World Cup Wonderland

70: Meet the best winners ever

2010-07-02T06:00:00Z

Fancy meeting the Brazil 1970 team? That was Paul Joseph's job – and it wasn't always the kind of fun you might expect...

In July 2006, specialist ‘Big Book’ publishers Gloria launched their authorised coffee-table tome, Pele. Weighing in at 12kgs, each of the 2,500 copies, all signed by Edson Arantes do Nascimento himself, were priced at £1600. In addition to this limited edition book, there were 150 ‘Carnival’ editions, each containing a special print of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning side, signed by the other nine surviving members plus coach Mario Zagallo, and priced at a cool £4,000.

As an assistant editor with Gloria at the time, I had to find these legends and convince them to put pen to paper. In doing so, I discovered what became of the members of the greatest football team of all time.

From left to right:
4 Carlos Alberto (right-back)
Brazil’s captain Carlos Alberto Torres was reunited with Pele for the New York Cosmos in 1977, before a long and topsy-turvy coaching career, most recently with the Azerbaijan national team. He resigned in 2005 after being assaulting the fourth official and running onto the pitch claiming the referee had being bribed in a match against Holland.

When I meet Carlos Alberto in Rio, he bemoans the ills of the modern game. “The players earn too much money,” he sighs. “Look at Thierry Henry – with his talent he should be the best player in the world, but he plays like he’s doing his team a favour.”

2 Brito (centre-back)
Hercules Brito Ruas carried on playing until 1979, when he was 40, before going on to coach children in Rio de Janeiro.

8 Gerson (midfielder)
The scorer of the second goal to put Brazil back ahead in the 1970 final, Gerson de Oliveira Nunes was known as Canhotinha de Oro' - 'Golden Left Foot'. A leading radio and television commentator, he dedicates the rest of his time to Projecto Gérson, a charity providing schools to underprivileged children.

When left out of Pele’s list of 125 greatest living footballers Gerson expressed his anger by crying and tearing up the list on Brazilian TV and his views on his former team-mate remain hostile. “Pele just wants to make money. It’s all he cares about. He lacks morals. The other day I saw him crying on TV because his son was arrested again, but everything he does is an act!” So there.

3 Wilson Piazza (centre-back)
Brito’s defensive partner (who could also, naturally, play in midfield) went on to play in the 1974 World Cup and after leaving the game he became director of a former players' association in Belo Horizonte.

16 Everaldo (left-back)
Left-back Everaldo Marques da Silva was the only Brazilian in the final whose shirt number wasn't between 1 and 11. He was aged just 30 when he died in a car crash in 1974.

9 Tostão (forward)
After leaving the game at 27 due to a detached retina, Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade (better known as Tostão, meaning 'Little Coin') qualified as a physician but made another career change in the 1990s and is now Brazil’s best-known football pundit and columnist.

Despite this, he is something of a recluse, living as he does on top of a hill outside Belo Horizonte. Repeatedly refused to sign the 1970 photographs for the Pele book until eventually agreeing in return for donations to several charities.

5 Clodoaldo (midfielder)
Clodoaldo Tavares de Santana made up for his intercepted backheel creating Italy's equaliser by going on the mazy run which started Carlos Alberto’s famous fourth goal in the final. He retired in 1978 at the age of 29 following knee surgery. Having spent his entire playing career at Santos he became a director at the club. Still good friends with goalkeeper Felix.

11 Roberto Rivelino (left-winger)
The son of Italian immigrants went on to play 122 times for Brazil before moving Saudi Arabia to play for Al-Hilal. Rivelino turned to broadcasting after retiring in 1981 and now runs a very successful soccer school in Sao Paulo. He also runs a bar in city’s Boa Vista district, where he can often be found signing autographs and regaling punters with stories of football and women.

10 Pele (forward)
Edson Arantes do Nascimento quit international football in 1971 and famously went on the play for the New York Cosmos. Has taken on several ambassadorial and acting roles – notably in Viagra adverts and Escape to Victory – is now a member of FIFA’s Football Committee. However, although arguably the greatest footballer of all time, he isn’t popular with all of his ex-team-mates...

7 Jairzinho (right-winger)
One of only three players to score in every game of a World Cup finals tournament, including the winner against England and the third goal in the final, Jair Ventura Filho won 81 caps for Brazil over 18 years. Finished his career playing in Venezuela in 1982 and had a reasonably undistinguished coaching career, before famously discovering a 14-year-old Ronaldo.

1 Felix (goalkeeper)
After hanging up his boots (and gloves), Félix Miéli Venerando became a car salesman in Sao Paulo, but has now retired. Short, hunched and nothing like what you’d expect a World Cup-winning goalkeeper to look like, Felix still hasn’t forgiven Franny Lee for kicking him in the head during the Brazil-England game in 1970.

Coach: Mario Zagallo 
The coach in 1970 was already a two-time World Cup winner as a player. He was assistant coach when Brazil won the 1994 World Cup and coach when they lost in the final to France in 1998. Again returned to the post for 2006, but was so upset about Brazil's failure that he refused to sign the 1970 photographs until he’d emerged from his pit of despair.

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82: All white at the back

2010-06-20T07:00:00Z

The people of New Zealand could be excused for currently being gripped by World Cup fever after their side's 1-1 draw with Slovakia on Tuesday, but this isn't the first time the All Whites have made friends and influenced people at the world's biggest sporting event, as Neil Billingham explains...

The slightly grainy TV images show a relaxed set of footballers in white tracksuits enjoying their lunch on the veranda of their sun-drenched Marbella hotel.

FIFA’s official film for the 1982 World Cup depicts a New Zealand team loving every minute of their time in Spain despite many pundits questioning whether they have the right to be there at all.

“Ian St John said he thought it was a pity that FIFA had allowed such small teams to play at the World Cup and predicted New Zealand could lose some matches by a cricket score” says John Adshead, the ‘All Whites’ English coach.

When Scotland went 3-0 up before half-time in Group 6’s opening match, Saint’s forecast for looked credible. But New Zealand had earned the right to be in Spain, traveling 60,000 miles in their qualification campaign to beat teams like China, Saudi Arabia and rivals Australia. When the second half began in Malaga the critics were soon silenced.

“We scored two goals early in the second half and then we hit the post,” said Adshead. “Suddenly the Scots were rattled and players like Souness and Strachan were arguing amongst themselves. It was great to watch from the sidelines.”

Scotland eventually composed themselves, but despite the 5-2 defeat, Adshead felt a point had been proved. “We gave the Scots a good game. People said the only way we would be able to compete was to kick our opponents, but we were the only team in 1982 not to get a single booking. Afterwards Jock Stein was full of praise for the way we played and he said we had done our country proud.”

Managers and pundits weren’t the only ones to be won over by the Kiwis. Determined to make the most of their moment in the Spanish spotlight, Adshead opened his team’s HQ to the world’s media, offering unprecedented access.

For their second group match against the Soviet Union Adshead allowed FIFA’s TV crew into the Kiwis’ dressing room, by hook or by crook. “The TV crew’s accreditation meant they couldn’t get access to the changing rooms,” says Adshead. “So we gave them all New Zealand tracksuits to wear and put the TV equipment in our kits bags. When we arrived at Malaga, security rushed us off the bus and into the changing rooms and once inside the crew filmed everything.”

New Zealand became the media darlings of the tournament, and it wasn’t just FIFA’s filmmakers who were grateful. “Brazil closed all their training sessions to the media so we invited Globo into our hotel to film us at various points in the tournament.

“One day we got some of the lads to put yellow shirts so Globo could then say they’ve filmed Brazil training! They loved it and the producer told us that our players were household names in Brazil.”

Already qualified for the knockout stages, Brazil fielded a full-strength team for the final group game against Adshead’s already-eliminated part-timers. “I have to admit I was a bit star struck,” says Ricki Herbert, defender and current All Whites coach.

“It was a dream come true to be playing alongside the likes of Socrates, Falcao and Zico. They were a class team and even though we lost 4-0 it was a fantastic experience, one I’ll never forget.”

The tournament also had a huge impact at home. For the first time in New Zealand’s history, football grabbed the back-page headlines ahead of rugby.

In 1981, South Africa’s Springboks toured New Zealand but the tour’s first match in Hamilton was stopped after anti-apartheid protesters invaded the pitch. Riots broke out in Hamilton’s streets and New Zealand rugby was dividing public opinion.

“Before we went to Spain in 1982 rugby was in a mess”, says Adshead. “Then the All Whites came along and started to win some matches, so the whole country got behind the football team for the World Cup.” With a 35,000 sell-out – the biggest ever crowd for a football match in New Zealand – watching their team clinch 2010 World Cup qualification in Wellington against Bahrain in November, the country could be about to go football crazy again.

1982's other World Cup tiddlers...

Cameroon

First-time World Cup participants Cameroon left Spain feeling cheated – and rightly so. In their opening game against Peru, Roger Milla had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside and the match ended 0-0.

Their next two matches were battling draws with far higher-ranked opponents: they contained Poland in a drab, scoreless affair before fighting out a 1-1 with eventual winners Italy, Gregoire Mbida grabbing his nation’s historic first World Cup strike.

But the Indomitable Lions were eliminated from the tournament on goal difference. Had Milla’s Peru goal been allowed, Italy would have been on the plane instead, and most of us would never have heard of Paulo Rossi…

Kuwait

The tiny Middle Eastern nation’s solo World Cup participation is best remembered for an enraged sheikh invading the pitch - but it’s also worth sparing a thought for the players.

They fought out a decent 1-1 draw with Czechoslovakia (goalscorer Faisal Al-Dakhil is still hailed as “the King” in his homeland as a result), and restricted England to a scrappy 1-0 win.

But it was during their fixture with France that the fateful moment occurred: France scored while some Kuwaiti players thought the whistle had blown: they walked off in protest, and only resumed after the intervention of their furious leader Sheikh Fahad Al Ahmed.

Eight years later, the royal was kidnapped by Saddam Hussein’s troops, shot dead and his body run over by a tank.

Honduras

While El Salvador found themselves embarrassingly out of their depth in Spain [LINK= http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/worldcupwonderland/archive/2010/05/12/82-ten-of-the-best-for-hungary-as-el-salvador-suffer-day-of-shame.aspx] , their neighbours and bitter enemies Honduras fared much better.

Having become CONCACAF champions in 1981, Los Catrachos began the tournament confidently, sharing a 1-1 draw with hosts Spain in a game they could have won. They then drew 1-1 with Northern Ireland, giving them a shot at making the second round, but couldn’t quite deliver in the final game against Yugoslavia, losing 1-0.

They’ll get another pop in 2010, though: Honduras qualified for their second ever World Cup – beating old pals El Salvador to clinch the crucial points.

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38: The best WC game you never saw

2010-06-08T21:42:00Z

The greatest World Cup game you’ve probably never heard of

Every World Cup is preceded by an epidemic of lists. The joy of six, the 10 greatest, five reasons why... and I’m a sucker for them, though I prefer shorter, more unusual ones (great one-armed World Cup players, a select list topped by Hector Castro, who scored Uruguay’s fourth in the 1930 World Cup final).

LISTS Try FFT.com's new Lists section. Paul would...

Still, I couldn’t resist Rob Smyth’s 10 greatest World Cup games. All the usual suspects were there – Italy 3 Brazil 2 in 1982, Italy 4 West Germany 3 in 1970 and England 2 Argentina 2 in 1998. But bizarrely there was no mention of Brazil 6 Poland 5 in 1938.

This 11-goal thriller of a first round match, played in front of 13,000 fans in Strasbourg, is largely forgotten outside Poland – where it has a resonance only surpassed by the Poland v England games in the 1974 qualifying campaign. But what a match it must have been.

Polish striker Ernst Wilimowski became the first player to score four goals in one World Cup finals match – he is still the only one to do so and lose – while Brazilian legend Leonidas, so tricky one Paris Match reporter swore he had six legs, scored a hat-trick.

Leonidas, whose boot had flown off on a swampy pitch, probably scored Brazil’s matchwinner barefoot. In Futebol, still the best book on Brazilian football, Alex Bellos quotes an eyewitness: “The shot, strong and unexpected, left everyone in the small stadium open-mouthed. People were stunned. Europe’s sports press, who thought they had already seen everything, reacted with fright, confusion and shouts of ‘Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!’”

Ezi v the Rubber Man
Wilimowski was no saint. In 1936, his drinking and partying forced the Polish authorities to reluctantly ban a striker who was averaging roughly a goal a game for the national team. But he was back in the fold for the third World Cup and gave one of the performances of his life against Brazil whose hopes rested largely on Leonidas, perfector of the bicycle kick and so acrobatic as a centre-forward he was dubbed the ‘Rubber Man’.

The game was almost a duel between Wilimowski and Leonidas. After 18 minutes, the quicksilver Brazilian put his side 1-0 up. Five minutes later, Wilimowski dribbled past three defenders and was rugby-tackled by a defender in front of goal; midfielder Friedrich Scherfke scored from the spot to make it 1-1. Then goals by Romeo and Peracio put Brazil 3-1 ahead by the interval.

As the rain began to pelt down during half-time, Polish coach Jozef Kaluka shouted at his players. Chastened, resentful, perhaps sensing the slippery conditions might not suit their opponents, the Polish half-backs began to impose themselves.

Showing the trickery of a circus performer, Wilimowski scored twice to make it 3-3 after 59 minutes. Then the rain stopped. Brazil regained confidence and Peracio made it 4-3 with 19 minutes left on the clock. But Wilimowski wasn’t finished: he completed his hat-trick with 60 seconds left to make it 4-4 and force extra-time.

A Brazilian stick of dynamite
If the second half belonged to Wilimowski, Leonidas shaded extra-time. According to a reporter quoted by Bellos: “Leonidas was simply amazing. He was like a stick of dynamite. He did the impossible. Every time he touched the ball there was an electric current of enthusiasm throughout the crowd”.

He scored twice. Opinion differs on which goal Leonidas scored barefoot. Either way, he did play for a while in his socks until referee Ivan Eklind ordered him to put his boots back on. Under today’s rules, the barefoot strike would not have stood but Eklind may not have noticed because Leonidas was wearing black socks.

Even with the Poles 6-4 down in the second half of extra-time, Wilimowski didn’t give up. He grabbed another goal in the 118th minute. Polish midfielder Erwin Nyc hit the bar as Brazil shredded their coach Ademar Pimenta’s nerves. But a third comeback was too much for Poland.

There is a strange clip of this game on YouTube. But the fact that this footage only covers some of the 11 goals seems to symbolise the fate of this strangely neglected match.

The footage – click here to watch

Forgetting the unforgettable
In Brazil, this 6-5 has been overshadowed by five World Cup triumphs and the controversial defeats in 1950 and 1998. After beating Poland in 1938, the Selecao made the semi-finals, losing to Italy after Pimenta decided to rest Leonidas, his top scorer, for the final. By 1950, the next World Cup, the Rubber Man had hung up his boots – and his black socks.

In Poland, honouring the heroes of this thriller was, for many years, politically difficult. World War II destroyed the nation and the team. Many Polish internationals, who hailed from Silesia, were regarded as ethnically German and, for various reasons, signed the Volksliste to register as German or fought for Germany.

The agonising choices these players faced are evident in Wilimowski’s war. He signed the Volskliste, escaped military service by joining the police and just managed, with the assistance of a famous Luftwaffe pilot called Hermann Graf, to rescue his mother from Auschwitz.

Unsurprisingly, the post-war Polish government regarded Wilimowski and others of his ilk as traitors so he settled down in Karlsruhe to run a restaurant. In the 1970s, he met Kazimierz Gorski, the great Polish coach who led the country to the 1974 finals, at a hotel. As a youngster, Gorski had idolised Wilimowski. But when they met he told his former idol he should have returned to Poland to defend himself. Wilimowski replied: “I was afraid”.

He had reason to be. Edward Madejski, the Polish keeper beaten six times by Brazil, stayed loyal to Poland and spent months under arrest by the Gestapo awaiting execution. But in 1956, he was jailed for three years by Poland’s Communist government on trumped-up charges of spying, a sentence that wrecked his life.

In the euphoric aftermath of the 6-5, Wilimowski was invited to join a Brazilian club. It might have been better for him and his family if he had accepted.

Brazil 6 Poland 5 in 1938 is not just an unforgettable game. It remains a poignant reminder of a truth we often forget during World Cups: glory on the pitch has never shielded footballers from real life’s tragedies.

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66: It's football, but is it art? Er, yes

2010-06-06T19:30:00Z

You've heard of ProZone and Opta boffins tracing every player's movement, for the sake of managerial insight and pub ammo. Such careful analysis is certainly scientific, but is it art? As so often in life, it depends what you do with it.

Artist David Marsh, for instance, has turned the 1966 World Cup final into a series of prints interpreted through the medium of movement. Tracing the movement of every single England and West Germany player might have taken a painstaking 92 hours, but every artist has to suffer for his calling right?

Marsh watched extensive footage of English football's most mentioned two hours, played at half speed, mapping movements (both on and off the ball) via the pitch markings and grass stripes. This was then used to compose a series of hand-drawn 'portraits' of the players, as represented by their activities. And the exhibition is called, with no lack of knowledge or humour, Some People Are On The Pitch.

At the heart of the collection - and indeed the game - is the fascinating duel between Bobby Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer. The Englishman, represented in red (of course), is closely monitored throughout by the peerless German. Both roam far and wide across the canvas.

'B. Charlton v F. Beckenbaeur - Full Match' Litho print, 584mmx420mm

"I was interested in taking the most talked about occasion in English sporting history and showing it in a way that had never been seen before," says Marsh.

"The 66 final is a match people talk about with immense fondness and pride, but very few actually know or remember much about the detail of the game. Watching the players in slow motion allowed me to understand their character and role in the team. From Alan Ball's tireless running to Franz Beckenbauer's shadowing of Bobby Charlton, the portraits show precisely what each player did.

"I liked the idea of being truly fanatical, recording as much as possible from the match and showing it all at once as an ultimate portrait of the game. I've carried this idea around in my head for a while and now seemed like the perfect time to do it."

'Some People Are On The Pitch' Copyright 2010 www.davidmarsh.info
Some People Are On The Pitch is at The Gallery In Redchurch Street, London, from 11am-7pm Sun 6 - Sun 13 June.
Prints (£19.66) and framed signed prints (£66) are on sale. For more information see www.davidmarsh.info

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98: What happened next for the winners?

2010-06-06T10:00:00Z

For the first time in five tournaments the host nation triumphed - but what became of Les Bleus' Rainbow Warriors?

Goalkeeper: Fabien Barthez
Barthez, who holds the record for most World Cup finals clean sheets (10, joint with Peter Shilton), played for Manchester United, Marseille and Nantes, before retiring in 2008. Plays beach football and races Porsches, now that he's a man of leisure.

Defender: Lilian Thuram
The most-capped player n French football history retired in 2008 due to a heart problem. He's since been involved in politics, campaigning for Catalan independence and setting up the Lilian Thuram Foundation to promote race relations.

Defender: Marcel Desailly
'The Rock' joined Chelsea following France's triumph, and played two seasons in Qatar before retiring. He's since worked extensively in the media, for Canal Plus in France and on BBC's Match of the Day. He's also a UNICEF Ambassador to Ghana.

Defender: Frank Leboeuf
Leboeuf played at Chelsea until 2001, later turning out for Marseille and Qatari outfit Al-Sadd before retiring in 2005. Since then, he's followed in Eric Cantona's cinematic footsteps, starring in Taking Sides and Ocean Hotel. He's also recently trodden the boards on his stage debut.

Defender: Bixente Lizarazu
The most decorated player in French history picked up numerous medals with Bayern Munich, including the Champions League. He retired in 2006 and has since become a European jiu-jitsu champion.

Midfielder: Didier Deschamps (c)
The cup-winning captain joined Chelsea from Juventus in 1999, but retired two years later. He's since forged a successful managerial career, guiding Monaco to the Champions League final in 2004. Currently manager of Marseille, whom he has just led to their first title in 18 years.
The French Connection: Marseille finally clinch title as Arsenal-bound Chamakh breaks down
Exclusive Q&A with Deschamps: "Chirac must have said something, but I was in my own little world..."

Midfielder: Emmanuel Petit
The Arsenal midfielder's third goal sealed France's win. He joined Barcelona in 2000 and Chelsea a year later, but never recaptured his Highbury form and struggled with injuries, retiring in 2005. He's currently an ambassador for Barclays Spaces for Sports and works on French TV.

Midfielder: Christian Karembeu
The Real Madrid man moved to Middlesbrough in 2000 – to his supermodel wife's dismay. He later played in Greece and Switzerland, before retiring in 2006. Has scouted for Arsenal and is a director of Grandtop International, who recently bought Birmingham City.

Midfielder: Zinedine Zidane
The mercurial playmaker retired from international football in 2004, only to return for World Cup 2006, where he infamously stuck the nut on Marco Materazzi in the final. He now works as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and as advisor to Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid.

Striker: Youri Djorkaeff
Djorkaeff moved from Inter to Kaiserslautern a year after France's triumph and joined Bolton in 2002. He later played for NY Red Bulls before retiring in 2006. He's since released a single called Vivre Dans Ta Lumiere.

Striker: Stephane Guivarc'h
The man with the random apostrophe moved to Newcastle in '98 but played only four games and was sold to Rangers. Returned to Auxerre and Guingamp, retiring in 2002. Now works as a coach and analyst for Canal Plus.

Substitute: Patrick Vieira
Vieira bagged 107 caps, won three titles with Arsenal, before joining Juventus in 2005 and Inter in 2006. Now at Man City.

Substitute: Alain Boghossian
Signed for Parma after '98 and was appointed assistant to France boss Raymond Domenech in 2008.

Substitute: Christophe Dugarry
Starred for Marseille, Bordeaux and Birmingham City before moving to Qatar. Now writes a column for L'Equipe.

Manager: Aimé Jacquet
The World Cup-winning manager retired following his crowning moment, and became technical director of the French Football Federation. Resigned in 2006.

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98: Bold, bald, Becks & Bergkamp

2010-06-05T17:53:00Z

During France 98, the world witnessed the birth of Michael Owen. Not literally, of course, as that would be hideous.

That summer, his pace and a striker’s instinct Emile Heskey can only dream about made Owen a household name, alongside Bold, Fairy Liquid and Daz Automatic.

His most memorable moment came during England’s quarter-final against Argentina. Receiving the ball just inside the Argentina half, Owen zig-zagged down the field nearly as fast as it took for him to bring out an autobiography once David Batty had scuffed his decisive penalty.

It was a moment that was very nearly spoiled when Paul Scholes almost stole Owen’s glory by nicking the ball from the pint-sized kid just outside the area. But Owen kept his concentration and belted the ball past Carlos Roa and into the top corner. Two-one up, surely nothing could go wrong now! Could it?

Enter David Beckham! The future England captain had shown moments of petulance during the season and was considered a risk coming into the competition; England coach Glenn Hoddle was reported to have held concerns about Beckham’s temper coming into the competition - although Hoddle may have “Never said them things”.

At the beginning of a tight second half with the score at 2-2, the budding underwear model was shoved in the back by Diego Simeone. Lying face down two yards away from the referee, the future MLS ambassador sensibly back-heeled the Argentine, who rather theatrically ended up on the floor himself. Simeone received a yellow card and the future Mr. Posh Spice saw red.

England fought hard and Sol Campbell headed what the nation (and he) thought was the winner, only to be chalked off for a foul. Then, as per the template, the 10 men went out on penalties and Beckham wasn’t too popular in 19 of the 20 Premier League stadiums.

Hugs and kisses
Talking of friendliness, the match-up of the summer was unarguably the USA’s head to head with Ronald Reagan’s buddies Iran, and it would be fair to say that the Iranians were a little hyped up for this one. For once though the Americans had very little in attack and the Iranians notched a memorable 2-1 win that they are probably still celebrating today.

English tabloids, well known for their honesty, reported that Arsenal won the World Cup that year thanks to the many Gunners in the French ranks, but it was their real inspiration Zinedine Zidane who headed in two goals against Brazil in the final.

But their magnificent achievement wasn’t all down to the man with the monk hairstyle; it was another type of habit that made all the difference - defensive rock Laurent Blanc’s routine of planting a sloppy kiss on Fabien Barthez’s bald bonce before every game.

Goal of the tournament
Michael Owen’s breathtaking individual effort certainly has to be a contender, but for sheer skill and ability look no further than Dennis Bergkamp’s sublime last-minute winner for Holland against Argentina. The non-flying Dutchman brought down a 60 yard pass with ease, turned his marker, and fired the ball past the unfortunate Roa with the outside of his right boot.

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98: What hit Ronaldo before the final?

2010-06-05T15:53:00Z

Nobody really knows what happened with Ronaldo before the 1998 World Cup final. But that hasn’t stopped the wild speculation, from conspiracy theorists to shock-jocks, politicians and team-mates…

Edmundo’s sponsor allegations
Edmundo, who was on the team sheet before Ronaldo’s return to the line-up, claimed to have witnessed his fellow striker’s ‘fit’ after a cry for help from Roberto Carlos. After this, he claims, Ronaldo took a nap before being whisked off to hospital for tests.

Benched, ‘The Animal’ later suggested that Nike influenced Ronaldo’s return to the team. “Nike’s people were there 24 hours a day, as if they were member of the technical staff. It’s a huge power. That’s all I can say.”

The mystery medic
Some players claim that team doctor Lidio Toledo started weeping when he arrived at Ronaldo’s room. Toledo denies this, claiming Ronaldo was conscious when he reached him, but breathing heavily and with saliva around this mouth.

The player was then allegedly sent to hospital for neurological tests, which everyone thought would rule him out of playing. The tests came back normal and Toledo, another medic, coach Mario Zagallo and a determined Ronaldo decided the between them that he was fit enough to play.

The nervous breakdown theory
One of Brazil’s main newspapers claimed that Ronaldo had a nervous breakdown during the cup. Folha de S Paulo wrote that Ronaldo was displaying signs of depression a week before the final, smashing a bike against a wall. On the eve of the game, Ronnie had a “nervous crisis”. Toledo entered the room and left crying, but Ronaldo wasn’t medicated because of the risk of doping.

They claim that technical co-ordinator Zico opposed fielding Ronaldo, and that the silent departure of the team from the hotel (as opposed to the usual samba party), and absence of a warm-up, indicated a player feud. One group, allegedly led by Dunga, backed Ronaldo’s presence, while another, said to be led by Leonardo, opposed it.

"Football, eh?"

The FIFA conspiracy
Now for the really barmy theories: an e-mail allegedly written by a source at TV Globo states that Brazil “sold” the World Cup to FIFA for a cash fee of $23million.

The idea was to let France win to please new FIFA present Sepp Blatter, and help the French people forget their social problems. FIFA then promised Brazil that the Selecao would have its path “softened” to win the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and that Brazil would host a World Cup in the next decade. Hang on a minute...

The fateful injection
A few years after the fiasco, motor-mouthed pundit Jorge Kajuru put forward another theory: Ronaldo had freaked out after having an allergic reaction to an injection to his knee from doctor Toledo. People who believed Kajuru at the time wouldn’t admit it: after all, the crackpot pundit regularly rants on TV about people “taking it up the *rse”. Crikey.

The sex scandal
According to rock-solid sources (street corner whispers, pub hearsay, etc) Ronaldo’s breakdown was prompted by an affair between his then girlfriend at the time, Susana Werner – now the wife of Selecao keeper Julio Cesar – and a Brazilian TV journalist.

The Nike ultimatum
In 2000, a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission was set up to investigate the contract between the Brazilian FA and Nike. One of the initial areas of investigation was to be the influence of the Oregon giant on Ronaldo’s final appearance. But the whole matter was fudged. One politician blandly asked Ronaldo who was responsible for marking Zidane. “Will it really help?” replied the striker. The commission closed without finding any answers.

