Vesselin – Page 123 – Football Journey

February 18, 2017February 18, 2017

Group 5

Spain and Honduras opened the group, gathering almost 50 000 fans at the stadium, mostly Spanish. The hype was great, for it was the beginning of arguably big Spanish run for the crown. Reality quickly proved different.

Instead of easy win over modest outsiders, Spain struggled. Honduras silenced the crowds in the 8th minute, when Zelaya gave the lead to the unknown Central Americans. Spain more or less dominated the match, but was toothless and unable to create something really dangerous. Honduras was surprisingly competent team, especially in defense. Everything was going wrong for the hosts until the 62nd minute, when a penalty was called. A suspect penalty to many, but criticism really erupted a few days later. Lopez Ufarte equalized. Spain was unable to do more. 1-1.

Observers considered Yugoslavia – Northern Ireland tougher match than Spain – Honduras, but Yugoslavia was the big favourite, expected to win. Coaches were more careful – Billy Bingham had no options anyway, so he said he will use its standard eleven. But he included teenage Norman Whiteside among the starters – there was nothing to fear or lose: Northern Ireland was no Brazil or West Germany . Miljanic was cautious, emphasizing that the opponents were tough and one had to be careful with them. May be Miljanic’s caution set the tone of the game – it was disciplined and well organized approach from both sides.

Norman Whiteside, pictured here, made good debut at the world stage, but neither team was particularly inspired in midfield and attack. Yugoslavia was more dangerous but unable to score. 0-0.

Suddenly the easiest group was not easy at all and Spain, blowing away their ‘easiest’ of all matches, had to win against Yugoslavia. But Yugoslavia too had to win. And when the match started, they were the stronger team. And scored a goal in the 10th minute. Spain was greatly disturbed and Yugoslavia pressed forward, creating quickly two more scoring possibilities. Then… Spain got a penalty. It was more than obvious favour to the hosts and later none was more critical of the Danish referee than his compatriots: it was blatant help to Spain, for there was no penalty at all – Miguel Alonso was at least 1 meter outside penalty area. And even this was not enough, for Lopez Ufarte missed the net with his kick – and the referee ordered the penalty to be replayed: Pantelic moved before the ball was kicked. A laugh, really, but the second time Juanito scored. 1-1. Yugoslavia was disturbed, Spain restored some confidence.

A picture like this one suggest Spanish superiority, but there was nothing even close – Yugoslavia clearly outplayed Spain and remained dominant most of the time. As a last resort, Santamaria made unusual double-substitute, fielding two strikers – Quini and Saura. They did not change Spanish play by much, but the strikers proved dangerous enough – in the 66th minute Quini missed the ball, but Saura still managed to get to it and scored a second – and first from playing situation – goal for Spain. To the end, the hosts managed to preserve their fragile lead. 2-1. After the match critics of Santamaria smiled: for a long time they blasted the coach for not using Santillana and Quini. And they were right – Quini proved their point; now bring back Santillana in the team! Yugoslavia was suddenly… going out?

Honduras vs Northern Ireland. The outsiders were to become true outsiders now… Northern Ireland had the edge, theoretically, but they had great difficulty scoring, so a tie was also possible.

Well, the Irish scored early – in the 10th minute – which very possibly would have been the final result: Honduras worried about Irish physical dominance before the game. Northern Ireland pressed as hard as they could, but surprisingly the Central Americans responded more than well, getting the initiative in the second half and equalizing the result in the 62nd minute. They attacked to the final whistle and Pat Jennings was the hero of the day, making at least one fantastic save. 1-1.

Yugolsavia had to win its last game, which was no longer just an easy walk over, but a matter of life and death. So was for modest Honduras, which was still unbeaten and had a good chance of going to the next round too.

Yugoslavia was out from the tournament almost to the end of the match – they scored at last in the 87th minute and only thanks to a penalty. Honduras left wonderful impression, but was out. Minimally, but out. Yugoslavia – 1, Honduras – 0. Nothing going – Yugoslavia depended on the result of the last group match.

Yugoslavia – Honduras game qualified Spain to the next stage, so the last group match was largely a matter of getting confidence and trying to convince increasingly critical public that the team was actually strong. Northern Ireland, however, had a chance to go ahead too, so it was not to be a protocol match at all. Spain got no sympathy from foreigners at all – it was helped by the referees, for now even the penalty against Honduras was considered a gift, and the insulting to the game practice continued in the last match – the referee red-carded an Irish player, Mal Donaghy. But Spain was disorganized, sometime entirely shapeless and clueless, lacking any systematic approach. Northern Ireland defended itself more than well, especially against uninspired and toothless attacks, using any chance for counter-attacking.

And then the horror… if one was Spanish. Two minutes after the beginning of the second half Armstrong came face to face with Arconada and scored. That was enough – the match ended 1-0 for Northern Ireland. Yugoslavia was out, brave Irish – to the next stage.

Northern Ireland 3 1 2 0 2 1 +1 4

Spain 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 3

Yugoslavia 3 1 1 1 2 2 0 3

Honduras 3 0 2 1 2 3 − 1 2

The ‘easiest’ group was a surprise. The football shown may not have been great, but the outsiders played more than well. Yugoslavia had nobody to blame, but themselves – most likely they paid heavy price for having been too tactically minded, thus lacking improvisation and inspiration. Yes, they were robbed by the referee against Spain, but the plain fact was Yugoslavia did not play as well as expected. Spain was a great disappointment and only after the first truth came out: Santamaria finally announced what was known for years outside Spain: the best for his squad was to play tough defensive game,watching for opportunistic counter-attacks. But, Santamaria said, the whole Spain demanded the team to play attacking football and he bent under this demand, asking his team to play a kind of football they were unable to do. There were no players in Spain capable of such kind of game. Of course, Santamaria was criticized right away for such demoralizing views, but it was clear to anyone watching without a bias, that Spain was awful and no help from officials would propel the team to the title – after all, the road to there demanded they win the group in order of having easier second stage group. With shameful help from the referees, Spain finished second. Norther Ireland, on the other hand, played above its own ability, becoming instant darling of the fans. Nobody supposed them to go beyond second stage, but they played with hearts and surely would not go down without a great fight.

February 16, 2017February 16, 2017

Group 5

Group 5. Honduras was the outsider. Northern Ireland – great to see the underdogs at the finals, they will play with big hearts surely, but 3rd place was theirs and no more. Spain and Yugoslavia were seemingly glued together for ever: their battles went on during the whole 1970s – for both World Cup and European championship qualifications. Given the group make, they were to go ahead. Spain had the edge as hosts – and the edge included the usual help from officials for the hosts of finals.

Spain was one the biggest favourites for winning the championship. Yet, it differed greatly from Brazil, West Germany, and Argentina: she was major favourite not because of a great team playing great football. Spain was favourite because it was the host and would have fantastic support. Spain was also the only great football country never winning anything – except the European championship in 1964 – and often failing miserably. Their was ambition to change the pattern, hunger to win, big hype, urgency. As a host, it was almost taken for granted Spain will be ‘helped’ by the officials and more than usual, for Spanish teams were suspected for a long time for meddling with officials behind the curtains. And as almost ever, hosts had ‘Lady Luck’ on their side – an easy group with not one, but two outsiders. The championship would start for the Spaniards in the second round, practically.

Head coach: José Santamaría

Luis Arconada (c)

26 June 1954 (aged 27)

Real Sociedad

José Antonio Camacho

8 June 1955 (aged 27)

Real Madrid

Rafael Gordillo

24 February 1957 (aged 25)

Real Betis

Miguel Ángel Alonso

1 February 1953 (aged 29)

Real Sociedad

Miguel Tendillo

1 February 1961 (aged 21)

Valencia

José Ramón Alexanko

19 May 1956 (aged 26)

FC Barcelona

Juanito

10 November 1954 (aged 27)

Real Madrid

Joaquín

9 June 1956 (aged 26)

Sporting de Gijón

Jesús María Satrústegui

12 January 1954 (aged 28)

Real Sociedad

Jesús María Zamora

1 January 1955 (aged 27)

Real Sociedad

Roberto López Ufarte

19 April 1958 (aged 24)

Real Sociedad

Santiago Urquiaga

14 April 1958 (aged 24)

Athletic Bilbao

Manuel Jiménez

27 October 1956 (aged 25)

Sporting de Gijón

Antonio Maceda

16 May 1957 (aged 25)

Sporting de Gijón

Enrique Saura

2 August 1954 (aged 27)

Valencia CF

José Vicente Sánchez

8 October 1956 (aged 25)

FC Barcelona

Ricardo Gallego

8 February 1959 (aged 23)

Real Madrid

Pedro Uralde

2 March 1958 (aged 24)

Real Sociedad

Santillana

23 August 1952 (aged 29)

Real Madrid

Quini

23 September 1949 (aged 32)

FC Barcelona

Urruti

17 February 1952 (aged 30)

FC Barcelona

Miguel Ángel

24 December 1947 (aged 34)

Real Madrid

Experienced and very tough team. Home turf and great fans, ‘the 12th player’. One of the best goalkeepers in the world – Arconada. Official help. Unofficial help. Great motivation and ambition. Knowing and using every dirty trick in the book and some out of the book. Some murderers in defense. On the minus side: great expectation often burn out a team. For a long time Spain played tough, but not inspired football and the national team usually disappointed at major tournaments. A tendency to play very dirty,which may be costly in the long run. Difficulty scoring goals. To a point, it was even difficult to asses Spain, because hype and expectations prevented not only the journalists to objectively evaluate , let alone criticize, the team. Santamaria had to speak only positively, so he was speaking of pride, honour, patriotism, and winning the title. Arconada was almost the lone voice of caution and pessimism: he said the expectations were too high and may be dangerous. The pressure on the team was too great and it may fall apart under it. As a whole, Spain was expected to win the group without trouble.

