On 7 March 2010, FC Twente leapfrogged PSV Eindhoven to take the top spot in the Eredivisie table. They would hold on to it for the remainder of the season to claim their first league championship.
Founded in 1965, Twente's previous best finish was second, which they first achieved in 1974. They did it again in 2009, under the guidance of new manager Steve McClaren, then in his first season with the club.
Twente got off to a remarkable start in McClaren's second season, winning 17 and drawing four of their first 21 matches. They had reached the top spot and held it for 10 weeks during that spell, but dropped into second place after a couple of scoreless draws in January. PSV, meanwhile, claimed first place with an even better run of 20 wins and five draws in their first 25 matches. But PSV slipped on 6 March, losing 1-2 away to NAC Breda. The loss opened the door for Twente, who were one point back.
On Sunday, 7 March, Twente were away at RKC Waalwijk, whom they had narrowly beaten at home in August, 2-1. The return fixture was equally tight, with only a header from Twente midfielder Kenneth Perez separating the two sides. It was enough, though, to secure the full three points for the visitors, who jumped two points past PSV to top the league.
PSV had a chance to reclaim the lead two weeks later when they hosted Twente, but they played to a 1-1 draw. Twente did lose to Alkmaar in April, but remained on top to claim their first league title while PSV slipped to third.
On 6 March 2002, Real Madrid celebrated their 100th birthday with a loss to Deportivo de La Coruña in the Copa del Rey Final.
With Real Madrid's 100th anniversary falling on 6 March 2002, club president Florentino Pérez arranged to mark the date by hosting the Copa del Rey Final on that day. He further instructed manager Vicente Del Bosque to place a higher priority on the cup, which Madrid had not won since 1993. The previous season, they had been eliminated in the Round of 64 by third-division side Toledo.
But Deportivo, who had won La Liga in 2000 and finished second to Real Madrid in 2001, had no intention of letting the hosts claim the cup as birthday present. They swarmed around the ball in the first half with an energy and determination that quickly caught Madrid off-guard. In just the 6th minute, midfielder Sergio González (pictured) fired Deportivo ahead from close range after beating Madrid captain Fernando Hierro and right back Míchel Salgado to slip the ball through the legs of keeper César. Just over half an hour later, striker Diego Tristán doubled the lead with another close-range shot.
Madrid closed the gap to one with a goal from Raúl Gonzalez, but they would get no closer. The match ended 1-2 to Deportivo, giving them only the second Copa del Rey in club history.
Real Madrid got some consolation a little over two months later when they won their ninth European Cup/Champions League trophy, beating Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 in Glasgow.
On 5 March 1940, Argentina beat Brazil 6-1 in Buenos Aires. It remains the largest margin of victory in the rivalry between the two countries.
The match was part of the Roca Cup, an irregular tournament played between Argentina and Brazil that dated back to 1913 when it was founded by General Julio Roca (pictured). Roca was a football enthusiast who also happened to be a former president of Argentina and, in 1913, was their ambassador to Brazil. He proposed the tournament to help develop the sport and also donated the trophy.
The 1940 edition was the fifth tournament, with Brazil and Argentina evenly splitting the previous four--Brazil won in 1914 and 1922, while Argentina won in 1923 and in 1939 (the 1939 tournament actually extended into February 1940). The 1940 tournament kicked off on 5 March with a table format. Three matches were scheduled, with the winners receiving two points for a win and one point for a draw.
Argentina opened the tournament (and defended their recently-won title) with a dominant 6-1 smackdown--the most lopsided victory by either side in the rivalry and Brazil's worst loss since their record 6-0 defeat to Uruguay in 1920. Brazil won the second match, 2-3, but Argentina again rolled in the final match, winning 5-1 to top the final table with four points to Brazil's two.
Despite the crushing losses, Brazil came back in the next tournament, played in 1945, and reeled off four straight Roca Cups (1945, 1957, 1960, 1963). The two teams shared the title in 1971 before Brazil won the last tournament in 1976, finishing with eight Cups to Argentina's four.
