FOOTBALL IN COUNTRIES THAT NO LONGER EXIST I put three photos of countries that no longer exist but that once had a national soccer team or teams that represented them in international competitions. 1- This first photo is of the Netherlands East-Indies (now Indonesia) that participated in the 1938 World Cup. They only played one game losing 6-0 against Hungary, thus being eliminated. That was the only game this team played in a World Cup. Since its independence in 1945 Indonesia has never managed to play a soccer World Cup. 2- The second photo corresponds to a match played in 1939 between Germany and the Bohemian and Moravian national team that ended with a 4-goal tie. The most interesting thing about this team that occupied land in what was later Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic is that Josef Bican played in his team (who according to some sources is the top scorer in football history and that throughout his career also played in the national teams of Austria and Czechoslovakia). In the match in the photo Bican scored 3 of 4 golas of his team. 3- The last photo corresponds to a match in the first European Club Cup in history. The match was a ⅛ final Milan-Fc Saarbrücken of the top European competition. Currently FC Saarbrücken belongs to the Saarland region which is within German territory but in 1955 (date of the match in the photo) Saarland was under French rule (Saar Protectorate). In that European Cup, FC Saarbrücken represented Saarland, Stade Reims represented France and Rot-Weiss Essen represented Germany. In the match in the image, Milan won 4-1, finally leaving the play off 7-5 in favor of the Italians.
The Netherlands East-Indies never were a country. They were part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and ruled from the Netherlands. So I guess we're the only country ever having two teams at a world cup.
This is a good comment from the Youtube clip of his dummy: A genius is somebody who offers a brand new, fully-creative solution to an old problem. In a one-on-one take vs the goalie (the old problem), no forward player had ever come up with a solution like Pele did in this play to dribble the goalie. Maradona is my all-time fave, but this was the kind of play that make Pele a GENIUS.
20 August 1966 - Tottenham Hotspurs v Leeds United in the first day of season 1966-67. On the left Terry Venables, centre Dave Mackay and Billy Bremner, on the right referee Norman Burtenshaw. This is what Dave Mackay later said of this iconic photo: 'The photograph of myself and Billy Bremner has become one of the most familiar images of football from that era. I have been asked to sign it many more times than any other image from my entire career and I have grown to dislike it. There I am, like Desperate Dan on steroids manhandling a smaller and terrified-looking Bremner. It smacks of the bully. They say every picture tells a story and so does this image, but it is not a real one. 'Bremner was my pal, but when he pulled on his Leeds shirt on he seemed to become a different man and for some reason he kicked me on my newly healed bad leg. He could easily have broken my leg for a third time. I was enraged. For a couple of seconds I lost my rag and was temporarily capable of breaking his neck in return. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and lifted him from the ground. Our faces almost touched as his legs dangled in the air. The moment passed, but not before photographer Monty Fresco had captured it.'
Ronaldo Nazario and Gabriel Batistuta are the only 2 players in history who have scored 10 or more goals in the final stages of the World Cup and also 10 or more goals in the final stages of their continental tournament (in the case of these two players we talk about the Copa America). Ronaldo scored 15 goals in the World Cups and 10 in the Copa America while Batistuta scored 10 goals in the World Cups and 13 goals in the Copa America.