Let’s talk about the greatest of football comebacks…

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The greatest of comebacks
I probably witnessed six or seven games last season with the losing team coming back to win in the dying seconds. They were all against Colchester though, so they don’t count as remarkable (think we even lost 3-2 at home to Terry’s Exeter from 2-1 up).

Instead, I’ll go for my favourite comeback which I witnessed first hand. Spurs v Man City in the FA Cup in 2004. It was mid-week, so I assume it was a replay. Spurs were very much still Spurs in 2004, and not the unrecognisable top four team of good defending and consistency we see today. Manchester City were properly weird in 2004. Their squad that night had Fowler, McManaman, Anelka and Macken.

Brief match report. First half: Spurs were good. Goals from King, Keane and what I recall being a sweet free kick from Ziege. On the stroke of half time, Joey Barton gets sent off for dissent/being Joey Barton. Second half: It all goes a bit mad. City get some goals back…a deflection, Distin header. The City fans start singing ‘we’re going to win 4-3 at 3-1 down’. Shaun Wright-Phillips looks world class. I’m serious here, he was amazingly good. He then caps his performance with a stunning goal with around 10 mins left. On come McManaman and Sibierski (2004 Man City might be my favourite squad ever), and Macken gets the winner on 90 mins.

It was, without doubt, the most fun I’ve ever had at a football match. I also learned that mentioning how much fun I had, in a car full of Spurs fans, on the way home is not a very good idea.
Jeremy Aves

 

…Terry Hall has brought back some memories for me when asking about amazing comebacks. Being a Manchester City fan, I have two that stick most in my memory.

’99 Division 2 Play-Off final between Manchester City and a Tony “Magic-Cap” Pullis led Gillingham. I went to that game with my dad, both being ardent City fans, we had seen our fair share of sublime and ridiculous over the years when it came to watching City play. Things weren’t looking great. Trailing 2-0 to a quickfire double from Carl Asaba and Robert Taylor, the old man and I decided we had had enough and started toward the exit. As we edged along the aisle to head out, Kevin Horlock weighs in with a goal to halve the defecit. Stopped in our tracks we reassessed that maybe, just maybe, we could salvage something. Cue five minutes of nail-biting tension when just before the added time elapsed the mighty (small) Paul Dickov equalised, sending the blue half of the stadium into raptures and the match to extra time which came and went without much incident thus setting up a penalty shootout in which Nicky Weaver achieved cult hero status amongst the City faithful by saving not one, but two penalties, leading to our eventual win and return to the Championship (my God, we were shit back then!).

The second memorable comeback was unfortunately not a game I attended but will never forget watching. 4th February 2004. FA Cup. 4th Round. Tottenham vs Manchester City.

City were terrible in the first half, 3-0 down at the end of the first half when, to add insult to injury, Joey Barton (forever the good egg that he is) thought it would be an excellent idea to start an argument with the ref, picking up his 2nd yellow card of the half in the process and leaving us a man down at the start of the second. What followed, was quite possibly the finest/mentalist 45 minutes of football I have ever witnessed as a City fan (at least it was up until the “Aguerroooooooo!” moment), unlikely goals from Distin, Bosvelt and Wright-Phillips levelled the tie setting the stage for a dramatic, late winner which was duly grabbed by John Macken with a far-post header making the final score 3 – 4. I was ecstatic, my Spurs supporting mate, less so. Perfect come-back football from a position of seeming helplessness. Elation snatched from the jaws of abject misery and sometimes vice-versa. Twas ever thus in the life of a City fan.

Happy memories.
Andy West CTID

 

…In response to Terry Hall, I would have to say that my favourite comeback, and arguably one of the greatest games of football I have ever witnessed, was Holland 2-3 Czech Republic way back in Euro 2004.

In a game that had everything, the Netherlands took a two goal lead inside 20 minutes, with the second a controversial one from van Nistelrooy. The score at half time was 2-1, and the second half was an end to end classic, including a wonder goal from Milan Baros, a red card for Heitinga, and an 88th-minute winner from Vladimir Smicer. Plus, Nedved hit the bar, stopping what quite possibly would have been the greatest goal scored in the European Championships!
Néill, (I may be exaggerating a tad about the Nedved shot), Ireland

 

…In reply to Terry Hall’s Exeter comeback, my favourite comeback is also in the West Country, in a Somerset derby between Bath City and Weston Super Mare.

Some context, having won the opening six fixtures and being top of the league, we proceeded to barely win after August, and were in a relegation battle under a new manager with a squad of hastily brought in loan players desperately trying to turn it around. Weston were just below us, and it appeared who ever won the Easter Monday game would be safe.

Cue the most terrible 90 minutes, no shots by either side, awful football by two crap sides. 90th minute ex-Roman Scott Wilson scores for W-s-M. Thinking that City are down some people start to leave, before a penalty is awarded and converted in the 93rd. 1-1 and a bit of hope of not being relegated.

Then possibly the greatest goal to complete a comeback, 94th-minute Tyler Harvey on loan from Plymouth shoots from inside the centre circle, miraculously it goes over the keeper’s head and City have won 2-1!

Still cannot believe it, and the video footage is worth a watch.

Jon, Bath City FC, Bath

 

…Good email by Terry Hall. I’m expecting some from Newcastle fans about the Arsenal game, United and that night in Barcelona and Liverpool about Istanbul as well, but the one from the 1995 division 1 play off final also needs a mention.

