Branko ZEBEC | 1955-1958 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)

ZEBEC PES STATS | 1955-1958

Plava Čigra Stats by Plava Čigra Name: Branko Zebec Branko ZEBEC | 1955-1958 Club: Partizan Belgrade Number: 5, 3, 6, 11, 9 (depends on the position) Position: *CB, CWP, SB, DMF, SMF, WF, SS, CF Nationality: Croatian Age: 26-29 (17/05/1929) Era: 1955/1958 Foot: L Side: L Height: 176 cm Weight: 75 kg Attack: 80 Defence: 90 Balance: 89 Stamina: 93 Top Speed: 89 Acceleration: 90 Response: 92 Agility: 84 Dribble Accuracy: 82 Dribble Speed: 85 Short Pass Accuracy: 80 Short Pass Speed: 82 Long Pass Accuracy: 82 Long Pass Speed: 85 Shot Accuracy: 80 Shot Power: 92 Shot Technique: 85 Free Kick Accuracy: 75 Curling: 75 Header: 90 Jump: 92 Technique: 85 Aggression: 80 Mentality/Tenacity: 94 Goalkeeper Skills: 50 Team Work: 89 Injury Tolerance: A Form/Condition/Fitness: 7 Weak Foot Accuracy: 5 Weak Foot Frequency: 5 Consistency: 8 Growth type: Standard/Lasting CARDS: P10: Box to Box P14: Enforcer P17: Free Roaming P18: Extra Attacker P19: Chasing Back P21: Fox in the Box S05: 1-touch Play S07: Man Marking S08: Slide Tackle S09: Covering S10: DF Leader SPECIAL ABILITIES: *Positioning *Post Player *1-Touch Pass *Marking *Sliding *Covering *D-Line Control Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Defence Minded INFO: One of greatest players in Yugoslavian history. True leader, fast thinker, understood the game perfectly. Because of that, he played very, very good on almost every position in the field. He was tall (for '40s and '50s), tough and a little bit skinny, but with muscles. He began his senior career when he was only 16 years old. Almost immediately he got chance to play left winger for the first team (instead of much older and experienced players). Player with great acceleration, speed and mobility. He could ran 100m for 11s, in football boots (in the rank with the best Yugoslavian sprinters back in the late '40s and early '50s). Zebec played very good with his head and he was very calm in important moments (for example, when he was 19-20 years old, he scored 3 goals in decisive match for the title, two with his head). Beside the fact he was very, very fast, he was also very strong in duels and practically unstoppable on the left side. Zebec wasn't too sophisticated technical player, but he controlled ball very well with his left leg (sort of medium good technical player, for his primary position). In the game he was very brave and rational as well. Never made a move too much, used dribble only when it's necessary. For him, simplicity was a road to perfection (he achieved perfection in many, many games). Zebec really believed in his abilities on the court and he always gave his best in each and every game. He occasionally played as a little bit defensive CF (very successfully). Against France he played as defensive CF, who had assignment to go back to defense, and guard Raymond Kopa (Real Madrid player at the time). He did that so successfully, that it seemed that Kopa didn't played at all. On the same game he also played very good in the attack, and journalists gave him 10, for his perfect game. After all that, he was transformed into a CB (but he also continued to play as winger/attacker, wing half and full-back) and he was very good on that position. During the one of the most important games for the national team (qualifications for World Cup 1958), in which Yugoslavia played against Romania he played as CB. Many claim that this was his best game for national team at that position. Every high ball was his (very superior in the air), he won every 1 on 1 play against opposite attacker, also during the game he was in every place in the defense. In one word: Perfection! One of the coaches came to him after the game, grab his shoulder and said: ''Are you a man or are you a beast? I've never seen anybody playing the whole 90 minutes so perfect and without any mistake!'' After his first game for national team in CB position (a few games before the one I mentioned before), many foreign journalists and football experts wrote that he's one of the greatest discoveries in CB and libero position (CWP) and that he played in those positions even better than on his original position. Many journalists, football experts, coaches and players, from 1950s, agree that Zebec was the best center-half during that era. Some of them even said, that he should be among Best 11 squad of all times. After his retirement from football, he became very successful football coach in Bundesliga and coached a few good teams (Bayern Munich - Stayed 2 seasons and won German Championship and Cup in his first season. Eintracht Braunschweig - Stayed 4 seasons and lead the team to 3. and 2. place in German Championship. Hamburger SV - Stayed 2 seasons, won 1 German Championship and lost ECC Finals against Nottingham Forest). In 1988 he died from alcohol related illness, aged only 59. He remains one of the most successful coaches in the history of the German Bundesliga. VIDEOS: Adobe Flash Player is no longer supported 00:17 - After the corner Zebec passes the ball with his head and then Bobek scores, also with his head. 00:35 - Milutinović dribbles through Red Star defense, goes on the side, makes a long pass, and then Zebec jumps very high and hammers the ball with his head, with two Red Star defenders on him (you can't see too much on the video, except the goal, but thrust me, I spoke to a few old Partizan fans, and they described this situation like that, before I found it on youtube; older fans remember this game particularly, because it was the highest victory against Red Star/Crvena Zvezda, 7-1 was the score). 1:00 - Zebec makes back-heel pass, then runs in to the left side of the penalty box, sees Mihajlović is in the right, makes a long pass, Mihajlović shots and that's a goal. 1:31 - Čajkovski hits the crossbar, ball comes to one Partizan player and he makes a pass into the center of the penalty box, after one of the Partizan player has unsuccessfully tried a low header, ball comes to Zebec and that's 6-1. You will notice that Zebec scored 2 goals (one with his head), had 2 assists (during the first pass he first gave the ball to the other player with back-heel pass with his weaker foot (R) and then rushed towards the penalty box). One important note: This game has been played on 13/12/1953, and it was first raining and then snowing (just to mention the conditions). ADDITIONAL LINKS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branko_Zebec http://www.reprezentacija.rs/cgi-bin/in ... c%20Branko http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/stati ... index.html http://www.worldfootball.net/spieler_pr ... nko-zebec/ ********** I must thank Classical, Nrby and Sekularac for their good feedback. Cheers, mates! Branko ZEBEC | 1955-1958 | PES Stats Database (Golden Era Backup)