15 November 1913 - Chelsea Gets Some International Flavor

On 15 November 1913, Denmark's Nils Middelboe became the first non-British player to make an appearance for Chelsea.

It wasn't the first "first" for Middelboe, who scored Denmark's first-ever goal in the opening match of the 1908 Summer Olympics. He helped Denmark to the silver medal that year, then again in 1912. By the latter, he had become the captain of the national team.

In 1913, he moved to Chelsea from Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, where he had spent the previous ten years. Reportedly, he originally intended to sign with Newcastle, but switched to Chelsea at the last minute. Upon arriving at Stamford Bridge, he received the captain's armband and led the team to a 2-1 victory over Derby County in his first match.

While at Chelsea, he maintained his amateur status, keeping another job at a London bank. In order to accommodate his other career, Chelsea did not require him to travel for away matches.

Middelboe remained with Chelsea for ten years (but only five seasons, thanks to the suspension of league play for World War I) and made a total of 46 appearances in all competitions. Afterward, he played for a couple of amateur sides, then became a director of Clapham Orient in 1929. In 1936, he returned to Denmark as coach of Kjøbenhavns Boldklub.

14 November 2009 - Martins Flips The Switch For Nigeria

On 14 November 2009, an 81st-minute goal from Obafemi Martins sent Nigeria to the 2010 World Cup.

It was the last day of qualification in Africa's Group B, which opened with Nigeria trailing Tunisia by two points for the group's sole spot in the tournament. Tunisia were away at Mozambique, while Nigeria traveled to Kenya.

The half-time scores favored Tunisia, who were holding Mozambique to a scoreless draw while Nigeria had fallen behind in their match, 1-0. Quick second-half goals from Martins (60') and his teammate Yakubu Ayegbeni (64'), put the Super Eagles in the driver's seat, but Kenyan striker Allan Wanga brought the hosts level in the 77th minute, which shifted the advantage back to Tunisia.

But Martins' second strike of the day again switched the positions at the top of the Group B table, a result secured with an 83rd-minute goal from Mozambique striker Dário Monteiro. With Nigeria's 2-3 victory and Tunisia's 1-0 loss, the Super Eagles finished one point ahead in the standings and advanced to the World Cup.

Unfortunately, their good fortune ended there and they were eliminated in the tournament's first round with losses to Argentina (1-0) and Greece (2-1) and a 2-2 draw with South Korea.

13 November 2010 - The Other Poppy Controversy

In the wake of this past week's debate over whether FIFA would allow England to wear poppies on their shirts for their friendly against Spain, we look back at another poppy-related controversy from last year.

On 13 November 2010, Airdrie United printed a special prematch program in honor of Remembrance Day. But made a pretty embarrassing mistake.

The club sold the program before a Scottish Division Two match against Livingston. As a nod to match sponsors Network Rail, Airdrie selected a cover photo of soldiers on a train, accompanied by the words "Lest We Forget" and the logo of veterans' charity PoppyScotland, which included the legend "Supporting Our Heroes."

Unfortunately for Airdrie, the soldiers in the photo weren't who the club thought they were. Instead, the picture showed a group of Nazi soldiers. After a supporter brought that fact to the club's attention, chairman Jim Ballantyne quickly apologized for the error. Club secretary Ann Marie Ballantyne added "It certainly was not deliberate. We were told the soldiers were Australian." She further explained that they had received the photo from PoppyScotland, but the charity denied the claim, calling the program gaffe "unfortunate."

It wasn't the day's only disappointment for Airdrie, as Network Rail--whose sponsorship prompted the use of the photo--withdrew prior to the match. And Airdrie lost, 0-1.

12 November 1944 - Gunnar Shoots. And Scores. Seven Times.

On 12 November 1944, striker Gunnar Nordahl matched a Swedish league record by scoring seven goals in one match. And nobody else has done it since.

From the beginning of his professional career, Nordahl was a prolific scorer, with 124 goals in 118 league appearances for with Hörnefors IF (1937-40) and Degerfors IF (1940-44). In 1944, he moved to IFK Norrköping where he proceeded to win four consecutive Allsvenskan titles. En route to the first one, he delivered his record-matching performance against Landskrona BoIS.

