Match of the Day - International Special

This week's Match of the Day is a World Cup qualifying special.

It previews this weekend's England v Malta match by looking back at the teams' previous game at the old Wembley Stadium, in May 1971.

It was back in the day when England could be expected to run riot against opposition such as Malta and they (particularly Martin Chivers) did, winning 5-0.

Much has changed since then, not least the Wembley goal nets.

Life was simpler then...




In retaining the ball behind the goalkeeper, the Wembley nets of 1971 keep things simple and, as such, are perfectly in keeping with a routine win for England over Malta.

At least three of the goals scored in 1971 would rebound round the goal like a pinball or out to the penalty spot if scored into the Wembley nets of today.

I read this week online that such rebounds add a "spectacular" element to the goal scored.

If true - it's not, but if true -  this would change the optics of the five goals scored in 1971 from the mundane to the spectacular and would distort the nature of the England victory over a then lowly Malta.

Simple can be beautiful too.

A-list A-frames - Exeter City FC

As late as 2005, Exeter's St James Park hosted Manchester United between two fine sets of A-frames.



Some quarter of a century earlier, the hardware at St James Park rivalled anything at West Ham or QPR or Southampton.



The bygone St James Park features in the poignant clip below.

UEFA Europa League - Chornomorets Odesa

The original football team in Odessa played in a hole that was dug out of the ground to form a lake. Though the lake was never built - hey, this was the Soviet Union - it was noticed that the hole was a similar shape to the Black Sea so the team that played there was nicknamed Chornomorets, or Black Sea Men.

So if the team was named after the hole, what if we were to name the stadium after the shape of the on-field architecture?

What would we call it?

Wembley?

Heysel?

Stadionul Dinamo?

(check out the ball wrapping itself round the stanchions in the Bremen goal towards the end; magic)

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.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - England v Brazil Special

It's not John Barnes and it's not Brazilian, no matter what Martin Tyler might say in the commentary.

But isn't Graeme Le Saux's volley off the stanchions at Wembley in the 1995 friendly a bit special?

UEFA Champions League Final Special - Wembley Stadium

It was only last night so everybody knows that Bayern were crowned 2013 champions at Wembley Stadium. But 50 years from now, could anyone looking at a clip of Arjen Robben's winner be sure of the venue?


Is there anything in the colour HD to 100% identify Wembley?

50 years ago, in the 1963 final, Milan beat Benfica.



The footage is grainy black and white but half a century later, all it takes is one sighting of the goal nets and YOU KNOW it's Wembley.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Mick Channon and Colin Bell

Everybody knows Czechoslovakia won Euro 76 with still the most audacious penalty kick of all time.

But who remembers Czechoslovakia's first game in qualifying for that tournament was a 3-0 defeat at Wembley, with two headers rebounding off the stanchions at Wembley?

Great headers, first by Mick Channon, then Colin Bell.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Nandor Hidegkuti

In 'The Ball is Round' author David Goldblatt asks, "How long does it take for an empire to die?"

Perplexed by the Mighty Magyars lightweight boots, Ferenc Puskas' beer belly and Nandor Hidegkuti wearing #5 but not playing centre-half - did he play what today is called a false 9? - England were behind within a minute and their record of 52 years unbeaten at home - and their WM formation - on its way to the history books.

UEFA Champions League - AC Milan

Milan have never shied from their English heritage. Founded by two Englishmen, with an Anglicised spelling of their name (despite Mussolini running interference) and an English-style stadium with no running track, the Rossoneri's embrace of their roots extended even to the on-field architecture at San Siro, which was modelled on Wembley's.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Fabian de Freitas

Fabian de Freitas' late leveller in the 1995 Division 1 Play-off final is not so much off the stanchions as stuck to the stanchions at Wembley.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Gordon McQueen

Celebrating the end of International week while looking back at happier times for Scotland (but not the Wembley goals which were infamously broken after the game), here's Gordon McQueen's header off the stanchions at Wembley.


Winning this game won Scotland the 1977 Home International tournament and dialled up the country's World Cup aspirations to fever pitch. In October of the same year qualification for FIFA World Cup 1978 was won against Wales.



Gordon McQueen however would play no part in he Argentina finals after being ruled out by injury.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Dennis Tueart

Resuming our Friday series with Dennis Tueart's famous goal in the 1976 League Cup final.


A Newcastle fan as a boy, Tueart's overhead kick rebounded off  the stanchions at Wembley and won the cup for City.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Glyn Pardoe

Not the most dramatic of rebounds off the Wembley stanchions - you'll see Glyn Pardoe's toe-poke rolls juuuuust far enough to trouble the architecture:




But really, the Pardoe goal is just a good excuse to show the highlights from the 1970 League Cup final in full.

The snow piled up behind the goals and along the sidelines.

The Wembley turf churned up like Aintree on Grand National day.

The stanchions and the nets, never looked better.

Will we ever see the likes again?

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Steve Heighway

Liverpool celebrated Bill Shankly's last game in charge - the 1974 FA Cup final - by undressing the Newcastle defence.  Steve Heighway fired in Liverpool's second goal off the stanchion.


Is this the only goal to have ever been soured aesthetically by Wembley's on-field architecture?

Wouldn't the aesthetics of this goal have improved out of sight if the goalnets had retained the ball?

Check out the somewhat similar finish to the goal below.


 What do you think?

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Kevin Beattie

Four years before the Wembley stanchions did for George Wood's Scotland career, Stewart Kennedy lined up against England for his fifth cap.






Having played in every Rangers game in their triumphant 1974-75 league campaign - their first league win in 11 years - Kennedy had every right to believe he had a long Scotland career ahead of him.

However, in less than 10 minutes Gerry Francis had beaten Kennedy from distance then Kevin Beattie looped in a header off the stanchion.



It might've been the 5-1 scoreline, but it was probably this goal and Kennedy's slow reactions and embarrassing collision with the goalpost that ensured this fifth cap would be his last.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Bobby Stokes

Bobby Stokes shot off the stanchions at Wembley in the '76 Cup final won him a car, and has won him a place in our sometimes-on-a-Friday series.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Peter Barnes

After the humiliation of Argentina '78, it took Scotland nearly a year to post a victory, against Northern Ireland, in the Home Internationals series of 1979.

That win, and the new players introduced such as goalkeeper George Wood, who made his debut in that game, hinted at better times ahead.

After John Wark's early goal and a generally encouraging first 44 minutes of their next game against England, Scottish expectations were on the rise again. However, Peter Barnes trundler of an equaliser past George Wood and off the stanchion at Wembley, stunned the recovery.


England went on to win the game 3-1.

Scotland would fail to qualify for the 1980 European Championships.

George Wood would play only twice more for his country.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Kenny Hibbitt

Kenny Hibbitt's sliced half-volley in the 1974 League Cup final is a study in geometry - or is it physics?

Check out the strange deadening effect the Wembley stanchion has on the ball, which must've been spinning like a top.

UEFA European Championships - Belgium 1972

In the '72 final at the doomed Heysel stadium, West Germany swept three past the Soviet Union into the Wembley look-a-likes.




Of more interest to us devotees of the goalnets, check out the semis' sexy curves at -

Antwerp (Bosuil Stadium)



Brussels (Stade Emile Verse)

UEFA European Championships - Italy 1968

England qualified for the 1968 Finals after beating Scotland 1-0 at Hampden Park. The Scots had their revenge though, seemingly flying in the famous Hampden goals for Yugoslavia to score a late winner.



Yugoslavia went on to play hosts Italy, who won in a replay at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, where the goals look like they've been flown in from England's Wembley Stadium!