Yugoslavia managed to rebuild and had a team similarly strong to the one which played at their last World Cup appearance in 1974. Miljan Miljanic was coaching Yugoslavia again – still one of the greatest coaches of the time, excellent tactician, and innovative. Three players of the 1974 squad were his key starters – Ivica Surjak, Vladimir Petrovic, and Jurica Jerkovic. There were great players in every line – Pantelic between the goalposts, Zajec and Nenad Stojkovic in defense, Gudelj, Susic, and Sljivo in midfield, Halilhodzic and Pasic in attack. The twins Zoran and Zlatko Vujovic were the bright young players, expected to burst at the World Cup and quickly to become stars. Solid team with good reserves, plenty of talent, well adjusted team. Miljanic decided not to play friendlies before the finals, defending his unorthodox decision with the argument that his team is well known to him, there is no need to play useless games – he has the needed players, there is no uncertainty. Another reason was the bunch of foreign based players – for the first time Yugoslavia had so many in the first team, 6 in total – who most likely would be unavailable for friendlies. It was not explicitly declared, but Yugoslavia and Miljanic himself, for he knew Spanish football more than well after coaching Real Madrid, expected Yugoslavia to finish second in the preliminary group. Which was just fine.

Head coach: Miljan Miljanić

Dragan Pantelić

9 December 1951 (aged 30)

Girondins Bordeaux

Ive Jerolimov

30 March 1958 (aged 24)

Rijeka

Ivan Gudelj

21 September 1960 (aged 21)

Hajduk Split

Velimir Zajec

12 February 1956 (aged 26)

Dinamo Zagreb

Nenad Stojković

26 May 1956 (aged 26)

Partizan Belgrade

Zlatko Krmpotić

7 August 1958 (aged 23)

Red Star Belgrade

Vladimir Petrović

1 July 1955 (aged 26)

Red Star Belgrade

Edhem Šljivo

16 March 1950 (aged 32)

Nice

Zoran Vujović

26 August 1958 (aged 23)

Hajduk Split

Zvonko Živković

31 October 1959 (aged 22)

Partizan Belgrade

Zlatko Vujović

26 August 1958 (aged 23)

Hajduk Split

Ivan Pudar

16 August 1961 (aged 20)

Hajduk Split

Safet Sušić

13 April 1955 (aged 27)

FK Sarajevo

Nikola Jovanović

18 September 1952 (aged 29)

Buducnost Titograd

Miloš Hrstić

20 November 1955 (aged 26)

NK Rijeka

Miloš Šestić

8 August 1956 (aged 25)

Red Star Belgrade

Jurica Jerković

25 February 1950 (aged 32)

FC Zürich

Stjepan Deverić

20 August 1961 (aged 20)

Dinamo Zagreb

Vahid Halilhodžić

15 October 1952 (aged 29)

FC Nantes

Ivica Šurjak (c)

23 March 1953 (aged 29)

PSG

Predrag Pašić

18 October 1958 (aged 23)

FK Sarajevo

Ratko Svilar

6 May 1950 (aged 32)

Antwerp

Pros: talent was not a question. Nor experience. In a good day, Yugoslavia was capable of fantastic football. Many felt it was a great squad, at least equal, if not better, than those of late 1960s-early 1970s. Motivation was also handy: age restriction was going laxer in Yugoslavia and the players would like to impress foreign clubs and get good contracts. Miljan Miljanic was a big factor alone. Cons: traditionally moody and unpredictable team. Yugoslavia often fell apart at important matches. The current version was not exactly playing the kind of flamboyant liked by Yugoslavian fans and press – Miljanic was criticized for bland tactical approach. He answered with results, but as soon as the team underperformed… which was likely, for Yugoslavian players were not very enthusiastic to be restricted by tactics. Perhaps the absence of Ivan Buljan was a big miss. Trivia: during the 1970s, Yugoslavia was practically a Crvena zvezda – Hajduk combination. Now the spell was broken and the national team was more diverse.

Northern Ireland. Darling underdogs, who most likely reached their maximum by qualifying for the World Cup finals. They were surely to play with great heart, but were severely limited team – brave performance was not going to overcome objectively very small pool of talent. Third in the group.

Head coach: Billy Bingham

Pat Jennings

12 June 1945 (aged 37)

Arsenal

Jimmy Nicholl

28 February 1956 (aged 26)

Toronto Blizzard

Mal Donaghy

13 September 1957 (aged 24)

Luton Town

David McCreery

16 September 1957 (aged 24)

Tulsa Roughnecks

Chris Nicholl

12 October 1946 (aged 35)

Southampton

John O’Neill

11 March 1958 (aged 24)

Leicester City

Noel Brotherston

18 November 1956 (aged 25)

Blackburn Rovers

Martin O’Neill (c)

1 March 1952 (aged 30)

Norwich City

Gerry Armstrong

23 May 1954 (aged 28)

Watford

Sammy McIlroy

2 August 1954 (aged 27)

Stoke City

Billy Hamilton

9 May 1957 (aged 25)

Burnley

John McClelland

7 December 1955 (aged 26)

Rangers

Sammy Nelson

1 April 1949 (aged 33)

Brighton

Tommy Cassidy

18 November 1950 (aged 31)

Burnley

Tommy Finney

6 November 1952 (aged 29)

Cambridge United

Norman Whiteside

7 May 1965 (aged 17)

Manchester United

Jim Platt

26 January 1952 (aged 30)

Middlesbrough

Johnny Jameson

11 March 1958 (aged 24)

Glentoran

Felix Healy

27 September 1955 (aged 26)

Coleraine

Jim Cleary

27 May 1956 (aged 26)

Glentoran

Bobby Campbell

13 September 1956 (aged 25)

Bradford City

George Dunlop

16 January 1956 (aged 26)

Linfield

Pros: the Irish spirit, of course. There was no doubt this team will fight in every match, as best as they can and may be even above their abilities. Just about everything in their favour. Cons: easily seen limitations – not even enough players in the 4 English professional leagues for a full squad, so some from Northern Ireland clubs had to be included. A novelty team in a way, for there was no other country in the world making a national team from second and third division players. Scoring goals was almost out of the question, thus, winning matches was pure chance. Trivia: George Best was considered, at least in the media, but was not included in the team. On the other hand, Northern Ireland featured the youngest ever player at World Cup finals – Norman Whiteside. 17-years old, but days younger than Pele at his world cup debut in 1958.

Honduras. Well, even less to say and consider than for Northern Ireland. Unknown outsiders. One of the debutantes. May be lucky ones, for they were in a group with teams having either difficulty scoring or never playing at their best against outsiders, or both. Expected to be last, but may be earning a point against Northern Ireland and not receiving a shameful amount of goals. If anything, Honduras was in a bit better situation than El Salvador, which had no money to finance a 22-member team and even fan donations made possible for two players to go to Spain: Honduras at least managed to pay for a full squad.

Head coach: José de la Paz Herrera

Salomón Nazar

7 September 1953 (aged 28)

Universidad

Efraín Gutiérrez

7 May 1954 (aged 28)

Universidad

Jaime Villegas

5 July 1950 (aged 31)

Real España

Fernando Bulnes

21 October 1946 (aged 35)

Olimpia

Anthony Costly

13 December 1954 (aged 27)

Real España

Ramón Maradiaga (c)

30 October 1954 (aged 27)

Motagua

Antonio Laing

27 December 1958 (aged 23)

Platense

Francisco Javier Toledo

30 September 1959 (aged 22)

Marathón

Porfirio Betancourt

23 August 1956 (aged 25)

RC Strasbourg

Roberto Figueroa

15 December 1959 (aged 22)

Vida

David Buezo

5 May 1955 (aged 27)

Motagua

Domingo Droumond

14 April 1957 (aged 25)

Platense

Prudencio Norales

20 April 1956 (aged 26)

Olimpia

Juan Cruz

27 February 1959 (aged 23)

Universidad

Héctor Zelaya

12 July 1957 (aged 24)

Motagua

Roberto Bailey

10 August 1952 (aged 29)

Marathón

José Cruz

12 June 1949 (aged 33)

Motagua

Carlos Caballero

5 December 1958 (aged 23)

Real España

Celso Güity

7 August 1955 (aged 26)

Marathón

Gilberto Yearwood

15 March 1956 (aged 26)

Valladolid

Julio César Arzú

5 June 1954 (aged 28)

Real España

Jimmy Steward

9 December 1946 (aged 35)

Real España

Nothing to say in favour of this team, as is typically the case of fringe teams. Perhaps the only real aim of Honduras was tangential – to finish somewhat better than El Salvador, so, in a way, to get revenge for the ‘football war’ of 1969. Two foreign based professionals – Gilberto Yearwood and Porfirio Betancourt -which was nothing really, but at least was greater than what El Salvador had.

Predictable group, perhaps the only one with 2 outsiders.

February 12, 2017February 12, 2017

Group 4

The first match of the group was, ironically, the most decisive – England vs France. Traditionally, France was an easy opponent for England, but tradition itself does not win games. Problems in both teams – Keegan and Brooking were injured. Francis and Rix replaced them. In a way, it was a chance to make use of the new libero, but in the same time it was not the time to experiment. Neither here, not there. The fundamental French problems were clearly presented in the team Hidalgo fielded: Ettori, originally the third goalkeeper, suddenly was a starter. Six and Bellone were replaced too. Goalkeepin and attack… the perennial French weaknesses. The match, however, unfolded in familiar way – tradition worked, England prevailed.

For good measure, Bryan Robson scored in the 1st minute. At the end – 3-1 for England. Hidalgo was cool – nothing tragic. England started pretty much as ever – good and strong. But did not give the impression it was new and improved.

Czechoslovakia vs Kuwait – not worth mentioning, right? There was a bit of caution in the Czechoslovak camp: they recalled that Kuwait managed a tie against them at the 1980 Olympic Games. World Cup was different, but many of the players of both sides were here. Still, Czechoslovakia was the favourite by far.

The Czechoslovaks were right to worry – Kuwait played surprisingly well and actually dominated most of the match. Still, they were on the losing end after the end of the first half. Thanks to suspect penalty, Czechoslovakia was leading 1-0. Panenka scored. Well, ‘big boys’ are often helped by referees when struggling against anonymous teams. But Kuwait equalized in the 58th minute and that was that – 1-1 at the end, one more surprise result, one more success for the outsiders. Czechoslovakia clearly was not going to produce a miracle this year, as it was suspected.

