Jonathan Wilson / Jonathan Wilson / 09 July 2009 / Leave a comment

Driven by Juan Sebastien Veron, Estudiantes are once again in the final of the Copa Libertadores, but as Jonathan Wilson reports the reputation of their 1960s side still dogs the Buenos Aires side.

After weeks spent celebrating the Huracan of Angel Cappa, and a new flowering of the Menottista school (although, typically, they failed at the last, losing the clausura to a disputed late goal amid heavy hail and mass brawls at Velez Sarsfield last Sunday), last night it was the turn of the darker side of Argentinian football as Estudiantes ([1.71] to lift the title) drew 0-0 with Cruzeiro in the first leg of the final of the Copa Libertadores.

It is 39 years since the La Plata side were last in a Libertadores final; last night, fortunately, was rather less dramatic. That side of the late sixties were the first great Argentinian exponents of anti-football, nurtured by the great pioneer Osvaldo Zubeldia to become the first team from outside Buenos Aires to win the championship.

When he arrived in 1965, he sacked two thirds of the squad, preferring to use youth players.

"We lived at the training ground," remembers Juan Ramon Veron, the most creative player in a largely defensive side, and the father of Juan Sebastian Veron who, at 34, continues to direct the midfield for the present team.

"For the first time ever we had a pre-season, and we had a coach who really directed things on the pitch. We learnt tactics on a blackboard and then practised them on the pitch. We were really young and didn't really notice what was happening. Things just started growing, and we realised one day that we had a great team."

In El Gráfico, Jorge Ventura wrote of their style as "a football that is elaborated over a hard week of laboratory work, and explodes on the seventh day with an effectiveness that consecrates the tale of positions. Because Estudiantes continue to manufacture points just as they manufacture football: with more work than talent... Estudiantes keep winning."

Gradually, though, they began to attract a more sinister reputation, not just for robust tackling, but for dirty tricks - stabbing opponents with pins, pulling their hair, standing on their feet. The worst was Carlos Bilardo, the man after whose managerial style the win-at-all-costs philosophy would be named, but in those days a defensive midfielder.

"He was sneaky," said Antonio Rattin, the Boca Juniors captain at the time. "He was always up to something. Tricky: he'd pull your shirt, pretend to be hit, anything."

Estudiantes won the Libertadores in 1968, beating Racing in a brutal three-game semi-final, and then opening up to beat Palmeiras of Brazil in a final that also went to a third-game playoff. It was during that run that the term 'anti-fútbol' was coined to describe their methods, but El Gráfico remained supportive, although acknowledging that their style was "more solid than beautiful".

As Argentina failed to qualify for the 1970 World Cup, though, Estudiantes came to be seen as part of the problem, stifling natural talent, even as they retained their Libertadores title. In September 1969 they lost the first leg of the Intercontinental final 3-0 away to AC Milan, which raised doubts about the efficacy of their style, but it was the return in la Bombonera that really began to harden opinion against them.

Estudiantes won 2-1, but far more significant was the violence of the game. Aguirre Suarez broke Nestor Combin's cheekbone with a stray elbow, and the goalkeeper Alberto Poletti then punched Gianni Rivera, an assault Eduardo Manera followed up by kicking him to the ground.

"Television took the deformed image of a match and transformed it into urban guerrilla warfare all over the world,' said the match report in El Gráfico, and the watching president was just as unimpressed.

"Such shameful behaviour has compromised and sullied Argentina's international reputation and provoked the revulsion of a nation," General Ongania said.

All three were sentenced to 30 days in jail for "disgracing a public spectacle".

Estudiantes recovered to beat Penarol 1-0 over two legs to complete a hat-trick of Libertadores titles in 1970, but the tide of public opinion had turned, and decline set in. This Estudiantes have nothing like the reputation of their forebears but, under Alejandro Sabella, once of Leeds and Sheffield United, they have progressed through the Libertadores without conceding a goal. Cruzeiro are favourites to complete their triumph next Wednesday, but they'll first have to score against the heirs of Zubeldia.