World Cup - Mexico 1970

The 1970 finals were the first to be broadcast live in colour and they're rightfully remembered for the champions Brazil's kaleidoscope of 19 goals from 6 games - including the four in the final against Italy, into the L supports at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City...


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.. and 15 goals in their five games at the Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara - 16 if this one had gone in!



17 if this one had gone in!

World Cup Final 1970

It may not be a coincidence that what may be the most famous game ever played, may also be one of the most photographed.

As everyone knows there were five goals - two of great quality, two of more dubious quality and a rocket shot that would still be travelling were it not for the marvellous Azteca goalnets.

With close-ups of those wonderful nets, here are each of the goals.

Pele 1-0 (18 minutes)

Boninsegna 1-1 (37 minutes)

Gerson 2-1 (66 minutes)

Jairzinho 3-1 (71 minutes)

Carlos Alberto 4-1 (86 minutes)

Brazil 1989 - Copa America Special

Brazil hosted and won the 1989 Copa America.

2015 champions Chile lost to beaten 2015 finalists Argentina in their 5 team group, so didn't qualify for the semi finals.

Matches were played in four stadia. Goal nets were suspended via three differing methods.

Estadio Fonte Nova



Estadio Do Arruda



Estadio Serra Dourada



Estadio do Maracana

Goias Esporte Clube - Brasileiro 2014

Goias play at the splendid Estadio Serra Dourada, the hardware at which, to this day, is native Brazilian L-supports.



Sadly passed over for World Cup 2014, Serra Dourada nonetheless hosted the Selecao in last week's warm up match versus Panama.




I believe most football fans - be they goal nets aficionados or not - would identify the L-supports at Serra Dourada with Brazil as surely as anyone in the street would identify the yellow shirts and blue shorts as the Selecao.

Eric Cantona was in the papers last week arguing global commoditised football would damage the game, and aren't FIFA's homogenous box nets one of the most visual examples of global commoditised football?

I believe it's therefore a simple argument to make that the loss of identity suffered as a result of FIFA replacing the native L-supports as per those at Serra Dourada for the generic box nets installed at the 12 stadia for World Cup 2014 is damaging to the game.

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

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - Brasileiro 2014

Before the Timao decamp this weekend to the FIFA World Cup 2014 venue Arena Corinthians (they're slated to play Figueirense on 18 May in the first competitive game at the new stadium), let's look back at the club's history of fantastic goals and wonderful goal nets at their old ground, Pacaembu.

1973

1979

1991

1998

2010

Arena Pantanal - World Cup 2014 Venue

Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba - a city in the exact centre of South America - is a new stadium which will host four matches during FIFA World Cup 2014. The stadium is complete and opened recently, with the obligatory boxnets at either end.




Arena Pantanal replaces Estadio Governador Jose Fragelli, nicknamed Verdao (and home to three clubs, including Mixto Esporte Clube).

In an effort to maintain links with the past, FIFA have nicknamed the new stadium Verdao, while championing its green (Verdao) credentials.

A better link to Cuiaba and Brazil's footballing past would have been for FIFA to maintain the traditional L-supports that once graced either end of the old stadium.

Sao Paulo FC - Brasileiro 2014

The Tricolor have played two home games this season, one at Morumbi, the other at Pacaembu.

The goal nets at either could easily be transplanted back in time to Mexico 86 and nobody would notice the difference.

Morumbi

Pacaembu



The goal nets at both were once classic Brazilian L-supports.

Morumbi

Pacaembu

Esporte Clube Bahia - Brasileiro 2014

Bahia play at the utterly charmless FIFA World Cup 2014 venue, Arena Fonte Nova.



Arena Fonte Nova replaced the old Estadio Fonte Nova, which had a great deal more character and, during the 1980's and 90's a tremendous set of A-frames at either end of the field.




Further back in Bahia's History of Goal Nets, native Brazilian L-supports were the method of choice for supporting the nets at Fonte Nova.

SC Internacional - Brasileiro 2014

SC Internacional's home stadium, Estadio Beira-Rio, is a FIFA World Cup 2014 venue.

Though you may not be amazed to see FIFA's customary box nets installed for Inter's opening game of the 2014 season against Vitoria...




Inter have such a proud tradition of native Brazilian L-supports that our friend Gustavo Garcia at papanapa.com portrayed Beira-Rio with these nets in his illustration.

And you only have to look back as far as qualifying for the 2010 World Cup to see the Selecao playing at Beira-Rio and the L-supports there.

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 - Eder

Perhaps with 101 Great Goals in mind for the future, I posted the below on Eder in August 2012. Here it is in full again.




The Brazil side at the 1982 World Cup is historically viewed as the successor to the wonderful title-winning side of 1970, so it is fitting that, since our first Iconic Goal has come to represent Brazil at the first Mexico World Cup, so our second iconic goal has come to symbolise the side 12 years later at the World Cup in Spain.

