RAPPAN-INVENTOR OF "THE BOLT"

Helenio Herrera and the Italian club, Internazionale, made super defensive football famous OR perhaps infamous! It was the smothering but very successful, stifling "catenaccio" tactic in the 1960s....what is it? Literally it means "the Padlock, which won two European Cups for Inter. The cliub became synonymous with the style of play that made others, maybe even me, shout at the television about their boring and stifling method of play. It had its roots in the1930s Switzerland.

Karl Rappan (LEFT) was not a particularly distinguished forward for FK Austria Vienna and Rapid Vienna in the late 1920s, although he did win two caps for Austria. In 1931 he moved to Switzerland where he made his name with Servette as player-coach and then took over the national side in 1937. The defensive WM formation was very much fashionable, a system brought to football by the great managers, Herbert Chapman and Charlie Buchan at 1920s Arsenal....never heard of them? Shame....

They introduced an extra stopping defender and Rappan took this on a step inventing "Verrou" menaing The Bolt or Swiss Bolt adding a fourth defender and the defense slipping back to the final third, letting attackers have the run of midfield but shutting them down on the edge of the final third (imagine this around the edge of the semi-circle 10 yards marked out from the penalty spot. It worked wonders!!

At the start of the 1930s, the Swiss teams were regularly shipping 5 or 6 goals or more.They lost 0-4 at home to England in 1933. but that soon changed, once they got used to THE BOLT!! ..Five years later they played a friendly just before the 1938 World Cup and beat England 2-1 in a Friendly on May 21st. 

In the 1938 World Cup, on May 1st, the Swiss qualified by beating Portugal 2-1 in Milan, their only qualifying game. On June 9th, they saw off a Nazi, Germany side that also contained several Austrians, 4-2, after a 1-1 draw in Paris, their only qualifying commitment. The Swiss met their match in Round 2, on June 12 in Lille, losing 2-0 to the Hungarians, who lost the World Cup Final 4-2 to Italy on June 19th, in Paris. no disgrace there then! Sometimes the Bolt would shear off!! 

The Swiss competed in in 1954 World Cup, losing to Austria 7-5 in the Quarter-finals and they then competed in 1962. After an international career spanning four decades Rappan bowed out in 1963, managing Lausanne-Sports to two Swiss titles and then in stepped Herrera to keep Bolt's flame alive on ther "big stage".