The Spectator and the Legendary Sócrates

The Spectator and the Legendary Sócrates

One of the greatest pieces of League of Ireland trivia is the ‘fact’ that Brazilian World Cup star Sócrates briefly played for UCD. The story goes that the famous midfielder and star of the 1982 World Cup studied medicine at UCD and turned out on occasion for the football team. This delightful and unlikely tale has been repeated often enough to have entered the folklore of the league and, though unsubstantiated, it is often taken as fact. And in these glorious days of Wikipedia and internet forums it is increasingly difficult to work out what indeed is fact and what’s a load of Bohemian FC accounts.
Quite where the Socratic rumour began is lost in the mists of time, but it seems to be doing the rounds for a good couple of decades. Variations on the rumour have Sócrates unable to break into the first team because he was too much of a fancy dan, playing for DCU, DIT, the Royal College of Surgeons or Shelbourne, or my personal favourite, that he won a Sigerson Cup medal with UCD in Gaelic football.
The story gained legs when it made its way to the Guardian newspaper’s wonderful online trivia page, The Knowledge , in 2000. An Irish correspondent casually threw open the question of whether Sócrates had ever played in the League of Ireland. The normally reliable Guardian reporters made a fatal error in their attempts to answer the question.... they contacted the Football Association of Ireland. An FAI press flunky of the time, Brendan McKenna, helpfully replied with the information that “Sócrates did play for UCD, but it was way, way back, sometime in the 70s. He was an attraction at the time, but it was before he played for the Brazilian team. He wouldn't have played much more than a season.” Wonderful! There we have it, proof from an irrefutable source, one would like to think, the national football association of the relevant country! Surely if the FAI says so, it has to be true! Further evidence was garnered some time later when the question was followed up in the Guardian. Another contributor suggested that Sócrates only played a couple of games because “the coach and manager at the time, Dr Terry O'Neill (sic), insisted that he quit smoking”. ‘Dr Terry O’Neill’ was presumably some sort of imagined amalgam of UCD supremo Dr Tony O’Neill and former Arsenal manager Terry Neill.
Despite considerable anecdotal evidence, and the despite the testimony of the FAI, some nagging doubt remained. Surely there must be some photo, matc h report or programme out there featuring Sócrates or at least some variant of his rather magnificent full name, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira?
The rumour eventually made its way as far as Alex Bellos, author of the simply majestic history of Brazilian football ‘Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life’. Bellos employed a novel solution to the conundrum- he picked up the phone and gave Sócrates a bell. Had the great midfielder played League of Ireland football for UCD? We’re not sure what the Portuguese for “You wha’?” is, but it’s safe to say, that no, Sócrates had never so much as set foot in Ireland, never mind Belfield Park. While Sócrates is indeed a qualified and practicing medical doctor his degree was obtained in Sao Paolo, not Dublin. The legend of Sócrates at UCD was just that ... a legend.

The Spectator - Two’s Company

Two’s company, three’s a crowd, as they say. Nowhere is this statement more valid than in the centre of midfield. The traditionalist might argue that it’s more valid in the field of human relationships, but The Spectator, old romantic that he is, would argue that it’s more difficult to have three central midfielders in a football ‘relationship’ than three participants in a non-football relationship. Recent seasons have seen the withdrawal of the second striker into midfield, with the 2006 World Cup particularly memorable for its lack of front men. At the top level a five-man-midfield can open up the possibility of cleverly utilising possession in the middle. Which is all well and good when you’re pinging the ball around midfield like Arsenal at home to Kildare County Ladies, but is quite another thing when you’re away to Bray on a patch of mud.
The modern vogue for five-man-midfields is pretty evident in the current Airtricity League. Of three games witnessed by The Spectator at the time of writing (an uncommonly prompt and punctual Friday afternoon fully seven days before tonight’s match, if you must ask) every team involved played at least a large chunk of the match with five across the middle. The mathematicians among you will quickly realise that that equates to ten men in the middle of the park for the most part. It would be fair to say that cattle have more room to express themselves in veal crates.
So why is the five-man-midfield the new black? Well playing any formation other than 4-4-2 makes it look like a manager has some sort of idea in his head... an uncommon trait in the league. While the five-man-midfield may have evolved from a need for increased fluidity, one five-man-midfield against another five-man-midfield leads to all the fluidity of a sumo wrestler sitting in a skip full of syrup. The usual solution to this, in Ireland at least, is the time honoured system of bypassing midfield entirely. This usually results in the delightful sight of a single forward attempting to gain and retain possession, against a back four, while waiting for his midfield to arrive from somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland. So in an attempt to make it look like his tactics extend beyond 4-4-2 the average League of Ireland manager is instead clogging up midfield, stifling the opponent and preventing any hope of a game of football breaking out during a match. Bravo!
Our visitors’ interpretation of the five-man-midfield (or rather The Spectator’s ill-informed interpretation of our visitor’s interpretation of the five-man-midfield) as displayed against Shamrock Rovers showed some level of originality. With Stuey Byrne and Dave Mulcahy primarily sitting in front of the defence Ryan Guy, David McAllister and Vinny Faherty provided fluid movement and ample support for out-and-out striker Alex Williams. The five-man-midfield employed by Dundalk against Bray and Drogheda is another beast altogether. Combined with a swashbuckling back three Dundalk’s five-man-midfield allows for the unheard of luxury of two, count ‘em, TWO, up front! Though there have been teething problems Ian Foster’s novel approach has its merits. A back three should be able to cope with the league’s default 4-5-1 formation. While Dundalk’s 3-5-2 might not be everybody’s cup of tea, when operated correctly against suitable opposition it should offer us an option, a variation. If nothing else Dundalk’s 3-5-2 should be gloried in for not being the ubiquitous 4-5-blooming-1.


This article originally appeared in the Dundalk v St Patrick's Athletic Matchday Magazine, 26 Mar 2010