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98: Allez Les Bleus - the multiracial Rainbow Warriors

2010-06-04T11:52:00Z

The inside story of how a divided nation united behind a victorious team with a little help from Jacques Chirac, Gloria Gaynor and some Zidane fella…

Just days before France’s opening game of the 1998 World Cup finals, coach Aime Jacquet assembled the squad in the changing room at Clairefontaine, the training headquarters of the French football association. “I want us to be together in this,” he announced. “We need to focus. What is going to happen is so important... and I don’t think that you have fully realised yet.”

He was right. Privately the players weren’t confident and there was little belief – either in the dressing room or out in the country – that this team had what it took to clinch the ultimate prize in football. “If truth be told, before we started we never thought we’d win the World Cup,” admits Zinedine Zidane.

“We wanted to win it, but sincerely we were far from believing we could. We’d had a very bad training session before the first game and we said, ‘If we play like that tomorrow, it’s going to be very difficult for us’.”

Southern comfort

The first test for the French was in Marseille against South Africa, a team with no pedigree at all at the World Cup. However, the players were far from confident and travelled to the game in a deathly silence. “The pressure was intense,” admits Emmanuel Petit. “I could see some players sweating on the bus before we arrived at the stadium.”

Jacquet did his best to inspire the team with a pre-match pep talk. “We are lucky to be playing here in Marseille,” he said to the assembled team. “For football reasons it’s great that we are starting here. The pride of football is here, and the one thing they appreciate here are boys that are unreservedly complete, that like to give it everything they’ve got.”

Racked by self-doubt, the players appreciated his confidence but a sense of trepidation remained. “It’s not often that you come across a manager with as much belief as Aime Jacquet,” says Marcel Desailly. “I find it unbelievable how he anticipated France’s victory in such a huge competition. It built our confidence up to see that he was himself so confident. It made us more positive and also helped us realise our abilities. I think he was mostly confident in the group itself, in our capacity to overcome any challenge that the competition might present, but the doubts did persist.”

The team’s fragile state of mind wasn’t helped by the positive attitude of their first opponents. The French could hear the South Africans singing in their dressing room next door and unnervingly they were still singing when they started to walk to the pitch.

Relief: France celebrate their opening win against South Africa

“We just looked at them and we really didn’t feel like we had the same objective in mind,” recalls Desailly. “They looked happy to go out there and play, while we looked frustrated, introverted and down. There was a weird atmosphere because everyone had cheered the South African team onto the pitch, and when we came out there was total silence. That cranked up the pressure even more. Those were uncertain times, though. In my entire career I’ve rarely experienced such pressure in the run-up to a match.”

For Zidane this was his home town, and once out on the pitch of the Stade Velodrome he found the crowd’s singing of the  French national anthem an inspirational experience. In the city that gave its name to the song, La Marseillaise stirred something deep within the French team.

“It really lifts your heart,” says Zidane. “It encourages you to surpass yourself and this is what we did. We started slowly but we won the match 3-0 and we got back in the changing room feeling stronger. We realised that something had ignited.”

It was ironic that Zidane, a Frenchman of Algerian descent, should take such heart from the crowd’s passionate singing of La Marseillaise. The same song had been used as a stick to beat the squad by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the country’s far-right National Front Party. He had attacked the multi-racial make-up of Aime Jacquet’s team to further inflame anxieties in a country riven by racial tension.

“Jean-Marie Le Pen said during the World Cup that he didn’t recognise the national team because there were too many black players,” recalls Petit. “He made an attack about the black players and he said that most of them didn’t sing the national anthem.”

“Some of us sing and some of us don’t,” explains Desailly, “but it really has nothing to do with our foreign origins. I think he was just using us for his own political ends. We spoke about it amongst ourselves but it didn’t really affect us because we already had some strong opinions on right-wing politics and Mr Le Pen in particular.

"What are the words again...?"

"He did come to watch a few matches at the World Cup in 1998 and a few games of Euro 2000 and he actually applauded the French team and he jumped up and down and embraced all the people around him whenever we scored, no matter what the colour of the scorer.”

With the game against South Africa successfully navigated, the relief was tangible and the team celebrated in the dressing room with a rowdy terrace rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic I Will Survive, which had been introduced to them by defender Vincent Candela in training and which promptly became their anthem for the tournament.

A blessing in disguise

The next match would be less reassuring as, despite coasting to a 4-0 win, the team’s one truly majestic player was sent-off for violent misconduct. “I felt terrible when I got sent off,” says Zidane. “I took it badly because I let my team-mates down and I was going to miss games.”

However, the red card seemed to have a positive effect on the remaining players, pulling them closer together as they determined to win for Zidane. “No-one criticised him,” says Fabien Barthez. “We told him not to worry, that he would play again, that we were there for him. We wanted to win for him.”

“Zidane was so important to the team,” says Desailly, “but to tell you the truth, I reckon his absence had a beneficial effect because it helped us bond even further. We’d lost our star player so we went about rebuilding the team without him.”

Without Zidane the French qualified for the second round and although Paraguay proved a sterner test, Laurent Blanc scored the first golden goal in World Cup history to help the team through to the last eight. Confidence within the team was gradually building and although the quarter-final against Italy was a contest bereft of excitement, the French had Zidane back in the starting line-up and the penalty shootout victory seemed to finally wake the country up to what was happening with the national team.

“After the quarter-final we really felt that the country was behind us,” says Desailly. “We couldn’t avoid seeing what was going on when we went through towns and estates on the team bus. Africans, Algerians, Arabs and Moroccans were all at their windows with French flags. They were mixing with French people and everyone was singing together and everybody had their faces painted in blue, white and red.

“It was amazing to see the way a big competition like the World Cup can unite people,” he continues. “If Zidane or Thuram scored, everybody celebrated and people just didn’t care if the person they embraced was black, yellow or blue.”

Unbearable expectations

France had never progressed beyond the semi-final of the World Cup, and with Croatia now standing in the way of a place in the final, the weight of expectation became unbearable. The French again started nervously, and in a surprisingly difficult first half they struggled to make any headway. During the interval Jacquet’s heated team talk left nothing to the imagination.

“We’re losing all our chances,” he told his players. “It’s not that complicated: either we react, or we go, because there is a final at the end, or you let it go… What are you scared of? Who are you scared of? You’re going to lose, and it’s no wonder.”

“Jacquet knew he had to do something, because we were pretty exhausted,” says Barthez. “None of us had got to this stage in the competition before, but he was there to tell us what we needed to hear. We looked each other straight in the eyes and said, ‘Right guys, let’s do it!’ It must have worked with Lilian Thuram, as when I played with him at AS Monaco he would get right up to the goal and not shoot because he was afraid he would miss. That day, when he shot twice and scored twice, he was able to rise above his fear because he wanted to win so much.”

Something to ponder - Thuram and friends celebrate against Croatia

Having never scored for his country, Lilian Thuram netted the two goals that took France to the World Cup final, the first coming just a minute after he had played Davor Suker onside for Croatia’s opener early in the second-half. After the final whistle he was carried off the pitch on the shoulders of his team-mates. “It was a fantastic moment,” says Zidane. “We said ‘Thuram for President’ after the game.”

Just weeks earlier France had little belief in this team, and politicians had openly questioned their national pride. Now, after the game, President Chirac appeared in the changing room to congratulate the team. He was wearing a France shirt with ‘23’ on the back and he even took the liberty of kissing Barthez on his shaven head, much to the bemusement of the keeper as this was a much-seen ritual reserved only for Laurent Blanc at the beginning of each game. “I was really taken aback,” remembers Barthez. “That was just for Laurent and me and for anyone else it was out of the question.”

A red card for Blanc late in the game meant that the Marseille defender would be suspended for the final, but the night before the big game, he still had a word of encouragement for Zidane. “He came to see me as if nothing had happened and said, ‘I guarantee that if there is a match to score goals, it’s this one.’ Just those few words from Laurent were enough to lift the heart. When you are young and you are with a player like that, it gives you wings.”

“The final was a jolly”

As the team made its way to the Stade de France on the day of the final, the magnitude of the event began to hit the players. “One image has stayed with me above all,”  says Zidane. “What surprised me was the number of people in the street. There must have been hundreds of thousands lining the road.

"I was right at the back of the bus, in the middle of the back row, and I turned round and there must have been 500 motorbikes following us. It was incredible, really incredible. That’s the image I have and it gives me immense encouragement, because these moments are unique. When you experience them, even only once in a lifetime, you tell yourself that life has been worth living.”

So much had changed in the course of just a month. This was now a group united in the belief that they were capable of anything. “On the morning of the match we knew we were going to win,” insists Barthez. “For me this was like an outing. The first match had been awful, a horrible experience, whereas for the final I knew it was going to be like a jolly – a nice pitch, a nice ball, a full stadium and a party.”

As the team prepared for the kick-off, rumours began to circulate that Brazil’s World Player Of The Year could possibly miss the game. The name of Ronaldo wasn’t included on Mario Zagallo’s team-sheet when it was first submitted. The French were disappointed as they wanted nothing to diminish the achievement that they were certain would be theirs. “We were aware of what was going on,” says Barthez, “but we wanted to play against the real Brazilian team, with Ronaldo carrying the flag. We wanted to see how we measured up to this legendary team – Brazil for real.”

France measured up fairly well to Brazil, then...

Seemingly in disarray, the Brazilians didn’t even make it onto the pitch for a warm-up, but even with Ronaldo reinstated in the side at the last minute, they proved no match for the supremely confident French. In the 27th minute Zidane showed the world exactly why Jacquet had placed so much faith in him, rising to head home a corner supplied by Petit. He scored a carbon copy just before half-time and the French players left the pitch for the interval in a state of disbelief and excitement.

“I had a bit of a shouting match with Lilian Thuram because he was going into the changing rooms all excited,” says Barthez. “We were like little kids at a tournament. I think it was the first time I let off some steam, saying that everyone needed to calm down.” Petit agrees: “Even the manager said ‘Would you all shut up in the dressing room and calm down?’ He told us to concentrate on what we had to do in the second half.”

And they did, until half way through the half. With just 22 minutes separating France from victory, Desailly was sent off for a second bookable offence. “I got a bit carried away by my excitement, by the dream of scoring a goal in the World Cup final,” he says.

Even with the French down to 10 men, Brazil couldn’t make an impression and they became increasingly frustrated, arguing among themselves. In the dying moments of the match, Petit broke to score the goal that put the match beyond reach. As the final whistle sounded the moment proved too much for Barthez. “To be honest,” he reveals, "I have cried twice in my life: at the birth of my son and at the end of the World Cup."

As France were hosts, it was the job of President Chirac to award the World Cup to Jacquet's team. Their performance had turned France, a country traditionally more interested in solo sports, football-crazy: even the president’s wife had been swept along with the enthusiasm, admitting to having a crush on goalscorer Petit. “The president came up to me, we shook hands and he looked at me and said, ‘You are the one my wife prefers’.”

A million people gathered to celebrate on the Champs Elysees, singing the team’s unofficial anthem I Will Survive, and that night across the country millions of others did likewise. Victory was seen as a triumph for multicultural France and Zidane, the man who had more than anybody else come to embody the French victory, was thanked by the city of Paris. A simple message was projected on to the Arc de Triomphe, with the words ‘Merci Zizou’.

Chris Hunt is the author of 'World Cup Stories: The History Of The FIFA World Cup' (Interact Publishing).

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98: England-Argentina – War minus the shooting

2010-06-03T10:53:00Z

Great goals, seminal sendings off, penalty heartbreak, Mick Jagger: England vs Argentina had everything. Those involved tell Paul Simpson the story...

"After tonight, England v Argentina will be remembered for what a player did with his feet.” Adidas had thoughtfully plastered those words over David Beckham’s face in an advert published on the morning of Tuesday 30 June 1998, the day these two old, fractious rivals went head to head in Saint-Etienne in the last 16 of the World Cup.

A tad more blatant, the Daily Mirror ran a picture of Diego Maradona’s sucker punch and the headline: “8PM TONIGHT: PAYBACK TIME.” David Hope, the then Archbishop of York, revealed he was “rooting for England, hoping it will be the foot of an English footballer – rather than the hand of God – that will make the difference”. Adidas and the Archbishop were proved right – just not in the way they had hoped.

While England sought vengeance in the Stade Geoffroy Guichard, Argentina’s players weren’t all as pumped up. As midfielder Matias Almeyda put it: “A kind of el clasico has been created around England versus Argentina matches because of the Falklands/Malvinas war. But the real el clasico is when we play Brazil.” His skipper, tireless midfield enforcer Diego Simeone, didn’t agree: “Quite apart from the political history, the desire of the whole country is to defeat England.”

The fixture’s allure had intrigued Mick Jagger, conveniently between Rolling Stones gigs, who travelled down from Amsterdam to Saint-Etienne to watch the match. The television cameras would later show him clapping and singing along – but out of time – with England fans. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, the British ambassador William Marsden invited colleagues, Argentinian friends and the media to watch the game over cocktails with embassy staff.

The tension was so unbearable even the diplomats couldn’t stay diplomatic. When Sol Campbell’s headed goal was disallowed, one Brit complained: “This isn’t a referee, it’s an Argentinian federal judge.” At the penalty shootout’s dismal climax, one very English voice shouted out: “Oh, f**king Batty.”

Silhouettes, Slough and St George: The build up

Marcela Mora y Araujo, Argentinian fan and football writer After it kicked off in Marseille, the British media had created a climate of fear. The night before the game, the French police turned off the lights in the main square, but loads of people gathered there awaiting the foretold explosion. Police cordoned off streets around the square, but access wasn’t denied. It was, a French officer shrugged, “at our own risk”. In the dark, you could just make out the swaying silhouettes filling the square. There were roars and ‘ahhs’ and occasional shouts. No actual fights took place. Most people had gone along expecting a catastrophe that had already been hyped out of proportion.

Chris Hunt, England fan, author of World Cup Stories and former editor of Match magazine By early afternoon on the day of the game, thousands of England fans were in town, some dressed as St George, drinking in the blistering heat. A few guys outside the railway station said tickets were changing hands for over £300, but they were convinced if they held their nerve until just before kick-off they’d get in for about £100. I saw them later and the plan had worked. It doesn’t happen like that any more.

Martin Mazur, Argentina fan, editor of El Grafico magazine At the Geoffroy Guichard end, English and Argentinian flags and banners were displayed altogether with no trouble. From the right, you could read ‘Campo Chico’, then ‘Wolves’, ‘Corrientes’, ‘Slough Spurs’, ‘Devoto’, ‘Piccadilly’... and so on. A few Argentinians who were surrounded by English fans dared to show a sky-blue flag with an inscription that read: ‘Malvinas Argentinas. Centro de Ex Combatientes de Malvinas en Ushuaia’. In other circumstances, this could have sparked disaster, but the banners all coexisted peacefully.

Araujo Jorge Valdano once said that England vs Argentina is the one fixture where the Mexican wave doesn’t stand a chance. I bumped into him before the match and he opened his eyes wide and said “I’m scared”. We were all scared – not of what of the fans might do but of the football. Even the weathered hacks were nervous. For once, that cliche about cutting the air with a knife rang true.

Hunt The Japanese guy I’d got my ticket from had bought a pretty good seat, yards from the pitch and a few seats from the England team’s families. We were penned in among a lot of Argentinians and watching the action through a 15-foot fence. It was just about light as the teams came out for kick-off. The atmosphere was astonishing. There really was a feeling among the fans that this was the year we were going to do it.

Kicks and cards: The opening exchanges

Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated journalist We ducked into a bar in Saint-Etienne so grimly utilitarian it only had the words ‘SNACK BAR’ stencilled on the windows. The entire bar sang God Save The Queen before kick-off. When Argentina scored from a penalty, they belted out a chorus of “If It Wasn’t For The English You’d Be Krauts” to the tune of If You’re Happy And You Know It.

Gabriel Batistuta (whose goal from the spot made him the top-scoring Argentinian in World Cup history) The idea of scoring to break the record didn’t cross my mind for a second during the game. I’d have traded my goal for a victory in 90 minutes, without suffering so much.

Michael Owen When I was running into their box, I was more checked than kicked. If that foul had been committed outside the area, nine times out of 10 it would’ve been a free-kick, in the area it has to be a stone-cold certainty. So I’m still not certain mine was a penalty. But Hoddle did not tell me to go down if I was nudged in the area.

Glenn Hoddle The penalty wasn’t cast iron. But for their penalty, David Seaman had been booked so I was expecting the defender who’d brought Owen down to get a yellow or a red. Nothing happened. I said to the fourth official politely: “Where’s the card?” There was little I could do from the bench but I asked Incey to have a word with the referee. What did the ref do? He booked Paul Ince. I went berserk at the fourth official. I was so mad I was sitting down when Alan ran up to take the penalty and still sitting when the ball hit the back of the net. At that point, I thought it was a sign something was going to go wrong.

Slaloms, Scholes and songs: Owen’s wonder goal and Zanetti’s cunning riposte

Araujo Suddenly, as if he had grown a pair of wings, Owen took off gliding like an Olympic skier doing the giant slalom, each tilt of his body absolutely perfect. It was as if there was nothing else going on, just him and the ball. The Argentina defenders must have been equally mesmerised – he passed them one by one with no hesitation, totally in control, unstoppable. It felt like he was running towards me! Which he was. Just in front of me, the net bulged with the ball’s impact. Behind us there was stone-cold silence. I glanced behind me. My cousin and some mates were standing there. We shook our heads, smiling at the knowledge that we had just seen beauty, albeit against us.

Owen The defenders were back-pedalling because they didn’t want me to run at them again from deep. By the time I let rip, I’d run 20 or 30 yards. When you run that far at full pace, the defender has no chance. Anxiety and confusion were telling Ayala to pull back. By the time I pushed the ball across him, it was impossible for him to stop me from his standing start. Just then I saw Paul Scholes on my right, shouting either “Leave it!” or “Scholesy’s”. I wasn’t going to respond to the call. When I finally struck it, the keeper Carlos Roa had raced off his line so there wasn’t much space to work in, but I clipped it hard and fast towards the far corner.

Rushin The Snack Bar went barmy. I was knocked to the ground but recovered to sing “Michael Owen scores the goals Al-le-loo-oo-ia!” to the tune of Michael Rows The Boat Ashore.

Diego Maradona In my mind, Owen was the only good thing to come out of France 98. He had speed, cunning and balls.

Mazur Jose Chamot must still have nightmares about Owen. At that moment, Owen was playing like he was Maradona. But Zanetti’s goal was a masterclass in deception from a set-piece. Sublime.

Hoddle We saw the goal coming from the bench. As they shaped up to take it Peter Taylor shouted: “Look down the wall. There’s a dangerman out wide.” We saw Ortega lurking to the right, alongside the wall. I was standing up, screaming, trying to alert Graeme [Le Saux]. He was aware of Ortega, and knew he had to keep an eye on him, but the gap between them was too big. John [Gorman] had this sick, sinking feeling. He knew they’d score.

The foot of Beckham: England sees red

Diego Simeone Let’s just say the referee fell into the trap, a difficult one for him to avoid because I went down well and in moments like that there’s always a lot of tension. You could say my falling turned a yellow card into a red. The most appropriate punishment was a yellow. I was just being clever. It wasn’t a violent blow, just a little kick back with no force behind it and was probably instinctive. The referee was two steps away and probably punished the intention to retaliate.

David Seaman Beckham was conned into making a mistake. It was a bad tackle by Simeone and, when he was on the floor, Simeone shoved Becks’s head into the grass. Becks lost his head and flicked his foot up at him. The sending off was harsh but Becks was stupid to put the ref on the spot.

Hoddle When I saw it, I just thought: ‘What are you doing?’ How many times had we warned him about such behaviour? I was expecting a yellow card. But it was red for violent conduct. However mad I was with David, I was furious with the referee.

Owen If Simeone had done the flicking and David had been kicked, there’d have been no dismissal. David wouldn’t have rolled around on the ground.

Graeme Le Saux It isn’t hard to connect David’s sending off and Glenn’s treatment of David. Glenn may have harboured frustrations about his playing career – sometimes his training was all about showing you how it should be done. And he’d criticised David for not mastering a free-kick. The general feeling was that David deserved to be in the team for his performances and training, but Glenn felt he wasn’t properly focused and played Darren Anderton against Tunisia and Romania. If Hoddle had judged David’s character accurately, he’d have chosen his words more carefully. But he created this seething resentment in David. It was only a matter of time until David blew it.

David Beckham I know how disappointed the fans and players were. What I wasn’t ready for, at 23 years of age, was for all the blame of that defeat to be laid on me.

Hunt I remember my disbelief that he could have been so stupid. I was yards away from his parents and sister and moments after he left the pitch his sister dashed out looking close to tears. She reappeared minutes later looking solemn. Maybe she knew that people were about to start hanging effigies of her brother outside the pubs of England.

Mazur Beckham’s dismissal was controversial. Simeone overreacted. The referee was a disaster. But the tension was unbelievable. At one point, we thought it was all over. From where we were, Sol Campbell’s goal looked completely legal. We could see no foul.

Seaman Having watched the video, it was definitely a foul by Alan [Shearer] on the keeper. Alan went up for the ball but his arm hits the keeper. Apart from that, very little went on in the penalty area. The game seemed to go on forever, with our lads getting more knackered.

Paul Merson I’d have been gutted to lose to a goal like that. I’d heard the whistle as Sol headed home. When he ran by me in celebration, I wondered where the hell he was going while play was going on.

Daniel Passarella We kept trying to attack England down the middle, instead of on the flanks. That’s probably why we didn’t score a winning goal.

And now, the end is near: The shootout

Araujo You could almost hear heartbeats speeding up. It felt eternal, painful, like penalty shootouts often are, but more so. I was riveted by how close to the action I was. The players’ legs, the blades of turf, every hiss of the ball, it was all there.

Hoddle Some players weren’t up for it. Shearer, Owen and Merse were all certainties. David Batty was up for it. He was very, very confident. He told me he’d never taken one before, but it didn’t matter. You’d rather have someone who’s up for it.

Rushin Before the grim vigil of penalties, many in the Snack Bar turned their backs on the TV, unable to look.

Alan Shearer David told me he was going to smash it down the middle. For some reason he changed his mind and put it to the keeper’s right. Changing your mind at the last second is a crime on a penalty. But he was brave enough to take it.

Julian Barnes, novelist With his side on the verge of extinction, David Batty, who had never taken a penalty in his life before, juggled the ball over jauntily and flopped his kick straight into the keeper’s midriff. He said afterwards “When I knew I was the fifth man I envisioned stepping up to thump the last one in. I had positive thoughts all the way and it was only when I saw the Argentinians celebrating that I realised we were out.” On hearing this,  a despairing voice at my elbow commented: “Can’t bloody count”.

Al Batty, father of David Mary and I got the shock of our lives when David was asked to take a penalty. Neither of us expected David to score.

Le Saux I can still see David’s little skip of despair at the instant he sees the keeper parry it. It was terribly cruel on him.

Hunt I’ve seen some England defeats over the years, but that was definitely the hardest to take – possibly because I’d been so certain the World Cup had our name on it. To this day I’ve never been able to watch replays of the game or the penalties.

Tears, prayers and jesters: The aftermath

Passarella During and after the game, I thought a lot of my son [his 18-year-old son Sebastian had died in a car accident], this victory was dedicated to him. England respected their character and football philosophy and troubled us at certain moments. It was a game played with open hearts, intensity and rhythm, with two teams showing great character to come back. It was as exciting as a game of football can be. To send the English packing was wonderful.

Tony Adams I admired Beckham for crying. I was first back in the dressing room and he was in tears. I went over to him and said, “It’s all your f**king fault, you idiot! That was my last chance to do well in the World Cup and you’ve ruined it”. He looked at me, eventually saw I was half joking. It broke the depression slightly.

Araujo The stadium emptied in minutes, but the mobile TV units were heaving with personalities. Ian Wright sat alone, looking forlorn. We asked him for a reaction for Argentinian TV. “Sorry mate,” he shook his head kindly, “Not now.”

Hunt I couldn’t move for 15 minutes after the penalties. The only people left were the players’ families, waiting despondently for an escort out of the ground, and a few dozen dancing Argentinians. I remember thinking that this just wasn’t a day when I wanted someone in a blue-and-white jester hat to be blowing a large plastic horn in my face.

Elias Perugino, Argentine journalist During the celebrations, the Argentine physio Angel Castro, who’d been with the team for 30 years, dropped his Virgin Mary prayer card. Castro was devastated, crying, “Now, I will die, the prayer card has been with me in every World Cup, where did it go?” Next to him was a human mountain of players and staff with Passarella at the bottom wearing his best suit. The human mountain eventually collapsed. Passarella had the card in his hand and said: “Angel, it’s here, don’t worry, save it for the next game, we’re gonna need it.”

Franz Beckenbauer The 55th game of this World Cup finals was the best, certainly the most dramatic. David Beckham was red-carded for stupidity – losing your cool like that is unforgiveable. And yet England fought hard and got a draw after two great goals. First, there was that incredible run by Michael Owen, who was only 18 but as clinical as a veteran. Argentina’s equaliser was worth a look, too: a nice variation on a free-kick coolly converted by Javier Zanetti. Then came the sequel to the never-ending story of English penalty tragedies. Still, a tip of the hat to England.

Carlos Roa It was the best performance of my career. Listening to the national anthem before a World Cup game makes you feel pumped up, you feel like a patriot. And if you’re about to play England, so much the better. Two countries with a conflict behind us, in a kill-or-die game. You hear that history is forgotten, that a game is just a game. Well, it’s a lie. In England, the defeat was like a bomb. Just as it would have been in Argentina if we’d lost.

Le Saux The Argentina players were already on the bus, which was next to ours. They were really rocking, waving out of the windows, screaming with delight. They weren’t blatantly mocking us, just celebrating like crazy – like we would have done. Some England players reacted aggressively – Incey and the like, the usual suspects. There was a lot of gesturing and name calling.

Hunt It was like Armageddon at the station, a crush of England fans trying to get any train out of Saint-Etienne. The fans on the night blamed Beckham, not David Batty or the penalties.

Rushin Some fans in the Snack Bar were slumped over tables, others ran into the streets. As we left town after midnight, three sounds came from every precinct: the barking of dogs, the breaking of glass and the donkey bray of French police sirens: ee-yore, ee-yore, ee-yore.

Daily Mirror headline the following day ‘10 heroic lions, one stupid boy.’

FEATURE: The most politically charged game in World Cup history

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98: The most politically charged game in World Cup history

2010-06-02T14:33:00Z

Neil Billingham looks at how one World Cup group game did more to repair relations between two nations than decades of diplomacy

When the draw for the 1998 World Cup pulled together the USA and Iran in Group F, the president of the US Soccer Federation called it “the mother of all games”.

At the same time the political regime in Tehran quaked in their boots. Six months later, the match didn’t disappoint. Since the Iranian revolution that ousted the pro-American Shah in 1979, relations between the two countries had become hostile. Nineteen years later and a football match between the two nations provided FIFA with a red-hot political potato that would require some very careful juggling.

Iranian-born Mehrdad Masoudi was a FIFA media officer for the match but, given the diplomatic and security issues surrounding the game in Lyon, his responsibilities were far more wide-ranging.

“One of the first problems was that Iran were team B and the USA were team A,” explains Masoudi. “According to FIFA regulations team B should walk towards team A for the pre-match handshakes, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei gave express orders that the Iranian team must not walk towards the Americans.”

"Everybody say cheese...!"

Masoudi eventually negotiated a compromise which saw the Americans walk towards the Iranians, but that was the least of FIFA’s worries. Off the pitch a terrorist organisation had bought 7,000 tickets for the game and were planning to stage a protest during the match. Mujahedin Khalq were an Iraq-based group funded by Saddam Hussein whose main aim was to destabilise the Iranian regime. They certainly weren’t welcome in Lyon but containing such a large amount of fans amongst the 42,000 crowd wasn’t going to be easy.

