Florence - 3 - 6 October

Early october I went to Florence for a special occasion. FC Groningen, the club I support, was playing Fiorentina for the Uefa Cup! The home game was 1-1, so we still had a chance of going through to the next stage.
With some friends we rented a 9-person bus to drive to Florence in about 14 hours. We drove all through the wednesday night, but I didn't sleep all that much. There was some terrible music playing at times, but we had a good laugh about it.

On arrival in Florence on thursday morning we had to wait quite some time to get into the hotel. We were all really tired from the trip so a bed would have been nice. Some of us slept a bit, but I stayed awake till we made our way to the city centre. A lot of other Groningen supporters were there singing and drinking and we saw some familiar faces. What I liked most about it was that we, the guys from Groningen seemed to control the centre of Florence. After a while it was time to get to stadium, so about 2000 of us started walking through the streets of Florence. Especially with the singing it was a great atmosphere. One of the best I ever seen around a football match.
The game itself was quite ok, but the stadium sucked big time. The fences blocked the view and the food was terrible. The sheer joy we experienced when FC Groningen striker Erik Nevland scored the 0-1, which meant we were through to the next stage was amazing. Unfortunately it was short-lived, cus 4 minutes later Adrian Mutu scored the equaliser. Still, 1-1 was not bad at all. Eventually it stayed that way and the game would be decided on penalties. I have terrible experience with those bloody spotkicks! Holland lost and broke my heart with them so many times already, but I still had good faith. Yet again, my faith wasn't enough. My team lost once again on penalties. Eventhough we lost I look back at the game as a great effort and we got more than I expected on forehand.
After the match we had to wait for almost an hour in the stadium to get, terrible! My throat was sore, my feet hurt and all I wanted was a drink, food and put my feet up. Boy, was I glad that McDonalds was still open when we got there, but I don't think the workers there were too happy with all the supporters coming in just before closing time.
Finally at about 2.30 am on thursday night I could go to bed after being awake since 8am the wednesday before!

Favourite Football Moments: part 1

From now on I will post 5 great goals or moments every week or so and explain what makes them great to me.

Carlos Alberto: World Cup final 1970 vs Italy
This goal was the icing on the cake for the best team ever in World Cup football. The goal starts at the back and on the left. A genious lay-off by Pelé to set up the right back to score this goal. Absolutely amazing team effort.



Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten: Euro88 final vs USSR
As this was one of my first memories of football I remember it vividly. My favourite player that time, Gullit, scored the most powerful header. Those rasta's flying in the air and the cheers afterwards, unforgettable! If that wasn't enough Van Basten scored what was one of the most incredible goals ever. Best thing about those goals was that they came with a major international trophy. We won the European Championship!!!! Therefor 1988 will always be the year.


Esteban Cambiasso: World Cup 2006 group stage vs Serbia&Montenegro
I was watching this match and afterwards I was convinced this team should win the World Cup. How the are we gonna beat that team? We didn't, ended second in the group with them and were lucky to get to next stage. The Argentina manager is the biggest moron ever! One of his best players, Messi, was left on the bench in the match they lost on penalties vs Germany! What a disgrace.


Faustino Asprilla: 1993 World Cup qualifier vs Argentina (5-0)
Tino the Latino and Colombia performed at their best. A great team with Fredy Rincon, Carlos Valderama, Rene Higuita and the late Andres Escobar were set to do great things. Unfortunately they never really get to this level again afterwards.


Romario: sometime in his Barca days, I believe this is against Mallorca
There are plenty great goals by Romario and some might pop up here in the future. I just love the nonchalance with which he scores this goal. So effortless, yet an amazing goal. Don't forget the great set up by Michael Laudrup.

The Fantastic Four

Last night I was in the pub and someone asked me what I did. I said I was a student in journalism and that my main focus was sports. In particular football (I say it once more for the Americans, that means soccer). Before I knew it I had to answer all kind of questions about great teams and players in history of the game. I love these kind of things, not to show but to think back about the greatness of the sport.

One of my favourite topics is the French team of the 80's lead by Michel Platini. They had one of the best midfields ever to play the game with Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, Luis Fernandez and of course Michel Platini. Tigana and Fernandez could run up and down the field all day, Giresse's left foot and then there were the freekicks, headers, outside shot and brilliant passes of Platini. If you combine that with a strong backline including the enormous Marius Tresor, pacey back Manuel Amoros and a butcher like Maxime Bossis and decent goallies Jean-Luc Ettori and Joel Bats, you know it's hard to beat a team like this. The French strikers of that time were not the greatest in the world, but they had pace which made them extremely dangerous. All four of the midfielders had amazing through passes, so those pacey strikers could be used to the maximum of their abilities. The two strikers with the curly hair, Dominque Rocheteau and Didier Six, were a real threat to the opposition. They had to chose whether they would move into the midfield to close the Fantastic Four down and leave a huge space open behind the defense or keep the that gap to a minimum which led to more free space in midfield. It proved to be a lose-lose situation for most teams facing this faboulus French team.

That were my thoughts and memories of an amazing team. Up next are Holland and Brazil.