On 4 March 1945, European and world champions Red Star Belgrade formed from the ashes of a previous club, SK 1913.
As their name suggests, SK 1913 were founded in 1913, but as SK Velika Srbija. From 1919 to 1941, they were known as SK Jugoslavija and twice won the Yugoslavian championship (1924, 1925). When the Kingdom of Yugoslavia dissolved in 1941, they again changed their name, this time to SK 1913.
In 1945, however, after the end of World War II, the government of the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia labeled accused the club of collaborating with the Axis powers by playing matches during the war. The government formally disbanded the club, handing their stadium, colors, offices, and players to the newly-formed Red Star.
Red Star went on to become a dominant club, with a record 26 league titles and a record 24 national cups as their nation changed from SFR Yugoslavia to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then to the Federal Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, and to its current status as Serbia. Red Star have also tasted international success, winning the both the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 1991.
On 3 March 1983, Bristol Rovers manager Bobby Gould levied an unusual fine--against himself.
Gould was then in his second season in charge of Bristol Rovers, though he had played there for a season as part of a journeyman career that saw the striker suit up for a host of clubs including Coventry City (82 league appearances), Arsenal (65), West Brom (52), and West Ham (51). He retired from playing in 1979 and joined Chelsea that year as Geoff Hurst's assistant.
When the Blues sacked Hurst in April 1981, Gould filled in as caretaker, holding the reins for their last four matches, then took the full-time position at Rovers that October. When he arrived in Bristol, Rovers were launching their Division Three campaign having been relegated from Division Two the previous spring, and Gould led them to a 15th place finish.
In the 1982-83 season, Rovers rose as high as second in the table in the first half of the season before slipping down to sixth on New Year's Day. They were pushing up again, rising to third before losing at Bradford City in February. Gould strongly took issue with the referee's decision-making that day, engaging in what he later described as "mouthing off." But he proved that even the manager was to be held accountable and, on 3 March, fined himself £200 as a consequence.
Rovers finished in seventh position that season and Gould departed for Coventry City. He returned to Bristol Rovers in 1985, then moved to Wimbledon two years later when he won the 1988 FA Cup.
On 2 March 2008, Iran ended their lengthy search for a new manager with the surprise appointment of international football's all-time leading scorer Ali Daei. Although he presided over only 24 matches, he is sixth in the list of Iran's longest-tenured managers.
Daei's appointment came as part of Iran's efforts to replace their longest-tenured manager Branko Ivanković, who coached the team for 42 matches, winning 29. Although the Croatian was popular with fans for his success, he was not favored by the Iranian government, who preferred to have an Iranian national in the position. So when the government eventually succeeding in removing Ivanković, along with the head of the Iranian football federation, after the 2006 World Cup, they went through three other Iranian-born managers before eventually picking Daei in 2008.
At the time of his selection, Daie, who had scored a world-best 109 international goals for Iran between 1993 and 2006, was in his second season in charge of Iranian club Saipa FC. He finished that season out for Saipa while taking on the additional responsibility of managing Iran.
Ironically, Daie's national sides had difficulty scoring, resulting in their failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. That resulted in his removal from the post after just over one year, despite a record of 16 wins and 6 draws in 25 matches. His win record of 64% is the best percentage among Iranian managers with more than 10 matches in charge.
On 1 March 1979, West Brom defeated Leeds United in the teams' seventh meeting of the season.
They first met that season back in August, battling to a scoreless draw in the second round of the League Cup. Another scoreless draw followed before Leeds advanced with a 1-0 victory. They also met twice in the league where they split the results by both losing at home.
Only two days after the second league meeting, they faced off at the Hawthorns in the fourth round of the FA Cup and finally found their shooting form, playing to a 3-3 draw. That result set up the replay for 1 March at Elland Road.
Scoreless at the end of regulation, the replay went to extra time, where West Brom revenged their League Cup exit with a 2-0 win. Unfortunately for the Baggies, they were eliminated in the next round by Southampton (the same team that knocked Leeds out of the League Cup).
