Bulgaria 1924

1924 was a big year in Bulgarian football. The first national championship competition was scheduled and the nation played its first international fixtures.
Regional leagues had been held since 1921, and in 1924 a unification tournament for the 6 regional champions was planned. Unfortunately this was  abandoned when Vladislav (Varna) refused to replay their semi final with Levski in Sofia, wanting a switch to Varna as the original tie had been played in Sofia. This was never resolved. 
 The following season's  championship was successfully concluded, with Vladislav beating Levski 2-0 in the final.

Bulgaria's first international came on 21.05.24 at Vienna's Simmeringer Sportplatz. 
The team featured 9 Levski players.

Petar Ivanov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Aleksandar Hristov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Simeon Yankov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Gheno Mateev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Boian Byanov	S.С. Ticha, (Varna)
Dimitr Manolov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Dimitr Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Nikola Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Tsvetan Genev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Konstantin Maznikov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Kiril Yovovich	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)

Austria (in their 87th international) were too strong for the Bulgarians, who held out until the 31st minute. The final score was Austria 6, Bulgaria 0.

Bulgaria made 2 changes for their next match, against The Irish Free State at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Petar Ivanov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Aleksandar Hristov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Simeon Yankov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Ivan Radoev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Boian Byanov	S.С. Ticha, (Varna)
Dimitr Manolov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Dimitr Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Nikola Mutafchiev	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Todor Vladimirov	S.C. Slavia, (Sofia)
Konstantin Maznikov	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)
Kiril Yovovich	S.C. Levski, (Sofia)

They were beaten by Patrick Dunkan's 75th minute goal.
Bulgaria's first international win came in their 15th match, against Romania in 1930.

Stockholm 1912

A great view of Stockholm Olympic Stadium during the Great Britain v Denmark match  (04.07.12). Great Britain (aka England Amateurs) won 4-2 to take the Olympic Gold Medal.  

Nils Middelboe

Before joining Chelsea in 1913 Middleboe represented Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, Frederiksberg. He made 15 appearances for Denmark (7 goals), and played at 3 Olympic tournaments (winning 2 silver medals).

Click here to view a great selection of images of Danish football.

Pepe Soares

José Manuel Soares, known as Pepe was an inside forward who played 14 times for Portugal (including 2 as a substitute), scoring 7 goals. He made 3 appearances at the 1928 Olympics.
Pepe's debut for his club Belenenses (against Benfica on 28th February,1926)  was the stuff of legend. Pepe came on in the 75th minute with Benfica leading 4-1. In the next 13 minutes, Belenenses scored three goals. When Belenenses were awarded a 90th minute penalty Pepe was ordered to take it as there were no volunteers. He scored to make it 5-4. 
Pepe made his international debut at the age of 19 (16.03.27).
He died of food poisoning at the age of 23.

Goal by Scarone

The 1928 Olympic Final replay.
Roberto Figueroa gets past Segundo Medici and sends in a cross; René Borjas beats Paternoster and heads the ball into the path of the oncoming Hector Scarone. 'Yours, Hector!' 
2-1 Uruguay, 73rd minute.
The illustration is not contemporary as the artist has drawn a D (penalty arc). 
I have seen evidence of the D being used on the continent before 1937 (I will cover this in a later post- someday!)
At 3:54 in the film it does look like there is a D!



Looks like it was an action packed game.

Paris 1900

 'Belgium'

The 1900 Olympics were a rather protracted affair lasting from May 14th  to  October 28th. It ran concurrently with L'Exposition de Paris 1900.
Association football, making its first appearance, was effectively an exhibition sport. 2 matches were played  at The Vélodrome de Vincennes on 20th and 23rd of September. The 'tournament' provides us with an illustration of how misleading the IOC's practise of retrospectively designating medal status to these early tournaments is. At best it creates a false impression of the nature of international competition at the time. At worst it detracts from the achievements of later winners.
The original plan had been to hold a series of matches in which 'France' would play against leading club teams from England, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany.
Switzerland and Germany did not take up the offer.
Great Britain were eventually represented by the rather modest Upton Park. Union des Sociétés Françaises des Sports Athlétiques selected Havre Athletic Club to represent France, but they declined and  the reigning Parisian champions Club Français stood in.
Similarly Racing Club de Bruxelles declined to represent Belgium. Frank König, a Racing player, was asked by the KBVB to put together a representative side, but he was unable to come up with the goods. The "Fédération Universitaire"were then asked to assemble a team of students. Again this was not a success and newspaper advertisements were placed. eventually a party of 10, including an Englishman (Thornton) and a Dutchman (van Heuckelum) travelled to Paris. Eugène Neefs was in Paris at the time, saving the Belgians the embarrassment of turning out one short.
The Belgian XI was:
Marcel Leboutte (Spa FC) - René Kelecom (FC Liégois), Ernest Moreau de Melen (FC Liégeois) - Alphonse Renier (Racing Club de Bruxelles), Gustave Pilgrims (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Eugène Neefs (Sporting Club de Louvain) - Eric Thornton* (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Hendrik van Heuckelum (Léopold Club de Bruxelles), Hilaire Spanoghe (Skill FC), Marius Delbecque (Skill FC), Lucien Londot (FC Liégeois)
As you can see, the players turned out in their club kit.
The Belgians were a goal down inside a minute, but came back to lead 2-1 at the interval. 
The second half was one-way traffic, however, with the France XI eventually winning 6-2.

