Chapter V: Cracks in summer

The celebration of the Villa of Bilbao Trophy was the perfect excuse to see stars in San Mamés.

The best Anderlecht ever seen; that of the two Cup Winners Cup, who went to La Catedral to take part in the IV Villa of Bilbao Trophy (1977) however it did not coincide with Athletic. Another two ‘tulips’ excelled of the end of 1974 and 1978 against Germany and Argentina, respectively: the midfielder Arie Haan, a specialist in scoring from long distances, and the best player in the history of the club, Robbie Rensenbrink, a reputable goal scorer who was even compared to Cruyff due to his style (saving distances), and that needed to climb just one step to be a front row ‘crack’. He was left at the doors of the Golden Ball Award a couple of times and, most painful for him, he hit a ball into the post a few seconds to the finish in the Argentina World Cup final, which had it entered the goalmouth, would have made him world champion and leading goal scorer in the match. The captain Rudi Krol passed him the ball in that play, a sweeper that played in La Catedral with the Ajax in the 1978/79 UEFA match of the ‘ghost goal’ by the rojiblanco Vidal. Half a year before, Euskadi faced the old USSR in San Mamés with the presence of the 1975 Golden Ball winner, the Ukrainian forward Oleg Blokhin, two time winner of the Super Cup with Dynamo of Kiev. In fact, it became customary to see distinguished players in La Catedral. Of all those awarded the Golden Ball Award from 1969 to 1990, only Rummenigge, Rossi, Belanov, Gullit and Van Basten never set foot on our ground.

In August of that same year, the V Villa of Bilbao Trophy was organized, a title that ended up in the display cases of the flaming UEFA champion, PSV Eindhoven, which brought onto the playing field six players that had just lost the World Cup final in Buenos Aires. Ernie Brandts, Harry Lubse, Jan Poortvliet, Adrie Van Kraay and the twins Willy and René van der Kerkhof once again come face-to-face with their rivals, Ubaldo Fillol, Daniel Pasarella, Óscar Ortiz, Norberto Alonso and Leopoldo Luque, of the River Plate. It was the only time (two tournament matches) that Fillol could be seen in San Mamés because, in spite of playing for Atlético Madrid for one season at 35 years of age, he never set foot on the Bilbao ‘playing field’. Since the 2008 Clausura Tournament (a second Liga and return to Argentina), his name is associated to the prize granted to the goalkeeper that allows the least amount of goals in his country. In any case, the indisputable figure of the ‘millionaire’ team that rendered visit was none other than Passarella, ‘The Great Capitan’ who raised the gold trophy of the World Cup among the joy of his compatriots. He was also called upon for the World Cup of 1986, but first an intestinal infection a later tear, kept him from playing with his national team, who eventually ended up World Champions.

At the end of the seventies, the fashion team was Nottingham Forest.

As soon as they hit first division, they surprised by winning the League title and later dominated in the Old Continent in their European debut with two consecutive titles. This team winner of a single League title and two European Cups (1979 and 1980), trained by the already deceased Brian Clough, won the final of the VI Villa of Bilbao Trophy by 2-1 against Dynamo of Bucharest, with two goals by John Robertson. Nevertheless, the illustrious of the ‘Forest’ was Peter Shilton, who still retains the record of internationalities with the English National (125 matches between 1970 and 1990). The goalkeeper has been seen six times in San Mamés (two with Nottingham, three with England and one with Southampton).

Lothar Matthäus, Golden Ball Winner the same year he was crowned World champion (1990), is another indisputable number 1 that can boast of having played in La Catedral. He did so twice, in the VII Villa of Bilbao with Borussia M’Gladbach although not against the lions. He is still the player holding the record for most matches played with the German National team, with which he disputed five World Cups. In addition, he holds the record for the most World Cup participations (25 matches).

Athletic Club was brought down by those who stood out; the Bohemians of Prague, in which Anton Ondrus the Czech captain who raised the trophy of the ’76 Euro, and the author of that success, Antonin Panenka, who immortalized his famous shot from eleven meters chipping the ball straight into Maier Sepp’s net, which brought about the Czech victory.