Because football pitches used to be a lot muddier. Officials were worried that if a player got covered in mud it would be hard to tell him apart from an opposition player if the opposing team had a brown kit. Brown jersey were banned by the English FA. They were probably rarest of all colors in football. In NFL, we have Cleveland Browns. Apart from them, I don't recall any brown uniform in sport.
FC St. Pauli have traditionally worn brown kits. The (baseball) San Diego Padres began their franchise wearing brown jerseys, eliminated them for three decades beginning in 1990 and recently brought them back.
FINAL CHAMPIONS 2021/22 REAL MADRID-LIVERPOOL - For the first time in history, two teams will meet for the third time in the European Cup/Champions League final. So far the following finals have been repeated: * Real Madrid (56,59) 2-0 Stade Reims * Milan (63,90) 2-0 Benfica * Milan (69) 1-1 Ajax Amsterdam (95) * Ajax Amsterdam (73) 1-1 Juventus (96) * Liverpool (81) 1-1 Real Madrid (18). ¿¿¿2022??? * Real Madrid (98,17) 2-0 Juventus * Liverpool (05) 1-1 Milan (07) * Barcelona (09,11) 2-0 Manchester United * Real Madrid (14,16) 2-0 Atlético de Madrid - Both teams could be the first in history to defeat their rival on May 28 in a European Cup/Champions League final twice: * Liverpool have never beaten the same opponent twice in a final of Europe's top competition. * Real Madrid has already achieved it three times (Stade Reims, Atlético Madrid and Juventus) - Liverpool will play their tenth final, something that Bayern Munich and Milan have only achieved 11 times and Real Madrid 17 times. - If Liverpool win they will equal Milan as the second team with the most titles in this competition with 7. - If Real Madrid wins its 14th Champions League, it will add twice as many titles as the next on the list (Milan with 7) - Real Madrid will play its seventeenth final after playing 31 semi-finals (54.8%). Liverpool will play its tenth final after playing 12 semi-finals (83.3%) - Incredible as it may seem, this is the first time in history that Real Madrid manages to come back from a semi-final in the European Cup/Champions League after having lost the first game or after having drawn the first leg at home, the previous ones were: * 1968: against Manchester United (1-0 away and 3-3 at home) * 1973: against Ajax (2-1 away and 0-1 at home) * 1976: against Bayern (1-1 at home and 2-0 away) * 1987: against Bayern (4-1 away and 1-0 at home) * 1988: against PSV (1-1 at home and 0-0 away) * 1989: against Milan (1-1 at home and 5-0 away) * 2001: against Bayern (0-1 at home and 2-1 away) * 2011: against Barcelona (0-2 at home and 1-1 away) * 2012: against Bayern (2-1 away and 2-1 at home, on penalties) * 2013: against Borussia Dortmund (4-1 away and 2-0 at home) * 2015: against Juventus (2-1 away and 1-1 at home) * 2021: against Chelsea (1-1 at home and 2-0 away) * 2022: against Manchester City (4-3 away and 3-1 at home). First comeback in history in the semifinals. - Thiago Alcantara can match Clarence Seedorf winning the Champions League with three different teams: * Thiago: Barcelona 2011 and Bayern 2020 (Liverpool 2022?) * Seedorf: Ajax 1995, Real Madrid 1998 and Milan 2003 and 2007 - Carlo Ancelotti is the first coach to participate in 5 finals of the highest European competition (Milan 03, 05 and 07 and Real Madrid 14 and 22). In addition, if he wins the final he will be the first to win the tournament 4 times (Paisley and Zidane are also with 3 wins). - Jurgen Kloop, will play his fourth Champions League final equaling Miguel Muñoz, Marcelo Lippi and Alex Ferguson. - It will be the fourth final that Real Madrid plays in Paris, so far they have two wins (1956 and 2000) and one loss. Liverpool will play their second final in the French capital, in the first they won the title (1981)... precisely against Real Madrid. - If Florentino Pérez (president of Real Madrid) wins the 2022 title, with 6 trophies (02, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 22?), he will become the president with the most European Cups/Champions in history, equaling another Real Madrid president, the legendary Santiago Bernabeu (56, 57, 58, 59, 60 and 66) and surpassing Silvio Berlusconi's 5 titles (Milan, 89, 90, 94, 03 and 07)
If Real Madrid wins this, they would have won 8 Champions' League titles (excluding European Cups). They will double the amount from the next best team Barcelona. Barcelona has won 4 Champions' league titles. AC Milan has 3 titles. Liverpool can move into third place with a win.
