If you cannot see the video go the bottom of the page and follow the instructions to
download a video player
Rangers Euro Cup Win 1972
click image
Glasgow Rangers v. Dynamo Moscow, 3 Dec 1945
This was at the tail end of the Second World War - the game took place in
November and the war had finished in August so we were still in the first few
months of peace-time.
I think it was the first time a Russian side had played in Britain and it was rare to
even play foreign opposition at club level because there was no European
competition then.
The politics of it were very interesting. Obviously the Russians had been seen as
the "good guys" during the war, but virtually as soon as the war ended, they
were portrayed as the "bad guys" as the Cold War began.
Having said that, there was still some good feeling for the Russians, particularly
in Scotland.
Dynamo came over to Britain and played four matches - they drew 3-3 with
Chelsea, they beat Cardiff City 10-1 and they beat an Arsenal side, which was
virtually an England side, 4-3.
Dynamo were understandably miffed because only about five of the team were
genuine Arsenal players.
Dynamo passed the ball around for the first half-hour with Rangers virtually
unable to get a touch
That match was played in thick fog and was an absolute farce - it only went
ahead because the crowd had been let into the ground - and there was great
anxiety up here in case we got fog. At that time we got a lot of industrial fog.
The morning of the Rangers game was foggy but it lifted about one o'clock. My
father had only been able to get two tickets and through a remarkably generous
gesture by my younger brother who said he didn't want to go - even though he
did - I went along to the game along with about 90,000 others.
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the Dynamo side looked like they came
from Mars - they wore very dark blue tops and extremely baggy shorts with a
blue band round the bottom.
As a result, Rangers played in their change strip of narrow blue-and-white hoops
- a strip known as the "Butcher's strip".
The warm-up was very interesting - we were used to players coming out with one
ball a minute before kick off to have a few shots at goal, but Dynamo came out
with about half-a-dozen balls and went through a well-organised routine.
Soft penalty
That Rangers side was a good one which had largely monopolised Scottish
football during the war, but Dynamo were very quick out the traps and scored an
early goal through Kartsev - a shot Rangers keeper Jerry Dawson ought to have
saved.
Dynamo then passed the ball around for the next half-hour with Rangers virtually
unable to get a touch and Kartsev added a superb second goal.
Rangers scrambled a goal back before half-time after missing a penalty, saved
wonderfully by the Russian keeper "Tiger" Khomich.
In the second half, Rangers wore their opponents, who I think were tiring from
the exertions of the tour, down and were eventually awarded another penalty.
The referee missed it but his linesman flagged although I remember thinking at
the time that it was a very soft penalty.
George Young stuck it away and everyone went home reasonably happy. But I
think people also went home thinking 'this is something new - we didn't know
about this before - how come European football is so good?'.
_____________________________
Photo files were created using standard JPEG compression.
Video files were created using either Apple Quicktime 6.0 or Microsoft Windows
Media 8 codec. Apple and Microsoft provide a number of players for different
platforms and there are third party players for Linux.
All of the Microsoft players can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/
All of the Apple players can be downloaded from:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
For Linux try these players:
mplayer - http://www.mplayerhq.hu
xine - http://xine.sourceforge.net
videolan - http://www.videolan.org
download a video player
Rangers Euro Cup Win 1972
click image
Glasgow Rangers v. Dynamo Moscow, 3 Dec 1945
This was at the tail end of the Second World War - the game took place in
November and the war had finished in August so we were still in the first few
months of peace-time.
I think it was the first time a Russian side had played in Britain and it was rare to
even play foreign opposition at club level because there was no European
competition then.
The politics of it were very interesting. Obviously the Russians had been seen as
the "good guys" during the war, but virtually as soon as the war ended, they
were portrayed as the "bad guys" as the Cold War began.
Having said that, there was still some good feeling for the Russians, particularly
in Scotland.
Dynamo came over to Britain and played four matches - they drew 3-3 with
Chelsea, they beat Cardiff City 10-1 and they beat an Arsenal side, which was
virtually an England side, 4-3.
Dynamo were understandably miffed because only about five of the team were
genuine Arsenal players.
Dynamo passed the ball around for the first half-hour with Rangers virtually
unable to get a touch
That match was played in thick fog and was an absolute farce - it only went
ahead because the crowd had been let into the ground - and there was great
anxiety up here in case we got fog. At that time we got a lot of industrial fog.
The morning of the Rangers game was foggy but it lifted about one o'clock. My
father had only been able to get two tickets and through a remarkably generous
gesture by my younger brother who said he didn't want to go - even though he
did - I went along to the game along with about 90,000 others.
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the Dynamo side looked like they came
from Mars - they wore very dark blue tops and extremely baggy shorts with a
blue band round the bottom.
As a result, Rangers played in their change strip of narrow blue-and-white hoops
- a strip known as the "Butcher's strip".
The warm-up was very interesting - we were used to players coming out with one
ball a minute before kick off to have a few shots at goal, but Dynamo came out
with about half-a-dozen balls and went through a well-organised routine.
Soft penalty
That Rangers side was a good one which had largely monopolised Scottish
football during the war, but Dynamo were very quick out the traps and scored an
early goal through Kartsev - a shot Rangers keeper Jerry Dawson ought to have
saved.
Dynamo then passed the ball around for the next half-hour with Rangers virtually
unable to get a touch and Kartsev added a superb second goal.
Rangers scrambled a goal back before half-time after missing a penalty, saved
wonderfully by the Russian keeper "Tiger" Khomich.
In the second half, Rangers wore their opponents, who I think were tiring from
the exertions of the tour, down and were eventually awarded another penalty.
The referee missed it but his linesman flagged although I remember thinking at
the time that it was a very soft penalty.
George Young stuck it away and everyone went home reasonably happy. But I
think people also went home thinking 'this is something new - we didn't know
about this before - how come European football is so good?'.
_____________________________
Photo files were created using standard JPEG compression.
Video files were created using either Apple Quicktime 6.0 or Microsoft Windows
Media 8 codec. Apple and Microsoft provide a number of players for different
platforms and there are third party players for Linux.
All of the Microsoft players can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/
All of the Apple players can be downloaded from:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
For Linux try these players:
mplayer - http://www.mplayerhq.hu
xine - http://xine.sourceforge.net
videolan - http://www.videolan.org
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
