7 Strangest Pre-Season Friendlies of All Time 

I'm a Bristol Rovers fan.....I remember in the early 2000s we had arranged a friendly against Iraq.....right in the middle of the Iraqi war, sensibly it was cancelled.....

You forgot Shamrock Rovers 0-1 Real Madrid, which was played in Tallaght Stadium (Ireland) and was the first game for new signings Benzema and Ronaldo. Pepe, Marcelo, Gonzalo Higuain, Raul, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, and Alvaro Negredo all played for Real Madrid who were coached by Manuel Pellegrini. Most Shamrock Rovers players worked a second job like a taxi or delivery drivers because their wages where so low.

The Further Adu gag will never stop getting me. Iconic Alfie trademark.

Fun fact: Juventus play in black and white stripes in honour of their heroes Notts County.

You missed Leyton Orient vs Wales in '96. A full strength Wales team including Ryan Giggs, Neville Southall, Mark Hughes, Robbie Savage and I think Chris Coleman lost 2-1 to a team that had the previous season barely escaped relegation to the conference. Extended highlights still available on RU-vid.

Can we just appreciate the potential chaos of Linfied vs Argentina in the 90s. Argentina still bitter about the Falklands vs Linfield, a unionist team from Northern Ireland in the troubles. What could've possibly gone wrong

I'm from Indonesian. Just like European Football, our country have a preseason thing in form of the President Cup (Piala Presiden), a tournament organized by the FA (PSSI) with the inaugural edition being held in 2015 and is currently in sixth edition. Two weird things that I mentioned regarding this matter: 1.In the past, an elite football clubs from Europe are used to facing against an Indonesian team, either the national team or the league selection. The elite football clubs from Europe who had played in Indonesia were Arsenal (twice in 1983 and 2013), Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, and Chelsea. Manchester United had even supposed to stage a preseason friendly in Indonesia back in the summer of 2009 (that was after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid), but it was eventually cancelled due to the concerns about the security in Jakarta following the terrorist attack that targeted hotels both teams were resided. Instead, Manchester United had to return back to Malaysia and played twice against the Malaysian Football Selection. 2.The Inter Island Cup of 2014 was the most interesting preseason tournament. It was held on January 18, 2014 and served as a preseason to 2014 Indonesian Super League. But due to the unknown reasons, the Final was held unexpectedly a year later on February 1, 2015.

As a Fiorentina fan, given the recent results of our friendly matches, I am seriously afraid to face Hull City. Good luck guys and great video btw.

Regarding the Juve v Notts County fixture, theres a nice story behind it: Juve originally played in pink shirts with a black tie. The father of one of the players made the shirts, but continual washing faded the colour so much that in 1903 the club sought to replace them. They asked one of their team members, Englishman John Savage, if he had any contacts in England who could supply new shirts in a colour that would better withstand the elements. He had a friend who lived in Nottingham, who being a Notts County supporter, shipped out the black and white striped shirts to Turin.

The continued Freddy Adu easter egg, you really need to try and do an interview with him.

I would pay ungodly amounts of money to get the extended highlights of QPR vs China with Peter Dury on comms

Without Freddy Adu then,who mostly made name in friendlies, 😅

Being a Walsall fan, i was going to mention Ajax. I reckon we all just collectively agree that Walsall were better than the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid that year without question. Let me have this, its been a rough time since.

This begs the question, when a European team plays a pre-season friendly against a Japanese team would if have counted for this video? Because from a J-League perspective it is a mid-season friendly

I remember going to a friendly between D.C. United and Real Madrid, which doesn't sound that weird, until you find out that the match was played in Seattle for some reason. But it was the one and only time I got to see Freddy Adu playing in person, so there's that.

One match that you forgot: In 2011, UCD Dublin AFC, the football team for the University of Dublin who play in the Irish League, and because of that only have university students in their team, beat LaLiga side Villarreal, who were that year’s Champions League semi-finalist and were playing the likes of Joan Capdevilla, Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla, with a score of 4-3……..

