Umbro Blog

The latest story from our struggling five-a-siders…

This week’s match saw us pitted against “Gumtree FC”, an encounter that would surely be billed as a relegation dogfight if it were broadcast on national TV, which for the record, I think it definitely should have been.

The Juicebox’s position hasn’t changed for many weeks now, what with us holding the whole of the league up on our shoulders. Gumtree FC – who must have found their players through the website – were only three points ahead of us sat in seventh, and although their goal difference was 8 to the better, a victory would have gotten us right back in the mix.

No sooner had we kicked off than we had conceded a quick fire double, we started too slow and paid the ultimate price. 2-0 down and we’d barely even kicked off. I tried to think positive “At least its only two!”, I screamed at my teammates.

David was trying to get out of his tracksuit bottoms to be substituted on, but what for most people is quite a basic manoeuvre, he managed to make look like a challenge equal to climbing Mount Everest. He couldn’t pull them off in time and as a result remained on the bench for a while longer.

He eventually got onto the pitch around the time we managed to go 3-0 down. Catching us on the counter attack with a long-ball and using the no offside rule to their advantage, a lone striker rounded Alex to roll the ball into the net.

Finally, what had seemed like a rather lengthy first half drew to a close. A team talk was in order, and seeing as the armband rotation had fallen on Alex this week, he took it upon himself to get the team motivated, “ch-ch-ch-changes?”. He had somehow managed to combine his love for David Bowie with the idea to makes some substitutions. Genius.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the team to get into the Ziggy Stardust mood with Kilshaw making an exquisite cross-field ball perfectly reach Olly’s feet, who managed to pull out a left footed rocket, bound only for one place. The back of the net. 3-1. We were buzzing.

That buzz was to be short-lived as they struck again. 4-1 down and damn near doomed. This would not do. Again Alex came with words of wisdom. “We could be Heroes! Just for one match!” Lifted by the spirit of Bowie, we played with a bit more grit and determination, and a lot more sparkle. Then Locky scored a solo scorcher, using his silky skills to get the ball past three members of Gumtree FC, before dragging their keeper out of position and sliding the ball into the net. 4-2. Game on.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the attack, this time with Kilshaw searing up the wing. He put a cross into the mixer and Rob stormed in at the front to bundle the ball home. 4-3.

Time wasn’t on our side, in fact time was very much against us – the final whistle blew soon after. A 4-3 loss was not so bad, and if the first half hadn’t counted at all, we would have won 3-1. We were clutching at straws. Maybe next week Bowie will sing the Juicebox onto the field? Or we’ll just lose again?

With all this talk of the new England Away kit, we thought it was about time to jump back into the archive and read up on some of the clubs that Umbro sponsors. This time around, we’ve spread our wings further afield and looked at our friends up north, over on the mainland and across the water.

Rangers

Rangers began life in 1872 following a meeting between Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath, adopting the name of an English rugby club they had read in a book. The newly founded team would go on to play their first game n the summer of that year in a friendly against Callander F.C. using the pitches on Glasgow Green.

Ranger’s first annual meeting took place in 1873 and by 1876 the club would have their first international player with Moses McNeil representing Scotland in a match against Wales.

Rangers would go on to become one of the ten original members of the Scottish Football League and play their first ever league match and league victory on 16 August 1890 against Heart of Midlothian. After finishing at the top of the league with Dumbarton, a play-off was held to decide who would be crowned champions. The match finished 2–2 and the club would make history by sharing the champion’s title, which is the only time that this has ever happened. Rangers would enter the next century with two league titles and three Scottish Cups in their trophy cabinet.

Athletic Bilbao

In the 1800s Bilbao was the hub of an important industrial area, with iron mines and shipyards and attracted many migrant workers, including miners from the north-east of England and shipyard workers from Sunderland, Southampton and Portsmouth. The workers brought the game of football to the city and in the early 1890s they formed Bilbao Football Club.

Around the same time, Bilbao students who had completed their education in Britain returned to the city and in 1898 they would create the Athletic Club. Both clubs would meet to arrange games to play each other.

In 1902 the two clubs formed a combined team known as Club Vizcaya. They would compete in and win the Copa Del Ray by defeating FC Barcelona, a success that lead to the merger of the two clubs and the renaming of the club to Athletic Club de Bilbao.

Universitario

Originally formed by students and professors of the National University of San Marcos on August 7, 1924, the club was created to play in a small league called Federación Universitaria, arranging tournaments between students and the faculty departments of the university. As it grew in popularity the league would gain official status and joined the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF).

In 1928, the club entered Peru’s Primera División and would shock opposing and supporting fans that year by finishing as runners-up. A year later the club would win its first tournament and become Peru’s champions.

In 1931 the club would be forced to change its name by José Antonio Encinas, the head of the university. The club changed its name to Universitario de Deportes and held onto the symbolic “U” in their name.

The 1980s were a cruel period, and for this writer it was an era of badly fitting school uniforms and a bowl-cut hair do. But today I was laughing my arse off at this range of Umbro casual wear made for Chelsea fans, that were recently unearthed in a shady corner of the Internet. In its day, the clobber modelled by these cheesy catalogue models was ahead of it’s time, but like most things from the 80s, (Pat Sharpe’s hair, Timmy Mallett) it hasn’t aged well.

In fact, this lot look like they’re in a terrible TV sit-com, probably called ‘Blue is the Colour’ and shown on 1980s BSkyB. You just can’t get authentic licensed team cardigans anymore, can you?

A week of international friendlies wouldn’t normally be the most exciting seven days in football, but with only 100 days left to the World Cup, and with plenty of questions still remaining about what players will be travelling to South Africa this summer, there was plenty of intrigue in this week’s action. A blog dedicated to this summer’s tournament, Kwaitoball take a look at all of this week’s friendlies in this brief but succint post. Not so sure about the idea that Wes Brown had a bad game though!

Of course, any thoughts on this summer’s action will also be considering a World Cup song for England. Here at Umbro, we’ll probably be looking at this nearer the time, but Football & Music have entered the fray with a competition to find their favourite. They’re going to be posting potential England anthems on their site on a regular basis, with the audience invited to vote for their favourite to progress to a later round. You can check out the first two candidates – ‘God Save The Team’ and ‘From England With Love’ – on the site now.

One story that was a little overshadowed by the friendlies and other stories this week was the untimely passing of Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander. When Saturday Comes, always a publication that sees the real sport underneath all the soap opera-style nonsense, offered a typically insightful obituary on a man who was tremendously well-respected throughout football. You can read it here.

As the BBC’s man of the lower leagues, Paul Fletcher can always be relied on to provide some insight into life outside the Premier League, and his latest look at League One is an interesting one. Here, he takes a closer look at the teams pushing for promotion, with a focus on in-form Southampton as they push for a play-off place. Having started the season with a 10 point penalty, it would be amazing if Southampton started next season in the same league as their old rivals Portsmouth.

Finally this week, we return to the World Cup, or rather using the fact that it’s now less than 100 days away as an excuse to ramp up the excitement. Who Ate All The Pies are using the occasion to showcase 100 fantastic pictures from past tournaments. You can check out Parts 1 and 2 here, and keep your eyes peeled for later instalments.