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WHY OUR EURO HEROICS WILL NEVER BE TOPPED
Apparently, according to some sections of the media, last week we witnessed the greatest European comeback of all-time. Don't make me laugh!
Middlesbrough's 4-1 victory over FC Basle in the UEFA Cup quarter-final was a terrific achievement and they deserve full credit for fighting back from a 3-0 aggregate deficit to claim their place in the last four.
But the greatest ever? No, sorry, it doesn't even come close. I was lucky to have been there commentating on the game for Setanta Sports. It was tremendous, but no way in this world was it better than at least three of our greatest European nights. Some people have extremely short memories.
For most of those Boro’ players it was probably the most dramatic night they have been part of and certainly the home crowd did their best to create a big match atmosphere. I didn’t know what to think after they gave away an early goal but, with their powerful forwards, who are probably better suited to European nights than the Premiership, Boro’ managed to hit back at the right times.
But I was also fortunate to have been present at three of Liverpool's, and indeed football's, most amazing European comebacks.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have played in the amazing UEFA Cup Final against FC Bruges at Anfield, 30 years ago. The game of 1976 will probably be remembered by very much fewer numbers but rightly deserves its place as one Liverpool’s greatest performances. It was my first season in the first team and to start a major European final at 19 years old was comic book stuff.
We were on a tremendous run going into that final game confidence was sky high and we were still on track to win the Championship needing just one point from our last league game away at Wolves. But up against the Belgians we were caught cold on a beautiful spring night at Anfield gifted them a two-goal start inside the first 15 minutes.
The half time substitution that saw Jimmy Case replace John Toshack was crucial and once KK converted an early second half penalty we were on our way. Casey added a second and Ray Kennedy drove in the third against a top European team who we would meet two years later in the Champions Final at Wembley.
Then there was the Olympiacos game last season. This has been compared with the great night of St Etienne and in some ways I can see the comparison, because of the passion that was generated and the dramatic ending. It certainly gave us all a much-needed boost at a difficult time of the campaign and no doubt inspired the team to the ultimate Champions League success.
Which brings me to that final in Istanbul. This will surely never be beaten for drama and will live forever in the memory of everyone who witnessed it. To come back the way they did, on the biggest stage of all, against one of the best teams around was nothing short of a sporting miracle. So with due respect to the Teesiders, their efforts of last week, can, in my opinion, no way rival our famous European fight backs.
***
Playing in a cup final is, more often than not, the highlight of a player's career and on Thursday night, the Liverpool Youth team will play in what will undoubtedly be the biggest match of their career so far, when they welcome Manchester City to Anfield for the first leg of the FA Youth Cup Final.
I never had the chance to play in a Youth Cup Final, but just playing in the youth cup can be a thrill. For this current crop of young Reds the two-legged clash with City will provide a life-long special memory.
Having seen both sides play this season I’m sure they'll provide two highly entertaining games, and I think the winner will be the team who can take the greatest advantage from their home tie. Liverpool have certainly improved as they have advanced through this competition and now go into the final with growing confidence, based on a reasonably solid defence and a talented forward line. City, meanwhile, are a more experienced side with a high number of lads who have already had first team experience.
This will be the Reds first Youth final since the successful year of 1996, which featured Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen. In the three years I played we didn’t enjoy any real success but I remember the experience vividly with a group of lads who all hoped to fulfil a dream and progress in to the first team. Unfortunately in all those three years only Max Thompson made any impression in a Liverpool first team. Bill Shankly gave him his debut at 17 but he only featured as a sub a few times more under Bob Paisley.
One player who went on to have a very good career in the lower leagues was a local lad called Tommy Tynan. Though he failed to get a real break at Liverpool he was a fantastic goalscorer who scored goals wherever he played.
Interestingly, Tommy was found when Liverpool F.C. and Liverpool Echo ran a competition called Search for A Star, which was basically just like a Pop Idol type competition intending to find a football star through a series of trials, with the winner being offered a professional contract at Anfield. It was obviously not televised but it was certainly a novel idea at the time.
Though I didn’t play with any really high achievers in those youth days I certainly played against a few who later enjoyed fantastic careers. In one of our first games at Anfield we comfortably beat a Nottingham Forest team that included Viv Anderson and Tony Woodcock, and then went on to knockout Man City who had a future England international Peter Barnes on the wing.
Good luck to the Liverpool lads in this year’s final. I hope they really enjoy themselves and play to their full potential.
***
This weekend we’ll remember the Hillsborough tragedy on what is the 17th anniversary of the disaster. It is a poignant time for all Liverpool fans, particularly those who lost loved ones and friends.
At the time of the disaster I was playing in Belgium and, though amazingly touched by the events of the day, being so far away at the time I probably didn’t feel the real grief that was clearly evident on Merseyside at the time.
On that sad Saturday afternoon, while events unfolded in Sheffield, I was arriving at our stadium in Beveren to prepare for our evening home fixture. The normal routine was for us to have a cup of coffee and watch some English football on television before going for a pre-match meal.
Coverage that day obviously featured the cup semi-final but the commentary was not the best and pictures were not quite as clear as they would be today. It was obvious something was clearly wrong when fans found their way on the pitch but we couldn’t gauge the true extent of the disaster and there were mixed messages that filtered through the images. As we left the stadium for our meal there was some concern but we could only imagine the level of distress and certainly at that point no one expected to hear fans had died.
A couple of hours later we returned to hear the game had been abandoned and rumours began to come through that a large number of fans had lost their lives. It seemed hard to believe that even at that time such a disaster could take place at a football game and as the number of deaths rose throughout that night, I could only imagine what people were going through back home. It wasn’t until the following morning that I had any contact from Liverpool and it was only then that I began to feel the level of grief over that was shrouding my home city.
The events of Hillsborough will rightly never be forgotten, we come together because of our love of football and especially Liverpool Football Club, the fact it happened at a football match makes it all that more meaningful and is a major bond that links us all. |
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樓主: 奧雲仔仔
發表於 06-4-11 10:12 PM
發表於 06-4-11 11:00 PM
