 2 - Carlos Alberto 3 - Gemmell 4 - Figueroa 5 - McNeill 6 - Beckenbauer 7 - Best 8 - Eusebio 9 - B.Charlton 10 - Rivera 11 - Dzajic I'll definitely sit back now, but yeah this can be a second approval/request for Rivera to be available as a number 10 for the Team of the Season!
Just finished watching the Italy-USSR semi-final from Euro 68. Another game short on chances and goals, not helped by the torrential rain that left the players slipping over regularly. This felt like a slightly better game than the England one though, more measured generally in possession and everyone did ok. Of the potential inclusions here: Rivera - Started brightly and was regularly involved, some very nice passing neat interplay. Got a knock in a challenge with Afonin which meant he faded away in the latter stages. Mazzola - Similar to Rivera. Played neatly and clearly good touch but didn't threaten all that much. Had one effort in the second half after an excellent Rivera pass which he directed past the post. Wasn't fully fit and it showed a bit but overall a decent performance. Domenghini - Very direct in his running, full of energy and pace. Cracked a superb shot against the post in the closing minutes of extra-time. Air of menace every time he got the ball because he was always looking to go forward. Prati - Very good display from a lone front man. Worked extremely hard, chased everything and held the ball up well. His touch was excellent and he brought others into the game. Could well have got a goal as he won a series of headers with a prodigious leap but could never direct them that well. Facchetti - Not a huge presence. Didn't get forward all that much but was generally solid. Didn't stand out especially. Zoff - Made one really good save from Lenev at his near post but was otherwise hardly tested. Byshovets & Banishevsky - Bright and lively in the early stages but faded. Shesternyov - Commanding presence at the back. Mopped things up, decent on the ball. Good game. The best player for the Soviets was Yevriuzhikin who was a real threat down the left. Quick, direct, he gave Burgnich a real chasing and his close control was excellent. He was the person that impressed me the most. For Italy, it was Prati and Domenghini who stood out.
Byshovets and Sabo (who was considered by John Clark as one of the hardest players Celtic ever played against). However, they clearly had a very good team in general. Rudakov, Muntian and Serebriankov were all high level players.
Ok, some feedback on the pretty final decisions. In ratings we trust! Pirri holds the Marca ratings over Amancio. And despite Amancio playing in a more forward position, Pirri scored many important goals. His absence in some euro games looks felt. Mazzola holds the DBS rating over Riva. Both are mentioned in the final 4 skewed team of the euro. Mazzola is mentioned as possible MOTM in this thread. For historical representation, just like Amancio, trigger happy Riva is about to peak still. For the gk, again I don't think Zoff has a strong case. He was the best of the euro final 4. No heroics. 4th rated in Italy, 4 NT matches only. And he did not improve Napoli's defensive record. It's 1 more goal conceded compared to the previous season. About the podium I rank Best as best player of Manchester. But Charlton overtakes him with his euro performance added. For 3rd place, again an SA left attacker, Verón beats Džajić. Džajić had a much better support cast than Verón. There are no NT players. Yet Verón gets on top of the likes of Palmeiras, dribbling past 4 and scoring the decider, and later Manchester, in the following continental cup. 67-68 23 select Beckenbauer Bercellino Best Charlton Claessen Di Nallo Džajić Eusebio Fazlagić Korsós Lorimer Lubański Mazzola Pirri Prati Rivera Schulz Streltsov Szűcs Táborský Tupãzinho Verón Wolter 1 Wolter 2 Fazlagić 3 Táborský 4 Schulz 5 Bercellino 6 Beckenbauer 7 Best 8 Charlton 9 Eusebio 10 Rivera 11 Verón Bias 4 Italians 3 England based, 2 podium 3 Germans 2 SA (it's a country, 1 podium 2 Yugoslavians 2 Hungarians
