Samitier

It seems that the transition from club to international football is not always easy! 
Between 1919 and 1932 Josep Samitier scored 333 goals in 454 games for Barcelona (strike rate 0.73 goals per game). In his 21 internationals (1920-1931) he netted just twice. In the 21 matches he played Spain scored 38 goals and lost only 3 times. Samitier played at right half in the Spain team.  He also played for Catalunya.

Charlie Perry

Lloyd's Weekly London  Newspaper 20.03.92

Corner Kicks

A corner kick, Falkirk vs Queen's Park 1914

Most of the changes in the Laws of The Game in the 1860s and 70s concerned what happened when the ball went out of play.
Here we will look at Law 7:

1863
In case the ball goes behind the goal line, if a player on the side to whom the goal belongs first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick from the goal line at the point opposite the place where the ball shall be touched. If a player of the opposite side first touches the ball, one of his side shall be entitled to a free kick (but at the goal only) from a point 15 yards from the goal line opposite the place where the ball is touched. The opposing side shall stand behind their goal line until he has had his kick.

Notice that the ball 'going behind the goal line' wasn't out of play as such: there was still the matter of getting the touch on it.  For the attacking team getting the touch down meant a shot at goal from 15 yards (Some similarities to Rugby here - in early Rugby rules the 'touchdown' or 'try' counted for nothing, but depended on the 'conversion' to a 'goal') . I can only assume that the 11 defenders would line up between the goalposts and just behind the goal line. As the attacking players all had to be behind the ball when it was kicked and that the ball had to be shot directly at goal I imagine that very few goals would have resulted from this process,

1866
Following the February 1866 AGM  the FA adopted the Sheffield principle of using secondary scoring to decide matches finishing equal on actual goals:
...if a player of the opposite side first touches the ball after it has gone behind the goal line of his adversary, one 'touch down' shall be scored by his side, and in the event of no goal being got by either side, or an equal number of goals being got on each side, the side obtaining the greater number of 'touches down' shall be the winners of the match.

 It was a relatively short lived experiment, the touch down disappearing from the rules altogether following the 1867 AGM, being replaced by a free kick for the defending team to be taken within 6 yards of their goal. 


Sheffield, 1868
The corner kick first made an appearance in the revised Sheffield rules of 1868. Having dispensed with rouges (touch downs) Sheffield introduced the following:
When the ball is kicked over the bar of the goal it must be kicked off by the side behind whose goal it went, within 6 yards from the limit of their goal...
when the ball is kicked behind the goal line a player of the opposite side to that which kicked it out shall kick it in from the nearest corner flag...

The 1870  FA rules had when the ball is kicked behind the goal line, it must be kicked off by the side behind whose goal it went, within 6 yards from the limit of their goal. 
and in 1872 the FA adopted the 1868 Sheffield rule verbatim.





It was in 1873 that the FA rules gave us the clear distinction between a goal kick and a corner kick (though neither term was used):
When the ball is kicked behind the goal line by one of the opposite side it shall be kicked off by any one of the players behind whose goal line it went, within 6 yards of the nearest goal post; but if kicked behind by any one of the side whose goal line it is , a player of the opposite side shall kick it from the nearest corner flag post. 

As the corner kick fell under the category 'free kicks' it was not permissible to score a goal directly from a corner kick.

Winter Break?

There won't be any new posts on Before The D for about 2 weeks. Enjoy your football...

Albert Craig

Albert Craig was a Bradford born postman and later insurance salesman who wrote verses about cricketers.
He moved to London in 1886 and became something of a fixture at The Oval. The press often referred to Craig as The Surrey Poet, though he signed his works AC, Cricket Rhymester.
Craig  also developed an interest in Association football. He wrote verses about Woolwich Arsenal (then based in Plumstead) and later Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Queen's Park Rangers. As you can see, the lines above were inspired by a Palace vs Queen's Park Rangers  match in The Southern League. Palace won 3-0.

Josh Johnson (Palace)

Sam Downing (QPR)

The protagonists in the penalty incident were Josh Johnson and Sam Downing.
Downing had started his senior career with QPR in 1903 with a hat trick on debut. However, in 170 games for the Hoops he only managed 13 goals (in fairness he was a wing half). Downing joined Chelsea in 1909.
Johnson (sometimes referred to as 'Joe' Johnson) began his career with Aston Villa, but never made the first team. He then had a spell at Plymouth Argyle before joining Palace in 1907.  He made 276 Southern League appearances for Palace. After the war he joined Nottingham Forest. Johnson was a devout Christian and a lay preacher. 
The London Daily News the following day described the game as an indifferent one, watched by the Danish Olympic Football team. Palace were 2 up in 10 minutes but according to the report Rangers had most of the play but squandered their chances. The penalty is described as follows: Downing shot straight at Johnson, who easily turned the ball over the bar. 

Mr Craig at The Oval

An in depth analysis of Craig's work can be found here.

Two Points of View

Taken from a nice website about Luton Town in the 19th century: http://thestrawplaiters.com/

A Penalty Shootout

Daring

Writing about football pre 1937 I didn't expect to find myself dealing with penalty shootouts. However, an Easter Tournament organized by ADO Den Haag in 1935 was indeed decided by a duel from 11 metres. 
This was ADO's first such tournament and the 4 teams featured were:

Alles Door Oefening Den Haag- founded in 1905, in season 1934-35 ADO finished 4th in West 1 (Eerste Klasse).

Voorwaarts Utile Dulci Combinatie Den Haag- founded 1909, were also an Eerste Klasse club finishing 7th in West 1. In 1927 they had won the NVB Beker.

Royal Daring Club Molenbeek (Belgium)- Daring Club de Bruxelles (matriculation n°2) was founded in 1895. In 1936 and 37 they were Belgian Division d'Honneur champions and won the Belgian Cup in 1935.

Excelsior Athlétic Club de Roubaix(France) came into being in 1928 (a merger of Excelsior Club de Tourcoing and F C de Roubaix). Excelsior turned professional in 1932 and won the Coupe de France in 1933.

The tournament was played over 2 days at Zuiderpark. The visiting teams were too strong for the 2 Den Haag clubs (Netherlands football was resolutely amateur at this time). 

When the final ended in a 2-2 draw each team had three penalty kicks. Daring scored all three of theirs whilst Excelsior missed with one. 

21.04.35	VUC Den Haag	3	8	Excelsior AC Roubaix
21.04.35	ADO Den Haag	1	2	Daring
22.04.35	ADO Den Haag	3	4	VUC Den Haag
22.04.35	Daring	2	2	Excelsior AC Roubaix
	Daring win 3-2 after pens.

ref: Dagblad De Telegraaf, Amsterdam 23.04.35

Jean Jacoby

Jean Jacoby (Luxembourg) was the Olympic gold medal winning artist in both 1924 and 1928. 

This painting , Corner,  was one of his pieces from 1924.