England – Czechoslovakia. After the opening matches, England was expected to win, but again caution prevailed – England struggled against East European teams during the 1970s and was eliminated by them, including Czechoslovakia. Ron Greenwood decided – and no surprise in that – not to change the team, which won against France. The Czechoslovakian problems were beyond mending. But tradition once again played its role and most of the match, especially the first half was equal.

In the second half England scored twice after Czechoslovakian mistakes – first Trevor Francis and then Barmos scored in his own net. Well, at least he was the last player the ball touched. England did not look better. It did not look ‘modernized’ either, libero or no libero. But with 2 wins England qualified already for the next stage. Czechoslovakia was practically out and rightly so – only big French misfortune would have helped them. Few thought such thing possible.

France – Kuwait. A mere protocol on the surface, but France had to win no matter what and Kuwait suddenly looked like able to produce sensation. Hidalgo did not sound very optimistic before the match. But the difference in class showed itself quickly – Kuwait played once again well, but France was simply much better.

The key moment was in the 30th minute, when Genghini scored from a free kick. The moment shows the big difference – powerful French and ‘primitive’ wall, made of players scared of the ball. France got confidence with this goal at last. Kuwait just played well. The big moment of the match happened after Alain Giresse scored and the Soviet referee Stupar allowed it. But it was suspect goal, at least to the fans of Kuwait, who already felt unfairly treated. The President of their Federation Prince Fahd Al-Ahmad forced his way to the pitch with one of his wife in toe. It was fantastic scene of utter chaos – everybody argued until the Spanish Police stepped in. Amazingly, the referee reversed his decision after his encounter with the Prince. Now the French were not happy, but they did not have a Prince. 1966 was recalled – once again a Soviet referee made blatantly wrong decision, disgracing the sport. Yet, it was unique moment of football history: never before and never after a referee changed his mind because the public wanted that. One can think in sorry political lines: bending to power was so much ingrained into Soviet people, that almost automatically they followed a mere demand of person of visible authority. It was enough to see a Party official… it was enough to see a Prince. Anyhow, France won 4-1. Apart of the shameful show of pitch invasion, Kuwait played well.

France – Czechoslovakia. It was decisive match – France had the edge, but Czechoslovakia still had a chance. All or nothing, but ‘all’ included also a tie, benefiting France. A rather equal match, decided by well known weaknesses: France was better, Czechoslovakia – unable to produce something really dangerous.

The French problem continued to be scoring, but the team was playing better and better every next game. Czechoslovakia was competent enough to be tough – bit often making mistakes and once again a defensive mistake helped France to 1-0 lead. Which was pretty much the end of the battle – true, Czechoslovakia was more active and pushing to the end of the match. Panenka scored his second goal from a penalty and equalized the result – 1-1. Czechoslovakia was out, as expected. France qualified in second place, as expected. Hidalgo said nothing else: second place was the French aim and it was achieved. Yet, the coach said, better wait for the result of the last group match. Waiting for what? For a surprise victory of Kuwait.

England – Kuwait was just a protocol, at least for England. Theoretically, Kuwait, if winning with 4 goals difference would qualify instead of France. Fat chance, even if England played in very disinterested way.

But no miracle happened – England was not particularly interested and Kuwait played again heroically, but the difference in class was too big. Trevor Francis scored in the 27th minute. That was it. After all, it was not the match itself, but what was going on away from the pitch more important: Kuwait was fined 25 000 Swiss franks for the interruption of the match with France, Stupar was penalized too and was taken out of the championship, Keegan was secretly rushed to see doctors in Hamburg in the hope they would patch him somewhat for the rest of the championship, Greenwood took advantage of the easy last game and benched Butcher and Samson to save them for more important matches. Butcher after all had a yellow card already and their was risk of getting another one and missing a game. Never mind… money were just peanuts for Kuwait, Keegan was unlikely to be a starter, because Trevor Francis was in great from and scoring, England ended with perfect record, Kuwait – happy with solid performance.

England 3 3 0 0 6 1 +5 6

France 3 1 1 1 6 5 +1 3

Czechoslovakia 3 0 2 1 2 4 −2 2

Kuwait 3 0 1 2 2 6 −4 1

Final standings exactly to the letter of expectations and predictions. Rather boring because of that – nothing out of line. Only France was seemingly getting better after each match. Greenwood proved to be no great reformer after all – England was similar to what it always was, libero or no libero. Kuwait was nice exotica, Czechoslovakia… not deserving to go ahead, so it was fine they did not.

February 11, 2017February 11, 2017

Group 4

Group 4. England and France – in that order – were expected to go ahead. Czechoslovakia was expected to finish 3rd, unless producing a surprise. Kuwait – the outsider without any chance.

England finally reached World Cup finals – for the first time since 1870 – and, by tradition, was considered big favourite. But… like Italy, a second tier favourite. One thing was certain: England was going to the second round, the group was convenient. But there were various doubts – first, the Faulklands crisis put the very appearance of England in question. The British Parliament wanted all UK teams to withdraw from the finals because Argentina was going to be present. There was uncertainty for a while, but at the end England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland confirmed their participation. More difficult problems concerned the game itself: Ron Greenwood decided to introduce the libero to the national team. England was the last country to do and consequently was terribly outdated and suffered not only defensively. At a glance, it was something minor… but for England it was a revolution without a call for such. No British team used a libero, therefore, there was no central defender capable of the role. Ray Wilkins was transformed to play the role. Ron Greenwood experimented a lot – he was perhaps the coach experimenting most at this time – but he seemingly missed the timing: it should have been productive to try the new approach back in 1980. He tried it too late, thus not having time for building a new team around Wilkins. Yes, England had a generous pool of strong players, but the concept was so foreign, it needed time. By 1982 most of the key stars aged, but there was no time now to discard them and build another team. And old habits were almost impossible to break: Keegan, Brooking, Francis, McDermott, Thompson, Clemence, Shilton never played with libero. And they were still the leaders, the big essential stars, without whom Greenwood did not dare to play, let alone public opinion. At the end, Greenwood settled for mechanical compromise, which was very suspect.

Standing from left: Bryan Robson, Tony Woodcock, Steve Foster, Glenn Hoddle, Peter Withe, Viv Anderson, Trevour Brooking, Paul Mariner, Ray Wilkins.

Middle row: Fred Street (physio), Geoff Hurst (assistant-coach), Graham Rix, Phil Thompson, Ray

Clemence, Joe Corrigan, Peter Shilton, Terry Butcher, Steve Coppell, Don Howe (coach), Norman Medhurst (assistant-physio).

Sitting: Kenny Sanson, Terry McDermott, Kevin Keegan, Ron Greenwood (Manager), Mick Mills, Phil Neal, Trevor Francis.

Head coach: Ron Greenwood

Ray Clemence

5 August 1948 (aged 33)

Tottenham Hotspur

Viv Anderson

29 August 1956 (aged 25)

Nottingham Forest

Trevor Brooking

2 October 1948 (aged 33)

West Ham United

Terry Butcher

28 December 1958 (aged 23)

Ipswich Town

Steve Coppell

9 July 1955 (aged 26)

Manchester United

Steve Foster

24 September 1957 (aged 24)

Brighton and Hove Albion

Kevin Keegan

14 February 1951 (aged 31)

Southampton

Trevor Francis

19 April 1954 (aged 28)

Manchester City

Glenn Hoddle

27 October 1957 (aged 24)

Tottenham Hotspur

Terry McDermott

8 December 1951 (aged 30)

Liverpool

Paul Mariner

22 May 1953 (aged 29)

Ipswich Town

Mick Mills (c)

4 January 1949 (aged 33)

Ipswich Town

Joe Corrigan

18 November 1948 (aged 33)

Manchester City

Phil Neal

20 February 1951 (aged 31)

Liverpool

Graham Rix

23 October 1957 (aged 24)

Arsenal

Bryan Robson

11 January 1957 (aged 25)

Manchester United

Kenny Sansom

26 September 1958 (aged 23)

Arsenal

Phil Thompson

21 January 1954 (aged 28)

Liverpool

Ray Wilkins

14 September 1956 (aged 25)

Manchester United

Peter Withe

30 August 1951 (aged 30)

Aston Villa

Tony Woodcock

6 December 1955 (aged 26)

FC Köln

Peter Shilton

18 September 1949 (aged 32)

Nottingham Forest

On the negative side – stars, going on 30, and suspect ability to adapt to modern tactics. On the positive- a team never lacking motivation and great spirit, fighting to the final whistle no matter the result. This team had ambition to prove themselves and restore the faded English glory – if not to the standards of 1966, at least to those of 1970. Fans were the big liability and there were many wishing England to exit early only to get rid of the hooligans. Trivia: the goalkeepers got the traditional English numbers for their position; the rest were numbered alphabetically, except Kevin Keegan, who had his favoured number 7.

France. Michel Hidalgo announced that he was stepping down after the World Cup – the news was received with mixed feelings in France. The coach was often criticized for softness, but also he made the team, which left wonderful memories in 1978. Unfortunately, seemingly the team did not develop after that. There were lingering problems, the largest was Platini. It was observed that France played more together and was better organized without him. But it was also toothless. With him there was unpredictability and vulnerability under pressure – France was called ‘world champion in friendlies’, but official matches were not so great. There was perennial problems with the attacking line, which rarely played as expected and had difficulty scoring. Because of that Hidalgo experimented often and even tried Platini as a striker in 4-4-2 formation. Nothing really worked – Rocheteau was injured too often, Lacombe was almost out of the team before the World Cup, but new boys Bravo and Bellone were too young – both were 19 – to really take charge. At the end Lacombe was back, Bravo was out, and the best striker was considered Didier Six, the only French player based abroad. It was not real solution, but there was nothing else to do. On top of it, France did not have first rate goalkeeper – Baratelli was the most likely regular, but he was 34 and in recent years it became clear that he was not going better, but rather the opposite. France was considered number 2 team in the group and expected to go ahead, unless Czechoslovakia surprised them.

On top, from left: Baratelli, Ettori, Castaneda.

2nd row: Genghini, Tigana, Giresse.

3rd row: Amoros, Couriol, Mahut, Battiston.

4th row: Platini, Lacombe, Bellone, Girard.

5th row: Soler, Rocheteau, Janvion, Six.