After consulting the "Marca" of this season the performance of Spanish teams and footballers in the League, European competitions and with the national team, I finally want to highlight 8 players: Gallego (Barcelona and Spain): Central defense. One of the players with the best rating in the league, whose team, Barcelona, obtains the second position. Dispute the 6 international matches with Spain, with very prominent performances in most of them. Nevertheless, it falls in the first eliminatory one of the Glass of Fairs against the Zurich. Pirri (Real Madrid and Spain): In this season he played indoor, half defensive and even center forward. Win the league. Play almost all league matches at a good level. In the European Cup reaches the semifinals, where Real Madrid is eliminated by Manchester in a disputed semifinal. His performance in Europe is remarkable as well as with the Spanish team, in which he plays 5 of the 6 games this season. Guedes (Las Palmas and Spain): I played in midfield. Very technical footballer. His team was the biggest surprise of the Spanish league, which ended in third place. Summing up the ratings of “Mundo Deportivo” and “Marca”, was the 2nd best player in the league. His great season is awarded by the Spanish coach and debuted in a friendly in Sweden with a good performance. Germán (Las Palmas and Spain): He played with his teammate Guedes in midfield and like him, he was a prototype of the Canarian school, slow, but very technical footballers. His team was the biggest surprise of the Spanish league, which ended in third place. Summing up the ratings of “Mundo Deportivo” and “Marca”, was one of the best players in the league. His great season is awarded by the Spanish coach and debuted, along with Guedes, in a friendly in Sweden with a very good performance. Gento (Real Madrid and Spain): Win the league with Real Madrid, although its performance was quite lower than the aforementioned. Its level was better in Glass of Europe, although it diminished in semifinals before the United. With Spain he only played two matches, one friendly against Sweden, in which he played very well according to "Marca" and the return of the quarterfinals of the Eurocup, with Spanish defeat against England and in which he is qualified with a suspense by the "Marca". Amancio (Real Madrid and Spain): Win the league with Real Madrid, although his performance was much lower than Pirri, although better than Gento. However, in the European Cup he had brilliant performances, including a hat trick against Sparta Prague in the first leg of the quarterfinals; unfortunately for him, in the second leg he is sent off. He is sanctioned for two games, so he could not play the semifinals, although Madrid resorts and the penalty remains in a game. This means he can not play in the first leg of the semifinals, where Manchester United win 1 to 0. With Spain played 5 games with irregular performances. Claramunt (Valencia and Spain): I played as inside left. He had notable performances in league as indicated by the qualifications of the editors of "Mundo Deportivo" and "Marca". He finished 4th in the league. He played the Recopa with Valencia which reached the quarterfinals, where he was eliminated by Bayern Munich in a balanced eliminatory. He played all the matches in this competition and his performances were highlighted in them. With Spain played three games, his debut in Spain 3 - Sweden 1 and the next two, including the defeat against England. With the national team he did not maintain the level he showed with Valencia. Tonono (Las Palmas and Spain): Central defense. As it was said, 3rd in the league. Both for "El Mundo Deportivo" and "Marca", he obtained the best rating of the league championship. He debuted with the Spanish team in the defeat against Czechoslovakia. He formed an extraordinary tandem in the center of the Spanish defense with Gallego. After what has been said, if I have to order these players from best to worst, taking into account their individual performance and the results with their team and the national team, I would do it in the following way: 1st.- Pirri. 2º.- Tonono. 3º.- Amancio. 4th.- Guedes. 5th.- Gallego. 6º.- Germán. 7º.- Claramunt. 8th.- Gento. I want to nominate the first 5. To Pirri, I will almost certainly place him my Top 23. I have Tonono and Amancio at 50% right now. Guedes and Gallego have it very difficult, but not impossible. Germán and Claramunt would give them an honorable mention. Gento, I see him out of any list this season, although there were some games in which he remembered the best European left winger that years ago was.
From 'Algemeen Dagblad' of a year ago: 26 goals for a midfielder is a league record, if Litmanen and Bergkamp (both 26 goals in the relevant seasons where this applies) are seen as a forward rather than constrained midfielder.
What are the best works covering the European Cup? (or with that well covered) The one of Glanville from 1992 is also fine, despite this being more thematic. It describes certain protagonist players (Gullit, Platini etc.) very well. One good book in my native language is from Ed van Opzeeland, which is very thorough in terms of covering all the big matches. The Motson book from 1980 also intruiging when reading it back.
