Busby From Tragedy to Triumph



A Tribute To Sir Matt Busby

  


A look back at the career of Sir Matt Busby, the man who led
Manchester United Football Club to five League Championships, two FA
Cups and Britain's first European Cup. Includes action from the 1948,
1957 and 1963 FA Cup Finals and interviews with Bobby Charlton, Denis
Law and Harry Gregg. Narrated by Robert Powell .


When
Manchester United mark its 50 years in European competition with a
celebration match against a select European XI this morning (HK time),
the occasion will mix images of a historic past and a likely glittering
future.

Unlike some
exhibition games, this one has captured the imagination of the public
with the match expected to attract a 72,000 sellout crowd to Old
Trafford.

United became the
first English team to play in the European Cup in 1956 and since then
the competition has left an indelible mark on the club, through triumph
and tragedy.

Both are indelibly woven into the fabric of the club, and the fabric of European football.

























Mkv, 


Codec H264, 


English 


VHS Rip














Pass :  thewildbunch22
































Tragedy preceded triumph with the 1958 Munich Air disaster costing the lives of 23 players and officials including eight members of the Busby Babes, the young team created by manager Matt Busby which had won the English title in 1956 and 1957 and seemed destined for greatness.

The disaster, on February 6, 1958, happened when United's plane crashed on takeoff at Munich on the way back from a European Cup quarterfinal in Belgrade.










Ten years later, Busby saw his dreams of European glory fulfilled when a side containing Munich survivors Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes and the mercurial George Best, beat Benfica 4-1 after extra time at Wembley to lift the European Cup for the first time.

Only one more European Cup has followed, in 1999, but United is now established as a giant of the world and European game.

Charlton says Busby defied the English FA to take United into Europe because he knew it had to prove itself among the best.

"I think Matt Busby thought he had a good enough team to win it and he was keen as a hell to get into the competition," Charlton said.

He added: "When we went into Europe it was just an unbelievable adventure.

"The crowds were alive because they had never seen anything like this before. The quality of player was sensational, and not only that, United were winning."











United reached the semifinals of the European Cup at the first attempt, losing on aggregate to Read Madrid despite a goal from Charlton in the home leg.
It also reached the semifinals the following year but by then the club had suffered the Munich disaster. It took the club five years to recover, with the first post-Munich trophy the FA Cup victory of 1963 followed by the league titles of 1965 and 1967, the springboard to the 1968 European Cup success.
"It was important. A lot of our players wanted to make it known that when we won the European Cup in 1968 it was as much for the people who died in Munich as themselves," Charlton said.
The emotion of that night means that Charlton, now a director of the club after making a record 759 appearances with 249 goals, regards United's dramatic 1999 Champions League final win over Bayern Munich in Barcelona as the happiest time of his life.
He and manager Alex Ferguson both admit that United should have won the competition more often.
Having qualified for the quarterfinals this season for the first time in four years, Charlton believes a third success is possible with a squad including the talents of Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo - "potentially one of the great, great players," according to Charlton.
"We have a really good side and there's no reason why we shouldn't think we have as good a chance of winning the European Cup as anybody," he said. (Reuters)

Labels: , ,