The Blizzard - The Football Quaterly: Issue Six

Issue Six Contents 

---------------

Portugal

---------------

* The Curse of the Golden Whistle, by Ben Shave—How corruption and inefficiency have squandered the legacy of Euro 2004

* The Flight of the Eagles, by Luis Catarino—In the early sixties Benfica rose to topple Real Madrid, only to be cursed by Béla Guttmann

* The Pretenders, by Andy Brassell—Only two sides outside 'Os Tres Grandes' have won the Portuguese title. For both a repeat seems unlikely

* The Dragons' Cap, by Vitor Sobral—Porto's rise in the late seventies was inspired by the innovative coaching of José Maria Pedroto

---------------

Interview

---------------

* Antonin Panenka — The Czechoslovakia great discusses how his famous dinked penalty came about and the impact it's had

---------------

Euro 2012

---------------

* The Essential Backdrop, by Jonathan Wilson—Euro 2012 raised major questions about the nature of fandom and what comprises a tournament

* The First Twitter Tournament, by Barney Ronay—In Euro 2012, newspapers were very rarely the first with the news as social media came into its own

---------------

Theory

---------------

* Directing the Pianists, by Philippe Auclair—Brendan Rodgers discusses the importance of possession football and what he's learned from José Mourinho

* Ivan the Reasonable, by Antonis Oikonomidis—Ivan Jovanovic explains his philosophy and how he hopes to build on Apoel's success last season

* The Rise of the Technocrats, by Tim Vickery—How attitudes to the dictatorship shape Brazil's change of approach in the seventies

* The Second Coming, by Federico Farcomeni—Zdenek Zeman talks about attacking, romance and his challenge after returning to Roma this season

---------------------

Photo Essay

---------------------

* River's Return, by Anibal Greco—Images of River Plate's battle to win promotion from the purgatory of Nacional B

---------------

The Lost

---------------

* The Paper Tiger, by David Bartram—How politics and society have stood in the way of a Chinese boom

* The Coach on the Couch, by Iain Macintosh—Is being addicted to Football Manager a medical condition?

* The Far Corner, by James Young—How football in the north-east of Brazil struggles to keep up with the giants of the south

---------------

Polemics

---------------

* Care for the Community, by Gabriele Marcotti—Could a radical rejig of television schedules help create a greater bond between clubs and their fans?

* Location, Location, Location, by Tom Dart—Which is more important? How it looks or where a stadium is?

---------------

Fiction

---------------

* The Limping God, by David Ashton—His football career ended by injury, John Brodie's life is going nowhere until he is sucked into the world of crime

---------------------------

Greatest Games

---------------------------

* Spain 1-0 Ireland, by Dermot Corrigan—World Cup qualifying play-off, Parc des Princes, Paris, 10 November 1965

-----------------

Eight Balls

-----------------

* Classic Footballs, by Sheridan Bird—A selection of the best footballs through the ages