I think that (Motson) is the best one thus far. The Glanville one is decent as well, as you say. I have another one by Godsell which is not any good. Also there is one by Keir Radnedge which has a nice lot of photos and good coverage of the finals. https://www.amazon.co.uk/European-C...=gateway&sprefix=european+cup,aps,367&sr=8-17 I know that Miguel Delaney of the Independent was writing one a few years ago (pretty sure he interviewed Cruyff about it), but don't know where it got to. I would at some point like to try and write one myself but would be a huge undertaking.
No argument with Best and most of top ten....some other points though Has Jairzinho got a good a case as Gerson? Especially if you take into account international games. Also re Cruyff's finish in the Ballon d'or, this was pretty low, was it as we mentioned before perhaps the perception of the standing of the Dutch League and maybe no stand out European performance, or another reason? He had a great tally of goals that seasona and was Dutch Player of the year. Riva not above and had a good Ballon d'or finish, aware this position might be for the start of his 68-69 season but he was still a member of Euro 68 winning side, agree, arguable whether this would get him onto list above but has a strong a case as some other Italians. No Fachetti in the above too I noticed, he gain has a good a case as some Italians.
Although the individual players are/were maybe snowed under, the France Football jury did rank Dynamo Kiev as one of the (joint) best 15 teams in Europe of 1968. This was the top of the pile: AC Milan and Benfica, 38 points Celtic 35 points St Etienne 34 points Manchester United 33 points (later FF publication says 32 points) Ajax 32 points (other source says 33 points) Real Madrid 27 points St Etienne is maybe the surprising one out (given France their very low coëfficiënt and team ranking around those years), but they had a proper match with Benfica in 1967-68 as well as Celtic at the start of 1968-69 (and eliminated Bayern in the first round of 1969-70 in the future). Maybe also a bit of 'home advantage' in the voting... In short: yes Dynamo Kiev was recognized as a proper team, with improved recognition of their quality in the future. edit: corrected a typo.
Possibly re: the Botafogo players, but I'd feel not given the 1967 portion of the period we're looking at where Jairzinho was absent a fair bit (I mean not playing), and it would seem for Gerson overall the 12 month period might be as good as it ever got for him although I'd defer to Brazilian info on that potentially. I guess I didn't have Cruyff top 5 either, unlike for last season, so that's zero points from me in a Ballon d'Or scenario too. I think picking a top 10 is slightly different and using seasons different to calendar years too albeit I'm not sure he should fare worse for 1968 as opposed to 67/68 really (Puck may have info or a feeling on that). Riva's ratings were on the low side in Serie A (not extremely low, but not verging on top 20 to top 40 players), and there is a difference there with the following two seasons. It feels a bit early to consider him but others might do. Prati did score more goals in Italy in a similar role, albeit for champion team AC Milan. I think it'd be a good addition if you settled on a list yourself this time anyway mate.
So far Facchetti has not been reviewed favorably by several in this thread. Apart from his euro team nomination, why do you think he has a strong case?
Well you gain and lose some classic performances. You lose the Real Madrid matches, lost after extra time (which received high praise by Miguel Munoz, there's footage on youtube) but gain others like the Nuremberg demolition. In the 1968-69 season you get the two great goals (in a 'friendly') against English champs Manchester City. He himself commented at the end of the season it was less good as the one before, but note Ajax not as succesful without him playing (injured for the cup final). Although he had already done it at time before, one change is in 1968-69 he started to play a bit deeper, as evidenced by using the #10 shirt more often rather than #9 (more Totti/Lampard than Henry if that makes sense), but generally not as deep as later in his career. My idea would be very similar as yours. Top five is stretching it but whether more than 10-15 players in the world were clearly as good or better is doubtful (for me - in the sense of influence and capacity to impact outcomes of big matches). For 1968-69 there is a challenge for #1 (with Ajax also ascending to #1 in the FF vote). It's more obvious to see over a longer period of time (all-time highest win percentage etc.).