Brazil netted 15 gems at the '82 finals, the Beau Sancy among them being Eder's winner versus the Soviet Union.

The beauty of the goal is in it's simplicity, from Falcao's outrageous school-yard dummy to Eder's keepy-up and sublime half volley. It looks more like a training routine than Brazil's opening World Cup game.

How do the goal nets contribute to this goal's place in the Pantheon of Iconic Goals?

The World Cup organisers had seemingly paid little heed to the goal nets at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Hanging green coloured nets that rendered them near invisible, and pulling them taut, the nets contributed all the aesthetic of kicking a ball against a wall in training.

Yet, while the nets soured Socrates' magnificent equaliser, scored 10 minutes earlier, the "training wall" nets amplify the ease, simplicity and Joga Bonito of Eder's winner, raising it to the status of the Iconic.

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 - Gerd Muller

In the same way the Italian narrative of the 1970 World Cup final has been lost to the Brazilian fairytale, so has Gerd Muller's second goal in the Game of the Century played 4 days earlier, been lost to the story of Gianni Rivera.

Famously, Rivera - nicknamed Abatino for his clean and proper attacking style - couldn't be trusted by coach Valcareggi to track back, so played only 45 minutes in each game as part of a Staffeta, or relay, in tandem with Sandro Mazzola.

Valcareggi's worst fears were realised at the Muller goal, which was West Germany's equaliser for 3-3. Finding himself minding the near post at the set piece, Rivera let Muller's soft, if well directed, header pass between himself and the post, and into the net.  Rivera's reasoning to the screaming Italian goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi? He didn't know how to defend the post, so did nothing.

The narrative of this goal was quickly erased as Rivera scored Italy's 4-3 winner less than 60 seconds later, but I've always loved this goal, the way the ball rolls crazily up and round the seam of the Azteca net while Albertosi rolls his eyes in despair at the same Gianni Rivera.

UEFA Europa League - Real Betis

If I showed you goals scored at Real Betis' Estadio Benito Villamarin, you'd recognise the hybrid box-nets instantly.





But looking back further than Spain 1982, Real Betis History of Goal Nets shows they - like Valencia in the same era - were serious A-listers in the A-frames department.

Estádio Plácido Aderaldo Castelo - World Cup 2014 Venue

Futebol arte is a celebration of diversity over uniformity, of the individual over the collective and indeed, of football as an art form, where great sides are orchestras, midfield generals are conductors and flying wingers are soloists.

The same way the Netherlands - as explained by David Winner in Brilliant Orange - as the most densely populated country in Europe brought its creative thinking about space in the everyday to its football, the spirit of futebol arte has bestowed great individuality to all facets of the game in Brazil.

Consider the wonderfully individual stanchions that previously stood at either end of Castelao, the maestro who lovingly designed them and all that's been lost to the game by replacing them with box-nets.

Please sign our petition.

Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto - World Cup 2014 Venue

Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto - or Mineirão - played host to Ronaldo during O Fenomeno's debut season, his club Cruzeiro's unique method for suspending the goal nets an inadvertent tribute to the modern game's most unique talent. 





In the rush to upgrade, gentrify and homogenise the stadium for next year's World Cup finals,  the unique - the very attribute which made Brazil Brazil, and Mineirão instantly recognisable - has been lost. 

Please sign our petition and re-install the unique at Mineirão for next year's World Cup.

Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha - World Cup 2014 Venue

With bent legs and the air of a man playing simply for the joy of playing, Manuel Francisco dos Santos - called a wren, or garrincha by his big sister - is the mazy dribbling embodiment of diversity over conformity, of the individual over the team, of what Brazilians call futebol arte. 





Following Garrincha's retirement the CBF named the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia after him and, out of respect to the nation's most Brazilian of players, hung the goal nets from Brazilian L-supports.




However the old stadium has been replaced by a shiny new one for the 2014 World Cup, and the Brazilian L-supports have disappointingly been replaced by box-nets.

The famous Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues wrote, "He is considered a retard but Garrincha proved in the (1958) World Cup that we are the retarded ones - because we think, we rationalise."

Yet no thought has gone into junking Brazilian heritage by installing uniform box-nets in the stadium named after Brazil's most diverse player and there's no rational reason Brazil can't celebrate it's own World Cup between goal nets suspended in the traditional Brazilian way.

Brazil - Esporte Clube Vitoria

E.C. Vitoria hail from Salvador in Bahia.

While their Bahian league games are hosted at WC 2014 venue Arena Fonte Nova with it's box-nets, the bread and butter of Serie A is played out between these wonderful A-frames at their home Estadio Manoel Barradas.




Aren't these similar to the mid-70's stanchions at Manchester City?

The Campaign

If you support diversity and individual identity in the game, and if you're tired of football everywhere looking the same, PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION.

You think FIFA won't budge? You think you can't make a difference?

As Rangers Tax Case wrote in the Guardian:

"Why bother? What can I do?" 

If it is something you care about, you can do anything you want.