08 Jul 2018 22:19:50
Hi Ed001,

I just read a pretty interesting article of Lev Yashin on the BBC. What did you think of the chap?

Thanks.

{Ed001's Note - he is an extremely interesting guy, won the Ballon d'Or as a keeper and that says it all. Whenever I would talk to people my grandad's age about football, if the subject ever got round to keepers, there was only ever Yashin that counted. He was head and shoulders the best keeper of his era, possibly (probably?) the best ever.}


1.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 05:19:29
Read it as well. To be honest, that was the first time I've actually heard, read or know about the guy.

Straight away I browsed for some clips in Youtube. He was such a big guy, but the jumps and the saves were amazing. And the shots that he saved weren't that ordinary shots either, most of them were thunderous shots.

{Ed001's Note - he looks like the film has been speeded up when you watch him move.}


2.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 06:52:42
True Ed, he looks like he was on fast forward all the bloody time he was that quick, his reactions were just incredible. I was almost certain you'd done a legend profile on him but got mixed up because we were speaking about him the other week but found the Rene Higuita one again.

If anybody is interested in legendary keepers and haven't read that I strongly advise you to. I just read the beginning of it again and something Ed1 said 'The word legend is overused to define players who are not worthy of the tag, but Higuita really is a true legend of the game. There are so few people who can honestly claim to have changed football, yet Rene Higuita is one of them. ' this couldn't be more correct, the man really did change football, an incredible read that one Ed, when I have more time I'll be re reading it.

{Ed001's Note - thank you mate. I do feel I didn't really do him justice though, as I left out so much stuff trying to keep the article as short as possible. I never thought people would try and read a lengthy article back then.}


3.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 07:02:37
I remember it been your first Legend profile, short but brilliant mate, you summed up the important bits all in one really. Class as always.

{Ed001's Note - thank you mate, it was the first time I had done something like that. All the other articles I did from my head, rather than spending time researching the subject. I wasn't sure if it would work out which is why I picked someone interesting to read about!}


4.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:04:41
it's not only an incredible feat to win the Ballon D'or being a goalkeeper, but consider the players he beat that year (1963) to win it - Jimmy Greaves (44 goals for Spurs and won the Uefa cup, 2nd in the league) ; Gianni Rivera (Europena cup winner with Milan in 63); Denis Law (29 goals for Utd and FA cup winner that year) ; Eusebio (Portuguese Primera winnner and 38 goals scored) ; plus Bobby Charlton, Paul Van Himst and Karl-Heinze Schnellinger.

Any one of those could (and did in the cases of Rivera, Law, Charlton and Eusebio) have won it that year.
Also put into context how the World was in 1963. The Soviet Union wasn't exactly in everyone's good books.


5.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:14:54
Lev Yashin was not just a brilliant GK, arguably the best of all time, he was a very imposing figure. I saw a documentary about him and they showed a picture of him and his team mates in a photo shoot before a game (during the national anthem) an he was the tallest of them all. He also wore all black outfits during games hence this and due to his imposing figure, he was labelled The Black Spider.

The next best thing to come after the legendary Yashin was the also legendary Renat Dessaev who was also Russian. Ed01, what did you think of him?

{Ed001's Note - to be honest, I know almost nothing about him, other than his name. I have added him to the legends list, I look forward to removing my ignorance regarding him.}


6.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 12:49:19
Thanks, Ed. Did not know much about him either. Watched him at Euro 1988 (I was 12) and heard the commentators raving about him BUT I have no info to back it up.

{Ed001's Note - I have literally only heard the name, purely because it was in a list of great players in a World Cup preview I saw.}