The Greatest Want Ta Play Against Matthews

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 21

The Greatest Want Ta Play Against Matthews

(By

VERS ON MORGAN,

Reuters Sports Editor.)

LONDON, April 28. The greatest soccer players in Europe pay homage tonight to Sir Stanley Matthews, the gentle knight of soccer. On the Victoria ground at Stoke, where as a boy Matthews began his illustrious career more than 30 years ago, they will play for the International XI against Matthews’s XI.

This game is the last of them all for Matthews, apart from exhibition matches, now that he has reached the halfcentury.

When the match was first proposed to mark his retirement and fiftieth birthday (Matthews was born on February 1, 1915) every noted player in Europe wanted to play. They were prepared not only to play for nothing but some of them to find their own fares. This was an honour not to be missed, not even by those like the famed Spaniard, Di Stefano, and the Hungarian, Puskas, on whom distinctions have fallen like autumn leaves. More Than Wanted It has been with the greatest difficulty that Matthews has been able to cut down the teams to 11 men, not only on the side of his opponents, for many more wanted to play than could be accommodated, but in his own team. The British soccer stars of today and yesterday all wanted to be in this historic match.

What does seem clear Is that all those picked for the provisional sides will play, even if it be for only a few minutes. A record in substitutes is sure to be set up in a land where team changes, once the game has started, are frowned upon.

It is being jocularly suggested that the hardest task the referee, Mr Arthur Ellis, one of the world's greatest, will have is to get some of

the players off the field when it is time for others to come on. It is obvious Matthews has chosen a team of friends as well as stars. He has naturally picked not only members of his present club, Stoke, but from Blackpool, where he spent many successful years.

The aim of the match is not to win but to give an exhibition of first-class football worthy of the wizard winger. It will, also, obviously be the aim of every member of his side to give Matthews the ball on every possible occasion, and one can hardly see stalwart defenders like Schnelinger and Masopust breaking their hearts to check the still brilliant dribbling of their host.

In spite of this, and the friendly nature of the match, more foreign journalists have applied for tickets than for

any previous match in Britain, and there will be radio and television coverage to most parts of the world. The teams are: International XI. Yashin (U.S.S.R.), Johansen (Denmark), Schnellinger (West Germany), Plttskal (Czechoslovakia), Popluhar (Czechoslovakia), Mosopust (Czechoslovakia), Henderson (Scotland), Kopa (France), Kubala (Spain), Di Stefano (Spain), Puskas (Hungary), Van den Berg (Belgium), and Sorensen (Denmark).. Matthews’s XI. Waiters (Backpool), Armfleld (Blackpool), Cohen (Fulham), Wilson (Everton), Baxter (Glasgow Rangers), Haynes (Fulham), Flowers (Wolves), Kinnell (Stoke), Matthews, Greaves (Spurs), Gllzean (Spurs), Ritchie (Stoke), Douglas (Blackburn), Jones (Spurs) and Vernon (Stoke). Junior Team May Tour (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) SYDNEY, April 28. Gate money from the replay of a soccer match which ended in a wild brawl in Sydney last Sunday may be used to send a junior Australian soccer team on a tour of New Zealand and New Caledonia. This was suggested to a meeting of the New South Wales Soccer Federation management committee last night by a prominent Sydney official. Mr J. Bayutti. The match will be re-played under lights on Friday night. U.K. SOCCER (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, April 28. Results of soccer matches played yesterday were: ENGLISH LEAGUE Division One.—Blackburn 1, Nottingham 1. Division Two.—Bury 0, Rotherham 1. Division Three.—Brentford 4. Scunthorpe 0. Division Four.—Doncaster 1, Tranmere 0; Wrexham 0, Millwall I. SCOTTISH LEAGUE Division Two.—Montrose 5, Dumbarton 0; Stenhousemuir 2, East Stirling 1. IRISH LEAGUE Crusaders 1. Portadown 1; Cliftonville 0, Distillery 4. CUP WINNER'S CUP Semi-final, second leg: T.S.V. Munich 3, A. C. Torino 0 (aggregate score, 3-3, teams will replay).