Front: Lopez, Bossis, Trésor, Larios.

Head coach: Michel Hidalgo

Dominique Baratelli

26 December 1947 (aged 34)

Paris St-Germain

Manuel Amoros

1 February 1962 (aged 20)

AS Monaco

Patrick Battiston

12 March 1957 (aged 25)

St-Etienne

Maxime Bossis

26 June 1955 (aged 26)

Nantes

Gérard Janvion

21 August 1953 (aged 28)

St-Etienne

Christian Lopez

15 March 1953 (aged 29)

St-Etienne

Philippe Mahut

4 March 1956 (aged 26)

Metz

Marius Trésor

15 January 1950 (aged 32)

Girondins Bordeaux

Bernard Genghini

18 January 1958 (aged 24)

Sochaux

Michel Platini (c)

21 June 1955 (aged 26)

St-Etienne

René Girard

4 April 1954 (aged 28)

Girondins Bordeaux

Alain Giresse

2 August 1952 (aged 29)

Girondins Bordeaux

Jean-François Larios

27 August 1956 (aged 25)

St-Etienne

Jean Tigana

23 June 1955 (aged 26)

Girondins Bordeaux

Bruno Bellone

14 March 1962 (aged 20)

AS Monaco

Alain Couriol

24 October 1958 (aged 23)

AS Monaco

Bernard Lacombe

15 August 1952 (aged 29)

Girondins Bordeaux

Dominique Rocheteau

14 January 1955 (aged 27)

Paris St-Germain

Didier Six

21 August 1954 (aged 27)

VfB Stuttgart

Gérard Soler

29 March 1954 (aged 28)

Girondins Bordeaux

Jean Castaneda

20 March 1957 (aged 25)

St-Etienne

Jean-Luc Ettori

29 July 1955 (aged 26)

AS Monaco

Well, the problems were well known – generally, France depended quite a lot on the pressure, put by the opposition. If they were allowed to play their technical and pleasant football- it was another matter. Then there was the constant problem with the strikers, but Platini at least would be hitting the net. Trivia: except the goalkeepers, numbers were alphabetically by lines – except Michel Platini.

Czechoslovakia, like England, reached World Cup finals for the first time since 1970. Unlike England, Czechoslovakia had success during the 1970s, following weird amplitudes of highs and lows. Given their ‘cycles’, 1982 did not seem to be a peak time – on the other hand, nobody expected Czechoslovakia to win the 1976 European championship, so who was there to say when a peak may occur? But there was strong feeling that there was poorer talent now – Venglos appeared conservative, heavily depending on well known for years veterans. Experience was important, but the old boys were surely losing their edge. To keep them meant there were no young players challenging them. Venglos observed and evaluated players in unorthodox manner: he watched them at away games, saying that players’ worth really shows only when conditions are tough. Of course, experienced veterans played better than youngsters in such circumstances, and at the end they were chosen again and again to play for the national team. 1976 European champions were the backbone of the team – Panenka, Nehoda, Masny, Jurkemik, Barmos, Bicovsky – plus some second-raters of that time – Vojacek, Radimec, Stambachr, Kozak. There was a thought, that Anton Ondrus, now playing abroad, should have been in the team, since it was based on veterans and the goalkeepers were vulnerable. Czechoslovakia perhaps was able of some minor surprise – bumping out France or England, if one of the teams was not fully concentrated – but nothing more than that.

Head coach: Jozef Vengloš

Stanislav Seman

8 August 1952 (aged 29)

Lokomotiva Košice

František Jakubec

12 April 1956 (aged 26)

Bohemians Praha

Jan Fiala

19 May 1956 (aged 26)

Dukla Prague

Ladislav Jurkemik

20 July 1953 (aged 28)

Inter Bratislava

Jozef Barmoš

28 August 1954 (aged 27)

Inter Bratislava

Rostislav Vojáček

23 February 1949 (aged 33)

Baník Ostrava

Ján Kozák

17 April 1954 (aged 28)

Dukla Prague

Antonín Panenka

2 December 1948 (aged 33)

Rapid Wien

Ladislav Vízek

22 January 1955 (aged 27)

Dukla Prague

Tomáš Kříž

17 March 1959 (aged 23)

Dukla Prague

Zdeněk Nehoda (c)

9 May 1952 (aged 30)

Dukla Prague

Přemysl Bičovský

18 August 1950 (aged 31)

Bohemians Praha

Jan Berger

27 November 1955 (aged 26)

AC Sparta Prague

Libor Radimec

22 May 1950 (aged 32)

Baník Ostrava

Jozef Kukučka

13 March 1957 (aged 25)

Plastika Nitra

Pavel Chaloupka

4 May 1959 (aged 23)

Bohemians Praha

František Štambachr

13 February 1953 (aged 29)

Dukla Prague

Petr Janečka

25 November 1957 (aged 24)

Zbrojovka Brno

Marián Masný

13 August 1950 (aged 31)

Slovan Bratislava

Vlastimil Petržela

20 July 1953 (aged 28)

SK Slavia Praha

Zdeněk Hruška

25 July 1954 (aged 27)

Bohemians Praha

Karel Stromšík

12 April 1958 (aged 24)

Dukla Prague

Experience was the strongest point of this team. Age – the weakness. Very likely Czechoslovakia would be playing its best against similarly aged and slightly outdated England. This group was a battle of the coaches really and Josef Venglos was an old fox, quite capable of outwitting Greenwood and Hidalgo. With a bit of luck, however. No miracles were expected from Czechoslovakia – most likely to finish 3rd and out after the first stage. Trivia: Czechoslovakia was the first East European country to include foreign-based professional in its world cup team – Andrej Kvasnak, back in 1970. Now again they had ‘a foreigner’ – Antonin Panenka – but they lagged behind Poland and Hungary, which included professionals with fewer inhibitions.

Kuwait was the obvious outsider. Nothing was known about this team and most likely there was not much to know anyway: a country, trying to develop the game from scratch. Kuwait had plenty of petro-dollars, so it was easy to start a program. Brazilians were hired to coach a national team like no other – a group of players, like a club-team, trying to play as many as possible international games. Playing everywhere and against everybody, which meant playing a lot exactly with clubs. One result was not liked by the well developed countries: suddenly the players of Kuwait had more matches for the national team then big stars from Europe and South America. Apart from that, it was Brazilian influenced football – Mario Zagalo was hired to coach Kuwait back in 1976 and when his contract ended, his assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira took over and qualified Kuwait to the finals. The whole ambition was to play well and with spirit – if they managed to get 3 points, like Tunisia in Argentina, we will be happy, said Parreira. The team was training since 1979 exactly like a club-team: all together, no changes. Expected to finish last, most likely without getting even a point.

Head coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira

Ahmed Al-Tarabulsi

22 March 1947 (aged 35)

Kuwait SC

Naeem Saad

1 October 1957 (aged 24)

Al Tadamun SC

Mahboub Juma’a

17 September 1955 (aged 26)

Al-Salmiya SC

Jamal Al-Qabendi

7 April 1959 (aged 23)

Kazma SC

Waleed Al-Jasem

18 November 1959 (aged 22)

Kuwait SC

Saad Al-Houti (c)

24 May 1954 (aged 28)

Kuwait SC

Fathi Kameel

23 May 1955 (aged 27)

Al Tadamun SC

Abdullah Al-Buloushi

16 February 1960 (aged 22)

Al-Arabi SC

Jasem Yaqoub

25 October 1953 (aged 28)

Al-Qadsia SC

Abdulaziz Al-Anberi

3 January 1954 (aged 28)

Kuwait SC

Nassir Al-Ghanim

4 April 1961 (aged 21)

Kazma SC

Yussef Al-Suwayed

20 September 1958 (aged 23)

Kazma SC

Mubarak Marzouq

1 January 1961 (aged 21)

Al Tadamun SC

Abdullah Mayouf

3 December 1953 (aged 28)

Kazma SC

Sami Al-Hashash

15 September 1959 (aged 22)

Al-Arabi SC

Faisal Al-Dakhil

13 August 1957 (aged 24)

Al-Qadsia SC

Hamoud Al-Shemmari

26 September 1960 (aged 21)

Kazma SC

Mohammed Karam

1 January 1955 (aged 27)

Al-Arabi SC

Muayad Al-Haddad

1 January 1960 (aged 22)

Khaitan SC

Abdulaziz Al-Buloushi

4 December 1962 (aged 19)

Al-Qadsia SC

Adam Marjam

23 September 1957 (aged 24)

Kazma SC

Jasem Bahman

15 February 1958 (aged 24)

Al-Qadsia SC

The team attracted no real interest – even the suspect African look of some of the players was not put under scrutiny. Unknown team, mostly exotic addition to the finalists. Let them play a bit, get trashed by the big Europeans and learn, if they can. Carlos Parreira did not think different: if his team was able to produce a bit of surprise, that would be great. Spanish heat was on their side, perhaps their strongest thing – his players were familiar and comfortable with heat. Trivia: Kuwait brought a camel as a talisman. The camel was going to the games. The Emir of Kuwait too.

February 9, 2017February 9, 2017

Group 3

Argentina and Belgium played the very first match not only of this group, but of the 1982 finals – reigning world champions had the privilege to open the championship. It was a worthy opening, it seemed, alas… injured Maradona was not a sure starter. Menotti said he cannot risk and all depends on the doctors. But Maradona came on the pitch. Belgium had much bigger problems – some were already known: Cools was out and in the last moment Vandereycken had to be replaced. Lozano did not get Belgian citizenship. Meews carried on one match disqualification to the world cup. Van Moer was unable to adapt to the Spanish heat. Francois van der Elst arrived injured from England and was still unable to play. Finally, Guy Thys felt that there was no point fielding Renquin without his usual partner Meews. Suddenly, Belgium looked impoverished and not even remotely up to the task of facing Maradona-led Argentina. But after referee blew his whistle the picture was very different.

