Match of the Day - Week 11

This week's Match of the Day previews the north London derby - Arsenal v Tottenham.

As Arsenal are at home this Sunday, Match of the Day would usually highlight a game from an Arsenal home game - Highbury - and the wonderful history of goal nets there.

However a game from White Hart Lane - though painful for Spurs fans - offers different angles of focus, so this week's Match of the Day is the 0-5 from December 1978.


First, though TV coverage offers only a narrow, camera-eye view of the pitch, how do you know the game is at White Hart Lane? Easy - the sloping, square stanchions, totally distinctive for Tottenham.

Second, given his spectacular goals for 0-4 (and the Motson commentary) you probably always remembered this game as the Liam Brady game. Then poor Alan Sunderland, who scored a hat trick!

Lastly, in this era of Guardiola pressing and Klopp heavy metal football, check out Brady pressing the defender and stealing the ball for his goal. Plus ca change...

The Big Match - Week 7

This week's Big Match comes from Stamford Bridge on the corresponding weekend in 1978 and features the West Brom side of Regis, Cunningham and Batson (and Godden, Robson, Wile, Statham and the two Browns!) simply overwhelm a poor Chelsea side.

It's also a showcase for the Stamford Bridge hardware which remained fantastic, despite the downturn in Chelsea's fortunes.

The Big Match - Week 2

The Big Match for Week 2 is Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea in August 1978.


Tottenham's recent World Cup winning Argentine imports Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa attracted most of the attention at the time.

Connoisseurs of the goal nets will instead revel in the instantly recognisable White Hart Lane hardware and marvel at the software's ball retention properties.

Gerry Armstrong's rocket shot for 2-1 would rebound to the halfway line today, while Kenny Swain's header for 2-2 would pinball round box nets pulled taut and made of trampoline.

Check out the behind the goals replay for that equaliser, you just don't see nets this good any more.

101 Great Goals - Nelinho

I've often compared the aesthetics of scoring into the tightly sprung box nets of 2013 to kicking a ball against a wall in training. Goal nets are not meant to repel the ball. At their best - and the L-supports at Argentina 1978 are right up there with the best - they complement the shot they're receiving, so the goal event is shot + affect on net.

As can be seen in Nelinho's bending classic from the tournament's 3rd place play off. I've always loved this goal for the way the netting continues the bend of the shot, until the ball is traveling back in the direction it came from.

101 Great Goals - Teófilo Cubillas

spec·tac·u·lar  (spk-tky-lr)

adj.

Of the nature of a spectacle; impressive or sensational.

n.

Something that is spectacular, as:

a. A single dramatic production of unusual length or lavishness.

b. An elaborate display.

Though watched at the time through the gaps in my fingers, no-one could argue Teofilo Cubillas' first goal against Scotland on 3 June 1978 wasn't impressive, sensational or an elaborate display.

But it's worth breaking the goal down to discover what exactly made this such a spectacular goal.

It wasn't the work Cubillas put in to carve out the opportunity; in the commentary, Arthur Montford accurately describes it as "almost a free shot."

And it certainly wasn't Alan Rough's feeble, if unsighted, attempt to make a save.

I've always thought what made Cubillas strike so spectacular and a Great Goal was the Hotshot Hamish-style performance by the wonderfully designed L-supported goal nets.

101 Great Goals - Derek Johnstone

Our History of Goal Nets community has generally despaired at the ball retention properties of the nets of today, perhaps expecting little else from structures boxed, made of trampoline and stretched taut.

But stretched taut in itself need be no barrier to some decent ball retention. No nets were stretched tighter than those at old Hampden, yet they often transformed a simple goal into one that's memorable.

If scored into nets of today, Derek Johnstone's header in the 1978 Scottish Cup Final would likely rebound to the 18 yard line.

Yet the way the old Hampden nets stop it dead has always fascinated me.

UEFA Europa League - Club Brugge KV

FCB have a glorious history of goal nets and, like NK Maribor, went to extreme lengths to keep their stanchions when box nets were deemed a necessary requirement.

In the mid-60's Brugge sported stanchions of a curve that suggested the Latin influence of Madrid and Santiago and would lead to similar at Feyenoord.



By the late 70's FCB were a force in European football and played between skinny A-frames that were classically Low Country.