Real Madrid beating Bournemouth 6-0 in a game where Ronaldo broke a kid's arm from a free kick deserves a mention. This was one of Ozil's last games before joining Arsenal

Manchester united vs chivas where chicharito played half the game with chivas then the 2nd half with Manchester united to open the new stadium was interesting

Another brilliantly researched and delivered video. Thankyou Alfie you are appreciated

Argentina vs best of Rosario has to be up there. A rosario team made up of five players from the two professional teams and one from the local amateur team - Tomas Carlovich. 3-0 down at half time the argentina manager had to go to the rosario manager to ask him to take Carlovich off as it was becoming a national embarrasment

Video suggestion Day 4: 7 pairs of footballers that fit the "regen" idea the best

Video sugg: 7 of the most normal post season angrys >:(

Fluminense 3x5 Italy is STRANGE

I need to know more about that QPR v China incident.

URSS vs LOMA NEGRA 0-1 in 1982, a little 3rd division argentinean club that don´t exist anymore (owned by a cement company) won against the 7th best national team of the WC in that year.

Not a weird preseason match, but a weird preseason tournament: The 2014 Inter Island Cup, the preseason tournament to the 2014 Indonesian Super League, began on January 18, 2014. It concluded on February 1, 2015 - nearly three months after the Super League ended. TL;DR: A preseason tournament finishes as a postseason.

Yoo love your videos. I learn a lot about the game from your videos. Love the vlogs too 🙌

The picth at The Skuna Stadium, home of Atherton Collieries, is literally a hill. One goal's cross bar has to be about a quarter of the high of the other goal's posts, if not lower to the ground, so I'm not surprised that a team that's only ever played on carpets lost.

Curaçao vs Hull City 💀💀💀

Bro really made it look like wasall vs ajax was Kier Starmer vs Ten Hag.

0:46 Juventus got their kit from notts

Darlington played PSV Eindhoven back in 2016 or 2017...it was Jong PSV, but PSV all the same...In Eindhoven as well, it came about when our manager at the time had a link with Eindhoven 😊

Thanks for the shout-out Alfie. Fantastic video, keep up the good work! 😍🏁

1:12 why is the picture in black and white if it was taken in 1996?

Odd......After watching a HITC Sevens video I've never felt the urge to travel to the DPRK.

14:56 Got a smirk out of a photo of East Belfast and The Oval (Home of Glentoran) representing Belfast even in an entry about Linfield. (Context for those outside NI: Glentoran/Linfield is The "Bel-Classico" of Northern Irish Football, although it's been a while since the Glens have really challenged for the league properly...)

Suggestion: 7 strangest European matchups (mostly 2000s UEFA Cup draws, when teams only played one match against each other in the groups)

I never, ever, ever… thought I’d hear Atherton Collieries mentioned on this channel 😂

In my small city in greece my team that played in the Sunday league had aranged a friendly against super league team apollwn smirnis.Apollon had 25x more budget than the budget of 240.000€ of my local team but still managed to lose 3-2

You are my favorite North Korea tourism board representative.

Just before they took off to West-Germany in june 1974 to conquer the football world with their innovative style of 'total football', the dutch national team infamously lost a practice game against a local amateur team 😂

I was at Havant and Waterlooville v Betis. Betis were supposed to be playing Portsmouth, but they got stuck in the USA during a tour.

I have the Hull City football programme when they played Japan in a friendly in 1971 😂

I'm a EC Santo André supporter, from Brazil. Twice Santo André faced a national team: won 1 x 0 Congo in 68 and tied 0 x 0 Bulgaria in 77. In 76 faced Independiente, Copa Libertadores 1975 champions and the brazilian team won 4 x 0, to everybody, players include, surprise

My Granny (Cecilia Smith) Used to play for Jammy Knights in the early 1950s. She was all time leading goal scorer with (2162 goals) and they beat every men's international team however the games got wiped because MI5 thought grown men losing to women was a bad look, the records are practically erased from the internet... On the day of man city vs QPR my granny was actually a substitute.

I will never forget when we got promoted to the championship back in 2012/2013 and we ended up playing Real Madrid at Dean Court in July 2013. It was even better that Real Madrid bought the heatwave with them.

I had expected Bayern against the Netherlands in this list. After the 2010 World Cup, where Robben played while injured.

I noticed that several friendlies are being hosted in the US. Could this be a video idea, Alfie?

I'm a fiorentina fan, you just reminded me of today's friendly ahah

In 1966 ( long before my birth) the Japanese national team played a friendly in Germany in a small village with 1k citizens against a regional squad. Result 1-9. Imagine a common football pitch and 3000 viewers around it. :)

The most hated team in the EFL in the thumbnail, nice touch mate!

What comes to mind is a friendly game Huddersfield town - Czechoslovakia in 1962, just before the world cup, which ended in a final for Czechs where we were beaten by Pele's Brazil. Huddersfield knocked us down like 3:0 and there were not many hopes in making a history in upcoming world cup.