“From the intelligence we’d received we knew who the main troublemakers would be,” says Masoudi. “We issued the TV cameramen with photos so they knew which people and which banners to avoid. The match was being beamed around the world and the last thing we wanted was for this group to sabotage the occasion and use it for their own political purpose.

While many of the protesters successfully smuggled in portions of banners and pieced them together with Velcro, the TV cameras managed to avoid them. But with the group’s initial plan foiled, intelligence sources had been tipped off about plan B – a pitch invasion. Cue the French riot police. “They wouldn’t enter the stadium unless it was an extreme case,” explains Masoudi. This was extreme and to prevent an interruption in the match the extra security entered Stade Gerland.

Not that you would have noticed any of the commotion watching the match on TV. When the two teams came out for the start of the match it was everything FIFA and the Iranian Football Federation could have wished for. “The president of the Iranian Federation wanted to use the match to show his country in the best possible light,” says Masoudi. “He asked the kit man to buy a bunch of flowers for every player to take onto the pitch. They were white roses, a symbol of peace in Iran.”

The two sides had a joint team photo taken and then the whistle blew for the start of probably the most politically charged match in the history of the World Cup.

"So who the bloody hell are Etats-Unis then...?"

The game was everything the Iranians could have hoped for too. In what was a competitive, full-blooded but fair contest, Iran took the lead five minutes before half-time with a goal from Hamid Estili. Mehdi Mahdavikia doubled the lead after 84 minutes and, despite a late goal from Brian McBride, the Iranians held on to record their first ever victory in the World Cup finals – but it might as well have been winning the World Cup itself.

“When Iran qualified for the World Cup after overcoming Australia in Melbourne the whole of Iran celebrated,” reveals Masoudi. “People were dancing in the streets of Tehran, openly drinking alcohol and the women took off their head scarves. The Revolutionary Guard didn’t do anything about it because they were also so happy. They were football fans first and Revolutionary Guards second. Victory against the USA at France 98 brought back all these emotions and celebrations. The Iranian regime was quite scared by this.”

Defeat to Iran condemned the USA to elimination from the World Cup, but despite this the players recognised the part they played in a historic match. “We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years,” said US defender Jeff Agoos at the time.

Eighteen months later the two teams played each other again in a friendly in Pasadena, California. “In many respects this match was far more significant because it was a friendly and it needed the co-operation of both sides,” says Masoudi. “But it could only have happened if the match at France 98 was a success.” It was certainly that. Both on the pitch and off it, this was Iranian football’s finest hour.

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98: Bonjour! France return from the World Cup wilderness

2010-06-02T14:07:00Z

The sixteenth World Cup was staged on an infinitely bigger and grander scale than any before: France 98 provided all the passion, excitement and controversy that makes the competition such a special, magical occasion. The unsolved mystery surrounding the dodgy World Cup final performance of the planet’s best footballer, Ronaldo, only added an extra dimension to proceedings, and would continue to fascinate conspiracy theorists for many years after the tournament’s final whistle blew.

For France, hosting the World Cup wasn’t without significance. The brainchild of a Frenchman, the nation was yet to win the trophy despite the riches of skill it had possessed over the years. They also hadn’t played a World Cup game in a decade: they’d missed out on qualification in 1990 and 1994, and had qualified automatically as hosts for this one.

The superb Stade de France, built especially for the occasion in St Denis, was a fitting centrepiece for their glorious summer. Behind the fine façade, France was struggling with a racial tension which Les Blues, and their numerous players from immigrant backgrounds would help to ease. It truly was proof that football can heal rifts and change a nation.

Meanwhile, the competition became more global than ever. A record 168 teams had attempted to qualify, and for the first time, the World Cup featured 32 nations. This meant more matches, and more nations from emerging regions of the world game. Japan, Jamaica, South Africa and Croatia were among those making a debut, and all of them left France with stories to tell. With more places available for European nations too - the winners of all nine qualifying groups plus the best runner up qualified automatically, while the play-offs provided another four places.

The Eiffel Tower is actually a lot smaller than it looks on the telly...

There was also the introduction of the ‘golden goal’ – if a match went to extra-time, the first goal scored would decide it.

It wasn’t easy to predict a winner, either. France may have had home advantage, but they were out of form and much of the media was calling for their manager’s head. European champions Germany looked like contenders, as usual. England were strong, topping their qualifying group above a cautious Italy, forcing the 1994 finalists into a play-off with had to beat Russia before booking their place.

Holland and Spain once again arrived with numerous talented players and a reputation for underachieving. The South American big dogs, Argentina and Brazil, booked their tickets as group winners and cup holders respectively, and were many people’s favourites. Then there were the dark horses: Croatia, brimming with ability and the passionate pride of a new nation; Nigeria, orchestrated by the sublime skills of Jay-Jay Okocha; and an impressive Danish side.

The joy of the World Cup was watching all of this talent come head-to-head, resulting in numerous freeze-frame moments that nobody who witnessed them will ever forget: Michael Owen sprinting onto the world stage, Bergkamp’s sublime touches, red-card shame for Beckham, Zidane’s majestic midfield play and tense penalty shoot-outs aplenty.

They saved the best ‘til last though, with incredible scenes on the Champs Elysees: a million delirious French people falling in love with football for the first time – and the team of ‘rainbow warriors’ who had captured their hearts.

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94: What happened to Brazil's World Cup winners?

2010-05-31T10:55:00Z

They may not have boasted the household names of the 1982 squad, but who got the winner's medals?

Goalkeeper: CLAUDIO TAFFAREL
The penalty-saving keeper remained No.1 for another four years – and in France 98 against Holland, he stopped two penalties to put Brazil in another final. Retired in 2003 with 108 caps and is now goalkeeping coach at Galatasaray.

Right-back: JORGINHO
The rampaging right-back left Bayern Munich for Kashima Antlers in 1995, where he played alongside Zico and earned Best J-League Player kudos in 1996. Since 2006, he has worked as Dunga’s assistant coach of the national team – a mild-mannered wingman to the ill-tempered gaffer.

Centre-back: ALDAIR
The defensive rock became a hero at Roma, where he played for 13 years, and was known as ‘Pluto’ for his resemblance to Mickey Mouse’s dog. Retired in 2004, but returned to play for San Marino minnows Murata in 2007, aged 41.

Centre-back: MARCIO SANTOS
The nomadic centre-back – he played for 16 clubs – enjoyed a fine tournament and later owned a shopping mall in Brazil. Recovered from a life-threatening brain disease in 2008 and can now be seen playing in the odd charity match.

Left-back: BRANCO
Already rather portly when he scored the crucial winner against Holland in the quarters, he has gained even more timber since his retirement in 1998. Has worked as the Selecao youth-team co-ordinator and then Fluminense technical co-ordinator – from where he was fired in 2009.

Taffarel, Jorginho, Aldair, Mauro Silva, Marcio Santos, Branco;
Mazinho, Romario, Dunga, Bebeto, Zinho

Midfielder: MAURO SILVA
The Deportivo La Coruna ace who almost left the Rose Bowl as the World Cup final hero – his blast from outside the box hit the post, after Pagliuca’s blunder – now works in the real estate business in Sao Paulo and plays exhibition matches.

Midfielder: DUNGA
Nicknamed after one of Snow White’s seven dwarfs – Dunga is Portuguese for ‘Dopey’ – the much-maligned midfielder was a colossus in ’94. Brazil’s current coach also models his daughter’s ‘fashion creations’ from Brazil’s bench – to the horror of anyone watching.

Midfielder: MAZINHO
The Palmeiras right-back turned midfielder – who replaced Rai – retired in 2001 and went off the radar, returning only for a brief stint as Greek side Aris Thessaloniki’s coach in 2009. His son, Thiago Alcantara, has recently been called up to Barcelona’s first team.

Midfielder: ZINHO
Considered a symbol of Parreira’s lack of creativity, ‘the waxing machine’ – a nickname referring to Zinho’s habit of running in circles with the ball – was actually much better than that. One of Brazilian domestic football’s most decorated players, he is now coach of Miami FC.

Striker: ROMARIO
What didn’t happen next? If we take out the quest for the 1,000th goal, the women, the jail time, the polemics with Pele and the countless farewells, ‘Shorty’ merely became president of Rio’s America – the club of which his late father, Edevair, was a devoted fan.

Striker: BEBETO
After combining effectively with Romario – including the ‘rocking the baby’ celebration – Bebeto partnered Ronaldo at France 98 with similar results... until the infamous final debacle. Last year, the Romario partnership was resumed when he was asked to coach America.

Substitute: CAFU
Came on early in the ’94 final and went on to captain Brazil to victory in 2002 on the way to a Selecao appearance record.

Substitute: VIOLA
Hot-headed striker came on in extra-time but only won a handful of caps.

Manager: CARLOS ALBERTO PARREIRA
Since ’94 he’s coached, among others, Valencia, Fenerbahce, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil again, for the unsuccessful 2006 World Cup campaign. Now in his second spell in charge of South Africa, he will lead the hosts at this summer’s World Cup.

Feature: Boring, boring... Brazil?!?

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94: Boring, boring... Brazil?!?

2010-05-31T07:55:00Z

After 24 years of glorious failures, Brazil finally captured a record fourth World Cup. So why was there so little love at home for the 1994 champions?

Brazil captain Dunga climbs up the stairs of the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Football history is in the making, the Selecao having just won a record fourth World Cup.

In a few moments, he will join Carlos Alberto Torres, Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer and other legends in the selected group of men who have had the honour of being handed the sport’s most coveted trophy. With the gold medal already hanging round his neck, Dunga finally meets Alan Rothenberg. The chairman and CEO of the tournament’s organising committee shakes his right hand and quickly reaches for the trophy, passing it onto the buzz-cut Brazilian, who immediately kisses it.

Dunga then turns to the sea of photographers and lifts the trophy above his head, shouting: “This is for you, you treacherous b*st*rds! What do you say now? C’mon, take the pictures, you bunch of treacherous motherf**kers! It’s for you!”

Give or take a word, this was the acceptance speech of the 1994 World Cup trophy, and to most Brazilians its vulgarity was matched by the football that took the team to title. After a 24-year drought, Brazil were once again on top of the world, but the feeling at home was that Carlos Alberto Parreira’s side, with their pedestrian and defensive-minded performances, didn’t belong in the same league as previous Brazilian World Cup winners.

While the boys of 1958, 1962 and 1970 had taken the world by storm, earning Brazil the epithet of ‘kings of football’, the class of ’94 were more likely to induce snoring than superlatives. In fact, for the majority of the press and public, the ’94 team were beyond dull; they played anti-football, turning the beautiful game ugly. And Dunga’s blast at the media – some present in Pasadena, others at home – showed that the resentment was mutual.

Parreira and his team gave the country what they wanted, just not how they wanted it. But after two-and-a-half decades of seeing fantastic Brazil teams fall short, perhaps it was too much to ask. The generation of Zico and Socrates, who embodied futebol arte, had failed in two World Cups in the ’80s, coached in both tournaments by Tele Santana. Yet – after the ill-fated reign of Sebastiao Lazzaroni, who, at Italia 90, oversaw Brazil’s worst showing in the World Cup since 1966, and a short stint by ’82 playing legend Falcao – it was Santana who the public wanted back at the helm.

Ricardo Teixeira, son-in-law of FIFA boss Joao Havelange and president of the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF), had other ideas. He decided to recall the duo who had masterminded the 1970 World Cup victory, this time with Parreira as head coach (in 1970 he was one of the team’s physicians) and Mario Zagallo, the former manager, as technical co-ordinator. But this time, victory was all that mattered.

The boys are back: Parreira (back) and Zagallo (grey hair)

Carlos Alberto Parreira had a scholarly approach to the game, and it was no secret that he envied the discipline and tactical organisation of the top European sides. Up to ’94, though, he’d hardly covered himself in glory: his only major title was the 1984 Brazilian championship, won with Fluminense. He spent the majority of the following decade working for petrodollars in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, before returning to Brazil to coach minnows Bragantino.

Nevertheless, he was an intelligent, hard-working, well-prepared man, a compulsive reader of foreign football newspapers and magazines. Methodical and conservative, Parreira believed the best form of defence was defence. In a culture that glorifies attacking play, it’s little wonder he met opposition from day one.

But he was a man on a mission, as his pal Zagallo recalls. “We went through a lot. People indeed protested, saying that it wasn’t the true Brazilian football. But we knew what we were doing: we were building a solid, competitive team, not to entertain, but to win the World Cup.”

At first, however, they couldn’t even win, let alone wow the public. In the build-up to the World Cup qualifying campaign, in 1993, Brazil drew with Graham Taylor’s England and surrendered a three-goal lead against Germany; in the Copa America, they fared little better, losing to Argentina in the quarter-finals after a penalty shootout. In the US Cup, Parreira chose veterans like Taffarel, Jorginho, Branco and Careca; in the Copa America, the squad was made up of domestic-based youngsters like Roberto Carlos, Edmundo and Cafu. Neither team clicked.

When the qualifiers came around, Parreira went with the more experienced players – including, to the public’s despair, Dunga. At that time, the midfielder was the personification of all that was wrong with Brazilian football: ugly, regressive, winless. He was blamed for the defeat against Argentina in 1990 and christened ‘the lost Lazzaroni generation’: the Dunga era was something Brazilians never expected to see return. Except for Parreira.

The Dunga era, part II, kicked off in July 1993, with the beginning of the World Cup qualifiers and initially looked like being a sad rerun of the Lazzaroni fiasco. In the first two games, Brazil drew with Ecuador and lost to Bolivia – the Selecao’s first ever defeat in a World Cup qualifier.

Cue bedlam back home: the press slaughtered Parreira’s ‘dinosaurs’. Playing in a predictable 4-4-2 and desperately in need of inspiration – Rai and Zinho were underperforming – Brazil needed an attacker who could do on his own what the 10 others couldn’t do between them. Fortunately, Brazil happened to have him: Romario.

The problem was that Parreira and Zagallo insisted on leaving the tiny genius out of the squad for disciplinary reasons. In December 1992, the PSV Eindhoven striker blasted the duo for not fielding him in a friendly against Germany. “I can’t believe I came down from Holland to sit on the bench”, he fumed. ‘Shorty’ would only return in the last qualifying game, against Uruguay, at the Maracana. Predictably, he scored both goals to seal Brazil’s spot at the World Cup – and his ticket to party in America.

Shorty flies the flag

“It’s my fifth World Cup. I also went to two Olympics. A socialite, a comedian or a rock star won’t tell me what to do. I won’t change my mind.” Parreira was clear: it would be his way, no matter what the public thought. For instance, he chose the overweight Branco at left-back instead of the jet-heeled youngster Roberto Carlos. But with Romario there – albeit in an uneasy alliance with the management – anything was possible.

Brazil cruised through the group with easy wins against two weak teams – Russia and Cameroon – and a draw against a very decent Swedish side. The last 16 was a different story, with hosts USA putting up a fight – almost literally at times – on Independence Day. Quality won through, though, Romario putting in Bebeto for the only goal. But it was still pretty turgid stuff.

In a thrilling quarter-final against Holland, the ‘dinosaur’ Branco – who was only in the team after Leonardo nearly decapitated Tab Ramos with an elbow in the previous round – went from villain to hero, hitting in a free-kick from miles out to clinch a 3-2 victory. But it was back to the borefest for the semi-final, against group opponents Sweden. Romario, again, was the difference, leaping above much taller opponents to head in the winner.

And so to a repeat of the 1970 final against Italy. Well, kind of. While Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho and Riva dazzled in Mexico, this time both sides wilted under the afternoon Californian sun, two international giants seemingly happy to settle for a soporific 0-0 and penalties. In the first shootout in World Cup final history, it was fitting that Romario, Dunga and Branco scored to give Brazil the title, and cruel that Franco Baresi and Roberto Baggio sent their spot-kicks into orbit.

"Eff! Jeff! Eff-eff-jeff-jeff-eff-eff-eff!!"

Yet despite the widely held – and largely true – belief that Parreira’s tactics were hated at home, most Brazilians took to the streets to party like only Brazilians can, and the players were welcomed back as heroes with a parade through the streets. This was a World Cup win, after all; not even Brazilians are that nuts.

Johan Cruyff, then Barcelona coach, wrote at the time: “The secret of football is to keep control of the ball to pursue the goal. Only Brazil did it. For sure they could play more offensively and with more beauty, but there’s moments when the spectacle has to be sacrificed.” Even Romario took the pragmatic view. “Parreira had to win the World Cup, so he formed the team the way he wanted. It’s not necessarily the one the fans or me liked, but it did the trick.”

But as Dunga prepares to lead Brazil into the 2010 World Cup with a team created in the mould of the one he captained in ’94, would the press and public really settle for the same again? Probably, but for them to be remembered it’ll take more than a foul-mouthed outburst from their captain.

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94: Bulgaria’s Big American Adventure!

2010-05-30T07:55:00Z

Humiliating losses, memorable victories, spectacular goals and even a spot of illegal immigration: Bulgaria's route to the World Cup semis was anything but dull...

Bulgaria’s 1994 American adventure might have been bookended by two crushing defeats – 3-0 and 4-0 – but in between, they crafted one of the World Cup’s great stories. Cheered on by neutrals everywhere, this blend of visually amusing journeymen and temperamental geniuses beat a highly fancied Argentina in the group stages, then Germany in a classic quarter-final, courtesy of a memorable diving header by the unmistakable ‘Bald Eagle’, Yordan Letchkov.

They also picked up 22 yellow cards and two reds. But what makes their achievements most staggering is that they really shouldn’t have been at the tournament at all.

With two games of qualifying remaining, Bulgaria trailed France by three points (this in the days of with two points for a win). But then Bulgaria hammered Austria 4-1 and France, shockingly, lost 3-2 at home to Israel. The Lions suddenly had a fighting chance. To finish above France, though, they needed to beat them away, something they had failed to do in nine previous attempts.

But that’s not all. As the squad gathered in Germany for a training camp, it became apparent that strikers Luboslav Penev and Emil Kostadinov didn’t have visas. Given that these took a minimum 10 days to process, two of Bulgaria’s chief threats seemed destined to miss out.

But then midfielder Georgi Georgiev and wig-wearing goalkeeper/captain Borislav Mikhailov, who both played for Mulhouse in eastern France, suggested a border-post they knew where security was lax. So the front two stayed at Georgiev’s house before sneaking across the border and on to Paris.

The squad stayed at the Trianon Palace in Versailles, a hotel of such opulence that the president of the French Football Federation, Jean Fournet-Fayard, was moved to ask publicly how they could afford it. The Bulgarians remained tight-lipped, but it later emerged that a French travel agency, angered by losing a deal with the French Federation, retaliated by providing the accommodation at a third of the usual cost.

France seemed to have little to fear, though, and Eric Cantona’s languid finish on 32 minutes suggested victory was a formality. Kostadinov levelled with a near-post header from a corner five minutes later, but with the clock showing 16 seconds plus injury time remaining at the end of the game, and the ball with David Ginola by the corner-flag at the Bulgaria end, Les Bleus seemed safe.

But then Ginola committed the act for which France’s manager Gerard Houllier has never forgiven him: rather than wasting time, he sent in a cross. It was overhit, and Bulgaria broke. Penev chipped a 40-yard ball into the path of Kostadinov, who cut into the box from a narrow angle and thumped an improbable shot in off the underside of the bar. The two players who entered the country without permission had combined to conjure a winning goal with the clock showing 44:59. France were out, Bulgaria were through.

Penev, Ivanov and Mikhailov have fun in Paris

A CAST OF CHARACTERS
Qualification, though, did not bring harmony. The players threatened to strike when part of their bonuses went unpaid. In protest at their protest, the president of the Bulgarian Football Union resigned and, when the coach Dimitar Penev stood by his players, it looked as though he would be ousted. After speaking to possible candidates to replace him, however, the new president, Hristo Danov, decided to compromise.

Almost immediately, though, another crisis sprang up, concerning – not surprisingly – Hristo Stoichkov, the talisman with a personality as prickly as his stubble. He was reluctant to wear the squad’s official Adidas boots, and backed down only when an exasperated Danov threatened personally to buy him a ticket back to Bulgaria.

Still, Stoichkov’s attempts to impose his opinions caused friction, and for much of the tournament he was at loggerheads with playmaker Krasimir Balakov, another player not afraid to speak his mind. “There’s no secret there were some arguments off the pitch,” Mikhailov admits, “but on the field we played as a team.” Eventually.

Bulgaria had a dreadful record in World Cups and, despite qualifying for five previous tournaments, the first in 1962, had failed to win any of the 16 matches they had played. That misery continued in their opener, a 3-0 thrashing by Nigeria. Previous Bulgaria sides might have accepted that that was simply their position in the world, but while their success would eventually shock outsiders, this was a vintage Bulgarian line-up with several key players at the peak of their powers and they were quietly confident, pre-tournament.

Stoichkov had been a European champion with Barcelona two years earlier (and would be named European Footballer of the Year in 1994); Balakov played for Sporting Lisbon, Kostadinov for Porto, Letchkov and Peter Hubchev for Hamburg; while Trifon Ivanov, the bearded, mulleted defender known as ‘The Wolfman’, had left Real Betis earlier that year.

The end of Communism had opened the borders and their moves abroad proved they were better players than they showed against Nigeria. “We’d watched them over 20 times,” groaned coach Penev, who again considered resignation, “but we couldn’t convince the players that the Africans were skilful and very strong.”

Complacency banished, Bulgaria prepared to face Greece, who had impressed in becoming the first European side to qualify. But having had their fragility exposed in losing 4-0 to Argentina in the group opener, the Greeks crumbled once Stoichkov put Bulgaria ahead with a penalty in the fifth minute. Another Stoichkov spot-kick and goals from Letchkov and Daniel Borimirov completed a rout.

“That was really the last chance for our generation to play at a major tournament. We were really a team. When I talked, everybody listened,” said Stoichkov. “After we’d qualified, our next goal was to win a game at the World Cup, so after the defeat to Nigeria it was very hard. But I saw the determination in the eyes of my team-mates and I believed. After that win over Greece, the pressure gradually disappeared.”

"Push! Heh heh"

The win meant a draw against Argentina in their final game would almost certainly be enough to take Bulgaria through as one of the best third-placed teams, but with Argentina shaken by Maradona’s positive drugs test, the Bulgarians did even better. Stoichkov put them ahead before a late Nasko Sirakov goal ensured they finished second in the group.

In the second round they faced Mexico, in a game ruined by the shambolic Syrian referee Jamal Al-Sharif. Stoichkov gave Bulgaria the lead and Alberto Garcia Aspe levelled from the spot, but after Emil Kremenliev and Luis Garcia had both been unfairly sent off early in the second half amid a blizzard of bookings, both teams seemed content to play for penalties. Bulgaria triumphed as Mikhailov, who'd earlier had to adjust his wig because he was sweating so much, saved from Marcelino Bernal and Jorge Rodriguez. The champions awaited.

THEIR FINEST HOUR
Bulgaria revelled in having exceeded expectations, their sense of fun and cast of characters making them everybody’s second-favourite team. Openly partial to a drink and a ciggie, the players celebrated the birthdays of Letchkov and Penev by spending the day before their quarter-final against Germany swimming, sunbathing and generally having fun.

“We combined work and pleasure,” explains Letchkov, matter-of-fact. “We were very good players and became a very good team.” The follicly challenged midfielder took this refreshingly laid-back attitude into the game. “He was telling us ‘We will win. We’re the better team,’” Stoichkov recalls.

Q&A Yordan Letchkov: "A player can only dream about receiving such love and passion from people"

They matched Germany in the first half, and went in level at half-time. The mood should have been positive, but the tension between Stoichkov and Balakov had been mounting, and it boiled over in the dressing-room. “At half-time we said so many things to each other, there was no time for the coach to talk tactics,” Balakov recalls. “He only had time to say, ‘Go out there and do what you have to do.’”

Three minutes later, Letchkov, his earlier confidence seemingly misplaced, fouled Jurgen Klinsmann in the box and Lothar Matthaus converted the penalty to give Germany the lead. “We didn’t lose confidence and we continued to play well,” said Stoichkov. “Then I equalised with a free-kick.” The greats often describe their greatest moments in the most banal terms. The free-kick was 25 yards out, well to the right of goal; for the left-footed Stoichkov, it was ideal. This, he knew, was his chance.

He whipped the ball up and over the wall, and in at Bodo Illgner’s near post, before running away, arms outstretched, head back. As he reached the edge of the pitch, he paused and, just as his team-mates reached him, he crossed himself, and as he did so, the crowd at the Giants Stadium saw the replay from behind the goal on the big screen. As the ball passed a fraction under the bar and a fraction inside the post, a second roar went up in acknowledgement of the perfection of the strike.

Two minutes later, it got even better. Zlatko Yankov crossed from the right, and Letchkov, powering past Thomas Hassler, soared poetically to head into the top left-hand corner: a truly memorable World Cup goal. The goal made the midfielder so famous that after the tournament, Tibetan monks with bald heads would be nicknamed ‘Letchkov’. Germany, whom Franz Beckenbauer had suggested would be unstoppable after reunification, suddenly looked oddly vulnerable, and Bulgaria could have extended their lead.

Hristo & Co celebrate the win over Germany

What followed, sadly, was rather more forgettable, as Bulgaria were well beaten by Italy in the semi-final, undone by two spectacular Roberto Baggio goals, although a Stoichkov penalty did give him a share of the Golden Boot. In the bronze-medal game, they were 4-0 down after 39 minutes when Sweden declared, content to play out the rest of the game without humiliating opponents who had illuminated the tournament.

Perhaps that’s why that Bulgaria side captured the imagination: they shone briefly but brightly before reverting to type. They struggled at Euro 96 before being humiliated 6-1 by Spain at France 98, an ageing team trying in vain to recapture the spirit and style of ’94. That was a one-off.

Q&A Yordan Letchkov: "A player can only dream about receiving such love and passion from people"

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94: What really went wrong with Colombia

2010-05-29T07:55:00Z

A 5-0 thumping of Argentina in qualifying gave Colombia a reputation they just couldn’t live up to, reveals Henry Mance.

Forget the ‘Hand of God’. For Colombians, Maradona’s most famous mitt movement came seven years later, before their World Cup qualifier away to Argentina. Asked by a TV interviewer about Colombia’s chances, Maradona referred to the two countries’ footballing history. Argentina up here, he indicated with his right hand; Colombia down there. That was all viewers needed to know.

In the event, Colombia thrashed Argentina 5-0, and Maradona looked – not for the last time – like an unadulterated buffoon. Back in Colombia, all sense of proportion was lost. Crowds, the president among them, greeted the team’s return. During a subsequent friendly, one fan even took a celebratory roast platter down to the dugout.

Colombia, the country’s leading newspaper reported, was living a “collective feeling of belonging and nationalist ardour not seen since the war against Peru”, fought 60 years earlier. Pele then took the bandwagon global, making Colombia favourites for the World Cup.

It was only once the competition got underway that Maradona’s disdain was vindicated. Defeats to Romania (3-1) and the USA (2-1) meant that, despite a 2-0 victory over Roy Hodgson’s Switzerland, Colombia finished bottom of Group A. As Brazil and Italy advanced to the final, it was clear a new footballing superpower had not emerged.

Ejection dejection for Alexis Mendoza and Leonel Alvarez

How did Colombia go from favourites to failures? The point is, they should never have been so fancied. “Up until the Argentina game, we were a team on the rise,” argues Oscar Cortes, an unused squad member. “From then on, we went downhill.” Colombia failed to win any of their three warm-up games against modest opposition.

The popular wisdom is that the players were so over-confident that their World Cup preparation consisted of beer and brothels. In fact, while public expectation boomed, the Colombia set-up was haunted by a realism bordering on defeatism.

Cortes says he “never heard any of the players say we were going to win the World Cup, or get to the final. At most, we could have got one or two rounds further, that would have been fair.” Pacho Maturana, the coach, showed a disarming lack of confidence when he told a reporter: “For me, the important thing is to compete... to leave a mark, a footprint.”