The A-frames were still there in the mid-90's and the era of box net homogeneity. Exactly like those at  NK Maribor, Brugge maintained their identity by draping the box nets over the stanchions.

A-list A-frames - Hibernian FC

On the other side of Edinburgh, Hibs' recent history offers up not one but two great examples of A-frame architecture.

(It's worth noting that the goals in both clips below were scored into the same goal at the same end of the stadium. The shifting viewpoint is caused by Easter Road stadium reconstruction, which moved the TV gantry from the old East terrace to the Main Stand).

The stanchions George Best scores into are as languid and laid back as the terrace behind the goals.

 

While 10 years later the A-frames in the 80's are more upright, like the stand which has replaced the terrace.

Brazil - Atlético Clube Goianiense

AC Goianiense - or Atlético-GO as they're more popularly known - sport a pair of classic L-supports for their sparsely attended matches at the Estádio Serra Dourada.

 Join the 1,112 fanatics who turned up to watch the recent 3-2 victory over Figueirense.

 

In a game of three penalties, you may be reminded of a famous game of two penalties and one of the World Cup's most famous goals, all scored into goal nets identical to those at Atlético...

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Brazil - Sport Club do Recife

Nautico's biggest rivals - the derby between the two Pernambuco sides dates back to the early 20th century and is known as the Classico dos Classiscos - Sport Recife kick between two classic L-support structures at the Estadio Ilha do Retiro.



The same stadium hosted the Chile v USA group game at the 1950 World Cup.

Spy the fledgling L-supports at that game.

Brazil - SC Internacional

While Inter shoot into distinct, over-large red and white L-supports -



The goalnets at Estádio Beira-Rio when Brazil hosted Peru in WC 2010 qualifying were so timelessly Latin American, they wouldn't look out of place at WC 1978 in Argentina.


Notice the goalnets retain the ball at each of the three goals scored.

Goalnets and Aesthetics #2 - Two headers

Reviewing the Champions League R16, Wayne Rooney's second header against Milan at San Siro struck a chord.



It brought to mind Kevin Keegan's header against Denmark in 1978.



To any Spot the Difference afficiando these goals will look very different.

But to this mind's eye, the way the ball hits the net makes both these goals the same.

Goalnets and ball retention #2

Back in the day, a ball once scored used to nestle beautifully in the net -



I reviewed every goal in the Champions League R16 and studied the goals from last weekend's EPL and despaired that not one ball scored into the goalnet stayed in the net.

Stanchions were outlawed and free-hanging box-nets were introduced to put an end to things like this -



But the square box-net design - which has no slope in the back of the net to trap the ball - means the ball nearly always rebounds off the back of the net after a goal's been scored. This doesn't mean there is likely to ever be a Goal That Never Was from a rebound, but it does fly contrary to the manufacturer's assurance that free-hanging net supports are

UEFA/FIFA regulation, designed to suspend the net and eliminate rebounds.

The rebounds also affect the simple but glorious aesthetics of scoring a goal.

A goal may have many pleasing aesthetic qualities: the ball off the boot; the ball swerving in the air; the goalkeeper's despairing dive; but none is more important than the effect the ball has on the back of the net.

At the new Wembley the cavernous nets are stretched taut.



Goals scored in this once legendary stadium are sadly transformed into the aesthetic equals of goals scored into nets chalked on a wall in the schoolyard.

Uniform goalnets are producing uniform goal scoring aesthetics.

World Cups - Argentina 1978

Extra time in the 1978 World Cup Final. Amidst a series of Argentine attacks that had begun to resemble cavalry charges, Mario Kempes slalomed through the Netherlands defence for 2-1. But the goalkeeper Jan Jongbloed blocked the shot. The ball ricocheted off Kempes, arced into the air and for a moment the watching world held its breath...

Argentina were awarded the tournament in 1964 but by the time 1978 came round the country was ruled by a ferocious military junta that had disappeared 30,000 of its own citizens and were desperate for the World Cup victory that would lend a legitimacy to their regime. As such, the 1978 World Cup became the most politicised sporting event since the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

The on-field architecture designed for the tournament were goalnets supported by fancy L's and posts with distinctive black bands round the base. For the second successive tournament they were newly installed and uniform across all 6 stadia .



On a carpet of bogroll and shredded newspaper the generals got their victory but at what price to the game? The new world champions stood accused of gamesmanship, intimidation and bribery. For the future of football the world held its breath.