Well, that's a bit of a technicality. Although 1992 was still called the European Champions' Cup in name, the format used during that tournament was the exact same format used a year later when the "Champions League" name was officially used for the first time. (i.e. '92 was not a straight knockout tournament)
Real Madrid has never lost twice to the same team in a European Cup or Champions League final, if Liverpool succeeds it would be the first to defeat Real Madrid twice in a final of the highest European competition. And the same thing happens the other way around, Liverpool have never lost twice to the same team in a European Cup or Champions League final, if Real Madrid succeeds they would be the first to defeat Liverpool twice in a top flight final European competition. I hope now it is better understood .
Regarding this post I made https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/t...acts-and-stories.611525/page-27#post-39952251 I realise I typed Yugoslavia when the 1955 game was against Italy (with Toth scoring and assisting). There's not really a "did you know?" aspect to it, but I'll add these good highlights of Hungary vs Yugoslavia from 1956 (a 2-2 draw) to compensate for that! 1956 (April 29) Hungary 2-Yugoslavia 2 (Friendly).mpg - YouTube Both games were part of the final Central European International Cup tournament, in which Hungary just played one game after September 1956, actually winning 8-0, Lajos Tichy scoring more than half his goals in that game and overtaking Puskas as top scorer in the process, while Czechoslovakia finished with a win vs Italy, albeit scoring just two goals and ending on 10 less goals scored than Hungary 1955–60 Central European International Cup - Wikipedia
A truly embarrassing moment for HFS Loans League team Congleton occurred in 1993 when holding a minute's silence before the match to mourn the death of the club's oldest fan who had reportedly passed away during week. However, the public relations department at Congleton might want to get new sources after they were forced to cancel the minute's silence when the fan walked into the ground to witness the ground in his minute's silence memorial.
I did not know this story until now. Kubala escaped to Italy from communist Hungary via Austria. In 1948 while playing for Pro Patria, he was asked to play for Torino in a friendly match against Benfica. But before his departure to Portugal, his wife arrived in Italy with his son who was very ill at that time. Kubala decided to stay in Italy with his ailing son. On Torino's return to Italy, their plane crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, and we should know about that story.
Czechoslovakia won the 1976 UEFA European Championship. After the breakup of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic inherited the title, but actually fifteen members of the team were Slovaks. Eight of the 13 players who played on the Final were from this region. The six defensive players excluding the goalkeeper were Slovaks.
That ball boy kicked by Eden Hazard is now worth 40 million pounds. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/19598916/eden-hazard-ball-boy-chelsea-swansea-vodka-times-rich-list/
Since the Qatar 2022 World Cup begins tomorrow, I am going to post a series of statistics regarding the world champion teams, the number of goals they scored and who their top scorers were. - The team that has scored the most goals in a single edition of a World Cup has been Germany in 1954 with 25 goals, a team that also has the best goalscoring average for a champion in all history with 4.17 goals per game. Curiously, Germany was neither the top scorer at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland nor did it have the best goals per game average in that edition. That honor went to the Hungarian Golden Team, which scored 27 goals and had a goalscoring average of 5.40 goals per game. match. - The team that has scored the fewest goals in a single edition of a World Cup has been Spain in 2010 with only 8 goals, a team that also has the worst goalscoring average for a champion in all of history with 1.14 goals per game. - Uruguay has won 2 World Cups (1930 and 1950), in both they played 4 games and in both they scored 15 goals giving an average of 3.75 goals per game in each edition, the second best mark of a champion after the 4.17 of Germany in 1954. - Guillermo Stábile and Ronaldo Nazario are the top scorers for a World Cup champion team with 8 goals scored in 1930 (the Uruguayan) and 2002 (the Brazilian). All the players who have exceeded 8 goals in one edition or were eliminated in the semifinals (Fontaine in 1958 with 13 goals, Eusebio in 1966 with 9 goals and Müller in 1970 with 10 goals) or lost the final as was the case with Kocsis with 11 goals scored in the 1954 World Cup. - David Villa is the player who has scored the highest percentage of goals in a champion team. In 2010 he scored 62.50% of the goals for Spain (5 of 8). Only two other players have scored at least half of their team's goals, Stábile in 1930 (8 of Uruguay's 15 goals, 53.33%) and Rossi in 1982 (6 of Italy's 12 goals, 50%). - Materazzi and Toni each scored 16.67% of the goals for 2006 champions Italy (2 of 12 goals), the lowest percentage in history. - Only three times has the world champion team had two top scorers (Brazil 1962 with Garrincha and Vavá with 4 goals, Italy 2006 with Materazzi and Toni with 2 goals and France 2018 with Griezmann and Mbappe with 4 goals).