What the players, but not the media, could see was that the key figures were not at their peak. The ageing Carlos Valderrama was recovering from injury, the ever-erratic Tino Asprilla was exhausted after a long season at Parma, and Freddy Rincon, then of Palmeiras, was out of form. Other players had their own problems: two days before the US game, right-back Chonto Herrera found out his brother had died in a car crash. (Nor was Rene Higuita there, having been in prison for profiting from hostage mediation.)

In any case, this was not a squad built to endure long days in a team hotel. Slick passers on the pitch, the players combined less easily off it. Valderrama’s uptight personality jarred with Asprilla’s general clowning; then there was the reserved Rincon and a large clique from Atletico Nacional.

The lack of squad spirit was evident against Romania: Gheorghe Hagi and Florin Raducioiu were naively afforded space, goalkeeper Córdoba had a day to forget, and Colombia could not rally a comeback.

Death threats came, demanding that Barrabas Gomez, brother of Maturana’s assistant Hernan Dario Gomez, should not play. Barrabas left the squad, but players say the impact of the threats lingered. In the circumstances, the defeat to the US – featuring Andres Escobar’s own goal – was actually less remarkable than the efficient victory over Switzerland.

The 1994 campaign looks less of debacle today, after Colombia’s failure to qualify for three successive World Cups. But if anything good has come out of Colombian football’s current decline, it’s that expectations are nearer reality.

ESCOBAR: THE TRUTH

After Colombia were knocked out, coach Pacho Maturana told the players that they were welcome to stay in the US until tensions back home cooled down. Chonto Herrera suggested to Andres Escobar that they take up the offer and see a bit of the country. Escobar declined. After all, he said, in Medellin everybody loves us. He quickly found out how wrong he was.

Escobar: shot dead in Medellin

Was Escobar killed for his own goal? Rumours have long said so, on the basis that the Cali and Medellin drug cartels had bet heavily on the outcome of the World Cup. The courts, in contrast, found that Escobar had been killed over what Colombians call “a skirt problem”.

After approaching a girl in a nightclub, he was accosted by two men who insulted him, not just on account of his own goal, but also of ad campaigns he’d appeared in. As the argument continued, the men’s driver stepped in and shot Escobar. This was the Medellin of the 1990s, where homicide represented the primary cause of death. But a driver taking the rap is never wholly convincing.

Surprisingly, in a country constantly raking over past cartel crimes, no new light has been shed on Escobar’s murder. Perhaps there really was no order from the mafia hierarchy. Uncertain, people create their own versions of the truth: a novel released to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the killing featured a football commentator, who lost not just his savings but his voice at the moment the own goal went in. Shooting Escobar was the commentator’s way of regaining the power of speech.

Whatever happened, there is little doubt that Escobar’s life would not have been in danger had Colombia won in ‘94 – even an indignant mafioso boyfriend wouldn’t shoot a hero. Instead, like Salvador Cabanas, Escobar most probably found that – in a bar, with tempers fraying – a footballer’s aura does not offer much protection.

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94: Aggro, anger & antics in America

2010-05-28T07:55:00Z

Maybe it was the heat. But 1994 was a year for rag-losing, nut-doing and violent meltdowns…

Maradona’s potty celebrations –  and doping shame
The Argentine demigod really was a very naughty boy throughout his playing days, but his nadir surely came at USA 94. It looked like he’d recaptured some old magic when he scored against Greece in the opening game, only for the world to collectively ponder “What’s he on?!” after witnessing his celebratory boggle-eyed yelling into the camera.

We soon found out: he was on five different sorts of the stimulant ephedrine. Maradona was disqualified, later arguing that his failed doping test was the result of his trainer giving him the wrong sort of energy drink. Cheat or not, it was a sad end to a truly great World Cup career.

Leonardo gives Ramos the elbow
Brazilian left-back Leonardo didn’t take kindly to fleet-footed American winger Tab Ramos attempting to bamboozle him with a back-heel: he twisted and delivered a vicious elbow into the side of Ramos’ face, fracturing his cheekbone.

As his victim flopped on the floor like a fish out of water, the ref steamed in with a red card and everyone else enjoyed a mini-festival of referee-surrounding and Latin gesturing. Ramos spent three months in hospital; Leonardo was banned for four World Cup games and later apologised to Ramos, claiming it had been “an accident”.

Tassotti elbows Luis Enrique
Another shocker: Spanish forward Enrique lost more than a pint of blood after getting on the wrong end of Italian defender Mauro Tassotti’s elbow. The foul went unpunished during the game despite Enrique’s wild protestations.

The Italian eventually received a retrospective eight-game ban, but the Spaniard held a grudge for much longer than that: in 2008 he called for his nation to ‘take revenge’ for him on Italy. “I would love it,” he said, “and Spain has the advantage this time, because Tassotti is not playing!” Indeed.

Etcheverry off in four minutes
What do you expect from a man nicknamed ‘El Diablo’? Sickeningly violent mayhem, that’s what, and Marco Etcheverry delivered just that in the opening game of USA 94 at Soldier Field. Returning from injury, the man regarded as Bolivia’s best-ever player came on with 11 minutes left on the clock and his side trailing 1-0.

Immediately enraged by a shove from Lothar Matthaus, he kicked out at the German and was dismissed. “I’m sorry for Bolivia,” he said afterwards. “If I did kick him, it’s part of the game.” The side finished bottom of their group, and Etcheverry later gained a reputation for aggro at DC United, as he hacked and butted his way through the MLS.

Whack! Lothar gets the devil from behind

Effenberg gives fans the finger
It’s not just Barry Ferguson who gets himself into trouble with childish hand gestures. Stefan Effenberg was caught out ‘flicking the bird’ to German fans after being subbed in their game against South Korea.

His side had let a three-goal lead slip to 3-2, and manager Bertie Vogts replaced Effenberg with Thomas Helmer. Barracked by some supporters as he trudged along the sidelines, Effenberg lost the plot and replied with a middle-fingered salute. His reward was a ticket home, and Vogts responded by saying: “for as long as I’m coaching the team, he will not play for Germany again.”

'Psycho' Zola gets short shrift
Gianfranco Zola only ever played one World Cup game in his career: the second round of USA 94 against Nigeria, in which he was sent off after just a few minutes for, well, nothing much at all – the official completely misjudged an ordinary tackle.

“My thoughts were all directed to the referee, and they weren’t very nice thoughts, actually,” the unlikely hatchet-man told FourFourTwo about his reaction. Zola was banned for the next two games, dropped for the final and retired from international football just before the 1998 tournament. A shame.

Divine miss, Ross
Oprah Winfrey was the compere and US President Bill Clinton was in attendance (vice-president Al Gore was at the closing ceremony), but the opening ceremony at Chicago’s Soldier Field will forever be remembered for one guest: Diana Ross, who missed an open goal from two yards out.

At the end of her performance, the Motown legend, resplendent in what appeared to be a bright red shell suit, was supposed to slam home a penalty but hooked her shot wide. The goal was supposed to split in half as ball went in, and did so anyway, despite the spooned sitter. While an audience of billions laughed, an embarrassed Ross turned the colour of her scarlet two-piece.

Prepare to Di...

Coke scandal hits World Cup, offends millions
McDonald’s and Coca-Cola had a cunning plan: to print the flags of all the participating nations on their products. But it backfired when Saudi Arabia complained that printing their flag – which features the Islamic declaration of faith – on disposable bags and drinks cans was an insult to all Muslims. The offending products were quickly and quietly discontinued.

No pay, no play
Cameroon’s bid for World Cup glory was thrown into disarray when, two days before their group match against Brazil, the Indomitable Lions players refused to continue in the tournament unless they were paid what was promised by the Cameroonian FA. Despite receiving their match fees in a suitcase packed with $450,000, the players hardly appeared inspired – they went on to lose 3-0 to Brazil and 6-1 to Russia.

Much Aldo about one-nothing
With the Republic of Ireland a goal down to Mexico in their crucial group match, manager Jack Charlton was keen to introduce mustachioed frontman John Aldridge into the fray. He was foiled, however, by over-officious FIFA goon Mustafa Fahmy, who refused to allow the striker on leading to a red-faced shouty exchange with Charlton and Aldridge.

After a six-minute wrangle, Aldo finally trotted onto the pitch, barely breaking stride to flick a few victory signs in Fahmy’s direction, before scoring the goal that secured the Republic’s place in the second round.

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94: The biggest shock & best game

2010-05-27T10:00:00Z

Biggest Shock: Italy 0 Republic of Ireland 1, Group E

Neither the Irish nor the Italian camps were particularly harmonious going into their first World Cup fixture, in New York.

Arrigo Sacchi might have conquered all before him at Milan but he had rubbed the national team up the wrong way with his constant tinkering: he’d used 53 players in 77 games as coach and had annoyed many of his key men – including Roberto Baggio – by fielding them out of position and rigorously imposing his tactical systems.

The Irish party, meanwhile, were at loggerheads. There were headlines about a training camp bust-up, forcing the key protagonists, Roy Keane and coach Maurice Setters, to call a press conference and insist that everything was just dandy, honest.

Behind the scenes, though, it was tense. Keane revealed in his autobiography that the players constantly despaired about the FAI’s disorganisation, the quality of flights, hotel rooms, and preparation. “Training was crap,” he recalls. “They ran the b*ll*cks off us. The theory was we’d get used to being knackered. The climate didn’t favour kick and run. But we had a large supply of water, so ‘drink and run’ was our game plan.”

Despite these gripes, the underdogs did enjoy one advantage as they stepped into the Giants Stadium’s cauldron of heat: the crowd. With New York’s Italian community outnumbering its Irish one, a 50-50 fan split was expected. On the day, however, it was estimated that two-thirds of the 75,000 crowd wore green: wall-to-wall tricolors made it virtually a home game for Ireland.

Ireland fans enjoyed themselves - even if Roy Keane didn't...

The match started cautiously. Italy boasted Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini at the back, Dino Baggio and Roberto Donadoni in midfield and Roberto Baggio up front, but seemed sluggish.

Then suddenly the Irish produced a goal from nowhere. A long punt into the penalty area was headed weakly by Baresi. It dropped to Ray Houghton on the edge of the area, who controlled neatly on his chest, strode forward and swung a foot. Italian keeper Pagliuca was caught off his line: the slightly miscued shot arced over his head into net. Houghton celebrated with a barmy somersault as the Celt-packed terraces went ballistic.

Q&A: Ray Houghton – "Suits? Ireland didn't have suits!"

Shell-shocked Italy played poorly for the rest of the half, but finally took control of proceedings after the break. The Irish resisted the pressure well, however: Packie Bonner pulled off a couple of crucial saves, Paul McGrath was a defensive colossus and the Irish out-battled their opponents across the pitch.

With 15 minutes to go, Italy had run out of ideas and energy. John Sheridan almost added a second, hitting the bar.

The crowd celebrated as if they’d won the World Cup itself. Big Jack – who’d got them to the quarters in Italy four years earlier – had worked a miracle again.

“For a country the size of Ireland to beat Italy, well it doesn’t happen very often, does it?” he said afterwards, comparing the moment with winning the trophy in 1966. “It was very special and probably surpasses all my playing achievements in terms of emotion.”

Houghton and Terry Phelan enjoyed themselves - even if Roy Keane didn't...

But while Italy were bound for the final, it was as good as it would get for the Irish. The in-camp bickering – and Charlton’s arguments with the Irish press – continued unabated. The ‘drink and run’ tactics wilted against Mexico in 110-degree heat (they lost 2-1) and the game against Norway was a 0-0 shocker. Ireland qualified on goal difference, but were dismantled by a classy Holland side in the second round.

“We were outplayed and outpassed,” grumbled Roy Keane. “Charlton’s plans were exposed. The tournament I’d dreamed of since I was a kid was a bloody nightmare.” But while moody Keano may not have enjoyed himself, at least Ireland’s fans made the most of their day out in the Big Apple.

Best Game: Romania 3 Argentina 2, second round

The build-up to the game centred around one man: Diego Maradona.

Shorn of their totemic leader following his positive drug test for ephedrine, Argentina were being questioned – specifically their ability to mount a meaningful challenge.

Romania, conversely, were building momentum after topping a group that included the heavily-fancied Colombians and the hosts, USA. One team looking back regretfully, the other optimistic: the recipe, it would turn out, for a thrilling exhibition of free-flowing attacking football. All this while Maradona watched on from the stands, his role in the drama reduced from star turn to jittery extra.

And it only took 11 minutes for Argentinian nerves to be set jangling as Romanian striker Ilie Dumitrescu swung in a free-kick from the far side which sailed over the hapless Albicelestes keeper Luis Islas and straight into the net.

Romania enjoyed themselves - even if Roy Keane didn't...

Argentina were going to need some luck if they were to get back into the match without their talisman.

Luck was exactly what they got five minutes later when they were awarded a dubious penalty after Gabriel Batistuta ran into Daniel Prodan in the box. Batigol placed the ball on the spot and smashed it low and hard to bring the score level.

Argentine celebrations and Romanian indignation didn’t last long, though. Two minutes later, some neat interplay at the back released Gheorghe Hagi down the left and he exchanged passes with Dumitrescu, before the soon-to-be-Tottenham player slid in a delicate shot inside Islas’ near post.

The goal epitomised the team: a combination of pace and grace, orchestrated by Hagi’s magical left foot.

Argentina were clinging on. A series of fine saves from Islas kept it at 2-1 until the 58th minute, when Basualdo lost the ball to Dumitrescu, who ran the length of the pitch before playing in Hagi to make it 3-1.

While a late Abel Balbo strike gave the South Americans hope, it wasn’t enough. Argentina were out, and their disgraced star had been upstaged by his Eastern European understudy Gheorghe Hagi – ‘The Maradona of the Carpathians’.

Best Game words by Hitesh Ratna

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94: How remortgaging a house saved the World Cup

2010-05-27T07:55:00Z

It almost never happened. But off the back of one man's mortgage, the USA put on a record-breaking World Cup that changed football forever. Jamie Trecker tells the inside story...

It’s safe to say that the 1994 World Cup was the first ever to be funded by a home equity loan. Sixteen years later, it’s difficult to remember a time when USA 94 was thought to be a massive bomb waiting to go off. Plagued by shoestring finances and nearly torpedoed after a bitter rift between FIFA and a leading executive, it almost never happened. A mere $300 million later, 1994 changed not only the sport in America, but around the globe forever. And all because US Federation lawyer Scott LeTellier mortgaged his house.

Until 1994, soccer in the States was underground. Since the collapse of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1982, the sport had retreated to urban parks and university campuses. A dying version of the game limped along indoors in an ill-supported league, finally expiring in the early-’90s, but few took the sport particularly seriously.

That’s not to say soccer didn’t exist in America – it’s just that many Americans didn’t notice it. Soccer does have a long history in the US: American football was directly derived from it, and in the original colonies, the game laid down long roots that run the length of the Atlantic seaboard. Nor was the game hidden. On any given weekend, you could see people playing games in organised leagues with ethnic roots – in parks in virtually every major city.

NASL's dying days: Fading stars in empty stadia

But the media paid little attention to it. The people playing soccer spoke with funny accents, often weren’t white, and were thought (wrongly, as it turned out) the kind of folks who showed up to see other professional sporting events. The media’s attitude was infamously summed up by the New York Daily News’ Dick Young: Soccer is for “Commie pansies”.

“The misconception was that there was no soccer here,” says Andres Cantor, the broadcaster who made his name during the 1994 World Cup with his now famous “Goool!” call. “There were only a handful of reporters with me in Italy [in 1990], but people forget Hispanic television had been showing games each week since 1987. So why did people act surprised when 70,000 people showed up to see the cup?”

Just as there was no professional league, there was really no national team. Yes, the USA had shocked England back in 1950, but hadn’t appeared in a finals again until 1990, after the US were named hosts for ’94. Largely stocked by amateurs and college kids, the national team wasn’t even close to being globally competitive.

“We never thought we’d play in one World Cup,” says former USA defender Marcelo Balboa. “We had no clue what we were getting into. To see two or three reporters at a game? That was two or three more than we usually had.”

GETTING THE HOUSE IN ORDER
It was understandably difficult for many nations to wrap their heads around the idea that a country that wasn’t playing at a top level could actually host the world’s biggest sporting event. “Even we had doubts about fielding a team,” says LeTellier. “But to suggest that a country that sent a guy to the moon couldn’t pull off a World Cup was absurd. Yet many equated the level of our team with that of our organisation, and it drove some people berserk.”

Why the US bid for the World Cup was a no-brainer for the men inside: they had the stadia, the sporting infrastructure, and most importantly, the immigrant population guaranteeing large crowds at every game. In fact, after the successful 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the US made what the participants describe as an ill-thought out bid for the 1986 World Cup.

“We didn’t show a lot of understanding of the basics – we submitted photos to FIFA of the stadiums covered with gridiron lines, and full of ads,” says LeTellier. “It wasn't a great bid, and only the Olympic success that helped us to go back.”

“There was no logical reason for us to get it in 1986,” says Chuck Blazer, today the general secretary of CONCACAF, but then a member of the US Soccer Federation (USSF). “We needed to be much more professional.”

Blazer and then USSF president Werner Fricker made the next move, hiring longtime K-Street lobbying firm Eddie Mahe to shape the politics behind the bid. “We didn’t have a wealth of assets,” says Blazer. “We had no money, either. They allowed us to run up a half million credit.”

Chuck Blazer: crazy name, crazy beard

And any money they did have soon ran out. “Werner went to his local bank, this little savings-and-loan in Pennsylvania, to put up $750,000,” says LeTellier. “And that was great, but the bid cost us $1.5 million. But Werner said there should be no problem, the bank would cover us. So, I pulled the plug on my law practice to join up, and the day I’m supposed to come on board, Werner calls me and tells me the bank had been raided by the Feds, and not only are they not giving us a loan, they’re calling the old one in. It was a disaster.”

Fricker, who passed away in 2001, tried to bridge the gap by enlisting Patrick Nally, of West-Nally. His solution was to broker a deal with NBC and provide a $1m line of credit from Midland Bank in the UK. One problem was that Nally was disliked by FIFA. Another was that FIFA wouldn’t sign off on a TV deal they weren’t party to. The biggie, according to LeTellier, were the terms of this loan: “It would have rendered us responsible for all the costs, with him [Nally] getting all the revenue. He would have made $60-70m.”

So LeTellier mortgaged his house. “I started using this equity line, and they must have thought I was into drugs, because in four months, I was over $100,000 in the hole. I was paying everything for the bid, including my own salary, from this loan.”

What saved the tournament was a Hail Mary pass from an American football player. Heisman trophy-winner Dick Kazmaier worked for Manufacturers Hanover in New York and personally guaranteed an $8m line of credit to the bid committee. “Kazmaier’s boss, John McGillicuddy, only gave us the loan because Kazmaier said he would be good for it,” says LeTellier. “It was just in time, because my loan was tapped out.” But the problems didn’t end there.

“Shortly before 1990, I got a call from FIFA,” says Alan Rothenberg. “They were very upset about the lack of progress, and told me they were seriously considering moving the cup elsewhere. They asked me if I would take it over and organise it, and I said: ‘Sure. How?’ They told me that I had to become president of US Soccer. I wasn’t even a member.”

What Rothenberg was, though, was trusted by FIFA. He had successfully helped steer the sport at the ’84 Olympics, had built up a close relationship with Sepp Blatter and had the professional experience that many in the Federation lacked. FIFA were very unhappy with Werner Fricker, who was alienating many of those in the international community, as well as some at home.

“He was being attacked by everyone,” says Rothenberg. “If the news wasn’t positive, he went nuts. He just couldn’t understand the media," adds LeTellier. "Then Paul Breitner, the former Germany player, was quoted as saying our bid was going to be given up, because we had all these financial problems. It became a feeding frenzy, and Werner just fuelled it by being belligerent. Then FIFA found out he was talking to Nally, and they were outraged.”

After a “blistering campaign”, Rothenberg won election to US Soccer’s presidency, but inside the organisation, people were worried because they simply didn’t know him.
“It was distrust, because I was an outsider,” admits Rothenberg. “But I also had no idea what the status of the outfit or the management was. Then I found out the organisation was bankrupt, and  I wondered what I’d gotten myself into.”

Some party: Rothenburg (front left) and friends at Hampton Court Palace

Rothenberg made some changes, but retained much of the core staff. And with FIFA’s help, they got another lifeline. “We got a line from the Swiss bank that was FIFA’s bank, and I don’t know whether it was a wink and a nod, but that gave us the cash flow. Then we had that first ticket sale, and it was a huge success. That started to create the sense that this was a hot ticket and that it was sustainable.”

COVERAGE, CHARGES & CHANGES
The Americans still had a major problem – the country is huge, and the venues spread out. Here, those roots of American soccer played a critical role. Turning on its head the old joke that Americans play soccer so they can avoid watching it, USA 94 was staffed largely by volunteer soccer enthusiasts, keeping costs down and maximising profits while ensuring that the core fans of the sport were able to take an active role.

On top of that, the Americans had to convince the stadiums to take a chance on an event few US sports executives knew much about. LeTellier, who was charged with scouting for the arenas, laughs now at the deals he was able to cut. “We did a flat-rate rental,” says LeTellier. “We had no idea what the crowds were going to be, and they didn’t have any confidence. They would have been better to take the points, but they all had the same doubts we had.”

There were still things to be done, including selling it to a suspicious media at home and abroad. US Soccer worked feverishly to convince FIFA that fundamental changes had to be made in the way that teams and players interacted with journalists.

American sports have had a long tradition of close interaction with the media, allowing open locker rooms and mandating interview times for even the biggest stars. Soccer, in contrast, had always jealously guarded the 'sanctity of the dressing room’, and many coaches and players had an antagonistic relationship with the media. That approach wasn't going to fly in a country where even Michael Jordan spoke before and after games, so FIFA were pressed to open training and stage press conferences.

"Er, can I get changed now lads?"

Ironically, the American media were the last to realise just what they were covering. Incredibly, the rights-holding broadcasters ESPN didn’t plan to air all the games live until a week before kick-off, and only after members of their staff pointed out they would be giving away viewers to Spanish-language TV. (Part of this reluctance might be explained by the fact that the games were scheduled not for American consumption, but for European prime-time, leading to some steamy mid-afternoon matches.)

But one thing ESPN did do right was air the games commercial-free, a radical move in a country whose sports have always been subsidised. To get around this, ESPN borrowed a tactic that has been incorrectly attributed to Fox’s NFL coverage – stationing a clock and the score, with  a sponsor’s name, in the top left-hand corner. (In fact, Hispanic TV had debuted this.) It proved to be a game-changer.

Another change that the Americans insisted upon was getting rid of yellow card accumulation in the first rounds in order to keep the stars available – a suggestion made by an American sportswriter who had seen Poland’s Zbiginew Boniek suspended for the semi-final in the 1986 World Cup.

But the biggest change came in actually scheduling the matches: the USA convinced FIFA to let the seeded teams move around. “At past World Cups, you essentially had tiers of stadiums, because the big teams didn’t move,” noted LeTellier. “At the Olympics, we used a mix, and charged a lot – and were getting some astronomical crowds.”
One piece the Americans couldn’t control, however, was their woeful national team. That, and OJ Simpson, whose trial stole large television audiences.

MEANWHILE, ON THE PITCH...
The Americans had stumbled through to Italia 90 with a win against Trinidad and Tobago – a match some suggested had been fixed – and lost all three games at the tournament. “The first game [which the US lost 5-1 to Czechoslovakia], we had no idea what to expect,” says defender Balboa. "It showed, and we got our ass handed to us.”

This would be unacceptable for ’94, and Rothenberg knew it. So the US hired Serb svengali Bora Milutinovic, who had handled Mexico as 1986 hosts, so knew what he was getting into. Slate wiped clean, Bora isolated the team at a training camp in Mission Viejo, CA, where they’d stay for nearly two years.

“I was in Europe, and I would talk to the guys in residency – they were going nuts,” says star striker Eric Wynalda. “Too many games, too many practices, too many mental games... they were spent. Some of them were losing it.”

“Bora had us playing between 20 and 40 games a year,” says Balboa. “But we were also pretty isolated. None of us realised what was going on until after the cup was over and we went to Disneyland, and guards had to come through and escort us because we were mobbed.”

Bora: "Keep at it, lads"

“We were essentially famous ping-pong players,” says Wynalda. “Alexi [Lalas], Celo [Balboa], Tony [Meola] and Cobi [Jones] got a lot of attention with their funny hair. But no-one thought we could hack it. There were a lot of question marks, but Bora deserves a lot of credit, because he had people ready.”

Some of that was on display in 1993, when the Americans stunned everyone by making the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. In fact, that performance – and the crowds the competition drew – were directly responsible for the formation of MLS three years later.

“FIFA was upset that the pro league we’d promised hadn’t been started,” recalls Rothenberg. “But as soon as I saw the mess at USSF, I told them we have to wait until after the World Cup, and we hoped that the enthusiasm would give us the momentum. The success in 1993 gave me a chance to bring in two or three guys to build the business plan, and then we were able to use World Cup money to fund the start of MLS.

“Given the faltering of pro soccer in the past, if we’d stumbled, we’d have been dead. We had to have the best funding and the best players we could get, and frankly we had to lower expectations as well. There’s a big difference between a cool Wednesday night game in a league and a World Cup, but on the heels of selling out all these games, if we started a league that drew 12,000 a match, people would claim it was unsuccessful.”

Still, the Americans’ performance was hardly a given. In the run-up to the World Cup’s kick-off, the USA struggled, losing to Iceland, Sweden and Romania. But, in a harbinger of things to come, the USA beat Mexico 1-0 on June 4 – the first win against their border rivals since 1991.

The USA opened against Switzerland at the Pontiac Silverdome, an indoor arena. Temperatures on the field were over 100º. Wynalda scored the biggest goal of his career, leading the Americans to a 1-1 draw. “I don’t think I’d ever cried during the national anthem,” he said. “I wasn’t crying out of fear – they were tears of enjoyment. It was just electric there.”
“I lost my voice calling that game,” recalls broadcaster Cantor. “Waldo’s [Wynalda's] goal, that was one of the most meaningful moments of the entire cup for me.”

Only one more goal would be scored by an American at the 1994 World Cup, but thanks to a fateful own goal from Andres Escobar of Colombia that gave the hosts a 2-1 win, the USA were able to get out of the group stage. “Thank God,” says Wynalda.

Lalas: "C'mon!!!"

“We knew it was going to be the one shot we had to promote it here,” explains Balboa. “Nobody knew what it was, but slowly, all of America started talking about it and we started seeing ourselves on the news. The only thing that killed us was the OJ Simpson thing.”

AFTER THE PARTY
After USA 94, multi-million-dollar bonuses went to the Americans who had made the event possible. And why not? The successful tournament changed the economics of the World Cup, turning it from a million-dollar event into a multi-billion-dollar one. It also turned what some had naively seen as a quaint sporting event into a major sports business.

In the States, the effects were just as lasting. Today, more soccer is available on TV to American viewers than in any other country on the planet, with four full-time cable channels devoted to the world game. MLS is kicking off its 15th season, and is undergoing the growth (and growing pains) that come with success. The national team have qualified for six straight World Cups, and go to South Africa as equals. Hundreds of Americans now play professionally in Europe, Latin America and the USA.

The Americans are bidding again, this time for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. They are strongly tipped to get one of them. “Where would we be without it?” asks Balboa of ’94. “We’d probably have no league, no-one then would have given an American a chance. Now we have guys everywhere, and most of them were inspired by ’94. That’s a huge legacy. It really made the sport.”

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90: What happened to West Germany's World Cup winners?

2010-05-26T11:31:00Z

The West Germany side that enjoyed victory in in Rome 20 years ago had varying levels of success since lifting the cup, Ulrich Hesse tells us more...

