World Cup - West Germany 1974

Before the violence and negativity of the 1986 and 1990 tournaments plunged the game to new depths of despair, the 1974 World Cup with its miserly 2.55 goals per game was considered the nadir of football history. However, at a distance of over 40 years it can now be seen as the apotheosis of European football.

Holland destroyed Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. West Germany became champions and the pace and tempo demonstrated by each became the new standard in world football

Matches were played at 9 different venues but for the first time the on-field architecture was standardised - and box-nets were the standard chosen.



Cue the music to The Terminator. 

Burnley FC

Burnley are one of only three teams to have won all top four professional divisions in English football, the others being Wolverhampton Wanderers and Preston North End.

In 2014 The Clarets are back in the Premier League with generic box nets at either end of Turf Moor.

But Burnley's History of Goal Nets is dominated by Continental D's.

1961

1975

1983

1992

1996 - the last year before box nets were installed

A haunting last look at Turf Moor in the 1970's

Arena das Dunas - World Cup 2014 Venue

Arena das Dunas in the Brazilian region of Rio Grande do Norte will host four FIFA World Cup 2014 matches and thereafter be the home stadium - and derby day venue - for bitter Natal rivals, America Futebol Clube (RN) and ABC Futebol Clube.



However,  consider the wonderful diversity locally available to the two Natal clubs, and all that's been lost to the game and the 2014 World Cup by the installation of the homogenous boxnets.

America RN @ Nazarenao

ABC @ Frasqueirao

Fluminense FC - Brasileiro 2014

With FIFA World Cup 2014 almost upon us, The History of Goalnets celebrates the start of the new Brazilian Serie A season by visiting the Serie A stadia and checking out the on-field architecture at each.

Until recently, Brazil was one of the only countries left in world football which rebelled against this era of uniform and homogenous box-nets,  and where the native system deployed to support the nets - L-supports, in Brazil's case - could still be seen.

As the World Cup has crept closer, and the focus of the game's global policeman FIFA has sharpened, so the native L-supports have largely been replaced. But not all...

When the World Cup final is played at Estadio do Maracana on 13 July, you can be sure the nets will be firmly tied back and hang like square tents that can't be differentiated from those in Munich 1974, Mexico City 1986, and the last four, utterly uniform, World Cup finals.

However, when Fluminense kicked off their 2014 season at Maracana last weekend, the nets were hanging in the shape of L-supports. OK, the hardware has been shorn of the actual L-supports, so the nets are still tied to stanchions, like box nets. Interestingly the ground staff have chosen to tie the nets so they're shaped like classic L-supports.




Might this be because of complaints during last year's Confederations Cup that the nets at the renovated Maracana had been changed and the spirit of the old stadium lost?

101 Great Goals - Carlos Alberto

I've posted this goal in a previous context 18 months ago, but couldn't better the sentiment today.

So I post in full below, for the 101 Great Goals series.

Forget the melina and the elaborate build-up play against an Italy side exhausted and in disarray after the controversial late introduction of Gianni Rivera; the goal that symbolises the greatest team in history begins with Pele.

From there you'll see this famous goal described in terms of Pele's pass and Carlos Alberto's shot, as though this was a goal of two movements - pass / shot - when in fact, it has three movements - pass / shot / net.

Carlos Alberto's shot is often described as a thunderbolt or cannonball, where a firework might be a better metaphor:

Pele lights the fuse (first movement) - and stands well back - and the ball shoots from Carlos Alberto's boot like a rocket (second movement).

But rockets can be duds, can shoot into the night sky and fail to explode. At which times, two movements is insufficient and the sense of disappointment is palpable.

The last goal scored in the 1970 World Cup, the goal that came to symbolise the greatest team in history is no disappointment. Carlos Alberto's shot is no dud. It's aim is true.

But only when the ball hits the back of the net - and the net explodes (third movement) - does the celebration truly begin.

You'll have seen this goal hundreds of times - it's one of the most famous goals ever scored - but look at it now with fresh eyes and ask, two movements or three?

York City FC

A member of our goal nets community advised we take a look at the Minstermen, who even today defy the trend towards the homogenous box net with their Continental D's (though those D's do share the box net's ground supports, which transform the net into a pinball machine).




Though the goals our friend advised we look at were the A-frames which stood at either end of Bootham Crescent through the late 70's and 1980's.



If you think the goals look like a mix between an A-frame and a Continental D, you'd be right.

Here's a photo of those A-frames from about that time.

Further back, the Minstermen were early adopters of the Continental D.

UEFA Champions League - S.L Benfica

This season's Champions League participants' History of Goalnets.

First up - SL Benfica.

Benfica are the most successful side in Portuguese history, and in their "Golden Era" they were early adopters of the boxnet at Estadio da Luz (though note the nets are not free-hanging, and are in fact attached to the stanchions and would probably be deemed unsafe today).



In their later "Silver Era" they installed wonderfully distinctive stanchions.

Brazil - The Last of the Mohicans

When we started the Brazil series back in 2010 we delighted in the footage of the Brazilian top flight bucking the global trend towards free-hanging boxnets and retaining their traditional L-supports.