Sorry, I made a mistake in my previous message. When making the table I put Stabile (Argentine player) instead of Cea (Uruguayan player) who is the one that corresponds. José Pedro Cea scored 5 goals in the 1930 World Cup, representing 33.33% of the goals scored by Uruguay in that edition. Corrected this error, there are only two players who have scored at least half of the goals for their team in a World Cup (and who have won the tournament): David Villa and Paolo Rossi. And Ronaldo Nazario stands alone as the top scorer for a champion team with 8 goals.
Given the huge amount of additional time we have seen in each game, which I do not think is a bad thing, I think this could be the highest GPG for a while for the whole tournament and probably the winner too.
Spain's 7-0 victory over Costa Rica is one of the biggest wins in World Cup history. According to the information that I have with that of Spain, there are 11 times that a team has won a match in the World Cup by at least 7 goals difference. What is clear, despite the euphoria that this type of results tends to cause both in fans and in the press, is that winning a game by 7, 8 or 9 goals does not guarantee at all that you will be champion. Nor does it guarantee that you will have a good tournament. I put the list of the 11 games with 7 or more goals difference and the final result in the championship of the team that got the win by 7 or more goals: Spain 7-0 Costa Rica (2022) ¿¿??? Portugal 7-0 North Korea (2010) – 11th of 32, round of 16 Turkey 7-0 South Korea (1954) – 9th of 16, group stage Uruguay 7-0 Scotland (1954) – 4th of 16, semi-finals Poland 7-0 Haiti (1974), 3rd of 16, game for third place Germany 8-0 Saudi Arabia (2002), 2nd of 32, final Uruguay 8-0 Bolivia (1950), 1st of 13, Champion Sweden 8-0 Cuba (1938), 4th of 15, semifinals Hungary 9-0 South Korea (1954), 2nd of 16, final Yugoslavia 9-0 Zaire (1974), 7th of 16, second group stage Hungary 10-1 El Salvador (1982), 14th of 24, first group stage Therefore, in the 10 games preceding the match between Spain and Costa Rica we have: - Only one champion (Uruguay-50) - Two finalists (Hungary-54 and Germany-2002) - Three semifinalists: (Sweden-38, Uruguay-54 and Poland-74) - Of the 4 remaining teams, only Yugoslavia-74 managed to finish in the top 8 (7th) and it is curious that the worst classification of these 10 teams is precisely the only team that has managed to score 10 goals in a Cup match of the World, the Hungary of 1982 that could only be 14th in the World Cup in Spain-82.
Senegal qualified for three World Cup Finals. Of all their players in these Finals, Kalidou Cissokho of their 2022 team was their only player who played club football at home. Even North Korea had two foreign based players ever from their two WC Finals appearances. Both came from their 2010 team and they were both Japanese-born Koreans who played for Japanese clubs.
