Archive for June 7, 2023
Final !!!
The day has come: on Wednesday West Ham play in their first major European final in 47 years and could win an other European Cup tonight, 58 years after their win of the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965 and 43 years on from their last trophy, the FA Cup 1980.
When West Ham won their only European Cup back in May 1965 with a 2-0 win over 1860 München, more than 97,000 supporters were inside Wembley Stadium for the final. The Hammers won 2-0 thanks to a brace from Alan Sealey.
Brian Dear was one of the players who were on the pitch that night and he will be in the stadium in Prague on Wednesday when a new generation of West Ham players will attempt to emulate the heroes of 1965.
Comparing the current West Ham side with the boys of 1965 is to see how much the footballing world has changed. All 11 members of Ron Greenwood’s side of 1965 were English, and nine of them were homegrown players from the club’s academy. Despite West Ham’s Club captain Declan Rice having come through West Ham’s “Academy of Football” which he joined as a 14-year-old, these times are long gone. The current squad consists of players from at least twelve or maybe even more different nationalities. However, three key players of the possible starting XI, Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio, will be English – or more or less though, because Rice who was born in London played some games for the Irish team because of his grand parents being Irish, before switching his allegiance to England, and Michail Antonio now has seven caps for the Jamaican team since last year as he has decided to get a Jamaican passport and join the reggae boys to play internationally.
“I would love them to win it,” former European Cup winner Dear said of Wednesday’s Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina, talking to The Telegraph. “We had our day and we are still living off it. Hopefully they will be able to do the same thing, in a different stadium and a different era.”
The venue of this year’s final, the Eden Arena in Prague, is really a “different stadium” and the attendance will be much smaller than in 1965 as the stadium of Slavia Praha (the former club of West Ham players Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal) holds under 20,000 seats.
It could easily have been filled with the travelling West Ham support alone. Reportedly more than twenty thousand have made the trip to Prague despite the Club having been allocated just 5000 tickets. Also my application for a ticket was not successful and I am staying back in Vienna. However, a big group of Austrian Irons has already touched down in Prague, albeit without match tickets. They have sent videos and photos showing that already on the day before the final, “West Ham are massive” was sung without ceasing in the Czech capital.
To channelize the surge of supporters a “Fan Meeting Point” for the West Ham fans has been established at Letná Park on the so-called “Kleinseite” of the Czech capital. This venue is open from 12 noon on Wednesday for pre-match celebrations with live entertainment, food and drinks to enjoy, and a public viewing of the match will be shown on multiple LED screens there for all Hammers supporters who are in Prague on matchday but have not got tickets for the game. From the Fan Meeting Point, the metro line A can be taken to the Eden Arena, but it is also possible to walk downhill.
As well as for West Ham, this final is an epoch-making event for their Italian opponents. Fiorentina are a historic club in Italy, but they have won much less than other clubs: two Scudetti, six Italian Cups, one Italian Super Cup a Cup Winners’ Cup, back in 1961, and a Mitropa Cup in 1965. The last trophy won was in 2001, a Coppa Italia. In this respect, they resemble West Ham, who won their only European competition in 1965 (the summer Intertoto Cup of 1999 does not count). The American owner of Fiorentina dreams of winning his first trophy after four years in Florence. Fiorentina lost this year’s Italian Cup final 1-2 to Inter Milan despite going ahead in the 3rd minute, and risk not to be qualified for Europe if they don’t win the Conference League final, also resembling West Ham in this regard.
The Telegraph writes that the final will be very tactical: “Fiorentina know that West Ham in Europe turn from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde, so they have the perception that it will be a very difficult game. At the same time Fiorentina play only one way, based on intensity and ball possession. They cannot change. It often produces more possession than goals. The defence are prone to individual mistakes in every game: everything will depend on the ability of the West Ham strikers to exploit them.”
So there’s hope that the Hammers will rise to the occasion and go all way to win the final, but it will be a tough contest in Prague, that’s for sure. After 43 years of hurt in which the Hammers have not won a major trophy, is it possible that Declan Rice tonight will become the first Hammers captain since Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds to lift a Cup and end the long wait for silverware?
“There’s a chance to create a legacy where everyone involved will be remembered for ever,” Rice said.
West Ham manager David Moyes who has twice saved the Irons from relegation and then qualified for Europe in two consecutive seasons would be only the third West Ham manager who has won mayor trophies, following Ron Greenwood and John Lyall. He then would be named together with these West Ham legends, though he had to fear to be sacked just two months ago because of West Ham‘s dismal Premier League campaign. But he saved his job with a 1-0 away win at Fulham by the beginning of April, a 2-2 draw with Arsenal, a 4-0 away victory at Bournemouth and finally a 1-0 win at London Stadium against Manchester United.
Kick-off is at 9 p.m. I will watch the game at the “Tube Station” in Vienna, home of the Austrian supporters club, “Austrian Irons”. I’m sure it will be packed despite many of the guests who usually watch West Ham’s games here will not be in tonight, having travelled to be there in Prague together with more than 20,000 supporters when their beloved Hammers try to make history.
Just this once let’s hope fortune is not always hiding! Come on you Irons!
EXTRA TIME 
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