Argentina showed good football only briefly at the beginning of the match. Maradona was carefully watched and met by a swarm of Belgian players, who left him no room. Belgium was tactically perfect and Argentina faded away. In the 63rd minute Vanderbergh scored and Argentina had no answer. At the end – Belgium 1 – Argentina 0. First match, first upset. A sensation even. After the game Fillol and Menotti said they felt that Vanderbergh was offside when he scored, but a replay did not make it clearer – it was not an obvious case of offside. Menotti was a bit critical of the linesmen, but the reason for the loss was, to him, his own team lacking fighting spirit. Thys happily praised his boys for their collective approach and following his tactics to the letter.

The second match destroyed the modest aims of El Salvador – there was no question the Salvadorians were no match to Hungary, but they wanted to better their 1970 record: three losses and 0-9 goal difference.

They succeeded in one aspect: scored there first World Cup goal. But received 10. Instantly El Salvador became the weakest team at this finals, comparable only to Zaire 1974 and most likely even worse. As for Hungary – they did not look better than expected, but did what had to be done to keep a chance for going to the second round: huge victory against El Salvador. In case of equal points, Hungary had goal-difference advantage.

Argentina – Hungary proceeded ‘normally’: Hungary proved that it was not a miracle team, but a modest one. Argentina dominated, even looked strong as it was in 1978.

The first half ended with Argentina leading 2-0, which was made 4-0 by the 62nd minute. Eventually, Hungary scored a goal, but neither mattered, nor changed the general impression of the match. Menotti was more than generous with his praise – he said he was amazed and surprised how good his team really was. Tarantini and Valdano were injured and had to substituted, but seemingly the team benefited from that. The Hungarians did not very upset, which surprised the journalists, but such cool reaction had to be expected – not only Meszoly knew the limitations of his squad, but for the moment nothing strange happened. They still had a chance to go ahead and not their match with Argentina, but the next one – Belgium vs El Salvador – was the really important one for their fate.

Which went exactly in favour of Hungary. Thys wanted his team to score as much as possible against El Salvador, but there was something well known: Belgium was not a high scoring team. El Salvador was obviously so weak, that the match looked a mere formality and the Belgians were not very motivated. Coeck scored an early goal in the 18th minute, which perhaps was counter-productive, for it lulled the Belgian team entirely – the match ended 1-0, a result curiously benefiting mostly Argentina. Yes, Belgium had a perfect record so far, if they lost to Hungary, they were out. Argentina, on the other hand, benefited from any result of Belgium – Hungary, for there was no doubt they were going to win against El Salvador. Now Hungarian calm reaction to their otherwise devastating loss to Argentina was perfectly clear: their most important match was against Belgium and they had to win. Possible. With motivation and luck.

Belgium – Hungary started as expected: Hungary was more active and dangerous and scored in the 28th minute. After that luck betrayed them – they had two more chances and missed. But Belgium had no luck either – in the beginning of the second half Pfaff and Gerets clashed into each other, Gerets was heavily injured and had to be replaced. Injuries plagued Belgium – Pfaff suffered to the end of the match, later, when Belgium used its substitutes, Coeck was injured and had to limp to the last whistle useless. But Thys made his important substitute meantime, fielding van Moer for the first time at this championship. The veteran instantly took the match under his control and eventually Czerniatinsky equalized in the 76th minute. At the end – 1-1, Belgium going ahead and Hungary – out.

Argentina – El Salvador was a mere protocol, leaving no impressions. Passarella scored from a penalty in the first half and Bertoni added one more goal in the second. If anything, El Salvador failed in its extremely modest aim to finish better than in 1970: they lost again all their matches, but ended with worse goal-difference. Well, they scored their first world cup finals goal, if it was a consolation.

Belgium 3 2 1 0 3 1 +2 5

Argentina 3 2 0 1 6 2 +4 4

Hungary 3 1 1 1 12 6 +6 3

El Salvador 3 0 0 3 1 13 −12 0

Despite the sensation with which the group started, it ended as expected and predicted. So far Belgium appeared to be the most interesting, but also most unlucky team – if they managed to get the string of injured players fit for the second round, they would have been quite dangerous. Argentina was underperforming, but nothing alarming yet – surely, they will come to their real strength in the second round. Hungary perhaps got more than expected from their team, coming close to qualifying. In any case, nothing to be ashamed of. Made a scoring record too.

February 5, 2017February 5, 2017

Group 3

Group 3. Argentina was the big favourite, one of the prime candidates for winning the world title. Belgium expected to finish second. Hungary most likely third, unless surprising everybody with some strong play and bumping out Belgium. El Salvador – the hopeless outsider. Easy group at the least for the reigning world champions.

Argentina came as major favourite – the team seem stronger than the one winning the World Cup 4 years ago. Maradona was the biggest addition, of course. But also some other under-20 World champions, notably Diaz. This time Menotti was not excluding foreign-based players, but made everything possible to prevent any foreign transfer of his young players – Maradona, Diaz, Barbas, Calderon, and Hernandez. The selection was formidable.

Head coach: César Luis Menotti

Osvaldo Ardiles

3 August 1952 (aged 29)

Tottenham Hotspur

Héctor Baley

16 November 1950 (aged 31)

Talleres de Córdoba

Juan Barbas

23 August 1959 (aged 22)

Racing

Daniel Bertoni

14 March 1955 (aged 27)

Fiorentina

Gabriel Calderón

7 February 1960 (aged 22)

Independiente

Ramón Díaz

29 August 1959 (aged 22)

River Plate

Ubaldo Fillol

21 July 1950 (aged 31)

River Plate

Luis Galván

24 February 1948 (aged 34)

Talleres de Córdoba

Américo Gallego

24 May 1955 (aged 27)

River Plate

Diego Maradona

30 October 1960 (aged 21)

Boca Juniors

Mario Kempes

15 July 1954 (aged 27)

River Plate

Patricio Hernández

16 August 1956 (aged 25)

Estudiantes

Julio Olarticoechea

18 October 1958 (aged 23)

River Plate

Jorge Olguín

17 May 1952 (aged 30)

Independiente

Daniel Passarella (c)

25 May 1953 (aged 29)

River Plate

Nery Pumpido

30 July 1957 (aged 24)

Veléz Sársfield

Santiago Santamaría

22 August 1952 (aged 29)

Newell’s Old Boys

Alberto Tarantini

3 December 1955 (aged 26)

River Plate

Enzo Trossero

23 May 1953 (aged 29)

Independiente

Jorge Valdano

4 October 1955 (aged 26)

Real Zaragoza

José Daniel Valencia

3 October 1955 (aged 26)

Talleres de Córdoba

José Van Tuyne

13 December 1954 (aged 27)

Racing

If there were weaknesses, they were largely psychological – mainly, the Faulkland Islands War. Mario Kempes struggled with his form and may be he was not at his best. Maradona had an injury, but minor one. Tarantini was too in questionable shape, for he had problems with finding a team to play for after his disastrous spell in England. Ardiles was in a middle of difficult negotiations of new contract with Tottenham Hotspur – the Faulkland War was the biggest obstacle. The real concern was lack of wingers – Menotti declined the advocacy of Ardiles and did not invite Ricardo Villa. He felt Bertoni and Diaz could cover the flanks. On the positive side was one mega-factor – Maradona. Some observers argued that he was grossly overrated, but they were minority. Ardiles was at his finest, 9 players were actual world champions, Passarella was excellent captain and leader of the team. As a trivia, once again Argentina gave shirt numbers alphabetically, so Ardiles was number 1 and the goalkeeper Fillol – number 7. The only exception was made for Maradona he had to be number 12, but got his favourite number 10 and Herhandez took number 12. Holland of 1974 did the same – all got alphabetical numbers except Cruijff. Maradona was already considered bigger than Cruijff and the swap of numbers was one of the proves.

Belgium was flying on the wings of their wonderful performance at the 1980 European championship. The team had practically no changes and was very well oiled. Guy Thys practically had two problems – the captain Cools was out and the Belgian Parliament refused to naturalize Spanish-born midfielder Juan Lozano. Minor problems. Belgium was expected to finish second – it was strong team, but perhaps unable of challenging Argentina.

Head coach: Guy Thys

Jean-Marie Pfaff

4 December 1953 (aged 28)

Beveren

Eric Gerets (c)

18 May 1954 (aged 28)

Standard Liège

Luc Millecamps

10 September 1951 (aged 30)

K.S.V. Waregem

Walter Meeuws

11 July 1951 (aged 30)

Standard Liège

Michel Renquin

3 November 1955 (aged 26)

Anderlecht

Franky Vercauteren

28 October 1956 (aged 25)

Anderlecht

Jos Daerden

26 November 1954 (aged 27)

Standard Liège

Wilfried Van Moer

1 March 1945 (aged 37)

Beveren

Erwin Vandenbergh

26 January 1959 (aged 23)

Lierse

Ludo Coeck

25 September 1955 (aged 26)

Anderlecht

Jan Ceulemans

28 February 1957 (aged 25)

Club Brugge

Theo Custers

10 August 1950 (aged 31)

Espanyol

François Van Der Elst

1 December 1954 (aged 27)

West Ham United

Marc Baecke

24 July 1956 (aged 25)

Beveren

Maurits De Schrijver

26 June 1951 (aged 30)

K.S.C. Lokeren

Gerard Plessers

30 March 1959 (aged 23)

Standard Liège

René Verheyen

20 March 1952 (aged 30)

K.S.C. Lokeren

Raymond Mommens

27 December 1958 (aged 23)

K.S.C. Lokeren

Marc Millecamps

9 October 1950 (aged 31)

K.S.V. Waregem

Guy Vandersmissen

25 December 1957 (aged 24)

Standard Liège

Alexandre Czerniatynski

28 July 1960 (aged 21)

Antwerp

Jacky Munaron

8 September 1956 (aged 25)

Anderlecht

Minuses. Traditionally short pool of talent. Injuries plagued the squad in the last moment and there was no way to replace regulars with others. Rene Vandereycken was injured in the last friendly with Bulgaria and had to be dropped from the selection for the finals and replaced by Jozef Dearden. His absence placed new emphasis on the veteran van Moer, who preferred to have Lozano on the benchm ready to replace him in the second half, but Lozano was out for he did not get Belgian citizenship. Ironically, journalists and public opinion forced Thys to bring back in the national team van Moer two years earlier – now it was the coach defending van Moer, who was almost 38-years old, from his former advocates. They felt now he was too old and useless. Anyhow, Belgium was tough enough and since the team together for so long, they knew perfectly what to do – masters of collective play and tactically wise team. No internap personal problems – Belgium was perhaps the most relaxed team. Thys did not even run closed training camp. Trivia: van Moer was not just the only Belgian player, who played at world cup finals before, but the only player at this finals, who played in Mexico 1970.