For the second time in history, the finalists of the previous World Cup qualify for the semifinals of this edition. In 2018 France and Croatia played in the final and now, in 2022, both have qualified for the semifinals. As I said before, this had only happened once and curiously the two teams repeated the final, of course I am talking about the confrontations between Argentina and Germany in the 1986 and 1990 finals. Will the Croatians and French be able to repeat the final in 2022 as they already did in 2018?
It is incredible the great number of marks that the French players and their national team have overcome during this World Cup and those that they can still overcome: - Hugo Lloris has become during this World Cup the French player with the most caps in the history of the French team with 144 (probably 145 next Sunday) surpassing the 142 of Lilian Thuram. - Olivier Giroud has become during this World Cup the French player with the most goals in the history of the French team with 53 surpassing Thierry Henry's 51. - Antoine Griezmann has become during this World Cup the French player with the most assists in the history of the French team with 28, surpassing the 26 of Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane (Opta data). - In addition, the French team may be the first in 60 years to win two consecutive world cups. So far only Italy (34-38) and Brazil (58-62) have achieved it. - Didier Deschamps, can equal Vittorio Pozzo as the only two national coaches with two World Cups and also consecutive ones. - Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé could become the 5th and 6th player to score in two World Cup finals and the 2nd and 3rd to do so in consecutive finals after the Brazilian Vavá (58-62). The other 3 players who scored in two finals were Pele (58-70), Paul Breitner (74-82) and Zinedine Zidane (98-06). On the other hand, another of the protagonists of next Sunday's final, the Argentine Leo Messi, has also broken important records in this edition of the World Cup in Qatar: - Player with the most appearances in the World Cup equaling Lothar Matthäus with 25. On Sunday he will surely surpass that mark. - First player to give goal assists in 5 world cups. - Argentine player with the most goals in world cups with 11, thus surpassing the 10 of Gabriel Omar Batistuta. Of the players already eliminated there have also been quite prominent brands such as Cristiano Ronaldo: - First player to score goals in 5 world cups. - Most capped player with a national team in history, equaling Kuwaiti player Bader al-Mutawa with 196 caps. Finally, note that Neymar Jr equaled Pelé as the top scorer in the history of Brazil with 77 goals and that Harry Kane did the same, equaling Wayne Rooney's 53 goals in the English team.
All five African teams in the 2022 World Cup Finals were coached by Africans. Morocco's Regragui was born in France and Ghana's Otto Ado were born in West Germany. Only two of the AFC teams were coached by Asians (Australians were counted as Asian for the purpose of this thread). The USA was the only CONCACAF team coached by a manager from the region. Belgium was the only UEFA team coached by a foreigner. I assumed most WC coaches had long player careers or great coaching resume before leading their respective national teams in the WC Finals. In 2022, i found two who did not fit the description. Felix sanchez ran a football school in Qatar before taking Qatar Under 19 and Under 23 team. The national team was his first coaching job at the senior level. John Herdman coached the women team of both New Zealand and Canada. It also seemed that both coaches were not professional footballers in their playing career.
Interesting, those were also the bottom two teams (Qatar + Canada) in the overall World Cup placings... Ironically, Argentina is Lionel Scaloni's first senior management job after having been assistant for Sevilla, Argentina, and Argentina's u20 team.
Scaloni was at least an international player with a strong CV as a player. I am nothing against coaches with bad CVs. It was just a fun fact.
Summarizing Pelé's career in a single image is something absolutely impossible since the Brazilian was a player who won practically everything, in addition to achieving countless records, throughout his more than 20 years as a professional footballer. But if I had to choose an image it would be the following: This image in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico DF shows Pelé celebrating what nobody had achieved until that day and that today, 52 years later, nobody has managed to match, of course I'm talking about winning the World Cup for the third time as a player, the most important trophy in this sport as fantastic as soccer. Being a three-time champion can only be said by Pelé, no one else. R.I.P. Edson Arantes do Nascimento, PELE
John McGovern (Nottingham Forest 1979, 1980) and Ken McNaught (Aston Villa 1982) are the only two Scottish players to win Europe's premier club competition (European Cup/Champions League) but never gained a full international cap with Scotland.