And on the back of this defeat the record of the IOC lists this scratch team of  Belgian students as being  Olympic bronze medalists. Hoe belachelijk!

 *Thornton would later represent Belgium in 2 internationals (as a goalkeeper).

Italy 1936

Berlin (Olympia Stadion) – Saturday, 15th August 1936.
Vittorio Pozzo celebrates with his gold medal winners after the Azzurri had beaten Austria 2-1 in the Olympic Final in front of an 85,000 crowd. 
Italy lined up: Venturini (Sampierdarenese), Foni (Juventus), Rava (Juventus), Baldo (Lazio), Piccini (Fiorentina), Locatelli (Ambrosiana), Frossi (Ambrosiana), Marchini (Lucchese), Bertoni (Pisa), Biagi (Pisa),Gabriotti (Lazio).

Sergio Bertoni, Alfredo Foni, Pietro Rava and Ugo Locatelli went on to feature in Italy's World Cup win in 1938.

Augusto Rangone

When we think of Italian managers in the pre war era the name of Vittorio Pozzo will, of course, forever dominate, leading the Azzuri on 95 occasions including 2 World Cup wins.
In the majority of other matches in this era the team was run by a group of coaches referred to as the Technical Committee. They were also overseen by Augusto Rangone for 24 matches, of which they won 12.
The Alessandria manager first contributed to the national scene in 1922 -24 as part of the Technical Committee (along with Umberto Meazza and Augusto Galletti, with Silva and Agostini also contributing for the game on 20.01.24).

03.12.22	Italy	2	2	Switzerland
01.01.23	Italy	3	1	Germany
04.03.23	Italy	0	0	Hungary
15.04.23	Austria	0	0	Italy
27.05.23	Czechoslovakia	5	1	Italy
20.01.24	Italy	0	4	Austria

This lack of success prompted the appointment of Pozzo as national coach, a position he held for 5 games, including the 1924 Olympic tournament.
In November 1924 the Technical Committee approach was given another try. This time Rangone, Milano and  Baccani formed the triumvirate.

16.11.24	Italy	2	2	Sweden
23.11.24	Germany	0	1	Italy
19.01.25	Italy	1	2	Hungary
22.03.25	Italy	7	0	France
14.06.25	Spain	1	0	Italy
18.06.25	Portugal	1	0	Italy

In November 1925 Rangone alone was entrusted with the running of the national side. Rangone contributed to the nations first 2 international honours- he oversaw the  first 50% of Italy's victorious Coupe Internationale européenne campaign of 1927-30 and led them to a Bronze medal at the 1928 Olympics.

04.11.25	Italy	2	1	Yugoslavia
08.11.25	Hungary	1	1	Italy
17.01.26	Italy	3	1	Czechoslovakia
21.03.26	Italy	3	0	Irish Free State
18.04.26	Switzerland	1	1	Italy
09.05.26	Italy	3	2	Switzerland
18.07.26	Sweden	5	3	Italy
28.10.26	Czechoslovakia	3	1	Italy
30.01.27	Switzerland	1	5	Italy
20.02.27	Italy	2	2	Czechoslovakia
17.04.27	Italy	3	1	Portugal
24.04.27	France	3	3	Italy
29.05.27	Italy	2	0	Spain
23.10.27	Czechoslovakia	2	2	Italy*
06.11.27	Italy	0	1	Austria*
01.01.28	Italy	3	2	Switzerland*
25.03.28	Italy	4	3	Hungary*
15.04.28	Portugal	4	1	Italy
22.04.28	Spain	1	1	Italy
29.05.28	France	3	4	Italy **
01.06.28	Italy	1	1	Spain **
04.06.28	Italy	7	1	Spain **
07.06.28	Italy	2	3	Uruguay **
09.06.28	Italy	11	3	Egypt **

*Coupe Internationale européenne
** Olympic Games 

As part of Technical Committee:

P	W	D	L	F	A
12	3	4	5	17	18

As sole coach/manager:

P	W	D	L	F	A
24	12	7	5	68	44