Hungary – most likely third. There was hope back in 1978 that Hungary may develop a strong squad, but with time it became clear it was not going to happen. In fact, the current team was perhaps weaker than the 1978 vintage: the key players were the same and most of them were over 30 now. With luck – a massive dose of luck – Hungary could have edged Belgium, that was all.

Head coach: Kálmán Mészöly

Ferenc Mészáros

11 April 1950 (aged 32)

Sporting Clube de Portugal

Győző Martos

15 December 1949 (aged 32)

Waterschei SV Thor

László Bálint

1 February 1948 (aged 34)

Toulouse FC

József Tóth

2 December 1951 (aged 30)

Újpesti Dózsa

Sándor Müller

21 September 1948 (aged 33)

Hércules Alicante

Imre Garaba

29 July 1958 (aged 23)

Budapest Honvéd

László Fazekas

15 October 1947 (aged 34)

Royal Antwerp FC

Tibor Nyilasi (c)

18 January 1955 (aged 27)

Ferencvárosi TC

András Törőcsik

1 May 1955 (aged 27)

Újpesti Dózsa

László Kiss

12 March 1956 (aged 26)

Vasas SC

Gábor Pölöskei

11 October 1961 (aged 20)

Ferencvárosi TC

Lázár Szentes

12 December 1955 (aged 26)

Rába ETO Győr

Tibor Rab

2 October 1955 (aged 26)

Ferencvárosi TC

Sándor Sallai

26 March 1960 (aged 22)

Debreceni VSC

Béla Bodonyi

14 September 1956 (aged 25)

Budapest Honvéd

Ferenc Csongrádi

29 March 1956 (aged 26)

Videoton FC Fehérvár

Károly Csapó

23 February 1952 (aged 30)

Tatabányai Bányász

Attila Kerekes

4 April 1954 (aged 28)

Békéscsabai Előre FC

József Varga

9 October 1954 (aged 27)

Budapest Honvéd

József Csuhay

12 July 1957 (aged 24)

Videoton FC Fehérvár

Béla Katzirz

27 July 1953 (aged 28)

Pécsi MFC

Imre Kiss

10 August 1957 (aged 24)

Tatabányai Bányász

The big minus was that Hungary did not become stronger team after 1978. Apparently, there was not enough young talent on the level of the veterans – and so the old guys not only stayed, but were still the key players. Not only well over 30, but also playing abroad and not always available for camps and friendlies. The defensive line was too old and may be too slow because of that. The big stars – Nyilasi and Torocsik – seemingly reached the limits of their potential and were not going to be better, especially Torocsik. On the positive side, there was plenty of experience – in a good day, Hungary may be able to overcome Belgium. With some strong play and luck could go to the next round. Trivia: 5 foreign-based professionals – the biggest number a East European team ever selected (excluding Yugoslavia).

El Salvador – unknown outsider. Just happy to play at the finals for a second time. Salvadorian players were entirely unknown and there was hardly anything to discuss about them. They had just a single foreign-based player: the 23-years old defender Jaime Rodriguez, playing for Bayer (Uerdingen, West Germany).

Head coach: Pipo Rodríguez

Luis Guevara Mora

2 September 1961 (aged 20)

Platense Municipal

Mario Castillo

30 October 1951 (aged 30)

Santiagueño

José Francisco Jovel

26 May 1951 (aged 31)

Águila

Carlos Recinos

30 June 1950 (aged 31)

FAS

Ramón Fagoaga

12 January 1952 (aged 30)

Atlético Marte

Joaquín Ventura

27 October 1956 (aged 25)

Santiagueño

Silvio Aquino

30 June 1949 (aged 32)

Alianza

José Luis Rugamas

5 June 1953 (aged 29)

Atlético Marte

Ever Hernández

11 December 1958 (aged 23)

Santiagueño

Norberto Huezo (c)

6 June 1956 (aged 26)

Palencia

Mágico González

13 March 1957 (aged 25)

Cadiz

Francisco Osorto

20 March 1957 (aged 25)

Santiagueño

José María Rivas

12 May 1958 (aged 24)

Alianza

Luis Ramírez

6 January 1954 (aged 28)

Atlético Marte

Jaime Rodríguez

17 January 1959 (aged 23)

Bayer Uerdingen

Mauricio Alfaro

13 February 1956 (aged 26)

Platense Municipal

Guillermo Ragazzone

5 January 1956 (aged 26)

Atlético Marte

Miguel Ángel Díaz

27 January 1957 (aged 25)

Atlético Marte

Eduardo Hernández

31 January 1958 (aged 24)

Santiagueño

José Luis Munguía

28 October 1959 (aged 22)

FAS

The only aim, according to the coach Pipo Rodriguez, was to better the record of 1970 finals. No, not hoping to get a point, but to finish with better goal-difference, which in 1970 was 0-9. There was nothing positive, but to the negative was added the dismissal from the squad of the captain Huezo, who expressed his unhappiness from having been substituted in a friendly in rather strong way. However, he was brought back for the finals. The rest is trivia – El Salvador managed to select only 20 players, having not enough options for standard 22. The goalkeeper Luis Guevara Mora came to football by sheer accident – three years before he was playing basketball in his schoolyard, when a team lacking goalkeeper for a game in the same yard asked him to join – and from there to World Cup finals.

February 4, 2017February 4, 2017

Group 2

Algeria and West Germany opened the group and the only interesting thing about the match was to see and confirm how good the Germans were.

But something else happened – people saw haw good Algeria was. Surprisingly well organized, tactically up to date, not afraid to challenge the mighty Germans, who were increasingly frustrated, uninspired, and even struggling. Derwall, it was felt, was not up to the task – evidently, he wasted the intermission, for his team was worse in the second half. Later observers pointed out his weird passivity during the second half, including the lack of reaction when the referee disallowed may be a legitimate goal for West Germany. But it was Algeria opening the scores – and Madjer will be a German nemesis one more time later in the 1980s. Rummenigge equalized in the 67th minute, which was not even a temporary relief for his team, for Algeria scored a second goal in the next minute, thanks to Belloumi. And the first sensation of the 1982 finals was a fact – Algeria 2, West Germany 1. Today it is an annoying cliche of coaches, saying after a loss that they ‘can’t understand why the team played so bad’ – back in 1982 such a statement was more than a stupid risk: Derwall made it, as if confessing his own incapacity to coach. The journalists had a field day – German journalists especially. Delighted Mekhloufi proclaimed the victory the greatest day in the history of Algerian football. And rightly so – back in 1964 Mekhloufi scored twice in the West German net, but he wearing the French jersey.

The next day Austria faced Chile.

Suddenly it was a tough and difficult match – Austria managed to score early, thanks to Schachner in the 22nd minute, but 5 minutes later their German-born defender Krauss faulled Caszely in the penalty area. Caszely took the penalty kick himself and missed. Yet, Austria was more dangerous and early in the second half had missed a chance for a second goal. This changed in the last 20 minutes, when Chile pushed Austria in defence and only the perfect play of Koncilia saved the Austrians. Difficult victory 1-0, but the Austrian coaches were rather worried and cautios: they expected the second match to be more difficult than the first. Algeria was on their mind.

The next match was between West Germany and Chile. The Austrians were right to worry – before the game the Chilean coach was rather confident: he said his team was stronger than Algeria and would be possible to beat Germany. Alas, he was wrong – his team did not have enough class to win.

Rummenigge was the hero of this match, almost single-handedly destroying Chile – he scored 3 goals. But West Germany was once again plain nothing. Breitner had to be replaced by Mathaus. Actually, it was just Rummenigge and Stielike beating the Chileans. Worse, Derwall confessed after the game that he never gave any tactical instructions to the duo and they alone decided to take control of the game. Praise for great masters? Rather weakness – for a second match Derwall failed as a coach. And suddenly he was running out of options – Hansi Muller was still unfit to play and Rummenigge felt worse after the match with Chile. As for the Chileans, almost only Figueroa showed class. They were out after 1-4.

Austria – Algeria. For both teams winning was a must, but the Austrians obviously learned a good lesson from the sensational first win of Algeria. They started slowly and carefully, waiting and pressing the less experienced team. Pezzey was asked not to go ahead at all. The idea was to stiffle Alegia and made it nervous. The first half looked equal.

In the second half Austrian coaches made good tactical change, fielding a second striker – Kurt Welzl – thus putting stress on attack. It worked beautifully – first Schachner scored in the 55th minute and 12 minutes later Krankl made it 2-0. Welzl was instrumental in both goals. Algeria had no answer and after two matches Austria qualified to the next round.

But nothing was finished yet. Algeria had a chance if winning against Chile. Chile had only to play for its honour.

Algeria started very well and was leading 3-0 by the 35th minute. Unfortunately, the players, may be from lack of experience, decided the job was done. Contrary to the coaches urges in midtime to continue pressuring Chile and perhaps score more goals, they lost the initiave in the second half. Later their coaches said that the players were simply not strong enough to maintain high tempo for the whole match, they tired themselves in the first half. Chile came back and scored twice. They were unable to equalize and the match finished 3-2 Algeria.