Goalkeeper: BODO ILLGNER
The first man to keep a clean sheet in a World Cup final unexpectedly retired from international duty following Germany’s quarter-final defeat at USA 94 and later vanished from the radar. Until 2004, that is, when he and his wife published a fact-meets-fiction football novel that sank without trace.

Defender: ANDREAS BREHME
The two-footed wing-back, then 30, converted the penalty that won the final with his more accurate right foot but would take free-kicks with his more powerful left. Has been unemployed since he was fired as Stuttgart’s assistant coach three years ago.

Defender: JURGEN KOHLER
The hard but fair defender, who retired from the national team after the 1998 World Cup and 105 internationals, was sent off in his last-ever professional game, the 2002 UEFA Cup Final. Kohler’s coaching career never got off the ground – hence he’s recently been linked with a fifth-division club.

Defender: GUIDO BUCHWALD
Contrary to popular belief, the ungainly centre-back wasn't nicknamed 'Diego’ for marking Maradona out of the final. He earned the moniker three games earlier, for a step-over that led to a goal against Holland. Buchwald retired from international duty after the 1994 World Cup and 76 caps, later coaching in Japan and Germany.

Defender: THOMAS BERTHOLD
Outspoken and stubborn, in June 1991 Berthold kicked Kevin Ratcliffe during a game against Wales and was sent off, whereupon coach Berti Vogts banned him from the national team for almost three years; he returned to play in his third World Cup in 1994. In 2005, Berthold was fired as Dusseldorf’s business manager and now works as a pundit.

Sweeper: KLAUS AUGENTHALER
The Marlboro-smoking sweeper retired from national service after the final. He went into coaching but has been unemployed since narrowly avoiding relegation with Wolfsburg in 2007.

Midfielder: PIERRE LITTBARSKI
The final was Littbarski’s 73rd and last international, though the diminutive dribbler didn’t retire for another seven years, finishing his career in Japan, where he met his second wife and where he started his coaching career. Today, Littbarski is in charge of Liechtenstein club Vaduz, competing in the Swiss league.

Midfielder: THOMAS HASSLER
The tiny playmaker collected 101 caps. He retired only in 2004, had a stint as Nigeria’s assistance coach under Berti Vogts and currently concentrates on the hard-rock record label he co-founded in 1996.

Midfielder: LOTHAR MATTHAUS
It almost defies belief, but the man who was only eight months shy of his 30th birthday when he won the 1990 World Cup played on for another decade, finishing his illustrious career in 2000 in MLS. He’s since coached six sides in five countries but can't get a job in Germany, where too many people have an axe to grind.

Striker: RUDI VOLLER
’Aunt Cathy’ was one of the most popular German players of all time. He cemented his status as a fans’ favourite when he took over a hopeless national team and guided them to the 2002 World Cup Final. Following a disastrous Euro 2004, however, Voller went back to his day job, director of football at Bayer Leverkusen.

Striker: JURGEN KLINSMANN
Always more popular abroad than at home until he coached an unfancied German team to a third place at the 2006 World Cup on home soil. He lasted less than 10 months at Bayern Munich’s helm, though, before moving back to California, where he runs a sports marketing company.

Coach: FRANZ BECKENBAUER
Ten years after becoming only the second man to win the World Cup as a player and a coach, Kaiser won it for the third time: in July 2000, Germany were declared hosts of the 2006 World Cup, against all odds and thanks to his lobbying. Beckenbauer stepped down as Bayern president in November but still regularly appears on Sky Germany.

Substitute: STEFAN REUTER
Played the final 15 minutes of the final. He worked as 1860 Munich’s director of football from 2006 to 2009.

FEATURE: 90: New-look England embrace the future
FEATURE: 90: The c**k-ups
FEATURE: 90: The lost brilliance of Yugoslavia

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90: New-look England embrace the future

2010-05-25T10:00:00Z

If Gary Lineker wasn’t so greedy, England might never have entranced us at Italia 90. Stuart Pearce was England’s official penalty taker but a few weeks before the 1990 World Cup Lineker asked England manager Bobby Robson: “Would you mind if I took the penalties?”

Talking to a BBC documentary crew in 2005, Robson recalled: “I quite liked the fact that Gary wanted to take the responsibility.” Lineker, the Golden Boot winner in 1986, told Robson: “Well, I could win the Golden Boot. I might score a few goals in general play and if I get one or two penalties, it just might boost my earnings.”

Amused and impressed, Robson asked Pearce to step aside. If Lineker hadn’t scored from the spot twice late on against Cameroon, Paul Gascoigne might never have wept in Turin.

Q&A: Lineker – "I thought 'B*ll*cks, I can't bottle it now'"

The absence of those extraordinarily influential tears could have had all kinds of repercussions, aborting the Premier League, isolating English football tactically and allowing the Conservative government to keep English clubs out of Europe for a while longer.

English football in general – and Gazza in particular – have, as the player himself once quipped, “made more money from tears than Ken Dodd.”

With players as good as Lineker, Gascoigne, John Barnes, Chris Waddle, Terry Butcher and Peter Shilton in the squad, England had more genuinely world-class players than at any time since 1966. Even so, as England flew to Cagliari, expectations were low. Among the favourites were hosts Italy, European champions Holland and near-permanent finalists West Germany.

England’s precarious prospects had persuaded the FA to warn Robson his contract would not be renewed after the World Cup. Robson set up his next job – coaching PSV – but was vilified as an adulterer, a traitor and a tactical ignoramus in what football writer Dave Hill called “the most sustained campaign of press humiliation the national game has ever seen”.

Luckily, says Lineker, Robson was impervious to pressure: “The press would try to get pictures of him looking at the floor, make it seem like he was despairing. But he honestly never was. He was very thick-skinned and always optimistic.”

Know your enemy: Robson meets the press

There weren’t many surprises in Robson’s 22. Tony Adams mysteriously made way for Mark Wright, even though the Derby defender carried a thigh injury. Attacking midfielder David Rocastle, whose skill, speed and smoothness had shone in five qualifiers, lost out to Trevor Steven, an excellent player with more prosaic skills.

Stevens’ inclusion would create a great pub quiz question: which club supplied the most players to England’s 1990 World Cup squad? The answer is Glasgow Rangers, whose quartet of England stars consisted of Steven, Terry Butcher, Gary Stevens and Chris Woods.

Robson had privately decided to select Paul Gascoigne after watching him demolish Swindon Town in the fifth round of the 1988 FA Cup. The tabloids had demanded Gazza’s inclusion but, even in April 1990 when England faced Czechoslovakia in a friendly, Robson harboured doubts about a 23-year-old midfielder who could be “daft as a f*cking brush”. After 10 minutes of manically stupid football, Gazza had a hand in three goals and, with Robson about to substitute him, scored with a Maradonaesque solo as England won 4-2.

“Everyone thought Gazza was good for the squad,” Gary Lineker told FourFourTwo. “He had to play and he was such a character – hyperactive and very funny – he played an enormous part in the team spirit.”

In the weeks ahead, Gazza would dive into a swimming pool while covered in toilet paper, invent bizarre table tennis strokes (he was especially proud of the double backhand) and give his long suffering roommate Chris Waddle a cappuccino made out of bath foam. No wonder Robson was always asking: “Where’s Gazza?”

Vice-captain Terry Butcher, who once wore a blazer and jockstrap to dinner, even outdid Gazza. The vital role of the squad bookies was taken by ‘Honest Links and Shilts’ while the song players usually warbled was not the slick World Cup theme World In Motion but the catchy, primitive: “Let’s all have a disco, la la la la.”

THE GROUP OF DEATHLY BOREDOM
Having humiliated England at Euro 88, Holland and the Republic of Ireland again stood in England’s way in a Group F also containing Egypt. That humiliation continued on June 11 1990 in Cagliari’s rain-swept Stadio Sant’Elia when England drew 1-1 with Ireland in a match so dire Gazzetta Dello Sport headlined their report: “No football please, we’re British.” Even some England players were appalled. As Waddle told Pete Davies (author of All Played Out, the best book on Italia 90): “I never dreamt I’d end up on my own 18-yard line, chesting it down and hoofing it upfield.”

"This isn't what I signed up for..."

Lineker put England ahead with opportunistic efficiency. Unfortunately, Steve McMahon gave the ball away to Kevin Sheedy. The Everton player may have had, as Roddy Doyle put it, a “mammy’s boy haircut”, but still slammed the ball past Peter Shilton to score Ireland’s first goal at the World Cup finals. The most entertaining moment was Gazza nearly punching Irish right-back Chris Morris before deciding to hug him.

Group F was shaping up as the Group of Terminal Boredom. Holland had been so shiftless in their 1-1 with Egypt that coach Leo Beenhakker, retreating to a locker room with the Dutch squad to avoid a lightning storm, berated his players, telling them to forget Euro 88 and focus on the task in hand. That task was England. But before the teams met, Robson would authorise a tactical revolution that signalled the end of English football’s isolationism.

The spark for England’s revolution was Robson’s determination to thwart the Dutch strikers. “I’d got it wrong against the Dutch in 1988 when we lost 3-1,” he told FFT, “when I had two against two against Van Basten and Gullit. Then I decided I’d play with a sweeper to cover myself against the Dutch and the Germans.” Even before the tournament started, Butcher feared for his place: “I didn’t think I’d fit into the sweeper system Robson had in mind.”

“You might say Robson’s insecurity won out over his conservatism,” says Pete Davies, "and made him play the extra safety card against his own professed beliefs.” The players wanted to discard 4-4-2 for 3-5-2 too, using Mark Wright as a sweeper. Waddle and John Barnes believed Robson’s 4-4-2 was conservative and constricting. They rehearsed their arguments in Waddle’s room, while Gazza, fingers in his ears, chanted “La la la” in protest at all this tactical talk.

Despite strong rumours to the contrary, there was no great players’ revolt. Using a sweeper was mooted, discussed and debated until Robson, after mulling it over with assistant Don Howe, reversed his previous opposition to the idea. It was a hell of a gamble during a World Cup and Robson would later revert to 4-4-2 when necessary.

"Right then, let's try something different..."

With Wright as sweeper, England played with adventure and flair and should have beaten Holland. England were so comfortable that Gazza even ran up to Ruud Gullit to ask him how much he earned at Milan and were only denied a late victory when Pearce’s indirect free-kick flew straight in, despite Hans van Breukelen attempting to save it.

Yet Robson came to believe that the promising 0-0 was the match that fatally compromised England’s World Cup hopes. At half-time, skipper Bryan Robson’s injured Achilles tendon was agonising. After 65 minutes, he came off and David Platt rushed on to mark Gullit, thinking: “F*cking hell, I ain’t leaving him for a second.”

The skipper’s faith healer, Olga Stringfellow, flew out but the tendon proved immune to miracle cures. England’s captain was out, for the second World Cup in a row. His manager was still bitter 15 years later: “We had to send our best player home injured. Argentina and West Germany played with their best player, we didn’t. Would Argentina have won in 1986 without Maradona? Certainly not.

"Robson would have made a difference, even though Platt played superbly. The way Gascoigne was at that time – a precocious, highly-talented, inflammable kid with great ability – would have worked well with Robson's steadiness and captaincy.”

Over and out: Robbo makes his final World Cup bow

Before the last round of games, all four teams in Group F had the same record – Played 2 Won 0 Drawn 2 Lost 0 For 1 Against 1 – raising the distinct possibility that England’s fate might have to be decided in FIFA’s glass bowls.

But Egypt manager El-Gohary played for a draw, hoping the Dutch would beat the Irish and his side would qualify in third place. Two Egyptians were booked for time-wasting but Mark Wright headed home a Gazza free-kick to score his only goal for England. When he finally realised his side were out, Egyptian keeper Ahmed Shobair became so hysterical that he needed medical attention.

IT'S A KNOCK-OUT: HERE COME THE BELGIANS
Next up were Belgium in Bologna. The favourites were still West West Germany, Holland (the suspicion being that such a gifted side couldn’t be that rubbish forever) and Italy – but as England left Sardinia, Gazza whispered to Waddle: “You know Waddler, we could win this.”

England were fluent enough to look like potential world champions against Belgium – and so were the opposition. The sweeper system looked unduly cautious against a side that played most of the match with one striker, but the shape suited England. Barnes had a goal dubiously disallowed for offside, while Belgian’s great attacking midfielder Enzo Scifo, the game’s most creative influence, hit the post. Gascoigne was booked, for a late tackle on Scifo. Nobody thought much of it at the time.

"No more of that, young man, or there'll be tears!"

With 118 minutes gone, Eric Gerets brought Gazza down. On the touchline, Robson was shouting himself hoarse: “I knew time was edging out and I remember getting to the touchline and shouting to make sure my voice would get to Gascoigne about 40 yards away. I shouted ‘Ball, Gazza!’ and he kinda looked and I said, ‘Put the ball into the box’.

“He was just going to nudge it to the side. With a minute to go the only way we could score was not to play that square pass. Gazza floated it and Belgium couldn’t defend, the ball was too good and Platt’s volley too superb. He swivelled and it came over his shoulder, a difficult skill, but Platty did it – wonderful timing, kept his eye on the ball, let it come over his shoulder, swivelled and hit it at the right height. Six inches higher and it goes over the bar.”

Platt had also screamed at Gazza to put the ball in the box, before drifting into space on the defender’s goalside. “All I could think about was making decent contact and directing it goalwards," he told FFT. "I didn’t pick a spot, I just wanted to get it on target. The ball caught the keeper more by surprise than anything.”

...cue pandemonium

England were in the last eight against Cameroon. The Three Lions or the Indomitable Lions would face West Germany, who had beaten the Dutch and the Czechs. Coach Franz Beckenbauer now felt that only Italy posed a serious threat to his country’s third World Cup.

As England’s quarter-final kicked off in Naples, the German squad sat down to watch in their hotel in Erba, north of Milan. Beckenbauer was angry, incensed by the Germans’ mistakes against the Czechs. His mood worsened as his players cheered on Cameroon.

“Do you really prefer to play Cameroon in the semis?," shouted Beckenbaeur. "What if we have a bad day and go out? We’ll be the world’s laughing stock! Those Africans are unpredictable, with England you know what you’re going to get. And if we lose to them, well, that won’t be the end of the world.”

England were fazed by Cameroon’s unpredictability. Things had started to go awry in the tunnel. “It was a long way from the dressing room to the tunnel in Naples,” Butcher recalled. “And all we could hear was singing. It was the Cameroon team waiting for us, singing reggae songs. Bobby thought it was a psychological ploy and said, ‘Right, come on lads, sing your World Cup song’, but somehow we didn’t get it together.”

During the national anthems, Platt noticed that Cameroon “seemed built for boxing rather than football”. Yet England had been assured this tie was effectively a bye to the semis. As Lineker told FFT: “Howard Wilkinson, who scouted them for us, said: ‘I shouldn’t be telling you this, but they’ve got four good players out and you’ll beat them easily.’” The England No.10’s bruised toe had prevented him training fully but before the game Robson shouted: “Forget about your bloody toe, just go out and score.”

Wilkinson’s prediction seemed accurate when Platt headed home Pearce’s perfect cross. But Cameroon were, Lineker said, “awesome going forward”. England’s confusion was exemplified by Gascoigne who, Robson said, was “chasing after the ball like a cat chasing a ball around the back garden”. At half-time, Robson told Gazza: “You can’t play like that in international football unless you want to be destroyed.”

Gazza gets (over-)involved

The manager considered substituting Gazza but kept him on. He must have regretted it when Gascoigne felled Roger Milla in the box and Cameroon equalised from the spot. Four minutes later, with England in shock, the Lions went 2-1 up when Eugene Ekeke lifted the ball over Shilton after a crafty give and get with Milla.

Robson discarded the sweeper, withdrawing Terry Butcher and bringing on Trevor Steven to attack down the right, subtly changing the balance of play. Even so, Platt admitted: “With eight minutes left I honestly thought we were going out.” Then Lineker ran onto a ball from Wright and was clattered, winning England’s first penalty since February 1986.

Platt, the penalty taker at Aston Villa, offered to take it but quickly stood down: “I could see the focus in Gary’s face and wasn’t surprised when he said no.” Lineker made no mistake. He was, as Robson quaintly put it, “a competent boy”.

Though England were reeling in extra time – Wright literally so, blood pouring from his head after a clash with Milla – Lineker underlined his cool competence in the 105th minute. Gazza redeemed himself with a precisely engineered pass that put his Spurs team-mate through on goal. Brought down by keeper Thomas N’Kono, the England No.10 blasted the second spot-kick straight down the middle and into the net.

After the game, Robson asked Lineker what he’d been thinking before that decisive penalty. “My brother flashed through my brain as I put the ball on the spot,” Lineker replied. “I thought if I score this one my brother will come and see the semi-final. The FA had said 'If you get to the semi-final, we’ll bring the families out'.”

"Dear bruv, wish you were here, love Gary"

The ordeal had exhausted England. Lineker had lost half a stone in the Neapolitan heat. As the players trooped off, Waddle said to Robson: “Some f*cking bye”.

"WE BLOODY BEAT THEM"
West Germany beckoned in Turin’s Stadio dello Alpi on July 4. Beckenbauer felt England would be fast, strong and honest but technically imperfect and predictable. But he respected their resilience and was troubled by Gazza, whom he described as “smart, defiant and bold, like the leader of a children’s gang. Behind his angular forehead, he could cook up ideas you didn’t expect.”

The pressure was on West Germany. Platt felt this did England no favours: “It was the first game we were clear underdogs, which some say helped us play with freedom, but if I could turn back the clock I’d put the pressure right back on us.” England, Platt said, “thought we could win; the Germans thought they would win”.

The camp was euphoric as the semi-final approached. Butcher was wearing clothes back to front and eating meals in reverse order. Before Robson’s team talk, Lineker wrote a phrase on a flip-pad. The squad listened intently to catch the moment when Robson uttered the immortal words. After two minutes of extolling West Germany’s strengths, Robson, as Lineker had predicted, said “We beat them in the bloody war though,” and the players burst into laughter.

Robson had instilled in Gazza the importance of neutralising German playmaker Lothar Matthaus. Having said “No problem boss, just leave it to me,” Gascoigne nutmegged Matthaus just to show him who was boss.

Enter the gladiators...

Robson had ordered England to – as Bryan Robson would say – “welly into this lot” and not let the Germans settle. For 45 minutes, they did just that and more, playing brilliantly, but not scoring. At half-time, Beckenbauer told West Germany to run the ball at England’s defence. The tactic paid off after an hour when Andreas Brehme’s free-kick deflected off Paul Parker’s backside and looped over Shilton.

“It was just unlucky,” said Robson, “the ball had a vicious swirl on it. There was only an 18-inch gap between Shilton’s hand and the bar – and that’s where the ball spun in”. But England were resilient. In the 80th minute, when Parker’s cross confused Jurgen Kohler, Lineker juggled the ball to the left with his thigh and shot low into the left corner: a sublime, efficient, opportunist strike worthy of Gerd Muller.

In extra time, Waddle and Guido Buchwald hit the post. After three rolls by Brehme and orchestrated indignation from the German bench, Gazza was booked and would miss the final. The iconic tears in Turin flowed. Lineker pointed at his temple to tell Robson Gazza had lost it. Robson shouted back: “You talk to him, make sure he doesn’t do anything daft.” Gascoigne gradually regained his composure. But at 1-1 after 120 minutes, penalties loomed.

Robson put Gazza down as penalty taker No.6. “I doubt if he could have taken one,” he said. “He was distraught. He broke down on the pitch while they were being taken.”

"Gazza – watch Pearcey and learn"

Gazza was spared. West Germany scored four penalties, but Pearce and Waddle failed. Pearce’s was on target, saved by Bodo Illgner. Waddle remembered feeling as if he “were stepping off the edge of the world into silence” before his penalty soared over the bar.

Robson felt bereaved afterwards: “It was very difficult just to walk around and be yourself.” Waddle was physically, spiritually and emotionally flattened. Gascoigne and Lineker still looked in tears as they slipped onto the bus. Somebody – possibly Steve McMahon or Gazza – started a song. Lineker looked away at first but before long they all joined in, even doing a routine with their arms as the bus drove off.

England’s melodramatic heroics in Italy had unexpected repercussions. The team’s popularity – over 200,000 turned up at Luton Airport to see Gazza don fake breasts – persuaded sports minister Colin Moynihan he couldn't really object to UEFA’s plan to lift the ban on English clubs in Europe, in place since Heysel in 1985.

By renewing the nation’s jaded passion for football, England’s success laid the foundations for the Premier League. The British middle class’s rediscovery of football became official when Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch became a bestseller in 1992.

Ironically, the one aspect of English football that wasn’t transformed after Italia 90 was the national team. Gascoigne and Platt enjoyed lucrative moves but Graham Taylor dismantled the team and the continental sophistication of the sweeper system was replaced, with stupefying rapidity, with a style of football exemplified by the question: “Can we not knock it?”

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78: Boney, baldy, bendy and bonkers

2010-05-25T08:09:00Z

Kicking off as Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon stood at No.1 in the charts, Argentina 78 was a mysterious wonderland of ticker tape, cigarette-smoking managers, exotic kits, unrecognisable names and great mops of curly hair. And that was without Kevin Keegan.

After getting over the realisation that England weren’t in the competition – again – Britain relied on Scotland to do us proud. The Scots were on the march with Ally’s army, confidence high, and were certain they were coming home with the cup (because Ally McLeod made a promise Rafa would be proud of). But someone forget to let Peru and Iran know the plan: they took four points off the Scots in the first two games.

However, Scotland managed to spare their blushes by nearly qualifying for the second stage, beating the mighty Holland 3-2 in their final game. The game caused hundreds of Subbuteo Scotland players to be brutally disfigured, receiving receding hairlines via penknife surgery after the follically-challenged Archie Gemmill scored one of the greatest ever World Cup goals, jinking past what seemed like the entire Holland side and coolly chipping the advancing keeper.

The new official Adidas Tango match ball hypnotised us youngsters, partly because of its wonderful pattern, but mainly because it was named after a fizzy drink. Nelinho, like most of his Brazilian team mates, could bend the ball like a banana and against Italy he belted in an unbelievable swerving goal with the outside of his right boot.

Children could be seen replicating the strike on the school playgrounds the next day with their own “Tango”, which wasn’t hard to do as those days the only available balls were made of plastic and flew through the air like a burst balloon.

While Scotland were failing to live up to their own hype, Britain’s other representative, Welsh ref Clive Thomas, was doing his usual job of attempting to wrest the limelight from the players – stunningly successfully.

In the final minute of Brazil’s game against Sweden, Zico nodded home the winner from a 90th-minute corner – but Thomas claimed he had blown his whistle after the ball had left the Brazilian’s head and before it had entered the Swedish net. It was no surprise that the Welshman wasn't appointed for the final – a rare moment of common sense from FIFA.

Common sense was certainly missing from Peruvian keeper Ramón “El Loco” Quiroga. In the final minutes of his side’s game with Poland, Quiroga made his way up the field in search of an equaliser but was caught out by a quick clearance. Still in his opponents' half he took actions into his own hands, rugby-tackling the Polish attacker and picking up, rem, a yellow card.

The Argentinian-born keeper was never too far away from the headlines. With hosts Argentina needing to beat Peru by four clear goals to progress to the final, he picked the ball out of his net six times, and the Argentines were on their way to their first World Cup victory.

As Olivia Newton John claimed No.1 spot in the charts with You’re The One That I Want, the hosts got their hands on their object of desire as Holland’s total football couldn’t contain the firepower of Luque and Kempes and the hosts won 3-1 in extra time.

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90: The lost brilliance of Yugoslavia

2010-05-24T14:35:00Z

Ivica Osim seems like an old man now, weakened by the stroke that put an end to his reign as coach of Japan in 2007, and reflective on his life and what his legacy may be. “When I lie in bed not sleeping,” he says, “I think of two things. I turned down Real Madrid twice, and that might have meant more people knew me, and I wonder about 1990.”

He was the coach of a supremely gifted Yugoslavia team that, after being blown away by a magnificent West Germany in their opening game, came back to light up the tournament with their technical football. They beat Spain 2-1 in an epic in Verona, before unluckily going out on penalties to Argentina in the quarter-final – having played 90 minutes with 10 men following the dismissal of Refik Sabanadzovic.

“The team was far, far better than the country,” said Osim. “I’m not sure it’s good to talk about it because football is football and life is life. Football is a pretty game, but it’s not larger than life. It would be an illusion to make a lamentation about that generation of players, and not to talk about what happened afterwards.

"Lots of people have been killed. The country was destroyed. It’s not fair for me to talk about the players and not to talk about what happened next. Sometimes there are things that are more important than football. One thing is sure: if the players were in charge instead of the politicians, nothing could ever be like this.”

The classic line-up

He ranks the game against Spain, when Dragan Stojkovic scored twice and played well enough to earn a move to Marseille, as the best in his time as national manager. “You see the result and you see a positive result, so automatically you think it’s the best game of the tournament,” he said.

“But also I think that game was special because Spain was always a football force. It was important in showing that we had the same number of good individuals as Spain. And it was the sort of game in which players could make sure they stood out from the crowd. Stojkovic did that, but even without that game he would have been a great player.”

That set up the quarter-final against Diego Maradona’s Argentina, and it was then that the political situation began to intrude. “That should have been the biggest game, but it was played at the wrong time, because we had a lot of other problems and the team could not concentrate.

"Srecko Katanec, who was a really, really important player for us, said 'Please, don’t pick me' a few hours before the game because he had received a threat in his city. He was afraid to walk around in Ljubljana because of threats. I can understand that’s not a nice position. How can he play? If he goes to play in Italy and his family stays in Ljubljana then they are under threat. I can’t persuade anybody not to think about that.”

And so Yugoslavia slipped out on penalties, and a squad that also included Robert Prosinecki, Davor Suker, Darko Pancev, Dejan Savicevic and Alen Boksic would never come together on the big stage again. They were expelled from Euro 92 as the war began, and by 1994 the federation had ceased to exist. The young team of 1990 remains frozen forever in time, an unsullied force of amazing but unrealised potential.

OTHERS NOT SEEN AGAIN
West Germany: They won the last tournament before reunification, but the expected domination of the European game never materialised.

USSR: As Mihail Gorbachev’s reforms led to fragmentation, the USSR endured a limp final tournament, losing 2-0 to Romania and Argentina before beating Cameroon when they were already out.

Czechoslovakia: The goals of Tomas Skhuravy carried them to the quarter-final, since when the Czech Republic have carried their flame – until this summer, when Slovakia make their tournament bow.

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90: The c**k-ups

2010-05-24T13:51:00Z

You could still get away with a bit of old-fashioned, moronic racism back in 1990. “I’ll only get into trouble if his mother's back home watching the game sitting up a tree,” blabbered enlightenment beacon Ron Atkinson (off-air) after calling a Cameroon player “absolutely brainless” while commentating on their match against England. Big-but-not-clever Ron ran out of luck 14 years later for a similar clueless outburst.

Ireland gaffer Jack Charlton also sailed close to the racial wind when he was asked which of the Egyptian players had caught his eye. “I couldn’t tell you – I don’t know any of their names,” he said. “There was the guy with the beard, the dark lad in midfield, the little dark lad who played centre midfield, the very coloured boy, and the boy who played up front.” Stick that in your Panini album.

Egypt: You don't know, Jack

At the opening ceremony, FIFA President Joao Havelange and the President of the Italia 90 Organising Committee both thought that the other official was meant to make the first speech. As a result, no oratory took place, saving everyone 20 minutes of tedium.

Amid allegations of corruption, mismanagement dogged Italy’s overhaul of its stadiums and infrastructure. The San Siro pitch in Milan was permanently damaged, Bari inherited a 60,000 bowl they couldn’t fill, and a bespoke tube line in Rome was closed permanently at the end of the tournament. Millions of pounds were lost.

