Top Ten: Super Subs
Ben Jenke
Posted on: 28 September 2009 - 15:06
Football
The super-sub. The player that comes on with fifteen minutes to go when his team is down and changes the game. The kind of player a manager can regularly rely on to do so but the kind of player who would struggle to play a full game week in, week out.
1. Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer – How many times did he rescue his team? When he did, he did it with style including one 4-goal haul against Nottingham Forest. Remember the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich? Can’t get more super than that!
2. Jermaine Defoe – Is Fabio Capellos’ go-to man when the nation is in need of a goal or two, especially recently. Has also played the role at club level time and time again. Now starting each match at Tottenham though. Most recently coming off the bench for England against Holland to score twice, and once against Slovenia.
3. Gunter Netzer – Borussia Moenchengladbach play-maker who in the 1973 German Cup Final against Cologne, relegated himself to the bench after the death of his mother days earlier then came on with 20 minutes to go to score the winner.
4. Oliver Bierhoff – Single-handedly won the UEFA EURO 1996 Final against the Czech Republic when his team were down 1-0. With 20 minutes to go he came on, scored the equalizer then bagged the first ever golden-goal in extra time.
5. Tim Cahill – In Australia’s opening game against Japan at the World Cup in Germany in 2006, coach Guus Hiddink threw Cahill on with 20 minutes to go when his team were down 1-0. He scores two goals. The rest is history.
6. Henrik Larsson – Rescued Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League Final against Arsenal. Larsson entered the fray with 30 minutes to go and with his side trailing 1-0, the Swede set up Samuel Eto’o and then fellow substitute Juliano Belletti.
7. Lars Ricken – Was introduced late on in the 1997 Champions League final against Juventus and the Borussia Dortmund mid-fielder took only 16 seconds to score his side’s third goal and put the result beyond doubt. And what a goal it was too!
8. Patrick Kluivert – In 1995, 19 year-old Kluivert came on as a second-half replacement to fire Ajax’s late winner against AC Milan in the Champions League final. He also daved the Rossoneri a number of times at club level too.
9. David Trezeguet – The tall striker emphatically finished off Italy in the 2000 UEFA EURO final when he banged in a beauty of a goal in extra-time. Has played the ‘super-sub’ role with France and Juventus a number of times.
10. Peter Crouch – Crouchie has never let the Three Lions down coming off the bench. When England most need a Plan B at next year’s World Cup in South Africa, Capello will call on lofty. His current gaffer Harry Redknapp agrees: "I love Crouchy - that's why I keep buying him. He was different class when he came on That's why England need Crouch, because he's Plan B for England as well, in my opinion. He's a player you have to take to a World Cup, because he gives you something completely different."