The golden anniversary of the golden goals

The Gerry Buckley Column -- When Chelsea went 6-0 up in last Sunday's 'dramatic' (well done Sky on the usual pre-match hype) final Premier League tie against Wigan Athletic, I cheekily texted a Man Utd fan telling him not to panic, as it could end up 6-6 like the previous week's astonishing game between Motherwell and Hibernian! However, error-ridden the latter mediocre-standard game is likely to have been in Fir Park, a few miles up the road in Glasgow, arguably the most amazing top-class soccer match of all time took place 50 years ago as of next Tuesday, when the magical Real Madrid side of the late 1950s/early 1960s thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt by 7-3, to complete a five-in-a-row of European Cup wins.For the football purist, a 0-0 draw can often be an enthralling encounter (and let's be honest, we very regularly thrilled to see Big Jack's Irish sides achieve such a result in crucial games). However, the vast majority of paying customers love to see goals, goals and more goals. And that is exactly what a remarkable crowd of 127,621 (excluding those sitting on top of stands and perimeter walls looking at Hunky Dory ads on billboards across the city, all conveniently ignored by whatever Health and Safety officers were then called) saw in abundance at Hampden Park on Wednesday, 18th May 1960. Given the dearth of cars, never mind air travel, 50 years ago (wasn't the guy who coined the 'Air ash arís' headline last week very clever, when travel chaos returned?) the attendance is hard to comprehend. It also has to be mentioned that the competition was still in its infancy, and although called the European Cup rather that the current misnomer of 'Champions League' (with all due respect to an excited Spurs fan friend of mine), Real Madrid's clean sweep of the first five stagings of Europe's premier club competition was still a phenomenal achievement. And, wow, didn't they complete the quintuple in some style!Nowadays, all we have to recall that memorable night is flickering grey-and-white images, offering a dreamy and almost slow-motion view of a ten-goal epic. Developments in training systems and in other areas such as nutrition have changed the face of soccer (and even amateur sports like our own beloved Gaelic games) in the interim. Indeed, Paddy Power would be only too glad to see a few mugs taking up a 'get-rich-quick' punt on Inter Milan and Bayern Munich serving up ten goals next week in the Golden Jubilee of the Hampden classic. Ironically, the locals attending the game (certainly the blue-clad version thereof) would have expected the German champions to be very competitive in the final, as Frankfurt had thrashed Rangers 12-4 on aggregate in the penultimate round (6-3 in the Waldstadion and 6-3 in Ibrox), with inside-left and skipper, Alfred Pfaff the side's talisman. The latter had been part of the winning West German squad from the 1954 World Cup, but it was a surprise losing finalist from the Jules Rimet Cup showdown in Switzerland, Ferenc Puskas of the great Hungarian team of the 1950s, who ultimately stole the show in the 1960 European Cup final. With 1956 and 1957 winning captain, Miguel Munoz now in the Real managerial hot seat (apparently at the players' instigation - yes, 'player power' was rampant even then), the Galactico giants were prone to appease their fans, then as now, with big-name signings. Raymond Kopa was gone from the 1959 side and Brazilians Canario and Didi had arrived. However, the latter wing wizard (who had starred in his country's 1958 World Cup win and would repeat his magic in their trophy retention in 1962) had a disastrous stay in Madrid. The story goes that Alfredo di Stefano, the Argentinian goalscorer, by-now a Spanish citizen, welcomed him to the Bernabeu with the words: "They say you've come to replace me; well you're too old and you're not good enough." As it transpired, with Didi not fitting in, Real signed the tireless Luis del Sol from Betis to be di Stefano's 'new legs' and a near-perfect football jigsaw was put together in time for the closing stages of the European Cup campaign.Hampden's vast old bowl has never seen a match like it, before or since. Remarkably, Kress put Frankfurt a goal ahead in the 18th minute, but it proved to be case of it being all-white on the night (sorry!) as the deadly duo of assassins, di Stefano (26, 29 and 74 minutes) and Puskas (44, 56, 60 - a penalty - and 71 minutes), put the Spanish maestros 7-1 to the good, with Stein's late double for the Germans merely consolation goals. The losing coach, Paul Oswald, was probably about as popular as his namesake, Lee Harvey, three-and-a-half years later in Dallas, on his return to Frankfurt!For the record, in a game refereed by Scottish official, Jack Mowatt, the teams lined out as follows:Real Madrid: Rogelio Dominguez, Marcos Marquitos Alonso, Jose Santamaria, Enrique Perez Pachin, Jose Maria Vidal, Jose Maria Zarraga (capt), Darcy Silveira dos Santos Canario, Luis del Sol, Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Francisco Gento.Eintracht Frankfurt: Egon Loy, Friedel Lutz, Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, Hermann Hofer, Hans Weilbacher, Dieter Stinka, Richard Kress, Dieter Lindner, Erwin Stein, Alfred Pfaff (capt), Erich Meier.Gerry Buckley