The day's first score fell to Eric Holmqvist, who put Norrköping up 1-0 in the 5th minute. Five minutes later, Nordahl started his run, scoring seven straight goals in the 10th, 21st, 24th, 27th, 41st, 46th, and 79th minutes. His brother Knut Nordahl added one in the 89th minute before Landskrona's Gunnar Anderberg took meager consolation with a goal in the 90th minute.

Nordahl's haul matched that of Arne Hjertsson, who had just set the mark in June of the previous year in a match for Malmö FF against Halmstads BK. Since Nordahl, however, nobody else has managed to repeat the feat.

Nordahl eventually moved to AC Milan in 1949 and scored 210 goals from the Rossoneri in 257 league appearances. He scored an additional 15 goals for Roma (1956-58) and is still Serie A's second-top goalscorer of all time, behind Silvio Piola.

11 November 2007 - Zenit Live Up To Their Name

On 11 November 2007, Zenit St. Petersburg won their first Russian Premier League title with a win over Saturn Moscow Oblast on the last matchday of the season.

Founded in 1925, Zenit had won only one other league title in their history--the 1984 Soviet Top League. After the advent of the Russian Premier League in 1992, they were relegated after that first season, then returned to the top flight in 1996. A handful of top-10 finishes followed, as well as one season in which they finished third (2001) and one in second (2003).

The 2007 season was their first full one under new manager Dick Advocaat, who had taken over in July 2006. Despite losing both of their league meetings against Spartak Moscow, Zenit entered the last matchday two points clear of their rivals from the capital, knowing that a win would secure the title. But to get it, they needed an away victory over Saturn, with whom they had drawn 1-1 at home in the first week of the season.

Playing before a crowd of 16,500, Zenit looked to rely on their top goalscorers, forwards Andrey Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak, with respective league totals that season of 10 and 11 goals, respectively. But they received a spark from a less likely source, as a 14th-minute shot from Zenit midfielder Radek Šírl deflected past Saturn goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky. It was the only goal of the match.

The win made Zenit the first team outside of Moscow to win the title since 1995. It also launched them into European competition that ended with them lifting both the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 2008.

10 November 2009 - The Death Of Robert Enke

On 10 November 2009, after years of battling with depression, German goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide. He was 32 years old.

Enke started his professional career in 1995 with his hometown club, Carl Zeiss Jena, and later spent time with Borussia Mönchengladbach (1996-99), Benfica (1999-2002), and Barcelona (2002-04, including loan spells with Fenerbahçe and Tenerife), before joining Hannover 96 in 2004.

He made his first appearance for the German national team in 1997, but spent most of his international career behind Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann. When Lehmann retired in 2008, Enke became Germany's starting keeper, but was sidelined by injuries, including a bacterial infection that forced him to miss matches in September and October 2009. Nevertheless, before his death that November, he was the leading candidate to start for Germany in the 2010 World Cup.

Enke killed himself by standing in front of a train on a ground level crossing. He left a note, though the contents have never been disclosed publicly. Afterward, it was revealed that he had suffered from depression for many years, prompted in part by the death of his 2-year old daughter in 2006. He was survived by his wife Teresa and adopted daughter Leila.

9 November 1996 - Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse, It Does

On 9 November 1996, Liechtenstein hosted Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier that ended up setting a record for both teams.

It was the fourth match of the campaign for both of them, including a previous meeting that resulted in a 3-0 win for Macedonia in Skopje. But a 1-1 draw with Iceland and a 3-0 loss to Ireland left Macedonia struggling for points, while Liechtenstein had lost their other two matches to Ireland (0-5) and Lithuania (2-1).

Playing before a crowd of 2,700 at the Sportpark Eschen-Mauren, it took only eight minutes for Macedonia to open the scoring with a goal from forward Dejvi Glavevski (pictured). He doubled the lead four minutes later and by the break, the visitors were up by six. They stretched the lead to nine (including a third goal from Glavevski) before Liechtenstein finally got a goal from midfielder Franz Schädler in the 78th minute, then Macedonia added two more in the 87th and 90th minutes. The final scoreline of 1-11 remains Macedonia's record victory and Liechtenstein's record defeat.

Liechtenstein went on to lose all 10 of their qualification matches, finishing at the bottom of the group with no points and a goal differential of -49. Macedonia fared slightly better, with a record of four wins, one draw, and five losses, but also failed to qualify for the World Cup.