Clanger-prone England manager Bobby Robson dropped a classic in the tunnel before his side’s quarter-final against Cameroon. “Come on lads, this lot don’t look up to it,” he said, eyeing the opposition. “We speak English, Mr Robson,” came the amused African response. After the game, Robson said of the opposition: “We didn’t underestimate them. They were a lot better than we thought.”

The Italian FA saw the World Cup as a way of bridging the country’s sharp north-south divide, but they hadn’t taken Maradona into account. Before the semi-final between Argentina and Italy in Naples, the Argentine agitator appealed to the home crowd to support his side. “For 364 days a year you are treated like dirt and then they ask you to support them,” said the Napoli star. It didn’t work: his every touch during the game was jeered by the Italians.

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90: The age of the great goalkeeper

2010-05-23T09:00:00Z

The general consensus is that World Cup 1990 was a stinker. Beyond memorable moments from Milla, Gazza and Schillaci, the tournament was plagued by dishwater-dull, defensive games and a chronic lack of goals: Argentina made it to the final after scoring only five times, and five knockout matches – including both semis – were settled on penalties.

But if the strikers were thwarted and neutrals trudged home with numbed minds, one group of men could consider the Italian summer a triumph: goalkeepers. The globe’s custodians boarded their return planes with a record-breaking 31 clean sheets, and only nine games out of 52 saw a team concede three or more times. Strong defences must take huge credit – Italy’s ruthless backline boasted Maldini, Baresi, Ferri and Bergomi – but this was also a golden time for goalkeeping: across the competition, proud behemoths stood between the sticks.

Men like Spain’s Andoni Zubizarreta, who would play over 700 professional games, 126 for his country and four consecutive World Cups. Hans van Breukelen, who minded Holland’s nets for over a decade. Brazil’s Taffarel, who found himself eliminated from Italia 90 despite letting in just two goals. Packie Bonner, who patrolled the Irish goalmouth for 15 years. And USSR’s Rinat Dasayev, nicknamed ‘the Iron Curtain’ and rated by many as the best keeper of the 1980s.

Five other men, however, have got genuine claims as the summer’s premier glovesman. Germany won the tournament in no small part down to Bodo Ilgner, who was in exceptional form throughout. He marshalled his backline with authority and was near unbeatable one-on-one. His semi-final penalty save against Stuart Pearce saw Germany through, where Ilgner would become the first man to keep a clean sheet in a World Cup final.

Illgner holds off England one-handed

The other finalists, Argentina, also owed much to their No.1, Sergio Goycochea. After keeping a clean sheet in the defeat of Brazil, he was the star of two crucial shoot-outs: against Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals, and again in the semis against Italy, where he blocked efforts from Roberto Donadoni and Aldo Serena. El Goyco also got close to saving Brehme’s penalty in the final. He was selected for the All-Star Team by FIFA jointly as the best keeper of the tournament.

The man who shared this honour was Costa Rica’s Luis Gabelo Coneja. Although he played just three group games and let in two strikes, Conejo made a string of brilliant, athletic saves against Scotland, Sweden and Brazil. Unfortunately, he was injured for the second round game against Czechoslovakia, who scored four past his depleted side.

Peter Shilton surely also had a claim: the Englishman who clocked up 1005 career games and 125 international caps over a 33-year career was at his commanding best in 1990, where he managed three shutouts, helping set a still-unbeaten record of ten World Cup clean sheets.

Italy’s Walter Zenga, however, can probably consider himself the unluckiest stopper in the tournament – and perhaps the history of the World Cup. The Italian legend broke the record for the length of time between letting in World Cup goals, not conceding once in the group stages, second round, or quarters. Unfortunately, when he finally did, it was a clanger.

After 517 minutes of goallessness spanning two tournaments, Zenga failed to grab a high ball against Argentina, allowing Caniggia to nod home. Italy drew 1-1, lost the shootout and Zenga was crucified by the press for his mistake. Even during a record-breaking summer, the world’s No.1s were getting it in the neck, begging the age-old question: who’d be a goalkeeper?

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90: A big shock, a great grudgefest and a dodgy drink

2010-05-22T09:01:00Z

Right from the start, Italia 90 had its fair share of noteworthy games – from cup shocks to clashing giants and an intrigue-filled derby clash...

BIGGEST SHOCK
Cameroon 1-0 Argentina
As the teams gathered in the San Siro centre circle for the national anthems ahead of the opening game of Italia ’90, all eyes fell on Diego Maradona. The genius who had almost single-handedly won the previous World Cup looked supremely confident.

While the Cameroonians awaited kick-off nervously, the Argentine captain performed a series of extraordinary tricks, spinning the ball cleverly off his toe and juggling with shoulder-flicks and deft headers. He looked about as nervous as Mike Tyson entering the ring for a bout with Hannah Montana.

The Africans weren’t even considered good enough to rank as underdogs in the eyes of the world: they were simply here to make up the numbers, shooting practice for a Big Gun in the tournament’s curtain-raiser.

The world, it transpired, was an ass. With hindsight, this result perhaps shouldn’t have been considered that stunning. Argentina may have eventually ground their way to the final via a series of penalty shoot-outs, narrow victories and alleged cheating (see Dodgiest Game, below) but the reigning champions were a long way shy of their sparkling 1986 vintage.

Cameroon, meanwhile, possessed a powerful frontline and would eventually be unlucky not to reach the semi-finals themselves. For now, however, they had the element of surprise on their side: no African side had ever progressed beyond the group stages of the tournament, and they weren’t expected to start here. Cameroon also possessed some pretty cynical tactics: from the whistle, they steamed into Argentina.

Maradona, jeered throughout by the partisan Milanese crowd for his Napoli connections, later complained that the Indomitable Lions had not turned up to play, merely to kick Argentina into submission. He had reason to be bitter: the Argentine talisman was double- and treble-marked completely out of the game.

"Get him!!"

The South Americans had the best of the early exchanges, however, and came close to scoring after just four minutes – until Abel Balbo, presented with an open goal, tripped over the ball. Minutes later, Nestor Fabbri thundered clear of his marker and unleashed a brilliant right-foot effort which was blocked by keeper Thomas Nkono. As the game wore on, though, Cameroon’s defence tightened and the counter-attacks began.

Emmanuel Makanaky capitalised on some defensive confusion to punt a weak shot goalwards, which was only just shepherded out by defender Nestor Lorenzo. Suddenly the Africans looked like possible winners. Level at half-time, the pressure and slick Cameroon passing continued after the break. But on the hour mark, an appalling foul on Claudio Cannigia by Andrea Kana Biyik resulted in a red card.

The dismissal didn’t deter the Lions: they took the lead five minutes later when an unmarked Francois Oman Biyik headed a free-kick through the legs of goalkeeper Pumpido. Now pouring forward, Cameroon stretched the Argentine defence time and again. In the dying minutes, Benjamin Massing was also dismissed following an obvious foul on the unfortunate Cannigia. But his nine team-mates clung on for a famous victory.

At the time, it felt like a genuine mugging: the biggest upset since North Korea beat Italy in 1966. Everyone thought it was a fluke – The Sun’s headline the next day read: ‘LOONY ‘ROONS BARGY ARGIES’. But Cameroon went on to prove that it wasn’t by beating Romania to win their group, knocking out Colombia in the second round, and scaring the bejesus out of England in the quarter-finals.

African football had finally gained something it sorely deserved: respect. Plucky opening-day underdogs, meanwhile, would never be treated with casual disdain again.

BEST GAME
West Germany 2-1 Holland
It may be best remembered for a generous gobload of Dutch phlegm entering a dodgy German perm, and this Euro grudgefest was extremely nasty in parts, but it was also a humdinger of a game: two nations with bucketloads of previous going head-to-head at the San Siro.

The fans disrupted each other’s anthems before the match, and it didn’t take long for the nastiness to spread to the pitch. Within the first minute, Holland’s Adri van Tiggelen badly hurt Pierre Littbarski. End-to-end chances followed, but then tensions exploded between Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Voller, leading to the infamous spitting incident and both men getting dismissed. "I went berserk," admitted Rijkaard.

Flobber-job: Frank's phlegm riles Rudi

The bitter deadlock was finally broken by Jurgen Klinsmann, who tapped in a pinpoint cross on 51 minutes. Holland’s Gerald Vanenburg went close to equalising, Lothar Mattheus nearly doubled the lead and Henk Fraser hit the post. Andreas Brehme finally added a second on 85 minutes, and despite Ronald Koeman’s late penalty, the Dutch couldn’t recover in time.

DODGIEST GAME
Argentina 1-0 Brazil
The last World Cup meeting between the Latin arch-enemies was highly controversial: after the match, Brazilian defender Branco claimed he’d been drugged with tranquilisers by the Argentine bench, who’d handed him a bottle of Gatorade during a stoppage in play.

The incident became known as ‘The Holy Water Scandal,’ and the debate about what occurred still rages. The Argentine Football Federation has always denied the allegations, but Maradona has since claimed that the water was drugged – although he had nothing to do with it – and during a magazine interview in 2005, manager Carlos Bilardo said: "I'm not saying it didn't happen. I don’t know." Whatever the truth of the matter, it has added fuel to an already-fiery rivalry ever since.

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90: Italia – arias, stadia and Draconia

2010-05-22T09:00:00Z

Italia 90 was hardly a festival of flowing football – but, writes Chris Hunt, it changed the way we watch the game

In many ways the 1990 World Cup failed to live up to the hype. The football was often dour and negative, while the final itself was an unattractive display of foul play that was overshadowed by two red cards and settled by the most dubious of penalties.

But while not a tournament for the purists, somehow Italia 90 contained enough moments of high drama to capture the imagination, enshrining operatic aria Nessun Dorma in the football psyche. Legends were created out of players such as Totò Schillaci, Paul Gascoigne and Roger Milla, while the 52 matches reached a combined TV audience of 26 billion – twice the viewing figures achieved by Mexico 86.

Italy had been awarded the right to host the World Cup while still champions in May 1984, beating off the challenge of the Soviet Union, and on the eve of the tournament the Azzurri were favourites to lift the cup. Able to boast the most competitive league on the planet, Italian club sides had managed a complete sweep of European trophies a month earlier, and nothing less than victory was expected of the hosts.

The thrilling Dutch side of Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten arrived in Italy as European champions, but unsettled by internal strife they would prove the biggest disappointments. While the pragmatic Brazilians of 1990 were hardly the beautiful team of years gone by, the West Germans managed to conform to their own stereotype of quiet efficiency and seemed a good bet.

England, meanwhile, had qualified without conceding a single goal, but still managed to finish second in their group, having to qualify as one of the best runners-up. France weren't so lucky: semi-finalists in 1982 and 1986, they missed out completely under young coach Michel Platini.

No expense was spared in the build up, as the Italians embarked on a major overhaul of their football infrastructure, but the planning for Italia 90 was dogged by corruption and controversy. Ten existing stadia were completely renovated, while two more were constructed from scratch in Bari and Turin, both of which were far too big for the clubs that would occupy them after the competition.

The opening game, in a refurbished San Siro

In Rome a new metro line was built just for the World Cup, connecting the city centre to the Olympic Stadium, but the line closed after the tournament and has never re-opened. The Italian state spent public money freely on their program of regeneration, but the scale of the corruption would later be exposed in one of the largest judicial investigations in Italian history.

The format of the competition remained the same, with 24 teams competing in six groups of four, the top two teams and the four best third-placed sides progressing to a knockout second round. In an attempt to improve the quality of the football, FIFA tinkered with the laws of the game and, with very little planning, outlawed the ‘Professional Foul’.

Strict instructions were given to referees to issue draconian sanctions for foul play, and the tournament’s opening game – a shock defeat of world champions Argentina by outsiders Cameroon – saw the first two of a stream of red cards. It set the tone for Italia 90. By the end of the tournament, 16 players had been sent-off – double the highest number previously seen in a World Cup.

Chris Hunt is the author of 'World Cup Stories: The History Of The FIFA World Cup' (Interact Publishing).

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86: What Happened Next for the winners?

2010-05-21T15:58:00Z

The 1986 champions are often derided as Diego Maradona plus 10 others, but proud Argentinian Martin Mazur brings you right up to date...

Goalkeeper: NERY PUMPIDO
A year after winning the World Cup, he almost lost a finger when his wedding ring got stuck in a goal-frame fixing during training. Successfuly repaired, he then broke a leg during Argentina’s second game in Italy 1990. As a manager, he won the Copa Libertadores with Paraguay’s Olimpia in 2002. Now sporting director of Union.

Sweeper: JOSE LUIS BROWN
Always defined as ‘on-pitch manager’ by Carlos Bilardo, who appointed him as his assistant at Boca Juniors in 1996. Currently manages the Argentina’s U17 team. After his side’s elimination in the 2009 World Cup, he said “I’d happily dig a pit and bury myself here.”

Defender: JOSE LUIS CUCIUFFO
After retiring in 1994, the utility player opened a bar and founded a football school that taught Japanese kids. A big hunting fan, he died in December 2004 at the age of 43, accidentally shot by one of the rifles he was carrying.

Defender: OSCAR RUGGERI
An Albiceleste icon, he amassed a record 97 caps, helping Argentina win two Copa Americas and playing at Italia 90 and USA 94. Also South America’s 1991 Football of the Year. Unemployed as a manager since 2006, he was wanted by Maradona as assistant coach, but FA president Julio Grondona declined.

Midfielder: RICARDO GIUSTI
The holding player turned inside out by John Barnes in the latter stages of the quarter-final was a key player at Italia 90. Now an agent, in December 2000, he crashed into a tractor. He survived, but his wife died.

Midfielder: SERGIO BATISTA
The bearded short-pass master who inspired the likes of Fernando Redondo developed a cocaine problem in the 1990s. Fully recovered, he is currently Argentina’s U20 manager, having guided the team to Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008.

Midfielder: HECTOR ENRIQUE
After a busy 1986 winning the Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup (both with River Plate) to go with the World Cup, the right-winger moved to Lanus, then played in the J-League. Recently hired by Maradona as Argentina’s, er, goalkeeping coach?!

(Back, l-r) Batista, Cuciuffo, Garre, Pumpido, Brown, Ruggeri, Maradona
(Front, l-r) Burruchaga, Giusti, Enrique, Valdano

Midfielder: JULIO OLARTICOECHEA
Earnt a move to Nantes on the back of his World Cup performances, but returned to Argentina after just one season. Performed well at Italia 90. Currently works as assistant manager of the U17 team.

Midfielder: JORGE BURRUCHAGA 
The scorer of the winner in the final was involved in a match-fixing scandal at Valenciennes, in France, and was suspended for 18 months in 1994. Has shown a far more defensive approach as a coach than he did as a player and has had moderate success with small clubs.

Striker: JORGE VALDANO
Kept reading books, as he did during that World Cup in Mexico. After retiring from football he settled in Spain, where he became a successful manager, first at Tenerife, then at Real Madrid. Articulate and intelligent, he took over as Real Madrid sports director and shaped the Galactico era for Florentino Perez. Now both are back.

Striker: DIEGO MARADONA
Where have you all been hiding for the last 25 years? Guided Napoli to another league title, post World Cup, and Argentina to another World Cup final. Then came problems with drugs (recreational and performance-enhancing), controversy and an unlikely return to Argentina colours as manager. Whatever next?

Substitute: NESTOR CLAUSEN
The right-back had a successful career in Switzerland but failed to impress back in Argentina. A largely unsuccessful managerial career has thus far taken in Bolivia, Switzerland, Oman and Kuwait.

Substitute: PEDRO PASCULLI 
The only out-and-out striker in the squad, who scored a vital goal against Uruguay, settled in Italy, becoming a legend at Lecce. Coached the Ugandan national team and in Albania before being appointed as manager of the Italian beach soccer national team.

Manager: CARLOS BILARDO 
Still angry for conceding two goals from corners in the 1986 final, El Narigon (‘Big Nose’) failed at Sevilla, Boca Juniors and Estudiantes, but dismissed his critics by saying: “I only discuss with Beckenbauer.” Briefly coached Libya before trying to run for the Argentinian presidency. Now Argentina’s national team director.

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86: The gamble that won the World Cup

2010-05-20T15:23:00Z

Argentina arrived a divided team with their coach about to be fired, but then, writes Chris Hunt, a brave decision to make Maradona skipper made all the difference.

In the dressing room of the Azteca, minutes after winning the game’s ultimate prize, the emotion of the achievement finally got the better of Diego Maradona. Waving a towel above his head, Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain led the players in a euphoric rendition of a terrace chant aimed at the critics back home who had doubted the squad, their style of play, their coach and their captain.

“Argentina’s going to be champions,” he sang. “We dedicate this to you all, even the f***ing whore who gave birth to you.”

If lifting the World Cup on that sweltering Mexican afternoon was a moment of glorious vindication for a group of players who had been written off back home, for their controversial captain it was stone-cold proof of his football greatness. That it came on the same world stage that had witnessed his failure in the flourish of a red card four years earlier only added to the satisfaction.

A bunker mentality had helped the team pull together through. It had been a long and rocky road to glory, beginning in late 1982 with the appointment of Dr Carlos Salvador Bilardo as team manager.

As a player, Bilardo built his reputation with the roughhousing Estudiantes team of the late-1960s, and as national coach his tactics and team selection – a stark contrast to the flair of his predecessor Cesar Menotti – proved unpopular, even causing outrage at the highest levels of government.

“Some of our players had zero approval from fans, journalists and from football leaders,” says defender Jose Luis Brown. “Bilardo was the only one who trusted us. We had to leave a month early for the World Cup, because rumours had it that the secretary for sport would have Bilardo fired. So Bilardo arranged everything in just two days and we went to Norway, from Norway to Israel, and on to Switzerland. We got to Mexico a month before the World Cup and we had already been around Europe for some 20 days.”

From the outset Bilardo knew what he wanted and communicated his plans directly to the players, visiting his overseas stars such as Jorge Valdano at Real Madrid and Jorge Burruchaga at Nantes. He would play them videos and borrow their club team-mates to rehearse set-pieces. “That’s the origin of the story ‘Burruchaga crosses in Nantes and Valdano heads it in Madrid’,” explains Bilardo.

Breaking with Argentinian football traditions he evolved a revolutionary 3-5-2 formation, with a sweeper in front of two central markers and five across the midfield. He wanted his team to play with the European discipline he so admired, dominating the centre of the park and allowing Maradona the freedom that was so important to his game.

Carlos Bilardo looks on from the touchline

“Bilardo saw football in a way we were not used to in Argentina – tactical, the way you were supposed to live, the way you were expected to think,” says midfielder Jorge Burruchaga. “As a coach, first of all he thinks about the ‘nil’, making sure no goals are scored against you.”

“The team was based on a very solid architecture and, in the midst, a genius who was granted the privilege of freedom,” explains striker Jorge Valdano, now  sporting director at Real Madrid. “The influence of Maradona was so significant it seemed to spread to the entire team, yet the team was very structured from a tactical viewpoint, and each one of us had very precise obligations.”

The voice of command

As Bilardo geared up for the start of Argentina’s qualification campaign in May 1985, Maradona had not played for his country since his red card at Spain 82. The accepted wisdom was that his record-breaking transfer to Barcelona had been a failure, but his time there had been dogged by serious injury and illness. A move to Napoli in 1984 had revitalised his career and Bilardo was certain he knew how to handle the psychological frailties of this uncoachable player. Even when Maradona had been injured at Barcelona, Bilardo had still jetted off to Europe to spend time with his star.

“People said, ‘Maradona failed in the national team, why do you trust him?’, but I trusted him because he was going to be the best player at the World Cup. It was my time to coach and I trusted Maradona. I believed that with him, if he was really fit, we could tip the balance in games.”

Bilardo’s most controversial decision was to select his wayward star as skipper ahead of Argentina’s iconic World Cup winner, ‘El Gran Capitan’ Daniel Passarella. Bilardo shocked the Argentinian media with the news that the only name certain to be in his World Cup starting XI would be Maradona. This vote of confidence brought out the best in the player and allowed Bilardo the luxury of building a team around his captain. “He made Diego understand that this World Cup had to be his World Cup,” says Brown.

Argentina arrived in Mexico as a divided team. While the coach had the support of the players he had brought through the youth ranks, the inclusion of Passarella led to split loyalties, a problem solved when the former captain was ruled out through injury. With Passarella sidelined, Maradona was able to exert his leadership and create a new sense of belief. “Maradona was always the voice of command, the voice that said how things were going to be,” explains Burruchaga. “He set a daily example for us and gave us his advice.”

Says Brown, “Diego woke up before everybody else, he took the lead in our practice sessions, and when we were all gone, he would stay to practice. He set an example in all respects and that’s why we were proud to have him as captain. We had great players in that side but when you have the best player in the world, and he is going through the best stage of his career, we revolved around him. There is no doubt about that in my mind.”

Maradona punching above his weight

Argentina were considered contenders, but not favourites, yet the team grew in confidence, cruising through the early stages with Maradona displaying flashes of brilliance. It was in the quarter-final against England, however, that Maradona would cement his legend and earn his notoriety.

When a reckless lobbed backpass from Steve Hodge saw Maradona jump with Peter Shilton, even the photographers failed to capture the ball deflecting into the net off Maradona’s raised fist. In the wake of the Falklands War, pick-pocketing the English in such a way was a satisfying experience for every Argentine. It was a perfect example of what they called viveza, taking the short cut to success.

“There isn’t a single Argentinian willing to say to the referee, ‘Look, it wasn’t a goal’,” explains Valdano. “We’ve been brought up to celebrate cheekiness and cunning. Perhaps many of the social and economic problems in Argentina would have been solved if we could understand that what we call viveza is in other countries regarded as crime. Viveza is deeply rooted in the Argentinian psyche, and when you get away with it, you celebrate.”

At the time Maradona coyly referred to the goal as being, “a little of the hand of God, and a little of the head of Maradona”, but this moment of supreme impishness only served to inspire a fantastic solo strike six minutes later. The same afternoon, back in their hotel the squad watched Belgium beat Spain after extra-time and penalties, setting up what they viewed as an easy semi-final.

“As soon as it was over, we went into the corridor to shout and hug each other,” says Valdano. “All these expressions of joy showed we had much more respect for Spain than for Belgium.”

Three days later, Belgium were defeated by another sublime Maradona performance that included two breathtaking second-half strikes to rival his wonder goal against England. “Of course without Diego we would not have won with such brilliancy,” says Valdano. “Those goals raised football to a higher level and confirmed his condition as a football artist.”

Air of composure

The Argentines now feared no one. As they waited to face West Germany in the World Cup final, the unusual pre-match composure was captured in a dressing room photograph that midfielder Ricardo Giusti would show to Valdano many years later.

“Clausen, Giusti, Maradona and myself were there, and it looks like a picture taken before going to mass, not of people in competition. It shows four players completely relaxed, waiting for a game of no particular significance, with no signs of tension. We realised we were going to play the most important game in our lives, but were waiting for it to arrive with a lot of calm. We had no doubt we would win.”

The air of composure was only shattered by a moment of sheer theatrics from Maradona, who voiced a loud plea for help to his mother. According to Valdano, this outburst was an eccentric act of reassurance. “It was his way of saying, ‘even I’m scared, it’s normal’.”

Maradona is held aloft after Argentina's final victory

Maradona was the outstanding star of the tournament, but Bilardo had calculated that in the final the West Germans would try to mark him out of the game. It was now up to rest of the players to prove they weren’t simply a one-man team.

The final would be Maradona’s quietest game, shadowed as he was throughout by Lothar Matthaus, yet in a magnificent all-round team performance he still earned the free-kick from which Brown headed the opener, started the move that created the second for Valdano and provided the through ball that set up Burruchaga for the winner.

The game had seen Bilardo’s grand plan in operation, but for the coach the only sour note was that his well-drilled defence had relaxed at 2-0 to allow the Germans to score twice from corner kicks, a move he thought he owned. “I stood up and kicked a bucket of water,” he recalls. “I was not happy afterwards. The players said,  ‘But Carlos, we are World Champions’. I said, ‘Yes, but they scored twice from corners’.”

For all the column inches devoted to Maradona, the triumph was as much a testament to the talents of Carlos Bilardo, vilified in his own country just weeks earlier. A banner in the crowd read, ‘Sorry, Bilardo. Thank you’, while in due course his 3-5-2 formation would be taken up around the world. But even at the point of his greatest triumph, this obsessive student of the game was unable to stop hatching plans.

“We were in the shower singing,” says Brown, “and he came to tell us, ‘Just remember we’ve got a World Cup to defend in 1990’. Only a half hour earlier we had won the World Cup and he was already thinking about the next one.”

While the players continued to celebrate, their mastermind was addressing the press with Dr Raul Alfonsin, the President of Argentina. When he returned he discovered his squad had already departed. “I found myself alone in a huge car park,” said Bilardo. “I started walking in the direction of where we were staying until an official car stopped and I asked how to get back.”

When he reached the hotel, Bilardo locked himself away to contemplate the achievement. There was no outward show of emotion, but he was certainly pleased to have proved his critics wrong. “Winning a World Cup is reaching the top of the world,” he explains. “As they say, ‘You can argue, but when the man shows up with the World Cup, you shut your mouth’.”

Chris Hunt is the author of 'World Cup Stories: The History Of The FIFA World Cup' (Interact Publishing).

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86: The best team never to reach a World Cup semi

2010-05-20T14:00:00Z

They cruised through the ‘group of death’ with their breaktaking brand of total football, but, asks Rob Smyth, were Sepp Piontek’s laid-back legends the best team ever not to reach the quarter-finals?

As the World Cup has grown, so there has been less to discover. Once it was a thrilling voyage of discovery on which fans could marvel at previously unseen players, but a combination of saturation, globalisation and the internet means it is now full of familiar faces.

Of the 32 teams that will take part in South Africa in the summer, only Japan and North Korea are not represented in English football.

In 1986, by contrast, only five of the 24 sides had players in the Football League: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Algeria (Notts County’s Rachid Harkouk) and Denmark, who had John Sivebaek and Jesper Olsen at Manchester United and Jan Molby.

None of these were regulars for their country, such was the quality of the squad, and that meant that the Danes remained thrillingly unknown. Even though they only reached the last 16, Sepp Piontek’s "Danish Dynamite" side were a revelation. FIFA’s technical report said they "played the most spectacular football during the tournament".

They romped through their ‘Group of Death’ before losing 5-1 to their Spanish nemeses in football’s saddest, maddest thrashing.

With their ultra-attacking style and air of effortless, insouciant cool, they fired the imagination in a way that few sides have before or since. Svend Gehrs, Denmark‘s answer to John Motson in the 1980s, captured the mood when he called them an "unconquerable team of optimists".

Raw talent coursed through the side. Up front they had Michael Laudrup, the world’s best young player by a distance, and Preben Elkjaer, determination incarnate but also exceptionally gifted with both feet.

The midfield comprised Soren Lerby, an unyielding warrior who was so hard that he played without shinpads, the wonderfully incisive Frank Arnesen and the two unsung, blue-collar heroes, Jens-Jorn Bertelsen and Klaus Bergreen. Jesper Olsen and Molby, stars in English football, struggled to get a regular game.

The defence was marshalled by Morten Olsen, who almost accidentally discovered the libero role in his thirties and took to it so well that arguably only Franz Beckenbauer has performed better in that position. Olsen, who played international football into his forties, read a game as if he had written it.

The Danish side line up to face Scotland in their opening fixture

All excelled in the "contra" system devised by their German coach Piontek. The fluidity of their play, allied to sublime individual ability, prompted a multitude of comparisons to Holland’s Total Football side and made them everyone’s second team during Mexico 86. While Denmark’s passing carousel bore comparison with any of the time, their biggest strength was probably their array of dribblers, particularly Arnesen, Elkjaer, Laudrup and both Olsens. All were quick but, more importantly, all had a destructive change of pace.

"The spirit we had is like Spain today, or Holland in Seventies - we wanted to play the ball around and let the opposition do the running – but the system was our own: it was 3-5-2, and in Holland they play 4-3-3," says Elkjaer, who finished third, second and fourth in the voting for the Ballon d’Or for three consecutive years from 1984 to 1986.

