REAL MADRID 1959/60
The Great ~ REAL MADRID
Watching Mourinho’s Madrid fiddle and finger their way to victory in the Copa del Rey on a Wednesday night in April, 2011 against most people’s modern-day classical favourites, the carnival striped Kings of Catalonia ~ FC Barcelona. I once again found myself slipping from the solid earth of the present era into an almost dreamlike epoch where football belongs to a mythical age when the Gods of our game burned their names into the oak panelled, heavenly halls of Association Football, carved marble busts, wrote unspeakable tales and inscribed indelible records as testament to how grand everything was before coaches meddled too much with natural, raw, soccer talent.
Like Rommel and Montgomery who played tactical war games with the treasures of German and British youth during the 2nd World War. Those aged protagonists, hardened and bitter with the cynicism of their unholy craft plotted victories with tanks and weaponry, pragmatic, almost unfeeling for any misery and deprivation their strategies may inflict upon those young soldiers, their families and soon bereft communities.
Jose Mourinho himself, plots with the cold reason of a much older man. These days rarely allowing himself the abandonment of celebration, no touch-line jaunts or finger to mouth ‘silence’ gestures. Mourinho can usually now be spotted planning his next considered move as the cameras scan the touch-line after a score hoping to capture sideline responses. It must surely be his younger age, charming latin looks and often amusing but always surprising rhetoric which have helped him capture the admiration and support of well over 50% of the neutral football public, despite the unalterable fact that Mourinho teams though precisely well coached, do not necessarily play pretty football or will be remembered long into the night for a legacy of silky skills, dynamic attacking play and rangey, football flair.
No indeed, vats of sour grapes laden as it may sound, most aficionados of the great game agree, Mourinho teams do no more than what it says on the self monogrammed and raffishly applied wrappers. They ‘get the job done’ by whichever and whatever means is deemed necessary and there are many who will argue, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Not so with the great Real Madrid. the mythical Real Madrid, the mystical and original ‘galacticos’ Real Madrid, the ‘Los Blancos’ Real Madrid. That Real Madrid which included players whose names pour like sweet natural honeys from the boughs of magical trees in a unique garden of remembrance set not for those who have died but for the careers of legendary players now ‘a-listed’ and retired, elevated to a higher plain ~ Players like Alfredo DiStefano, Francisco Gento, Ferenc Puskas and Butragueno – who played for the five times consecutive winners of the original European Cup during their golden years and from its inception in 1955.
I have heard Glasgow football fans wax lyrical with bated breath about how after skipping school in 1960 they became privy to a Wednesday afternoon ‘happening’, extraordinary and unique when they snucked in at Hampden Park for the visit of Real and Eintracht Frankfurt and found themselves part of the largest ever attendance at any European Cup game let alone a Final. They say they were mesmerised by the spectacle of ‘Los Meringues’ as they ‘created’ the meaning of the cliche – ‘the best form of defence is attack’ by stunning the stolid German team and 135,000 spectators with one of the great attacking performances.
I have to say the clouded, intermittent and staccato newsreel frames filmed that day would seem to confirm the Glaswegians tale, for the film shows that even by todays standards a super fit, multi talented Real Madrid were truly something sensational to behold. Seven times Real ripped through the Germans beleagured rearguard quite unconcerned that while they were doing what they knew best, score sensational goals, Frankfurt were able to put three of their own away.
5 TIMES CHAMPIONS ‘ON THE SPIN’
The Real Madrid of the 50/60’s were the first ambassadors of the club game. They had embraced the new Euro experience with warmth and style, seizing the opportunity to make their mark with an almost immortal grasp. Reims x2, Fiorentina and Milan had already suffered final defeats before the Hampden game and the Madrid Globetrotters had taken their particular brand of entertainment on a five year roadshow with finals in Paris, Madrid, Brussels and Stuttgart before that first British European Final. Trust the Scots to steal the main event and provide a fitting backdrop for such a defining game. Scotland was still a hotbed for the game in those days producing some great players of their own to play on their own passionate Gaelic stage.