Manchester United vs Australia at the MCG and at Stadium Australia in 1999.

Bro is lowkey cooking with the thumbnails

Buzzing that my team, (Walsall) got a mention.... until a picture of Starmer popped up as you were talking about us 😂

While not pre season, i remember England warming up for the 1988 Euros by facing Aylesbury United at their now disused ground. That was quite a wild story in and of itself

I remember Real Madrid playing Shamrock Rovers. And this wasn't just any real side, it was the summer they signed Ronaldo, Alonso, Kaka and Benzema

Video suggestion what the hell is going on at Corinthians

In 1947 the Indian National Team in preparation for the 1948 London Olympics had a tour of the UK. One of the games took place at Church Road Sutton Coldfield in front of 800 supporters against my team Boldmere St Michael's and like with the Nigeria Marine game some of the Indian players were barefoot some started with boots but threw them to the touchline during the game.

Your intro is greatest of all time

Sending love from Edmonton! 🇨🇦Unfortunately, I did not see Portsmouth when they were here.

You should be very proud of yourself alfie all the hard work and knowledge you have bestowed on a totally different hemisphere

you think the Ajax on was strange can we talk about Dortmund just lost to Thai league club 4-0 😅

Can’t believe the missed opportunity to discuss Hull City v. Greenland!

They used to have these 3 team preseason tournaments where each game was 45 minutes long (2X22:30 halves) they would play all 3 games in 1 night. It would go like Team A vs B, A vs C then B vs C. Always thought those were pretty odd

In 1913, Reading FC had a tour of Italy which ended with a match against the Italian national team, Reading won 2-0 In 2013, They lose against Oman's national team 2-0 x.x

While not even remotely as Bizarre as the ones on the list. Being a huge Fenerbahçe fan living in Austria, I had the golden opportunity to visit a friendly of theirs against Austrian 2nd Tier Team "Admira Wacker" at their ground which was only about an hour away from where I live. Thanks to a huge Turkish diaspora in Austria, we not only managed to sell out the whole Stadium but also 2 of our fans decided to do a pitch invasion to take pictures with the players, something that my friend - who is a club member of Admira - said that it was the first time ever in the ground's History.

Another good mention is a League of Ireland XI (basically a team that was cobbled together last minute of the "best" players from the League of Ireland) launching Irelands new national ground, the Aviva Stadium, by losing 7-1 to Manchester United

Up until recently it was common for national teams to do informal practice matches with local amateur clubs, sometimes even as morning warm-up for more competitive afternoon friendlies. So there's accountants, construction workers and cooks out there who played a few minutes with some of the world's biggest stars. I've attended a Porto - Angola match which served as the 50th anniversary of the stadium. It was the last game of the season that preceded the UEFA Cup - CL seasons, and there was a weird mood leading to it as it was months after a shambolic Portugal - Angola friendly match that featured some brutal tackles and finished before the 90 minutes were up as Angola was down to the minimum number of players, and then out of subs faked an injury to end it, but that other time it was mostly uneventful, other than Angolans having a great time on the stands.

Love how I only knew one of these. Top research and told in a very engaging way as ever.

2:22 I thought you were going to say _"... are among the vast array of weird and wonderful RU-vid demonetization excuses"_

#thepeopleschannel a video on the Bangladesh premier league and the rise of Bashundhara kings would be good A team who went into the top flight after promotion and won the last Six league titles now! Are they the next Newcastle? Are they a team to keep a eye on next few years? Thanks Alfie 😊

This video made me love pre-season friendlies.

I hope QPR v China is in here. Game ended up in a full on brawl

I would definitely love a part 2 of this

alfie how do u even research for topics like this im so impressed

How Linfield even kept them from scoring more then 1 goal is beyond my understanding even as one of the best clubs in Northern Ireland

A few more for you: 1988: Mousehole v Manchester United (Mousehole is a small village in Cornwall) 1978: Syrian Security Forces XI v Derby 1976: Goodwins v Saudi Arabia (Goodwins were a works team from Shropshire) 1972: Illogan Royal British Legion v Crystal Palace 2010-ish: Corinthians (Brazil) v Corinthian-Casuals 1993: Stow v Celtic 1985: North Uist v Rangers 1989: Anglesey v Wolves