The last group match had specific stakes: any victory of West Germany would move them ahead. But victory was a must – a tie was eliminating them. Austria had only to avoid loss by more than 1 goal. Later there were accusations that Austria decided not to play for finishing at first place, but let’s face it: first place in the group had no value. Even moral victory had no value. So ‘the digrace of Gijon’ took place… West Germany pushed hard, fast, and relentless from the very first whistle. Hrubesch scored in the 10th minute. And the match ended…

The next 80 minutes both teams slowly and carefully passed the ball to each other, just waiting the time to run out. It was well concerted effort not to play, not even to suggest any trace of attemp to attack the other net. Algerian fans angrily waived money bills to TV cameras – it was a sham, it was corrupt match. Blatantly so. It was a shamefull act in the face of the whole world. Tousands of angry words were written on this match, still remaining as prime example of world cup scam and disgrace. Nobody was ever punished and formally there was no reason: it was not a back-room deal. There was no need – both teams made their calculations. They knew the result of the previous match, played the day before. 1-0 for West Germany qualified both teams, the best result. Yes, the players spoke the same language, but there was no need to communicate – as long as nobody made a dangerous, or seen as dangerous, move both teams were fine. They made sure to not appear dangerous to the opponent – the Austrians trying to not anger still superior German players; the Germans trying to avoid a risk of a stray goal in their net. That was all – brotherly love and sheer boredom for those watching the game. Never before two teams so shamelessly refused to play. Never before the players were concerned only with killing practically the whole match. This was a sign of the end of football. Both teams got what they wanted without playing. Scary. Even scarier, because nobody was to blame and there was no way to force the teams to do anything on the pitch. There was no way to punish the culprits. Post-match interviues noone believed, although formally the coaches were right: Derwall said that his team was weakened by injured Stielike and Rummenigge; Schmidt said that his players wanted to preserve their strength for the next games. Formally, true… Algeria made a formal complaint, on the grounds of putting the game in disrepute, but FIFA brushed it away – there was no real rule Austria and West Germany broke. The ball was moving, the players moved, there was no bribery or fixing… nothing to do.

1. West Germany 3 2 0 1 6-3 +3 4

2. Austria 3 2 0 1 3-1 +2 4

3. Algeria 3 2 0 1 5-5 0 4

4. Chile 3 0 0 3 3-8 −5 0

West Germany finished 1st, Austria 2nd, Algeria was out. It was not fair, but that was that. West Germany was no stranger to calculations – in 1974 they deliberately finished 2nd in the first round group in order of avoiding tougher opponents, particularly Brazil, later. This time it was a matter of survival – they were not in a position to pick and chose. And ended in a tougher next-stage group, but… went ahead at the expense of Algeria. Ultimately, it was an old problem: the last preliminary groups matches were not played in the same day. That gave an opportunity to those playing last to scheme. It happened in 1974. It happened in 1978. It happened again. Only this time was blatant and outrageous that FIFA had to do something and it did: after this championship the last group matches were played simultaneously in the same day at the same time. Too late for Algeria…

February 2, 2017February 2, 2017

Group 2

Group 2. An easy group – West Germany was the big favourite not only to go ahead, but one of the possible winners of the championship. There was little doubt that the Germans came back to greatness, similar to the wonderful 1972-74 years. Not only they had a great team, but there was so much talent that some problems were more a fodder for journalists than actual threat. Breitner came back to the national team and largely because of his bossy ways Bernd Schuster refused to play for the national team. He was not alone, although the other ‘refusenik’, Bernd Dietz, was hardly ever mentioned. The third big name missing was Rainer Bonhof, but with him it was trivial reason – injuries and bad form. Another country may have suffered severely from the absence of such players, but it was nothing for the Germans: there was new talent pushing ahead – Littbarski and Matheus. Breitner was excellent, combined with Rummenigge.

Head coach: Jupp Derwall

Harald Schumacher

6 March 1954 (aged 28)

FC Köln

Hans-Peter Briegel

11 October 1955 (aged 26)

Kaiserslautern

Paul Breitner

5 September 1951 (aged 30)

Bayern Munich

Karlheinz Förster

25 July 1958 (aged 23)

Stuttgart

Bernd Förster

3 May 1956 (aged 26)

Stuttgart

Wolfgang Dremmler

12 July 1954 (aged 27)

Bayern Munich

Pierre Littbarski

16 April 1960 (aged 22)

FC Köln

Klaus Fischer

27 December 1949 (aged 32)

FC Köln

Horst Hrubesch

17 April 1951 (aged 31)

Hamburg

Hansi Müller

27 July 1957 (aged 24)

Stuttgart

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (c)

25 September 1955 (aged 26)

Bayern Munich

Wilfried Hannes

17 May 1957 (aged 25)

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Uwe Reinders

19 January 1955 (aged 27)

Werder Bremen

Felix Magath

26 July 1953 (aged 28)

Hamburg

Uli Stielike

15 November 1954 (aged 27)

Real Madrid

Thomas Allofs

17 November 1959 (aged 22)

Fortuna Düsseldorf

Stephan Engels

6 September 1960 (aged 21)

FC Köln

Lothar Matthäus

21 March 1961 (aged 21)

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Holger Hieronymus

22 February 1959 (aged 23)

Hamburg

Manfred Kaltz

6 January 1953 (aged 29)

Hamburg

Bernd Franke

12 February 1948 (aged 34)

Eintracht Braunschweig

Eike Immel

27 November 1960 (aged 21)

Borussia Dortmund

Minuses. What minuses? Working horse Dietz was replaced with younger and better players. Bonhof too, it seemed. Schuster, then – but there was Breitner and it was very difficult to say who was more valuable. There were tensions in the team, but the Germans were masters of leaving problems in the locker room. Stielike was back – the stupid rule imposed by the German Federation in 1978 left him out, but lessons were learned and there was no more ‘foreign based players out’. Rummenigge was not fully recovered from injury, but no big trouble. The team had no weak place, was relatively young, with key players at their prime, and vastly experienced. Old days were invoked not only by the living direct link with the 1974 world champions – Breitner – but also with problems of wealth: back then it was Overatt or Netzer, now it was Magath or Hansi Muller. Plus Hrubesch or Fischer. The headaches of Jupp Derwall were the envy for other coaches. A team without any weaknesses, a dream-team. Curiously, three players were left home – Thomas Allofs, Hieronymus, and Engels. On call – they were not immediately needed. And trivia: Bernd Franke, now 34 years old, was going to world cup finals for the first time – the respected goalkeeper was in and out of the national team for the whole 1970s, but playing for lowly Eintracht Braunschweig was a handicap – the relegation of his club most likely left him out of the 1974 selection. At last he made it – and deserved it – although he was not a starter.

Short of sensation, Austria was the expected number two. Not a match for West Germany, but with experienced squad, which many considered at its peak. The talent pool was limited, but there was enough for a squad and the backbone of Koncilia – Pezzey – Prohaska – Krankl was enough to ensure at least qualifying to the second round.

Head coaches: Felix Latzke and Georg Schmidt

Friedrich Koncilia

25 February 1948 (aged 34)

Austria Wien

Bernd Krauss

8 May 1957 (aged 25)

Rapid Wien

Erich Obermayer (c)

23 January 1953 (aged 29)

Austria Wien

Josef Degeorgi

19 January 1960 (aged 22)

Admira/Wacker

Bruno Pezzey

3 February 1955 (aged 27)

Eintracht Frankfurt

Roland Hattenberger

7 December 1948 (aged 33)

SSW Innsbruck

Walter Schachner

1 February 1957 (aged 25)

Cesena

Herbert Prohaska

8 August 1955 (aged 26)

Inter Milan

Hans Krankl

14 February 1953 (aged 29)

Rapid Wien

Reinhold Hintermaier

14 February 1956 (aged 26)

Nuremberg

Kurt Jara

14 October 1950 (aged 31)

Grasshopper-Club

Anton Pichler

4 October 1955 (aged 26)

Sturm Graz

Max Hagmayr

16 November 1956 (aged 25)

VÖEST Linz

Ernst Baumeister

22 January 1957 (aged 25)

Austria Wien

Johann Dihanich

24 October 1958 (aged 23)

Austria Wien

Gerald Messlender

1 October 1961 (aged 20)

Admira/Wacker

Johann Pregesbauer

8 June 1958 (aged 24)

Rapid Wien

Gernot Jurtin

9 September 1955 (aged 26)

Sturm Graz

Heribert Weber

28 June 1955 (aged 26)

Rapid Wien

Kurt Welzl

6 November 1954 (aged 27)

Valencia

Herbert Feurer

14 January 1954 (aged 28)

Rapid Wien

Klaus Lindenberger

28 May 1957 (aged 25)

Linzer ASK

Weaker than West Germany, surely, but Austria was also well above the other teams in the group. No missing players. Enough class and ambition. May be a dark horse, for the Austrians were not considered a big favourite: with a bit of luck, they were capable of moving quite ahead when nobody was looking. Trivia: two head coaches, neither a big name.

Chile. Most likely to finish third. Not a great team, although this time there were no political tensions, handicapping the team as they did in 1974. Chile was just to be happy playing at the finals – going beyond the first round was out of the question. Miracles happen, but rarely – this team was not one to make a miracle.

Head coach: Luis Santibáñez

Oscar Wirth

5 November 1955 (aged 26)

Cobreloa

Lizardo Garrido

25 August 1957 (aged 24)

Colo-Colo

René Valenzuela

20 April 1955 (aged 27)

Universidad Católica

Vladimir Bigorra

9 August 1954 (aged 27)

Universidad de Chile

Elías Figueroa (c)

25 October 1946 (aged 35)

Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Rodolfo Dubó

11 September 1953 (aged 28)

Palestino

Eduardo Bonvallet

13 January 1955 (aged 27)

Universidad Católica

Carlos Rivas

24 May 1953 (aged 29)

Colo-Colo

Juan Carlos Letelier

20 May 1959 (aged 23)

Cobreloa

Mario Soto

10 July 1950 (aged 31)

Cobreloa

Gustavo Moscoso

10 August 1955 (aged 26)

Universidad Católica

Marco Cornez

15 October 1957 (aged 24)

Palestino

Carlos Caszely

5 July 1950 (aged 31)

Colo-Colo

Raúl Ormeño

21 June 1958 (aged 23)

Colo-Colo

Patricio Yáñez

20 January 1961 (aged 21)

San Luis

Manuel Rojas

13 June 1954 (aged 28)

Universidad Católica

Oscar Rojas

15 November 1958 (aged 23)

Colo-Colo

Mario Galindo

10 August 1951 (aged 30)

Colo-Colo

Enzo Escobar

10 November 1951 (aged 30)

Cobreloa

Miguel Ángel Neira

9 October 1952 (aged 29)

Universidad Católica

Miguel Ángel Gamboa

21 June 1951 (aged 30)

Universidad de Chile

Mario Osbén

14 July 1950 (aged 31)

Colo-Colo

The best of Chile was not exactly much – the team depended on old feet, known for years: Carlos Caszely was 31, Elias Figueroa -35. Figueroa was the only foreign based player, but he was playing in NASL. Eight years earlier, Chilean players were hired in Europe, which was telling: true, Chilean clubs now provided enough to keep players at home, the lack of European interest meant lack of class. The only interesting talent was the 21-years old striker Patricio Yanez. Very little. There was only the sense that players like Figueroa and Caszely deserve to have one more world cup before they quit the game.

