THE DAY THAT CHANGED HISTORY by Enric González Today marks 62 years of the Superga tragedy. Enrique Gonzalez for two published in El Pais this article. It never hurts to go back to it, much less in this blog .
Superga Basilica
The May 4, 1949, 60 years ago today, changed the history of football. Not just talking about calcium, which sank in blackest night, but any football: the May 4, at 17.03, finished a story and started another. If the three-engined Fiat carrying the best team in the world, the Gran Torino, would not have crashed into the foundations of the basilica of Superga, just 20 miles from home, it is very likely would not have existed nor Maracanazo World , 1950 and the subsequent Brazilian hegemony. Maybe Italy would have been the first choice three-time champion, with three consecutive titles. Maybe Juventus would be today a smaller institution, fighting in the lower divisions. Perhaps the word catenaccio desconociéramos and calcium symbolize attacking football. Maybe.
Grand Torino Torino was never called to dry. The main club Turin (the Agnelli family had not yet acquired the Juventus) proposed more than a wonderfully offensive football: incarnate, with cyclists Coppi and Bartali, the end of the nightmare of fascism and war. The president, Ferruccio Novo, former player and former coach, began building a legendary training in 1942, during the war, with the signing of the two stars of Venice, Mazzola and Loïk. That season, 1942-1943, won the scudetto . The championship, however, was not played the following season. Italy plunged into a terrible mixture of double invasion (allies in the south, the Nazis in the north), civil war (fascists against Partisans) and vacuum of power. No competition until 1945. By then, the Gran Torino and was irresistible.
scarlet team played with absolute rage attack. It had been designed by technical director Ernst Ebstein, a Hungarian of Jewish origin, because of the racial laws, he had to work underground and, despite everything, finished in a concentration camp from which he fled in a almost miraculous. Ebstein wanted no defenses. In fact, the Gran Torino was playing with two very technical power, Ballarin and Maros, five midfielders and typical of the English system, led by Valentino Mazzola. His legend was strong in the 1947-1948 season with 125 goals in 40 games. There was one particularly striking against the Roma. The visiting team, the Gran Torino, came to the break trailing by 1-0. In the locker room, the scarlet decided to give a lesson to the Romans, returned to the turf and scored seven goals in 20 minutes. That was the Gran Torino of five consecutive league titles.
Vittorio Pozzo, coach of Italy won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938 (with the invaluable help of Mussolini and the referees), had advised Ebstein Novo and its transfer policy. After the war, he was riding a simple choice: eight members of the Grand Torino (Bacigalupo, Ballarin, Castigliano, Loïk, Maros, Mazzola, Menti and Rigamonti) holders were undeniable, sometimes, as in his victory against the legendary Hungary, nazionale azzurra players lined up to ten grains. Italy emerged as the favorite for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
On May 3, 1949, the Gran Torino traveled to Lisbon to play a friendly match against Benfica. Mazzola, the great captain scarlet, had demanded to participate in the farewell to his friend, Francisco Ferreira, captain of Lisbon and the Portuguese. After the meeting concluded with a 4-3 victory of Benfica, the expedition embarked on a plane to Barcelona. In Italy had been the president Novo, a cold, and Hungarian an immensely sad buck because the Gran Torino, after several trial matches, had rejected his signing. The boy was called Laszlo Kubala. From Barcelona, \u200b\u200bthe Gran Torino continued their trip to Turin. The plane was less than five kilometers from the airport when, from a thick fog, crashed into the Basilica of Superga, where the Italian royal family buried their dead. The 31 occupants were killed instantly trimotor.
The funerals for the best team that has seen Italy and one of the best I've seen the world gathered to one million people in Turin. At that time, just four days, the Gran Torino was four points ahead of Inter. The other teams decided to align the youth, as he was forced to make the Torino, the rest of the season. That was the scudetto posthumously.
know what happened next. Gianni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat, Juventus had bought in 1947 and took the huge vacuum during Superga to create a championship team. The following season, which was to become Vecchia Signora won the scudetto and began to forge their own history. It was another football. Pozzo coach had to travel to Brazil World (by boat) with an alignment of circumstances and an ultra-defensive system that characterized the calcium in the following decades.
The story of the tragedy had a beautiful corollary in 1960. Sandrino Mazzola, the son of Valentino, who was six years old when he died on Gran Torino, had just signed for Inter. He was a boy of 18 years. And he had to face Real Madrid, champions of Europe. Madrid won. After the match, Puskas went to Mazzola, shook hands and said a few words: "I knew your father and I played against him. I think you're worthy to be his son." Mazzola, of course, began to mourn.
