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Rating: Technical and Tactical History of Football in 5 Matches (and digressions on customs, politics, society, and other witticisms selected for you by the reviewer’s sensitivity)
If you want to read Chapter I, click here
Chapter II
(where it tells how Football crossed the Channel becoming an intercontinental phenomenon, how the English ended up isolated and how irony always weighs on History)
In the previous review, we witnessed the institutionalization of the game of football, which occurred in Albion at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the formalization of the first game tactic (the "WM"). Today we will expand our view far beyond the Channel: in fact, even before the "Offside Revolution" (1926), Football, thanks to its intrinsically simple comprehension and execution, saw rapid international diffusion, initially in nations linked to the British Empire (the first non-British federation to be born was the New Zealand one in 1892) and gradually first with South America and the states of Central and Southern Europe, and subsequently with the rest of Latin America and Europe. Asia and Africa, despite the birth of the first national federations even on those continents (the foundation of the Egyptian federation in '21) remained (at least until the '80s of the 20th century) "on hold" (a separate discussion would deserve North America, particularly the U.S.A., but we'll cover that in the next chapter). Interestingly, if in Africa the "new" sport initially had little success due to evident "environmental" and cultural difficulties (made worse by the violence of European colonialism), instead in Asia, the obstacles were posed by the isolationist policy of the three great nations of the Far East, while on the front of the Indian subcontinent (still now, in 2011, resistant to the siren calls of football) the affirming of other sports of British origin (cricket above all) created an invisible but still effective boundary. On the Europe-South America axis, therefore, Football laid the foundations (an axis that "politically," technically, and tactically seems to last even today despite the efforts, often at the limit of common sense, of the FIFA), but it is essential to say that at least until the '50s, the American continent was certainly a breeding ground for talent (evidenced by the formidable final of the First World Cup, 1930, which however saw the absence of many European nations), but the tactical changes (and let's say it, also organizational at the political level) especially germinated in the Old Continent.
Starting from 1902 with Austria's 5-0 win over Hungary, the first international friendly not played in the United Kingdom (0-0 between Scotland and England in 1872), passing through 1904 (the founding of FIFA, as always with Great Britain absent... subsequently, in 1946, they were forced to change their mind) and arriving at the first real international tournament of Football (the IV Olympiad of the Modern Era), one can say that at an exclusively popular level, "our" Football decidedly crossed the borders of Albion, but for the technical-tactical consecration, one had to wait until at least the '30s.
Indeed, if, as seen, in the United Kingdom the "WM" raged almost simultaneously (always evolving from the "Cambridge Pyramid") in two countries that shortly after would share (Austria and Italy) a sad fate, the so-called "Metodo" was taking hold: embodied in the respective coaches (Hugo Meisl and Vittorio Pozzo), this game module was the European response to the introduction of the offside rule (as said, the "WM" was in England) and envisaged, perhaps for the first time in History, a competitiveness that often overshadowed ball-handling skills, a compact defensive line that preferred long throws to bypass the midfield over restarts, and a systematic and ruthless use of counterattacks. Within a few years, Britain had lost its world tactical hegemony and now had to share it with two "emerging" national teams: even though England did not participate in any World Cup in those years (taking advantage of the fact were the Italians with two World Cups and even an Olympics in just 4 years: in the latter, a unified British formation was present) a series of friendlies (especially the 4-3 with which the Wunderteam was defeated, in '32, but to the applause of the English and the Battle of Highbury of '34) in which the three national teams met established that now the gap was annulled.
"WM" and "Metodo" lived years (at least fifteen) of glory and sparked the first "tactical" debates in the world of football: it must be said that, ironically, it was precisely an Italian team (the Grande Torino) that tilted the outcome in favor of the first to the detriment of the second, but shortly thereafter, even the "WM" was shelved in the most sensational way possible, but as usual, that's another story.
15 August 1936, Olympiastadion (Berlin, Ger): Italy-Austria 2-1 (a.e.t.) (The Score)
The 1936 Olympics were intended by the Germans to be a celebration of Aryan organization and superiority over other races (but that the Olympics often stray from their purpose happens often: think of 60 years later those "organized" by a famous soft drink), but Hitler & co. suffered two "put downs" in that edition. The first was brought by Jesse Owens, the second by the Football Tournament where the Germans received a historical slap by being eliminated (0-2) in the Quarterfinals by Norway (then third), doing worse than Austria (second) and Poland (fourth, with the latter eliminating Great Britain with a nice 5-4). Even then, the sterile professionalism-amateurism polemics (remember that Pierre de Coubertin was a prototype of "classism" and the only reason he defended amateurism was because it excluded the Olympics to those who needed to be professional to live by sport alone: the rich/nobles didn't need it, so for them, amateur status was more than acceptable) prevailed, so the various national teams had to send representatives "disguised" as students (the Italian one consisted of university students who, incidentally, played almost all in the top division, even if they were not exactly first-tier players), by the way, this still applies today, and the men's football tournament is the only one that still doesn't abandon certain hypocrisies (for economic reasons only, hypocrisies sometimes adopted also by U.S. Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey teams). Despite this, the Italian commissioner (Pozzo) managed to give the same tactical rigor that brought the '34 World Cup (even if that victory was also "facilitated" by "environmental" conditions), but the progress was not easy (only the Quarterfinals against Japan were without stress), especially the final, which saw the Italians oppose the Austrians, as said, usual rivals of those years. The match was fiercely contested and decided within twenty minutes (the last quarter-hour of regular time and the first five minutes of the first extra time) and played in an environment markedly favorable to the Austrians (legend has it that, in the stands, the only one cheering for the Italians was Jesse Owens himself) but mainly went down in History as the greatest example (along with the World Cup semi-final played by the two teams two years earlier) of the "Metodo" as a game module despite the two formations not being "classic" and that the Wunderteam bench did not have Meisl. Years when tactics could win against technique and competitiveness.
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