"It was a very positive style, because we were not able to just defend – of course we would go back when we didn’t have the ball but we didn’t go back with 10 players."

The skill of Piontek lay not only in his unique system but also in his ability to know how far he could impose his own values on the Danes.

"He came with a lot of German discipline but also knew he had Danish players – they also need some of their own responsibility and he found a good balance between discipline and freedom," says Morten Olsen, coach of the national team since 2000.

"We couldn't play as a German team, we had to play as Danes. He knew that and that was very, very clever."

Piontek never fully managed to change the DNA of the side, and it feels apt that they are the only team since the 1950s to score and concede at least five in one match at the same World Cup.

While the team were full of proper professionals – their Mexico 86 squad included players from the champions of Italy, West Germany, Holland, England and Belgium – there was an endearingly amateurish spirit. The sense of fun was palpable, most obviously in the video for their unashamedly camp World Cup song, Re-Sepp-Ten; they enjoyed a beer when they could; Elkjaer and the defender Ivan Nielsen would often sneak out for a sly cigarette at half-time.

Preben Elkjaer-Larsen celebrates scoring against Scotland

They came across as ordinary blokes who were as boyishly fascinated by their own success as the Danish public. Even their kit, a groundbreaking Hummel affair that was premiered on live TV in Denmark, was the one everyone wanted.

"One of the reasons we were so popular is that we were very accessible to the media," says Elkjaer. "We liked to have visitors from the press, and I think that approach was very helpful, because all the foreign journalists said, ‘Oh, they are very nice’. And they wrote nice things about the team, the players, and the feeling that was surrounding the team. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of humour. The Danish mentality is different from many other countries: the fans and the players were there to enjoy themselves."

The colourful Roligans – Rolig is the Danish word for calm and mild-mannered – became known for their peaceful support of the team. "I think we had 20,000 Danes in Mexico, and there were no problems with them," says Elkjaer, "They drunk a bit of beer but there was no fighting. They were there to enjoy themselves and make friends with the other teams and with the Mexicans. All in all there were so many positive things about the team, the fans and the way we played that it was very difficult to say anything bad about us."

Denmark had reached the semi-finals of Euro 84, having coolly eliminated England in qualification, but this was their first-ever appearance at a World Cup; they were drawn alongside West Germany, Scotland and the South American champions Uruguay, whose manager Omar Borras coined the phrase ‘The Group of Death’.

They stormed through, beating Scotland 1-0, Uruguay 6-1 – when Elkjaer scored three and made two, yet was still overshadowed by an individual goal of shimmering brilliance from Laudrup – and West Germany 2-0. After the win over Uruguay, a Mexican TV commentator said: "Senors, Senores, you have just witnessed a public fiesta of football."

In the aftermath of the same game, the great Swedish writer P.O. Enquist said: "They should dedicate a green field in heaven to Laudrup and Elkjaer. We, the spectators, will come to this heaven and cheer them after this divine evening."

After the first week of the tournament, the Guardian's David Lacey opined that they were "at the head of a distinguished list of European candidates" to win the tournament. Yet it was in the final group game, against West Germany, that things started to unravel.

In the dying seconds Arnesen, unusually on edge all game because his wife had suspected meningitis, was sent off for kicking out instinctively at Lothar Matthaus and suspended for the second-round match. Not only would he be sorely missed, but his replacement Jesper Olsen would start in his position on the right of midfield and play one of the most infamous backpasses in football history.

The other problem was that, because they had topped the group, Denmark would face Spain rather than Morocco in the last 16. It has subsequently been suggested that they should have thrown the game, but they had never beaten West Germany – except for a friendly in 1971 when Germany fielded an amateur side – and the chance to bloody another aristocratic nose was too great to resist.

Spain's Emilio Butrageno with one of his four goals in the rout

"I didn’t hear anybody talk about losing the game at the time," says Elkjaer. "It’s just impossible for a player to go out and say, ‘We don’t have to win today’. It’s certainly not the Danish way. Piontek didn’t say anything about that; if he had we would have said, ‘Are you crazy?’ So we won 2-0. What can you do? Anyway, we were fairly sure that we would beat Spain, because we were a better team than them."

Molby concurred. "The truth is," he says, "that we felt we could take them all."

They looked like they would take Spain for almost all of the first half. Jesper Olsen’s gloriously cocky penalty gave them a deserved lead but then, in a vicious twist of fate, he played an appalling, casual backpass on the stroke of half-time that gifted Emilio Butragueno an equaliser.

Even now, a serious faux pas in Denmark is described as a "rigtig Jesper Olsen" (a real Jesper Olsen), whether by the general public or even in parliament.

The seductive appeal of such an apparently symbolic moment has led to the widespread perception that the nature and timing of such a traumatic error flattened Denmark, yet they were irrefutably the better side at the start of the second half, with Elkjaer almost scoring twice.

Only when Butragueno headed Spain into the lead in the 56th minute did things start to go so dramatically wrong: Denmark overcommitted, with their 3-5-2 formation often more like a 3-1-6, and were shredded on the break. Butragueno scored four times and Denmark were trounced by a team who were becoming used to doing a number on them: Spain beat them at Euro 84, Euro 88 and in an unforgettable qualifier for USA 94.

"At 2-1 and 3-1 it became an all-or-nothing game and then we were open and too easy to counter-attack," says Elkjaer. "Before that it was an even game and we could have won as well. Nobody in the team blames Jesper Olsen; it’s part of the game. Afterwards we were in shock, because it was impossible with our team that we could lose 5-1. That is the worst thing about it. You can lose a match against Spain – anyone can lose against Spain – but 5-1 is ridiculous. That, for my taste, was too much."

The post-mortems suggested that success would also have been too much; that Denmark’s folksy psyche had no room for the ruthlessness needed to win a World Cup.

"This Danish attitude started creeping in after the group stages, where players thought, 'Oh well, we've made it this far, we've done brilliantly and nobody can blame us'," said Piontek in Tynd Luft. "At the end, there was something missing in their frame of mind. This transition to: 'We can and we must!' Perhaps it hadn't succeeded as well as I thought.”

"The problem for us was that it was our first World Cup, in the hardest group, and we won it," says Elkjaer. "So then you get content, and the team thinks, ‘Oh, even if we go the next game we can still go back and say it was a success’. That was what happened. If you play for Germany, England or Italy, only if you win the World Cup can you go back and say it was a great success."

History does not always remember the runners-up, never mind the also-rans, but the legend of Danish Dynamite has deservedly endured.

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86: Lineker – 'My World Cup in pictures'

2010-05-20T07:00:00Z

Gary Lineker won the Golden Boot at Mexico 86 with six goals for England. FourFourTwo went through the photo album with him...

“Not a grey hair in sight! I look at this and think that I’d have been a better player if I’d bulked up. I would like to have been stronger. That’s what they do to young forwards now – get them to the gym.”

“Robson looks like he’s doing a Paula Radcliffe here! He’s also got a great perm. It was some kind of fitness exercise I guess.”

“This is Ray walking off after throwing the ball at the referee. He was so disappointed after that game. It was very hot and he’d just got frustrated."

“This is Robson having his shoulder put out again. He was so unlucky with injuries. He could have made all the difference in the later games."

“Everybody who played in the 1980s knew about this sort of nonsense going on among the England fans. But you don’t really notice it when you’re out on the pitch."

“Bobby meeting some local kids – they all loved him. He was naturally good with people wherever he went, and it helped with the atmosphere of being at a World Cup.”

“I was happy with that one. I had a feeling I’d beat the keeper. I chested it, and took it on the half-volley, left-footed. It flew in. The atmosphere was poor: that bit of the ground in the background was the only area that was full. Monterey was a quiet, strange place. It was blazing hot and we were so drained afterwards.”

“I was suddenly surrounded by press, doing lots of interviews after games. I’m pitchside with Jim Rosenthal of ITV here. You don’t really get an impression of all the madness going on back at home, but things like this, getting mobbed, give you an inkling.”

“I think he’s being arrested for impersonating a police officer here! Peter is a really nice guy and he got on with everyone. He was great to be around – and what a partnership we had, the best I ever had."

“I was off the pitch getting treated at the time, I’d had an elbow in the throat. Peter assumed my position and scored. I was pleased but gutted, it should have been me! I could have had hat-tricks in consecutive World Cup games!"

“This is the third goal against Paraguay, and my second. It made me top scorer in the tournament. The atmosphere was a bit better here because we were in the knock-out stages. I’m still a bit disappointed I didn’t get a hat-trick though!”

“I’ve always been a sun-worshipper, and I get out in it whenever I can, but it was totally ridiculous in Mexico. Look at those nut-huggers Barnso is wearing! He couldn’t get into those these days – not with his belly...”

“This is taken at the Azteca before the Argentina match. It was a great stadium and the one place where we had a really superb atmosphere. The mood in the camp was great, unlike some of the haircuts."

“The best goal I’ve ever seen, and on an absolutely terrible pitch, too. It’s the only time as a player where I’ve felt like I ought to clap. I just thought 'Wow'. If there was ever a man who dragged a team to win a World Cup, it was him in 1986.”

Gary Lineker presents Match of the Day for the BBC. To read an interview with 'Links' about Mexico 86, click here

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86: The best teams' worst shootout ever

2010-05-19T11:55:00Z

There are games of great technical merit, there are games of high drama, and very occasionally, there are games that have both. This was one of them.

It brought some redress from the fates to France for their semi-final defeat to West Germany four years earlier. Then, they had suffered a heinous foul by a goalkeeper and had been eliminated in the a penalty shootout; here they again suffered a dreadful unpunished foul by a goalkeeper, and were taken to another penalty shootout, but this time went through.

Brazil were ageing, but had come through their group with a 100 percent record and without conceding a goal, before thrashing Poland 4-0 in the second round (albeit after the Poles had twice struck the woodwork).

France, the European Champions, had pursued a similar course, efficient rather than spectacular in the groups before beating Italy 2-0 in the second round. In Guadalajara they produced what Hugh McIlvanney called in the Observer, "perhaps the most extraordinary contest in the entire history of the World Cup".

It was Brazil who struck first as Muller twice exchanged passes with Junior, who switched the ball inside for Careca to sweep over Joel Bats. Soon after, Careca rounded Bats and cut the ball back, only for Muller to hit the post.

The suspicion was that France were struggling to deal with the heat, but gradually, they too began to flow. Four minutes before half-time, Alain Giresse released Dominique Rocheteau on the right. His deflected cross eluded Yannick Stopyra, but Michel Platini was at the back post to celebrate his 31st birthday with a World Cup goal, just as he had celebrated his 27th by scoring against Kuwait.

Bats saves from Socrates

Careca headed against the bar, Stopyra and Jean Tigana both wasted one-on-ones, and then, with 73 minutes played, Zico, who had come off the bench only two minutes earlier, set Branco free. He tumbled over Bats' challenge, then celebrated prematurely as the referee awarded a penalty.

Against Peru in 1978, Zico had converted a penalty shortly after coming off the bench, but this time his kick was weak, and Bats saved comfortably. It was a foretaste of heroics to come, but first there came the moment that cast French minds back to Seville four years earlier.

Bruno Bellone, a substitute as Battiston had been, was sent through by Platini. Carlos came careering from his goal and, with two hands, grabbed Bellone. It was a clear and cynical foul, but Igna waved play on. Brazil broke, Careca crossed, and Socrates somehow missed what was effectively an open goal.

"We all thought back to 1982," said full-back Manuel Amoros. "But you play on, try to make it different this time."

Penalties again. Bats, leaping to his right, saved superbly from Socrates, but then West Germany had missed first in Seville. Bellone hit the post, the ball bounced back, hit Carlos and went in; it shouldn't have counted, but it did.

Luck was with France, but then Platini, the dead-ball specialist, scooped his kick over the bar; the sense of deja vu was overpowering.

"I couldn't believe that Platini, of all people, had missed," said coach Henri Michel. Julio Cesar then hit the post, leaving Luis Fernandez to convert and send France to another semi-final.

The demon of West Germany, though, couldn't be slain, and they lost 2-0.

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86: “Uday Hussein shaved my perm"

2010-05-19T11:20:00Z

It is a very modern managerial conundrum, made prescient in the age of bottle-fed prima donnas that seem to place club paymasters over national glory: How do you motivate your players when they play for their country? Fabio Capello seems to have found the answer. Fear. Yet fear can only get you so far, as arguably the most macabre World Cup campaign in the history of the competition proves.

The Iraqi national team arrived at Mexico 86 with the spectre of Saddam breathing down their necks. More precisely Uday, his bloodthirsty emissary, son and one time heir to Hussein’s brutal political dynasty. As head of Iraq’s Olympic Committee, Uday used more than fear to motivate his players. Instead he relied on beatings, mock executions and torture to ensure victory at every level of the game, from the national league to international qualifiers.

“He was a thug… he called us and threatened us with things like physical abuse and sending us to the front lines of the [Iran-Iraq] war,” says Iraqi legend Basil Goreis, who played at Mexico 86.

The World Cup was important for Saddam Hussein. The Iran-Iraq war, which would claim more than a million lives, had been raging for six years with no end in sight. The nation’s men were being massacred in the mustard gas-filled trenches on Iraq’s eastern border, and the nation needed some good news.

But when qualification for Mexico 86 had begun, war had robbed the Iraqis of home advantage. Much like when the modern Iraqi team was banished to neutral venues, but somehow went on to win the 2007 Asian Cup, the Iraqis overcame neighbours Syria in a two-legged play off. Uday and Saddam sniffed political opportunity.

But conventional preparations hadn’t been going so well. Uday refused to consider playing England or Brazil, who had made noises about a possible friendly. Instead, he insisted on a tour of amateur clubs in Brazil. “Uday didn’t want to lose,” said Goreis. “Even Brazil wanted to play us. Uday used to tell us: ‘What’s the difference between you and the Brazilian player? You wear Adidas shoes and he wears Adidas shoes.’ It was a joke. We ended up playing Flamengo and losing 3-1.”

Awaiting orders at Mexico 86

By the time the Iraqis arrived in Mexico, they were ill-prepared and scared to death. Yet Uday had convinced himself that, not only would Iraq qualify from a tough group including Belgium, the hosts and Paraguay, they could actually win it. Accordingly, Uday demanded that the team dropped its traditional colours at the last minute and play in gold. It didn’t work. Iraq lost all three games by a single goal, scoring once. Goreis managed to get himself sent off. The Golden Generation of Iraqi football returned home to an angry dictator, who ordered the players be beaten.

“You knew that if you didn’t play well, Uday would do something bad,” Ahmad-Rahim Hamad, a young striker in that squad, told FourFourTwo in 2007. “I loved Kevin Keegan, he was my best player and I had a perm like him. Uday shaved everybody’s hair. That’s when I lost my perm.”

Uday’s sickening taste for brutality was nurtured during his time in charge of Iraqi football. The beatings got worse. According to those who managed to flee the country, Uday was personally involved in the torture of several footballers, boxers and wrestlers. One practice match, after an unsuccessful World Cup qualifier, was played with a concrete football. By the end of the ’90s he was throwing tortured sportsmen and women into vats of sewage to infect their wounds.

Unsurprisingly, Iraqi football’s stock plummeted. From the Golden Generation of the 1980s, the team fell to 139th on the FIFA rankings by 1996. Even today the scars of that era are damaging Iraqi football. Hussein Saeed Mohammed, Iraq’s greatest ever player, graduated from the class of ’86 to become President of the Iraqi Football Association. But the FA was disbanded in November, and subsequently banned by FIFA, over political interference. Officially, the reason was to root out corruption.

Unofficially, Mohammed’s presence, a Sunni who also happened to be Saddam’s favourite player, was a divisive figure for the Shia-run Youth and Sports Ministry. “We don’t speak of the past,” he said before the suspension, when I asked about Iraq’s experiences at Mexico ’86. “No players have suffered like Iraqi players have suffered.”

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86: The dirtiest game and the seven-goal thriller

2010-05-17T16:23:00Z

Jose Batista was at the peak of his career when he played at Mexico 86. The left-back, then 24, had set up one goal and scored another, from a free-kick, in the win over Chile that qualified Uruguay for the tournament. But the third game in Group E changed his career forever, and ensured that Uruguay’s tough reputation would not be changing anytime soon.

Uruguay had gone into the tournament with that reputation: even their 1950 World Cup side was known as ‘garra charrua’, generously translated as ‘Uruguayan-Indian tenacity’, and a warm-up match against Mexico had been far from friendly.
Uruguay coach Jorge Omar Borras had called Group E 'The Group of Death'. By the time his side met Scotland in the final Group E match in Nezahualcoyotl, Uruguay had drawn 1-1 with West Germany and lost 6-1 to Denmark.

They had had four players booked and one, Miguel Bossio, shown a red card (after 19 minutes of the Denmark capitulation). Scotland, though, had lost both their matches and were already out, while Uruguay needed a draw to reach the next round.

Their task was made harder within a minute of the match starting, when referee Joel Quiniou sent off Batista for a late challenge from behind on Gordon Strachan. "They were trying to intimidate the opposition and it’s great for world football if all referees use the red card so quickly," said Bobby Charlton, commentating at the time.

The tackle itself was the first of the game and Batista was stunned to see the colour of the card. "I think the referee over-reacted, for sure," he told FourFourTwo.

"I tackled Strachan, but it wasn't that hard. I've seen many harder tackles go unpunished since then, I can tell you. I wasn’t a violent player: in more than 20 years, I only got sent off four times. I never spoke to Strachan after the game – and as for Quiniou, he said something to me as he brandished the card, but I didn’t understand what it was."

"Get up and get off"

Despite the one-man advantage, Scotland couldn't break down their resolute opponents: their best chance fell to Steve Nicol, whose shot from seven yards was well saved by Fernando Alvez, while half-chances went to the wrong players, defenders Richard Gough and Roy Aitken. In fact it was Uruguay who had the best opportunity to score, Wilmar Cabrera’s point-blank header punched to safety by Jim Leighton.

There was more drama to come after the game, when Borras claimed his team were victims of a refereeing conspiracy and even called Quiniou "a murderer". Scotland coach Alex Ferguson, on the other hand, was furious at the South Americans’ tactics. "It's a shambles, a complete shambles," he said after the game.

"I mean, it’s not just a part of football, it's the whole bloody attitude of the nation. You can see that attitude there. They have no respect for other people's dignity. It's a disgrace what they did. Their behaviour turns the game into a complete farce… But there you are, we're out of the World Cup. I can't even say good luck to Uruguay because I don't think they deserve it."

Batista still holds the record for the fastest red card ever shown at the World Cup, a fact often mentioned by his players at Deportivo Espanol, the Argentine team he coaches. "I did feel better after the game as at least we qualified," he added. "I don’t think Ferguson’s comments made any difference to our reputation, and it was clear he was just angry his side had been knocked out. But I have no doubt that we were a better team than Scotland."

Uruguay only lasted one more game in Mexico, a 1-0 loss to neighbours and eventual winners Argentina in the first knock-out round. There were seven yellow cards in that game, but not a red one.

...AND THE BEST GAME AT MEXICO 86

Pity Igor Belanov: only three times in World Cup history has a player scored a hat-trick and ended up losing. It’ll be scant consolation that he was involved in one of the finest international games ever – a 4-3 extra-time loss to Belgium that eliminated his superb USSR side.

The Soviets – including seven Dynamo Kyiv players – had impressed with their buccaneering football in the groups, thrashing Hungary 6-0 and matching European champions France 1-1. The injury-hit Belgians, contrastingly, had lost to the hosts, drawn with Paraguay and struggled to a 2-1 win over Iraq, limping through as a third-placed team.

The game began to form: USSR had the upper hand with their crisp passing, and Belanov opened the scoring with a cracking long-ranger. Belgium struggled to keep further attacks at bay, and would have been happy with 1-0 at half time.

Belanov bangs a belter against Belgium

The second period was epic. Belgian icon Enzo Scifo hit an equaliser, but 20 minutes later Belanov struck again, slipping the ball under keeper Jean-Marie Pfaff. On 77 minutes Jan Ceulemans beat the offside trap and fired home another leveller. Both sides almost grabbed late winners, but to the delight of the watching millions, the game went to extra-time.

Twelve minutes in, Belgium went ahead for the first time, Stephane de Mol heading home Eric Gerets’ cross. The underdogs sniffed victory on 110 minutes, as Nico Claesen struck a sweet volley past Dassaiev. But just a minute later Belanov hit back, converting a penalty. It was a nerve-shredding final few minutes, but Belgium stood firm to win.

Dirtiest Game written by Ben Lyttleton, Best Game by Nick Moore

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86: OLÉ! The chaotic story behind a World Cup that had everything

2010-05-17T14:40:00Z

It shouldn't even have been staged there, but World Cup 86 in Mexico had everything, most of it revolving around a diminutive genius by the name of Diego Maradona - Chris Hunt sets the scene...

Born out of chaos, Mexico 86 was a hugely successful tournament, illuminated by the brilliance of Diego Maradona, who would thrill with his ball skills and enrage with the temerity of his self-proclaimed ‘Hand of God’.

But that the competition was staged in Mexico at all was a tale of intrigue and suspicion that even caused the straining of relations between the hosts and neighbours USA.

Mexico were no more than stand-in hosts in 1986. The competition had been awarded to Colombia, a nation riddled with economic uncertainty and football corruption, but late in 1982 Colombian authorities declared they could no longer underwrite the costs of the event.

Brazil, Canada and USA were all prepared to rise to the challenge, but when FIFA met in Stockholm in May 1983, Mexico was selected without even the discussion of a USA bid, despite the impressive presence of Henry Kissinger among the American delegation.

When it was discovered that the tournament would be staged by Mexican broadcaster Televisa, whose president was a close friend of FIFA’s Joao Havelange, the decision outraged the Americans.

This chap puts modern mascots to shame, frankly

Mexico looked to be an eccentric selection. Aside from problems of heat and altitude, this was a nation suffering from its own financial crisis, with unemployment at record levels.

Further doubt was cast over Mexico’s ability to safely stage the event after a severe earthquake hit the country. Killing an estimated 20,000 and leaving 150,000 homeless, it caused $4 billion worth of damage in just three minutes, and with the World Cup only eight months away, it was a surprise that the Mexicans were allowed to continue.

Mexico 86 will always be remembered as Maradona’s World Cup, but it was no certainty that the world’s greatest player would take to the stage, even though he was desperate to exorcise the ghosts of Spain 82, when a red card ended his campaign.

Argentina’s controversial coach Carlos Bilardo had built his team around the temperamental star, but a cartilage injury was rumoured to be jeopardising Maradona’s chances of making the finals. In the end he performed unhampered by injury and his impact was comparable with that of Pelé in 1958.

For all the talk of Maradona, Brazil were favourites, but key injuries posed tough questions about their chances. They even arrived in Mexico without defender Leandro, who had declined to travel in protest at the axing of winger Gaucho for a breach of the squad curfew.

"Don't squeeze too hard, Pete - I'll need this for later..."

Reigning champions Italy were also hardly the vintage of four years earlier, while the Germans were not yet the team they would become under coach Franz Beckenbauer, who spent much of this tournament at odds with his own players.

The British Isles sent three representatives, with Northern Ireland and England qualifying from the same group. Interest in England’s preparations would revolve around the state of Bryan Robson’s injured shoulder, as manager Bobby Robson unrealistically persevered with his favoured midfielder, until the player finally broke down in the fourth minute of England’s second game.

Scotland, meanwhile, had to overcome the death of manager Jock Stein, who was felled by a heart attack in the closing moments of their final qualifying group game, and they were led through the play-offs and to the finals by Alex Ferguson.

The format of the competition was changed once again. For the first time since 1970 the second round reverted to a knockout system, in which the six group winners, the six runners-up, and the four best third-placed teams would feature.

One additional change was a consequence of West Germany’s farcical game with Austria in 1982. FIFA decided that the final two matches in all groups should kick off simultaneously to avoid any suspicion of an advantage, and this system has been used for all subsequent World Cup finals.

Chris Hunt is the author of 'World Cup Stories: The History Of The FIFA World Cup' (Interact Publishing).

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82: The original and harshest Group Of Death

2010-05-13T07:00:00Z

The holders, the triple champions and the eventual winners: now that, says FFT.com's Professor Champions League, is a proper Group of Death...

“It smells of sh*t in here,” said some of the Italian players as they opened a window in their dressing room after defeating Brazil 3-2 in one of the greatest World Cup games ever. It was an unusual way to celebrate but then, for the Azurri, it had been an unusual World Cup.

The media coverage had been so unremittingly awful – one Italian paper even accused Paolo Rossi and Antonio Cabrini of “living like man and wife” – they banned the press. After they had drawn their second game with Peru 1-1, Antonio Matarrese, president of the Italian league, had declared: “This team is a disgrace. I wanted to go down to the dressing room and kick them in the backside.”

Seventeen days later, after Italy had stunned the tournament's glory-boys, Matarrese did go down to the dressing room – not to kick backsides, but in search of a photo opportunities. Midfielder Marco Tardelli recalled: “Several of the less urbane members of the squad opened a window, shouting ‘It really smells of sh*t in here’.”

Matarrese was lucky. As Bearzot told FFT: “One journalist came down to congratulate us and some of the players actually went for him, they were so furious.”

Group C in the second round of the 1982 World Cup was the definitive Group of Death. It contained just three teams: Argentina, the reigning world champions; Brazil, the country that had won the World Cup most often; and Italy, who would win their third World Cup that summer.

Unlike modern first-round groups, only one team would go through, and there were no easy opponents. At all. Compared to this fatal combination of teams, every other so-called Group of Death looks, at worst, like a Group of Mild Discomfort.

THE FLAIRY GODFATHERS

With Italy stumbling into Group C on goal difference after three draws, the two in-form teams from South America were expected to fight for the place in the semi-finals. Brazil were almost ludicrously gifted, especially in midfield where Cerezo, Elder, Falcao, Socrates and Zico were sublime.

Under coach Tele Santana, they had abandoned Claudio Coutinho’s disastrous attempt to combine Brazilian flair and European defensive rigour and reverted to jogo bonito (Portuguese for 'beautiful play'), scoring 10 goals in their opening group games.

Zico (No.10) bags the first of four against New Zealand

As for Argentina, they had won the tournament in 1978 and added the world’s best player, Diego Maradona, to their squad – so how could they fail? Yet Cesar Luis Menotti’s men had lost their opening match to Belgium.

The day after that 1-0 defeat, the Falklands War ended and Ossie Ardiles, whose cousin was killed during the conflict, believes the shock of realising the junta’s talk of glorious victory was all lies demoralised the squad. Jorge Valdano, one of the younger players, called the Falklands effect “b*ll*cks”. The real problem, he said, was that the squad never gelled, fracturing into two camps: the veterans of 1978 and the youngsters.

Worse still, neither Menotti or his players had any conception of how much ruthless effort opponents would dedicate to neutralising Maradona – or the vaguest idea about how to overcome this. When Argentina and Italy kicked off Group C on June 29 in the compact Siarra stadium in Barcelona, Claudio Gentile’s suffocation of Maradona probably decided the match.

GRINDING TO VICTORY

Bearzot’s Italy are often dismissed as a team that ground their way to victory in 1982. Sergio di Cesare, the head of the Italian FA’s international relations and a former Gazzetta Dello Sport chief, begs to differ. “Bearzot was impressed by the way Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer interpreted the role of libero, quickly becoming midfielders when their teams had the ball. And he made Gaetano Scirea Italy’s Beckenbauer.”

In Bearzot’s 3-5-2, it was much easier for Scirea and left-back Antonio Cabrini to attack. The key, Di Cesare says, was “the energy Italy saved by making the ball do the running, moving it accurately and vertically.”