At that time we were genuinely optimistic that the nets at the 2014 World Cup finals would be suspended by L-supports.

However, as the finals have drawn nearer, Serie A teams who we originally featured as having L-supports - Botafogo and Palmeiras for example - have joined the trend towards boxnets.


As well, six brand new stadia are being constructed for the World Cup finals and only the most optimistic among us would consider anything but homogeneous boxnets are going to be installed by FIFA.

Brazil was once this dreamed-of place where the outside world hadn't yet reached - Echo Beach.

Now, those few stadia who still retain their traditional L-supports are like Chingachgook in The Last of the Mohicans, standing at the edge of the cliff, realising they're the end of the line.

Goalnets and FIFA's Stadium Book

In a previous post it was shown that, while FIFA's The Laws of the Game ran to some 142 pages, goalnets merited only 26 words.

Article 7 (on page 3) of UEFA's Stadium Infrastructure Regulations adds 8 words more:

d) they (the goals) must not pose any danger to players

Which got us wondering - which feature of goalposts and crossbars could possibly "pose any danger to players"?

FIFA's Stadium Book is the bible on the technical recommendations and requirements for stadium design.

On page 67 it recommends this method for suspending the goalnets:

And on the next page, under "Dangers and obstructions", FIFA adds 31 words to the lexicon of goalnet rules and details what it considers a danger to players:

Goal nets should not be suspended by any kind of metal frame or "elbow" but should be suspended by the method illustrated (see diagram above), as this does not constitute a danger to players.

So there it is in black and white - according to FIFA the stanchions (metal frames), Continental D's and L-supports (elbows), all the diversity we celebrate here, are a danger to players.

WHAT?

ARE THEY KIDDING?

Total Goalnets - NAC Breda

We don't speak Dutch so can't be certain, but are the two guys chained to the goals at NAC's Beatrixstraat protesting about swapping the Continental D's for boxnets?


Why not?

Total Goalnets - Roda JC Kerkrade

Wives saw men of the explosion
Larger than in life they managed
Gold as on a coin or walking
Somehow from the sun towards them




The coal-mines of the southern Netherlands are long closed, and Roda JC, the coal-miners club, have moved on to box goal nets and the flash Parkstad Limburg.



But like the miners in Philip Larkin's The Explosion quoted at the beginning of this post, the club's past and their proud, simple, industrial A-frames at the old Sportpark Kaalheide are now silhouetted in the mind, like a colliery wheel against a golden sunset.

Rotherham United

The Millers may have a shiny set of free-hanging box goalnets at their spanking new home, New York Stadium


But in their recent History of Goalnets they once entertained between a classically baggy pair of Continental D's at old Millmoor


And further back, skated on ice into old A-frames

Brazil - Mogi Mirim Esporte Clube v Associação Atlética Ponte Preta

Like clubs in every other country, Ponte Preta have just been promoted to Serie A and, in an attempt to look like Big Time Charlies, they've gone Dr Frankenstein on their oversized L-supports and made them into box goal nets. Their mothers would be proud.

Meanwhile Mogi Mirim - Rivaldo's old side - play out their existence in the lower echelons of Serie D, happily shooting between an original set of oversized L-supports.

We're all proud.

A-list A-frames - Everton FC

Tracing the history of Everton's goal nets, you follow a familiar lineage back from today's box goal nets


Through Championship winning Continental D's



Back to a set of A-frame stanchions straight out the 70's top drawer

UEFA European Championships - West Germany 1988

After the second Mexico World Cup and FIFA decreeing goal nets everywhere would look the same, where better to hold the next major finals than West Germany, the home of the original Terminator?

The 1988 finals featured eight stadia, 15 games and Ronald Koeman wiping his arse with a German football shirt...

But the goal nets all looked the same.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - European Champions League Final Special

Back in 1968 when the Big Cup was called the European Cup, and when the Wembley nets hung on legs like Cameron Diaz, Bobby Charlton hooked in Manchester United's fourth goal against Benfica...
and the ball bounced out off the stanchion.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Keith Houchen

The best diving header from one of the best cup finals at Wembley?

You'll see from the replay it goes in off the post... but rebounds out, off the stanchion

Like kicking the ball against a wall in training

In posts on this site, you'll frequently spot the metaphor, Like kicking the ball against a wall in training.

It's a criticism of the bland aesthetic of the ball hitting the back of a modern box goalnet sprung like trampoline, and bouncing straight back out again.

Going forward it'd be useful for you to have a visual of this metaphor.

Below is Liverpool's Jimmy Case in the 1970's...



Kicking the ball against a wall in training

Goalnets and Ball Retention #6 - two pile-drivers

You didn't think that was the last word on ball retention, did you?

Two pile-drivers for your consideration. Luis Garcia v Felipe Anderson.





Which do you prefer?

Brazil - Botafogo FR

Botafogo play at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange.

When the seleção played at the stadium, the exaggerated L-supports were used to frame a box goalnet every bit as sterile as the 0-0 draw with Bolivia.



Contrast this with the rigging - and the style of play - when Botafogo play at the Engenhão.