( See I LOVE SCOTTISH FITBA\’ )
Entertainment was the currency of ‘Los Blancos’ ~ whose pure white uniform not only inspired the all white strip of teams like Leeds and Dukla Prague but also the popular trend toward all-coloured strips developed by teams like Chelsea and Liverpool way back in those early swinging sixties. It is that legacy of ‘entertainment’ home fans who visit the Bernabeau expect. It is the expectation of the hierarchy, the ‘ethos’, the tradition, the spirit, indeed the ‘default’ of the club is set at – ‘entertain 1st’ and then win as a very close 2nd. So close in fact that managers, coaches have come and gone at a very regular turnover rate like gored matadors of the football arena for failing even slightly on either one of these toros’ horns.
Di Stefano with the 5 Cups
This is the core of the recent gripe of the legendary senior statesmen Di Stefano who has released disaproving comments regarding the ‘manner’ of this new Mourinho inspired Real by suggesting that to win is not alone, enough. Especially when competing in the annual ‘el classico’s’ against the ancient enemy – Barcelona. In the past similar remarks have become a precursor for the deletion of very successful coaching contracts at the Bernabeau. Two Champions Leagues, two La Liga titles and two Spanish Cups in 3 1/2 years were not enough to keep Vicente Del Bosque in the job. Real have gone through 11 coaches in the last 10 years, ‘enuff said’ ?
Modern philosophy does not always accommodate a healthy regard for what has gone before and in the arena of football, the tradition of respect is nowhere near as strong as when I was a young lad. Football chat and media presentation at that time included constant reference to the past ‘greats’ of the game. We accepted without question that Billy Liddell, Stanley Mortensen, Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews to name a few, were the players to emulate and revere. Pre the era of inflated transfer price tags it took a lot more dedication than maybe two/three good seasons to earn legendary status. Obviously the intensity of present day media coverage has accelerated our appreciation of the skills and talents of individual players and coaches. There is no doubt that Mourinho’s particular style of high-tempo analysis, training and coaching sees no particular merit in backward looks and there is no great surprise that this present spat with lovers of the ‘golden age’ of Real has finally surfaced. This was a fight more certain to take place than even David Hay’s ‘will he wont he’ face to face with Wladamir Klitschko ever was.
the ORIGINAL GALACTICOS
The interesting thing will be how this Mourinho v DiStefano’s battle turns out. While pundits and fans may rally to Mourinho’s side as many already have, claiming that there is no other way to deal with the Catalan midget maestros of the modern passing game, it may be that remarks such as DiStefano’s may actually sting the ego of the ‘special one’ more than many might think.
Jose, there is no doubt, is a ‘winner’ and a pragmatist who never shirks a challenge. It is his pragmatism that has forced him to accept the tactics he has chosen to deal with Barcelona at present but in the Bernabeau at the home of the ‘Royal’ Madrid, the critisicms of his teams style and creativity may finally come home to roost. He has made no secret that he covets the managers chair at Old Trafford another bastion of football where ‘pride’ in how the team play is expected. Mourinho might now accept the challenge to how his teams play, is actually the greater battle he faces, even more than beating Barca to a title or three. At Porto, Chelsea and Inter those same jibes percolated around but the elation of success was sufficient to paper any cracks. At Real, history says even a 10th European Cup or a 32nd La Liga might not be just enough to endear even Mourinho to Real’s higher ideals when measured against the Madrid clubs tower of past trophies and reputation.
REAL WIN THE 1ST EUROPEAN CUP
CLICK >>> TO SEE REAL @ Hampden in 1960 >>
APPENDIX
When I wrote this piece I obviously had no premonition of the events that would transpire at the 1st leg of the Real/Barca Champions League Semi Final.
Mourinho himself determined not to answer my rhetorical challenge, that he should address the growing criticism of his tactics, in typical ‘Mourinho’ egotistical style. Indeed Jose was happy to see his Real stars perpetuate his personal history with Barcelona by organising them to break up Barca’s play in any way they could whilst he continued to seek to gain every psychological advantage.
For me Jose, in this way, ducked the challenge he must still face to prove he is, after all, a truly great football coach and worthy of our universal admiration.
eden bray ~ the author
EE-AYE-ADDIO .... 