0:50 This happened to celebrate the origin of Juventus’ kit colors, as they travelled to England in search of kits in their early days, and decided to buy Nottingham Forest kits. However, the kits were out of stock, so they just crossed the river and bought some Notts County kits instead, and the rest was history. They ditched the pink and welcomed in a new era of Juventus football (translation: they actually became good)

I had a Bolton save in fm 2020.. when I heard Jordan boon my heart skipped a beat

Not a strange match but still an oddity as friendlies against visiting European clubs have featured less and less over the years here in Costa Rica: FC Twente was brought in in late 2022 for former player Bryan Ruiz's testimonial match, in what was Alajuelense's fourth and fifth-ever matchups against Dutch opposition (the previous three were in 1960 in the club's world tour which also featured a 3-3 draw against PSV). The testimonial (Dec. 17th) ended 2-2 and the match itself was considered abandoned after the 75th minute, albeit on purpose for the testimonial's ceremonies. A more competitive affair was played the following Wednesday in which Alajuelense won 3-2. To note that while the Costa Rican league is contested under Apertura and Clausura formatting with two separate champions being crowned per season, this could not be considered pre-season as there's only three weeks between the end of the Apertura and the beginning of the Clausura (with the 2022 Apertura contested under shortened format to allow time for the NT to prepare for the World Cup, it having ended on November and the country's Cup season being contested in between to fill gaps; and the Eredivisie also being in the middle of its stoppage for the World Cup.

Need to mention, 1) Real madrid vs Shamrock Rovers in 2009. Real's new galacticos featuring Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Higuain, Casillas, Ramos, Marcelo etc took on Shamrock at Tallaght. Real did that to help them financially. 2) Real madrid vs Bournemouth in 2014 at Bournemoth...When they were promoted to the Championship league. Ancelotti's men won 6-0 featuring Ronaldo, Benzema, isco etc

Honourable mention for strangest pre-season friendly of 2024: Zeeuws Elftal (not even a club, but a team made of amateurs of the province of Zeeland) winning 1-0 against Eredivisie side NAC Breda (who also drew 0-0 against amateur side Unitas ’30 prior).

I was at a friendly that probably could have made the list. It was the 4th division champions against the uefa Cup champions. Burnley vs Ajax. The Ajax chairman presented the Burnley players with there league winners medals after the game. Edgar Davids, van der sar and manager Louis Van Gaal. Ajax won one nill

As a Mexican, who can forget the Classic Mexico vs Atletico Madrid game that ended with a benches cleared brawl 😂

This freaked me out, I live in high heaton about 2 minutes from the library you showed

That picture at 15:03 is not Windsor Park, Linfield's stadium. That picture is of Glentoran's stadium, the Oval. It's in Belfast also but wrong club!

Please do a part two!

Bye passing China Vs QPR by saying it ended in a 30 man brawl like it was royal rumble is why I love this channel, my team Oxford United will be playing Serie B side Palermo a week before the season gets underway. So I look forward to away fans making the trip from Italy to Oxford

Here's another one you forget: Southampton vs Japan in the 1970s Southampton vs Athletic Club Bilbao (although it is underrated and unheard kind of match for some, the last time they matched together in 2017, Saints win 1-0.)

Good to see my hometown get a passing mention!

The Nigeria post-game celebration story is super wholesome.

An obscure friendly I’ve heard about (on Wikipedia admittedly) that might deserve to make the list is Borussia Mönchengladbach 21 - 4 Vatican City. I couldn’t find much info on it apart from it was possibly played against a Borussia Mönchengladbach legends team rather than the real team, so it might not qualify for the list

my dad once went to a liverpool vs scotland game in like the 80s

I'd love to hear about more games like these. Part two perhaps?

Nobody said it, but it could be added the pre-1982 WC USSR 0 - 1 Loma Negra (team owned by the Loma Negra Cement Company, in Olavarría, Argentina). That same USSR team drawed 1-1 against Argentina, and won against both France and Brazil. The USSR team was unbeated for 18 matches until this one!

"Kenny Dalgleish said if i drink enough milk, ill be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley" . "Accrington Stanley? Who are they?" . "Exactly!!" .

Nigeria vs Bromley FC in 1949 - Now league 2 side bromley’s record attendance of 10,000 in their 5,000 capacity stadium. Nigeria won 3-1

QPR vs Jamaica. March 1998 Aylesbury United vs England. June 1988

Aidan Morris sighting. Let's go crew, also best of luck at Boro