Barça does not know how to win without Lamine Yamal. Simeone’s Atlético only knows how to defend. Guardiola has exhausted himself at City. There is a lot of reductionism when it comes to explaining football. But not everything is as simple or whimsical as we are led to believe. Multiple factors interfere, including the environment – a nomenclature devised by Cruyff but which has been affecting teams all their lives. The final in Bern against Benfica (3-2) was lost by the posts. It is another of the simplistic analyzes that have been passed down from father to son in Barcelona fans. An urban legend that journalist Xavier Garcia Luque dares to demystify in his latest book It wasn’t the square postswhich can be purchased on Amazon.
“The normal thing was to lose,” advances the author, who considers that the collapse of the club was such that it explains why Barça only won one League in the following two decades or that it took 25 years to return to a European Cup final.
On May 31, 1961, at the Wankdorf stadium in Bern, none of the architects of that team were no longer in Barcelona. Neither the technical secretary Pep Samitier (“he considers that he is mistreated and as soon as he leaves he immediately has the offer from Real Madrid, since he was a friend of Bernabéu”, analyzes Garcia Luque), nor the coach Helenio Herrera (not even Ljubisa Brocic, his substitute), nor President Miró-Sans, burdened by the debts of paying for the Camp Nou.
“I was surprised by the clairvoyance of the chronicler of the time Carlos Pardo, who wrote ‘We have learned that one thing is to build a stadium and another is to pay for it,’” discovers the author, who has delved into many newspaper archives to capture the feeling of the moment, and who believes that you have to know history to avoid repeating mistakes.
“There are episodes from then that we have experienced recently. That Bern team was aging but no one dared to take the step with the stars, as has happened in Barça in recent years. Or Kocsis’ goal in the last minute of the second leg of the semi-final in the opposite field (Hamburg) that prevents elimination. The situation is reminiscent of Iniesta at Stamford Bridge,” the journalist lists.
“That team was old but no one dared to take the step with the stars,” recalls García Luque
In the book, it is explained that “the spoiled stars” tried to “mindundi” Orizaola, Brocic’s replacement, dismissed on January 12, 1961. And the coach who sat on the Bern bench had only trained in Second to Racing, Jaén and Murcia.
The work is a meticulous and detailed work – this is how Garcia Luque, an inveterate journalist, has always worked. “I wanted the book, in addition to the history of Barça and the final, to also explain the football of that time, which is very interesting. So, the European Cup is still a misgovernment, because they do not give it the same official status as the national tournaments. It could happen that Madrid sign up two signings (Del Sol and Pachín) to try to eliminate Barça (in the round of 16, where Evaristo’s legendary goal defeats the whites for the first time) or that the Hungarians cannot travel to a match in the Czech Republic. , country of the Iron Curtain, for fear of reprisals. The coach (Brocic, Serbian), who had to follow him on the radio from Barcelona, was not involved in that duel either,” he reflects. “What’s more, in the first two seasons that they played in the European Cup (59-60 and 60-61), Barcelona did so combining it with the Fairs Cup. “I was playing two European competitions at the same time!” exclaims Garcia Luque.
Seminario, a Chilean footballer whom Barça hired in 1959, cannot be in Bern (neither against Madrid, nor the Czechs in the quarterfinals, nor Hamburg in the semifinals). “It is a scandal similar to that of Di Stéfano but curiously they decide in a very different way.” ”, notes the author. It is ruled that the forward “lacks the necessary moral conditions” to play in Spain because Zaragoza claimed to have paid an intermediary. “The player debuted for Blaugrana five years later, in 1964, after playing for Portuguese club Sporting, Zaragoza and Fiorentina.”
Do you know who doesn’t wear shorts that day either? Segarra, the captain and defense. “He was injured in a Cup tie against Espanyol, which is terribly hard because, in addition, the blue and white team, who narrowly escaped relegation to the Second Division, also feel that Barça did not help them by losing against Oviedo on the last matchday (3 -5)”, he points out. That duel was played on May 27, four days before the final. All of the Blaugrana club’s attempts to overtake him fell on deaf ears.
“Then the trips were very long and difficult. And the players, if they were starters, had to play 90 minutes. There were no substitutions, only the goalkeeper in case of injury,” Garcia Luque points out. “And while Benfica has been in Bern for a week, analyzing the game, and even studying how the sun sets, because Guttman, their coach, is a tremendous old cat.” Ramallets is bothered by the reflection in the second Portuguese goal.
“In addition to the history of Barça and the final, I wanted to explain the football of that time, which is very interesting”
Luis Suárez played the final knowing that he was going to Inter sold for 25 million pesetas. Kubala was so physically affected, at 33 years old, that he provisionally retired that summer, like Ramallets.
Do you still believe that the four shots that repelled the square posts in Bern were to blame for everything?
#Deconstructing #Bern