Solid in defence, especially with Dino Zoff in goal, Italy looked for creativity to the underrated trequartista Giancarlo Antognoni. “At the start of the 1981/82 season, he’d been in a coma for two days after a clash with a goalkeeper,” says Di Cesare, “and he didn’t train very well. But he was a pillar of the team, with his intelligence, long vertical passes and understanding of football geometry.”

Unfancied but determined: Italy's 1982 side

Upfront, Bearzot could only rely on Rossi, the Juventus striker rusty after a ban for involvement in a betting scandal. The coach picked Rossi with mixed feelings: “He had been very good alongside Roberto Bettega in 1978, but Bettega wasn’t there anymore. Rossi was the only one left.

"I can honestly say that if I’d had another alternative I wouldn’t have called him up. It was a huge risk gambling on him being able to get into the rhythm of such a demanding tournament and on his desire to make up for past mistakes. But I needed a goalscorer, someone to poach goals in the box in a way that suited the style of play I wanted. If I didn’t take him, I wouldn’t have anyone capable of causing trouble in the area.”

ARGENTINE SURRENDER

In the second of Italy's three first-round group games, a 1-1 draw against Peru, Rossi had been too sick to carry on: “In my legs, my eyes, there was no rhythm,” he admitted. Still smarting from Bearzot’s punishing pre-tournament training, he also looked sluggish against Argentina.

He should have scored Italy’s second. Clean through, he shot straight at keeper Ubaldo Fillol and was lucky that, after some ineffective defending, the rebound eventually became a chance for Cabrini, whose shot found the far corner.

Italy’s fluent first goal had shown how they made the ball do the running. Cabrini cleared to Rossi, just inside the Italian half near the centre-circle. He passed it quickly to Bruno Conti who hit a long diagonal pass which Tardelli left for Antognoni just in front of the penalty area. Looking casual but thinking quickly, Antognoni stroked the ball to his left for Tardelli to score.

With seven minutes left, Daniel Passarella beat Zoff from a free-kick while the Italians were still organising the wall, but it was too little, too late. The reigning world champions had to beat Brazil to survive.

A crude foul on Serginho gave Brazil the lead against Menotti’s team after 11 minutes when Eder smacked the ball against the bar from the free-kick and Zico thumped in the rebound. Gradually, the Brazilian midfield began to dominate and two superb Zico passes settled the match. On 66 minutes, he released Falcao on the right to cross for Serginho to head the second; nine minutes later, he looked as if he was about to be closed down by two Argentines but somehow threaded a precise, diagonal pass to Junior who made it 3-0.

"Oops, sorry old chap." "No, not at all."

Striker Ramon Diaz grabbed a late consolation but Argentina made their biggest impact with two nasty fouls: one by Passarella (which should have earned a red card) and one by Maradona (which did) on defender Batista. It is a mark of Argentina’s impotence that he later admitted he had kicked the wrong player.

THE 1970 REMATCH

With the holders out, the stage was set for a rematch of the 1970 final. The Brazilians were supremely confident, defender Oscar declaring: “We’ll win 1-0 and I’ll score.” But to win 1-0, Santana’s team would need to keep a clean sheet, something they had only managed against a New Zealand team more interested in swapping shirts than playing football.

Brazil didn’t need to win but didn’t have it in them to play for a draw. At times, they lined up as a 2-7-1. That mentality would help pave the way for a result that many Brazilians call the “disaster of Sarria” – and the rest of the world remembers as the greatest World Cup game ever.

The first hint that disaster and greatness might be on the cards came after five minutes. Conti was allowed to run 40 yards with the ball and release Cabrini who curled a reasonable cross into the area. Rossi didn’t have to do anything especially clever to lose his marker; he ran towards the ball and didn’t even have to jump to head his first goal of the finals.

The goal stung Zico and Socrates into life. A beautiful pass by Zico (marked, not all that effectively, by Gentile) took out three Italian defenders and Socrates finished superbly with a low shot from a tight angle. But just when Brazil seemed back in control, Cerezo knocked a square pass roughly in Junior’s direction. Rossi pounced and hit a screamer past keeper Valdir Peres. Junior looked across, noticed Cerezo was crying and told his bereft teammate: “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to smack you in the face.”

Cerezo – along with, rumour has it, full-back Leandro – was distraught at half-time but he made up for his blunder in the 68th minute with a superb dummy run that created the space for Falcao to equalise with a shot that beat the superbly positioned Zoff through sheer power. Falcao celebrated like a man who thought he was already in the semi-final. But seven minutes later, a Tardelli shot from a corner found Rossi, unmarked again six yards from goal, and he completed his hat-trick. At that moment in Rio, a 20-year-old fan shot himself dead.

Boink: Rossi makes it 3-2

Rossi dominated the headlines – his comeback was so perfect, Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better – but Antognoni rivalled Zico as the best player on the pitch, engineering many of Italy’s counterattacks, creating a chance for Cabrini to score and having a goal disallowed.

THE AFTERMATH

For Zico, defeat marked the beginning of an era of “playing for the win, whatever the cost”. Bearzot has a different take on this match: “The game with Argentina was tranquil. The one with Brazil was exalted. But even there was some mean-spirited talk. Our third goal was scored after a corner with all the Brazilians in the area. I repeat: all the Brazilians in the area. Yet we were still accused of playing counter-attacking football.”

In the Brazil dressing room, many were desolated, some players wept. Santana quietly told them: “We gave it our best shot.” Bearzot’s Azzurri went on to dispose of Poland and West Germany but, as he told FFT: “I already felt like we were champions of the world after the Brazil game.”

Q&A Socrates on '82: "In the World Cup, merit doesn't count"

Santana’s Brazil are routinely described as the greatest team never to win the World Cup. In truth, they were the greatest midfield never to win a World Cup. They had a butter-fingered keeper and a leaky defence that left Rossi free in space for two goals.

Then there was third-choice striker Serginho who, though not the donkey some have claimed, could be so clumsy that even Santana said once, after substituting him in one game: “Now the ball is round again.” The idea that Brazil should have won the World Cup because they had the likes of Zico, Falcao, Socrates, Eder in their side smacks of the galacticism that led Real Madrid so spectacularly astray.

People still come up to Rossi in the street. “Often they want to talk about their experiences, where they watched the game,” he told FFT. “It’s nice to feel you’re a small part of people’s history, a little reference point.”

He certainly became a reference point in Brazil, Santana, pelted with rotting fruit at Rio airport, showed true grace under fire by praising the striker’s genius. Later that summer, when a flu epidemic swept through Brazil it was quickly dubbed “Rossi flu”.

More from World Cup Wonderland:

FEATURE: The most amusingly disorganised World Cup ever
FEATURE: Ten of the best for Hungary as El Salvador suffer
VIDEO: The 10 best goals at Spain 82
FEATURE: The most memorable matches of the 1982 World Cup in Spain

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82: The most amusingly disorganised World Cup ever

2010-05-12T13:57:00Z

The 12th edition of the global game's get-together had more than its share of oopsies…

THE DRAW SPECIALISTS
Somebody had clearly been at the Rioja in Madrid before the World Cup draw. In a farcical series of events, the balls representing Peru and Chile were left out the draw completely, Scotland were put into the pot meant for Argentina and the cage containing the balls jammed, with one even falling out and splitting in half. Chaos ensued. Four years later, three young Mexican boys did a far better job.

NEW BALLS PLEASE
Adidas introduced a new ball, the Tango Espana. Although undeniably a delight to look at, its reputed "technological advances" backfired somewhat. The new rubber inlaid seams tore easily, leading to what could only be described as exploding balls. Genuine leather orbs were never used in the World Cup again.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The second round ‘Group of Death’ – involving Italy, Brazil and Argentina – was played out at Espanyol’s 43,000-capacity Estadio Sarria with fans clamouring desperately for tickets. Meanwhile, the lesser lights of Poland, Belgium and the Soviet Union rattled round in a half-filled Nou Camp – capacity 121,749. The Belgium–USSR game only drew a pitiful 45,000.

SILENCE PLEASE
The media fell foul of the Italy team after a series of unfounded rumours spread in the gutter press. One slur suggested that star striker Paolo Rossi and left-back Antonio Cabrini were having an affair, another claimed that the players have been seen "shooting up drugs". The squad decided on a media blackout – silenzio stampa – and the resulting siege mentality didn’t do their football much harm.

STROPS: PRODUCTIVE
Nobody emerged well from the Kuwait vs France game, but ref Myroslav Stupar had a particular shocker. After the Ukrainian awarded a controversial goal to the French, Kuwaiti FA president Sheikh Fahid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah stormed onto the pitch in protest. The pressure he exerted – along with the Kuwaiti team’s 15-minute refusal to continue playing – led to Stupar overruling the strike. He lost his international refereeing credentials as a result.

"Right, lads - one out, all out"

DID YOU KNOW?
* Scotland made their fifth World Cup appearance without advancing beyond the first round. It wouldn't be their last.

* Algeria became the first African side to defeat European opposition in World Cup history, after beating West Germany 2-1.

* This was the first (and only) World Cup where national anthems were played on record, rather than by a live band.

* A record 109 teams entered the initial qualifying phase of the tournament. This dropped to 105 after the withdrawal of Ghana, Iran, Libya and Uganda.

* Argentina and England entered the World Cup in a state of armed conflict over the Falkland Islands. The Argentine military junta was under immense pressure and had invaded the Malvinas in a bid to regain popularity. "Perhaps our trip to Spain should have been cancelled," pondered Mario Kempes after the tournament.

* Italian defender Claudio Gentile was nicknamed Gadaffi because he was born in Libya. "He was like a hunting dog," says Mario Kempes about the ferocious man-marker. "If you went to the toilet, he’d follow you there."

* Germany complained that their travel schedule gave them a disadvantage in the final. Hampered by an airport staff strike (imagine that) after their semi-final against France went to extra-time and penalties, they didn’t fly out of Seville until 4am. "We had one chance in the final after missing a night’s sleep," said Paul Breitner. "To score first and then defend."

More from World Cup Wonderland:

FEATURE: Ten of the best for Hungary as El Salvador suffer
VIDEO: The 10 best goals at Spain 82
FEATURE: The most memorable matches of the 1982 World Cup in Spain

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82: Ten of the best for Hungary as El Salvador suffer day of shame

2010-05-12T07:50:00Z

It’s a score that should only happen in playgrounds, but behind El Salvador’s World Cup record rout was a farcical tale of civil war, corruption, disorganisation and schoolboy defending – Martin Mazur tells the story of Hungary's 10-1 rout of El Salvador.

It is perhaps one of the best-known results in the history of football. On June 15, 1982, Hungary hammered El Salvador 10-1, setting a World Cup record that will stand forever.

The 23,000 people who attended Estadio de Nuevo Elche and paid 800 pesetas for a ticket – about £27 today – could never have guessed that they were going to watch an historic game.

Behind that astounding result, however, lies the story of an El Salvador team whose World Cup campaign consisted of equal parts chaos and farce.

Their qualification was a miracle in itself as civil war was tearing the country apart and wartime training wasn’t easy, as some of the players recall: “If some of us arrived late, it was because we had to assist wounded people abandoned alongside the road,” says defender Francisco Jovel.

Rumours suggest that some players favoured the military government and others sympathised with the guerrillas, but politics didn’t matter in the dressing room.

El Salvador's Jamie Rodriguez was stretched to the limit

“All we know is that when we played the qualifiers, we made the killings from both factions cease,” says another former player, Mauricio Alfaro. “The people united at least for a day. That was our greatest gift, the country was in deep suffering and we had the pressure of trying to reduce it.”

One by one, the Salvadorian minnows defeated their Central American rivals to gain qualification to Spain. But the group in which they were drawn was a bit of wake-up call.

“Argentina were the defending champions, Belgium were recent European finalists and Hungary arrived with a goalscoring record in World Cups. We couldn’t have had worse luck,” says defender Carlos Recinos, now the owner of a shoe store.

A HELLISH TRIP…TO HELL

El Salvador were the last of the 24 finalist teams to get to Spain, arriving after an exhausting 72-hour journey just three days before their debut against the Hungarians.

“Our itinerary seemed as though it was planned by the enemy,” says defender Jaime Rodriguez.

“Eight days before playing the Hungarians, they made us play a friendly against Gremio, then we jumped on a plane to Guatemala, spent a night in the airport, flew to Costa Rica, then the Dominican Republic and finally got to Madrid. From there we took another plane to Alicante.

“When we finally settled, our body clocks were nine hours ahead of European time. We couldn’t get any decent sleep before our debut. Honduras, on the other hand, had arrived in Spain a month before the competition,” he remembers.

El Salvador’s FA hadn’t helped morale when, incredibly, they registered only 20 players. Gilberto Quinteros and Miguel Gonzalez were left behind, according to the president, “because a 20-man squad was more than enough”.

“It was a big blow, not only because the FA took two officials instead of two players, but also because these two members didn’t attend a single game. They simply dashed off soon after arriving, on a European holiday,” recalls goalkeeper Ricardo Mora, now a civil servant.

NO BALLS

Even the team’s accommodation was a crummy shooting lodge near Alicante. “We were treated as third-class visitors,” says Mora.

“The bags and kit FIFA gave us were old – most bared the 1974 World Cup’s logo. It was shameful.” And on top of everything, they didn’t have any balls for training.

“The officials said they’d been stolen. So we sent a player to the Hungarian camp to ask for some. They had received the 25 FIFA sent to every team and they lent us a couple. That was one day before the game,” says Rodriguez.

Hungary skipper (centre) Tibor Nyilasi set the ball rolling

The night before the game, a Spanish agent offered the squad a tape of Hungary in action, so the players whipped round to buy it.

“‘They play just like Paris Saint-Germain,’ our manager told us while we watched it,” says defender Mario Castillo. “We had beaten them in a friendly two weeks before. ‘We have to go and attack them as much as possible,’ he said. That was the biggest mistake of all time.”

“When the national anthem was played, we forgot about everything we had been through. It was emotional,” admits Magico Gonzalez.

Until match day, the Spanish press had focused on the war, but after 90 minutes their angle would change…

FROM ONE TO TEN

It wasn’t the best of starts. Tibor Nyilasi, the Hungarian captain, scored after just three minutes.

Nyilasi recalls: “It was my 50th cap and it was very special; I scored the first and the tenth goal. That game is impossible to repeat. Had we played it 100 times, we would never have racked up 10.

“Actually they weren’t as bad a team as the result suggests. The problem was that they just tried to go forward rather naïvely.”

The odds didn’t look good, but the first half wasn’t a complete disaster: 3-0 at half-time wasn’t as catastrophic as it was about to become.

“They had a number of goal attempts, so we weren’t convinced that the game was over,” explains Nyilasi.

The real problems began when a mix-up between keeper and defender led to the fourth goal going in. “We had never conceded more than three goals before. When they struck the fourth one, we really started losing our nerves,” says Diaz Arevalo, who watched the game from the stands and still thanks the doctors who refused to let him play because of an injury.

After that fourth it was chaos. Fearing the worst, manager Mauricio Rodriguez told substitute goalkeeper Eduardo Hernandez to get ready, but he refused to be sent on under the circumstances.

“We didn’t argue about it. I had wanted to protect Mora from conceding more goals, but then I realised that I risked ruining two goalkeepers’ confidence on the same day. I left Mora on the pitch,” says Rodriguez.

Still, the Salvadorians had one reason to smile. Luis Ramirez Zapata, nicknamed ‘El Pele’, scored the only goal for El Salvador that day, which still stands as the only goal ever scored in their two World Cups.

And even though the score stood at 5-1, he celebrated it as madly as Italy’s Marco Tardelli would later do in the final.

Ramirez’s team-mates couldn’t believe it. “Two of them rushed up and told me to shut up, because the last thing we wanted was to make the Hungarians angrier,” he says.

“They were right to warn me, but it was too late and I was too euphoric. They netted five more in less than half hour.”

"That lad who works the vidi-printer is going to love this..."

El Salvador were totally unbalanced, with four forwards on the pitch and a practically non-existent defence. And Hungarian substitute Laszlo Kiss was unstoppable: he grabbed two records – the only substitute to score a hat-trick, and the quickest hat-trick in a World Cup.

“It was a terrible accident for them, but an accident that will remain forever. The poor sods probably thought they could beat us, and attacked us gung-ho – what a terrible mistake,” says Kiss.

By the time Nyilasi scored that tenth goal, the man who worked the score board was improvising a way to add a second figure.

Goyzo Martos was the least happy of the Hungarians that day: he had to mark the daring Magico Gonzalez. The legend says that the skilful Salvadorian was chosen as man of the match despite the beating.

Despite their being no official award to confirm this, Gonzalez he made it into the tournament’s best XI and subsequently signed for Cadiz.

Ironically, some of the Salvadorian players still claim the Hungary match was their best performance of the tournament, but still the shame was unbearable.

“Of course, nobody swapped shirts: we weren’t in the mood,” remembers Jovel.

After the match, Belgium manager Guy Thys famously said that El Salvador were “FIFA’s biggest shame”. Later, he backed off. “I got carried away. In the two following games, they showed that they had just had a nightmare start, but they weren’t such a bad team after all,” he admitted.

There was no time to stew. El Salvador’s Captain Norberto Huezo gave the players new instructions: “From now on, the manager doesn’t decide anything. We will play defensively and recover our pride. It’s our call; only we can save ourselves.”

“It’s true. In a week’s work, we improved a lot,” says Jovel.

EL SALVADOR vs THE HOTEL WAITERS

Signs of such improvement came in the first practice match after the thrashing. “The waiters from our hotel challenged us and we beat them. I guess they were trying to cheer us up,” Jovel says.

Before the next game against Belgium, which they lost 1-0, the relationship with the hotel staff had soured. “We had nicknamed one of the waiters and he found out.

It was a funny name but he took it badly and insulted us. When the hotel managers found out, they fired him. We were appalled, so we started a hunger strike to get him reinstated. And we succeeded!”

If that wasn’t enough of a distraction, a small earthquake then hit El Salvador and two worried players were told to stay, even though they wanted to go and see if their families had been hurt.

The team suffered yet another setback against Argentina, as the official in charge had forgotten to bring the players’ documents.

“We were in the dressing room and the referee came to tell us that our IDs were missing, giving us 45 minutes to get them. Our hotel was 50 miles away.

“I doubt that we had a helicopter to get them, and the traffic was impossible. I think they finally allowed us to play without our credentials, just out of pity,” says Mora.

Daniel Passarella scores a penalty in Argentina's 2-0 win

The last World Cup game for El Salvador was hard-fought and bad-tempered. “Americo Gallego called me ‘a dirty guerrilla man’, so I reminded him that the English had bombed their little ships in the Atlantic.

“We got carried away, but at least we stood up to them,” admits Diaz Arevalo, now a schoolteacher.

Some Salvadorians claim they heard Maradona publicly announce that he alone would score 10 goals against them.

“For being too arrogant, he couldn’t score a single one against our defence. On the pitch, I reminded him of that and he laughed. But for a couple of mistakes, we would have tied it 0-0,” adds Arevalo.

After the game, chaos ensued again. The two players selected for the post-match doping test, Mario Castillo and Mauricio Alfaro, drank too much beer and left the stadium “in a happy state of mind”, only to find out the team bus had left.

“We hailed a taxi”, says Alfaro. “The problem was they kept offering us water, soft drinks or beer. So we went for the beers.

Manager Mauricio Rodriguez, the youngest at the World Cup, aged 36, never coached a team again. He moved into engineering, claiming he could earn more. But his name had been black-listed long before his decision.

His assistant, Jose Castro, also quit. “Psychologically and morally I couldn’t go on. What happened in Spain was too much,” he confesses.

THE NATIONAL DISGRACE

Players were ridiculed and even threatened when they got back home. “When we qualified, we were heroes and useful, then after we lost we were a disgrace and disposable. In every conversation, the 10-1 reared its head,” says Jovel.

Except for Magico Gonzalez, most of them carried on with their careers bearing the cross of being involved in the most embarrassing World Cup game of all time.

“Everybody looked at the effects, nobody cared about the causes,” moans Gonzalez. “Everybody remembers the number 10 but nobody remembers my goal,” complains Zapata.

“I would have liked a proper tribute but they were waiting for us to insult and mock us. As the years went by, they even cancelled our free passes to attend the league games as fans.”

INTRODUCTION: ¡Viva Espana!
VIDEO: The 10 best goals at Spain 82
FEATURE: The most memorable matches of the 1982 World Cup in Spain

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82: The most memorable matches of the 1982 World Cup in Spain

2010-05-11T07:50:00Z

BEST GAME

West Germany 3-3 France (aet, West Germany win 5-4 on penalties)
Semi-final

West Germany had only got through their first-stage group with a contrived win over Austria, and their football throughout the tournament had been dull and boorish.

France, meanwhile, had found a beautiful, hypnotic rhythm, based on the midfield of Michel Platini, Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana. Even at kick-off, the semi-final was a battle of grace against effort, but a moral element was added just after the hour.

Patrick Battiston had been on the field less than 10 minutes when he chased a Platini through-ball. He got to the ball, and prodded it past Harald Schumacher.

The goalkeeper, though, turning in the air, jumped quite deliberately into the line of his run, so Battiston took his hip flush on the side of his head. Absurdly, Charles Corver, the Dutch referee, saw nothing wrong, and gave a goal-kick, which Schumacher stood impatiently waiting to take even as his victim lay stricken.

After the game, he sarcastically offered to pay for Battiston’s crowns. “There are many things you’d do differently with the benefit of hindsight, but you can’t when you’re in the heat of the moment,” Schumacher said later. “If I was still keeping goal today, I’d have come off my line in exactly the same way. What I’d do differently nowadays is this: my behaviour while he was being treated and after the match was just not acceptable.”

Battiston was knocked out cold, broke his jaw, and lost two teeth – and as he hit the ground, Platini admits he thought he was dead. Senselessly, the Spanish police force had prevented the Red Cross from manning the touchline, so it took three agonising minutes for a stretcher to be produced from a basement storeroom.

As Battiston was carried off, Platini took his limp hand. At the touchline, he kissed it, and turned back to his team. “We were psychologically affected, but in a positive sense,” Platini told FourFourTwo. “We were full of rage: against the Germans, against the ref, against everything.  

I would even say it’s my greatest memory in football, even though we lost. It was the most extraordinary game – it had everything, pure drama. It was better than any movie; any theatre; any novel.”

France had fallen behind after 17 minutes, Pierre Littbarski drilling in after Jean-Luc Ettori had saved at the feet of Klaus Fischer, but they levelled with  a Platini penalty 10 minutes later.

Thereafter, play flowed one way, then the other. Manuel Amoros hit the bar in the final minute, but it wasn’t until extra-time that the game lurched – briefly – towards France.

Marius Tresor volleyed in Giresse’s free-kick, then Giresse, capitalising on some splendid hold-up play from Didier Six, arced a shot past Schumacher and in off the post: 3-1.

Effectively deprived of one of their subs, though, France became tired, the energy of their righteous fury spent.

Just three minutes before half-time in extra-time, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, on as a substitute, poked in a Littbarski through-ball. And then, just after half-time in extra-time, Horst Hrubesch headed down a Littbarski cross and Fischer equalised with an overhead kick.

And so the game went to the World Cup’s first shootout, by which stage it had become good against evil: Ettori saved from Stielike, but as Six and Maxime Bossis saw their kicks saved by Schumacher, evil won.

“I’m happy I was there,” Platini said. “The whole team, sat there in the dressing room after the game, furious, raging, lost for words. Later, it helped me to learn to get things into perspective; nobody had been killed, our families were safe, it was only a match, but it was extraordinary.” Written by Jonathan Wilson

BIGGEST SHOCK

West Germany 1-2 Algeria
First round, Group Two

World Cup first-round ‘shock results’ are now a common thing, but in 1982 almost nobody fancied tournament debutants Algeria to trouble the powerhouse West Germany: coach Jupp Derwall even said he’d jump in the Mediterranean if they did.

The Desert Foxes were a decent side, however – their early-’80s vintage is still known as the ‘golden era’ back home – and were built around Rabah Madjer, the country’s greatest ever player.

He bagged Algeria’s first goal, with Lakhdar Belloumi adding a second on 68 minutes. What followed later in the tournament, however, would sour the achievement. And Derwall never even dipped his big toe in the Med…

DODGIEST GAME

West Germany 1-0 Austria
First round, Group Two

Arguably the most shameful game in the tournament’s history.

Algeria had played their third match the day before, so both West Germany and Austria knew that a German win by one or two goals would qualify them both, while a large victory would qualify Algeria over Austria.

The Germans scored 10 minutes in, and both sides then spent 80 minutes punting the ball round aimlessly. Neutrals were enraged, angry Algerians waved banknotes, and one offended German fan even burned his country’s flag.

Algeria protested to FIFA, but were overruled. In future, final group games would be played simultaneously.

INTRODUCTION: ¡Viva Espana!
VIDEO: The 10 best goals at Spain 82

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82: ¡Viva Espana!

2010-05-10T16:00:00Z

According to Professor Champions League, we all have a formative World Cup that we remember as "ours". It's the one that made us realise football is a visceral thrill for the majority of the world, and therefore one that tied us to the game for the rest of our lives, helplessly lost in its icons and idiocy.

In recent months, FourFourTwo magazine (you should try it, it's really good) has come with free supplementary magazines recalling some great World Cups. And over the next few weeks, as part of this new blog celebrating World Cup history, we'll be uploading the best features for you to enjoy online as we wait for the latest edition of the global game's greatest get-together.

We start with Spain 82. The beauty of Brazil, the villainy of West Germany and the redemption of Rossi: these were the lasting memories of a remarkable tournament played out in the stifling heat of Spain. It ended as a breathtaking triumph for Italy, but the tournament's success was achieved against all the odds, a drama played out against a backdrop of controversy and scandal.

The Italians might have lifted the trophy thanks to the wonderful attacking play of Paolo Rossi but they arrived with a team famed for its defensive qualities and, in Rossi, a striker criticised for his lack of match fitness, having just returned following a two-year suspension. The West Germans, meanwhile, started among the favourites having qualified with a 100 percent record – but before the first group stages were over they had outraged the world with their informal peace treaty with Austria, agreed at Algeria’s expense.

"Swizz!" An angry Algerian makes his point

That the tournament took place at all was a victory of sorts. Coming just six years after the death of Franco and four years after the introduction of democracy, there was a belief that Spain was incapable of staging such a global event. Just a week before the opening game, and with the infrastructure still in a chaotic state, Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais called the tournament “the great national disaster”.

A farcical draw didn't help: the balls representing Peru and Chile were left out of the pots, Scotland went into Argentina's pot and the cage containing the balls jammed, with one falling out and splitting in half.

Even without such unforeseen complications, the draw was difficult: 24 competing nations made this the biggest World Cup finals ever – and with this expansion, there was a fear that sides such as Kuwait, Honduras and El Salvador would amount to mere cannon fodder. A new format was required to accommodate them: consecutive group stages were retained for a third time, but knockout semi-finals were finally reintroduced for the first time since 1970.

Brazil had also been out of fashion since 1970, but a 7-0 defeat of the Republic of Ireland in their final warm-up augured well. With Zico, Socrates, Falcao and Junior, this was a Brazil full of the kind of flair and raw skill that made comparisons with the World Cup winners of 1958 and 1970 inevitable. But they also lacked strikers, as Diego Maradona was more than happy to point out in the pre-tournament exchanges.

"I'll strike you in a minute, you cheeky scamp"

Champions Argentina might normally have featured among the favourites, but arriving at the climax of the Falklands conflict they were a team overwhelmed by controversy. In another era it would have been unthinkable that nations would dispatch sportsmen to a World Cup while their soldiers were dying, but it was a sign of just how important this global football event had become that Argentina and three UK nations – England, Scotland and Northern Ireland – all participated.

The clouds of war and complaints about scheduling and ticketing overshadowed the build-up, but on the pitch the 1982 World Cup was a huge success, with Rossi giving the competition its triumphant story of redemption.  

From zero to hero in a month, this was Pablito's Cup.

VIDEO: The 10 best goals at Spain 82

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