Bolton were playing Reading and found themselves 2-0 down inside 15 mins, then conceded a penalty on the 34th minute. Keith Branagan (side note, he his now the lead singer in an AC DC tribute band that are more than passable) saved it though. Owen Coyle then scored in the 75th minute and Fabien de Frietas scored in the 88th (which I think is the perfect time, because you have time for more drama in normal time but you also know extra time and penalties are a real possibility) to make it 2-2.

Extra time saw Bolton score just before half time and then again in the 118th minute before Reading pulled what ended up being a consolation goal back and the match finished 4-3 to Bolton.

This one does have a personal attachment because that season was the first time I went watching football live and we went to Burnden Park, before that we lived in Dublin, which is why I support United. My Dad though couldn’t get tickets for Wembley but did manage to get cable installed in time for the match, so all in all a real early football memory and a great comeback.
Bernard MUFC

 

How come Messi hasn’t won the same as Ronaldo?
In reply to Toby Sprigings’ piece (Long-term view: Ronaldo, Messi, Spotify and Mozart),

The question then has to be asked as to how Ronaldo has managed to win three of the last four B’alon Dors when both footballers should be in their absolute prime? Surely if Messi was as clear in front as he argues then Ronaldo shouldn’t have been able to that?
Jip Jaap Stam

 

Sticking up for keepers…
Thank you, Hugo (NUFC), Adelaide for those Buffon quotes! It pains me to hear the sh*te spoken about goal-keepers. It is assumed just because you have gloves on and can legally use your hands, catching a cross is the easiest thing in the world. Aside from the surprisingly large area of the six-yard box I’d like to highlight a couple of other points.

Firstly, the trajectory of a cross/corner has to be calculated virtually instantaneously. There is actually quite a narrow limit for the ball height that a keeper can “safely” catch. Obviously the maximum height is what he can can reach with his arms fully extended and his jump unimpeded. It is at the lower end of this spectrum where things get trickier. A centre-back like Robert Huth can get his head up to quite a noticeable height. If the ball drops to this height and Huth times his run and jump correctly (i.e. getting to the ball just in front of the keeper) the chances are he will score and you will look like a fool as you end up stranded with your defenders glaring at you after your bold shout has cleared them out the way. This ‘ideal’ catching height range is less than a metre normally and needs to take into account the bend/whip of the delivery as well as the wind (less of a problem in big stadiums but devilish further down the football ladder).

Secondly, barely a game passes where a pundit fails to bemoan the fact a keeper has opted to punch rather than catch a cross/corner. Keep in mind that once the delivery leaves the foot a keeper has to keep his eyes on the ball. If, after his initial calculations (see above), he decides to leave his line and come for it he has to make his way un-sighted through a potential crowd of players. Once he jumps, his feet leave the ground and a large amount of stability is lost. It just takes a last second nudge to shift your hands out of position and you can end up dropping the ball a few yards from goal. Punching provides a much larger margin for error. Even a strong challenge from an opponent won’t (hopefully) stop a punch from clearing the ball from the danger area.

Shot-stopping ability is spectacular but keepers who excel in this are abundant. The top keepers are the ones with sublime decision making on top of physical ability.
Osric the Brave (frequently beaten at the near post), Cape Town

 

Why so many qualifiers?
Seeing as I’m bored now and we’ve reached the stage of moaning about wrestling metaphors I’d like to know what’s the point of so many of the qualifying stages. I’ve just used wikipedia to look up the qualifying formats and came up with the following :

* Oceania has 11 countries and four rounds in one of which only two teams out a possible eight are eliminated. Most times no-one even qualifies.

* Why do South Americans play 18 matches just to eliminate at most five (and normally only four) countries. Why not split them into two groups like they used to?

* Why can’t Europe have a first round with the worst 20 countries to eliminate the dross and limit each group to four teams?

* Why does Concacaf have to have five full rounds? What’s the point of the Hexagonal after having three groups of four in the previous round?

I’ve left out Africa and Asia because the African system looks fine and the Asian system works for the amount of places that need filling.

My point is there have got to be better ways to eliminate teams, I know I would prefer to play six games and not qualify than be made to stick around for a long brutal qualifying run and still not make it.

My rant’s over. If anyone has more expertise on their particular qualfying campaign please clarify because there are way too many games. Definitely something will need to change when they increase the number of teams that qualify.
Timi, MUFC

 

Wrestling though…
Barry, Sol Campbell leaving Spurs for Arsenal and gaining the title in the process is Stone Cold allying himself with Mr McMahon.

Daniel Bryan, the little fan favourite beating Randy Orton and Batista in one night, against all odds? Leicester 2015/16 baby.

Wenger delivering the Champions League for 20 years is his own version of the undertaker’s streak…

And you seem to think…IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!!!
Jon (and that’s the bottom line…), 3:16

 

…If Barry Marelli believes there is no comparison between WWE and football at all then he’s never witnessed a good slobberknocker in either….
Anto (Wrestlemania 33, getting old) Dublin

 

…I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t what he intended to be the main message of his missive but Barry Marelli is a great wrestling name. Maybe if a nickname was inserted – Barry “the hitman” Marelli? Could this be a thing? Daniel “the weasel” Storey?

Just a thought.
Pete, DRFC in exile in Suffolk