Algeria was considered the strongest among the outsiders – partly, by default. The good impression of Tunisia four years ago still lingered. Arabic football was generally more competent than the Black African one. Algeria had European-based professionals, unlike any other outsider. They were a ‘may be’: if any outsider was to play well, it was to be Algeria, but nothing more than good impressions – if they played well, may be they would have been able to finish above Chile. Bumping Austria and West Germany? Not even in a dream.

Head coaches: Mahieddine Khalef and Rachid Mekhloufi

Mehdi Cerbah

3 April 1953 (aged 29)

RS Kouba

Mahmoud Guendouz

24 February 1953 (aged 29)

MA Hussein Dey

Mustafa Kouici

16 April 1954 (aged 28)

MA Hussein Dey

Nourredine Kourichi

12 April 1954 (aged 28)

Girondins Bordeaux

Chaabane Merzekane

8 March 1959 (aged 23)

MA Hussein Dey

Ali Bencheikh

9 January 1955 (aged 27)

MP Alger

Salah Assad

13 March 1958 (aged 24)

RS Kouba

Ali Fergani (c)

21 September 1952 (aged 29)

JE Tizi-Ouzou

Tedj Bensaoula

1 December 1954 (aged 27)

MP Oran

Lakhdar Belloumi

29 December 1958 (aged 23)

GCR Mascara

Rabah Madjer

15 December 1958 (aged 23)

MA Hussein Dey

Salah Larbes

16 September 1952 (aged 29)

JE Tizi-Ouzou

Hocine Yahi

25 April 1960 (aged 22)

CM Belcourt

Djamel Zidane

28 April 1955 (aged 27)

KV Kortrijk

Mustapha Dahleb

8 February 1952 (aged 30)

Paris St-Germain

Faouzi Mansouri

17 January 1956 (aged 26)

Montpellier SC

Abdelkader Horr

10 November 1953 (aged 28)

DNC Alger

Karim Maroc

5 March 1958 (aged 24)

Tours FC

Djamel Tlemçani

16 April 1955 (aged 27)

Stade de Reims

Abdelmajid Bourebbou

16 March 1951 (aged 31)

Stade Lavallois

Mourad Amara

19 February 1959 (aged 23)

JE Tizi-Ouzou

Yacine Bentalaa

24 September 1955 (aged 26)

MA Hussein Dey

What could be said? A team perhaps to make a good impression and go down fighting. At best, a good step for African football, giving example of bravery. Seven professionals, based in France and Belgium, supported the expectations of decent football. Mustapha Dahleb was the big name, playing in France for years and currently for Paris SG, but he was 30. The next in line was the 28-years old defender Nourredine Kourichi, currently with Bordeaux. Well respected players, not major stars – good to see them at the world cup, but no more. Trivia: group 2 was an anomaly – two teams having two head coaches, Austria and Algeria. Algeria chose to have domestic coaches, something unusual for an African team. Rachid Mekhloufi was a big star in France, when he was a player – his status was certainly inspirational, but his coaching abilities remained to be seen.

January 29, 2017January 29, 2017

Group 1

Italy and Poland opened the group rounds – 8 years ago Poland won against Italy and went all the way to bronze medals. Italy meantime was eliminated at the group phase and went home in disgrace. Now the picture was different – on paper.

Also on the pitch. The match was nothing much and both teams left much to be desired, but Italy was the more active and dangerous team. They had perhaps the only chance to score, but Rossi missed. Poland played competent football, but nothing more than that. 0-0 at the end, a result which observers considered tactically beneficial to both teams.

Peru came out on the pitch as favourite and seemingly determined to win, perhaps even taking the match over-seriously, because Uribe and Leguia were among the starters. Cameroon… it was the first chance for the world to see them, that was all.

As the match progressed, kind of frustration grew – seemingly, Peru did not take this much seriously enough. Cameroon surprised with enthusiastic and competent performance. Classier – on paper – Peru did not look better, stronger, or deserving to win at all – and they did not. Nobody scored, a second 0-0 in the group, so everything had to start anew. Actually, a goal was scored and against Peru, but Roger Milla was offside. Still, Peru was expected to start playing the next match. Cameroon was considered a pleasant team, yet, nothing special. Thomas N’Kono was singled out as a potential new discovery.

The next match between Italy and Peru looked like the most important in the group – no result would have really satisfied either team, but a loss would be close to exiting. In the first half Italy was more active and scored early, thanks to Bruno Conti.

After the goal the tempo deteriorated and the match transformed into typical Italian dread – just killing time. Even the foul – unintended – on the referee did not liven up the match. In the second half Peru pushed ahead and outplayed Italy. At last they equalized in the 84th minute. After the match Tim was happy, saying that the result is fine by him. Bearzot was viciously attacked by Italian journalists, to the point of losing his cool for a moment and snapping at them, that in 1978 the team started great and quickly went home. Nobody was convinced – Italy was no good so far. 1-1.

Poland vs Cameroon was estimated with care after the opening matches and the game proved the careful wise.

Cameroon was active and dangerous, Poland was pale shadow not of the team of 1974, but the one of 1978 and only inexperience, so was felt, prevented Cameroon from winning. Cameroon deserved to win, but the match ended 0-0. Most critics singled out the Polish stars Lato, Szarmach, and Boniek.

Before the last round the group table was unique – all teams with equal points from ties, which even looked like to continue to the end. Tim certainly suggested that, by saying that Peru will be happy with a tie, for their single scored so far goal will place them above Poland. Not convincing Italy and inspired Cameroon were also seen the makers of one more tie. The scary potential future stuck out its head: this time if all matches were tied, there was still a way to make the final table. But the group so far revealed another possibility: all matches ending 0-0. Then what? Well, not this year.

Peru clearly came for a tie. Poland seemingly had no chance. But suddenly the picture was entirely different when the match began – Tim considered Poland too slow and painfully tired, and declared that his approach will be just to play at high tempo.

But it was Poland playing at high speed and as the match progressed, actually the Poles destroyed Peru. In this match they arguably played the closest football to their performance at the 1974 World Cup. It 5-0 in the 76th minute. In the 82nd La Rosa scored at last, but it was too little too late. 5-1. The spell of ties was broken, Poland qualified, Peru was down and out. It looked like Peru played a high prize for over-confidence and not getting serious enough against Cameroon, but they had to only blame themselves. And their coach Tim, of course. Poland, which considered out before the beginning of the match not only qualified for the second round, but suddenly looked a very dangerous team.

Italy was in the same situation as Peru before the starts of the match against Cameroon: they needed a tie. More than possible, for they already knew that Peru was eliminated. Bearzot made a single change – Oriali replaced Marini, which on the surface appeared to be a decision in favour of attack. It looked like Italy was aiming at winning, which may have placed them at first place in the group: Bearzot said that Italy must avoid facing Brazil in the next phase. However, winning with more than 4 goals difference looked outlandish.

Cameroon played again very well and made enough trouble for Italy, which struggled once again. Yet, Graziani managed to score in the 60th minute. Happiness lasted very short time – in the next minute Cameroon equalized and Italy had to fret to the final whistle. Everybody watching – except the Italians, of course – felt that Cameroon deserved to win, but the game ended 1-1. Italy got the second place thanks to more scored goals and was to meet Brazil, but it was preferable to going home.

Poland 3 1 2 0 5 1 +4 4

Italy 3 0 3 0 2 2 0 3

Cameroon 3 0 3 0 1 1 0 3

Peru 3 0 2 1 2 6 −4 2

match, but few expected the team to last. Italy was a big disappointment so far, even not deserving to go ahead, but there they were – to the second round, which certainly will be the end of Italy. The quicker, the better at that. Cameroon left wonderful impression – they ended their campaign unbeaten, the first African team to do so. They were unlucky, that was all – apart from that: the most competent third-world team to date. Thomas N’Kono instantly became famous and effectively was one of the best goalkeepers at this championship. Finally Africa had arrived.

Poland showed some promise at its last match, but few expected the team to last. Italy was a big disappointment so far, even not deserving to go ahead, but there they were – to the second round, which certainly will be the end of Italy. The quicker, the better at that.

January 28, 2017

Group 1

Group 1. Italy was the favourite at a glance. Yes, Italy was always favourite, but this time she was a second-rate one. Not a prime candidate for the title. Lucky to draw an easy group. The promise shown at the 1978 World Cup was stilted. Enzo Bearzot preferred older players – this was already settled to the point of becoming a myth, for the selection was actually well balanced age-wise. True, the starters tended to be near 30.

Head coach: Enzo Bearzot

Dino Zoff (c)

28 February 1942 (aged 40)

Juventus

Franco Baresi

8 May 1960 (aged 22)

Milan

Giuseppe Bergomi

22 December 1963 (aged 18)

Internazionale

Antonio Cabrini

8 October 1957 (aged 24)

Juventus

Fulvio Collovati

9 May 1957 (aged 25)

Milan

Claudio Gentile

27 September 1953 (aged 28)

Juventus

Gaetano Scirea

25 May 1953 (aged 29)

Juventus

Pietro Vierchowod

6 April 1959 (aged 23)

Fiorentina

Giancarlo Antognoni

1 April 1954 (aged 28)

Fiorentina

Giuseppe Dossena

2 May 1958 (aged 24)

Torino

Giampiero Marini

25 February 1951 (aged 31)

Internazionale

Ivano Bordon

13 April 1951 (aged 31)

Internazionale

Gabriele Oriali

25 November 1952 (aged 29)

Internazionale

Marco Tardelli

24 September 1954 (aged 27)

Juventus

Franco Causio

1 February 1949 (aged 33)

Udinese

Bruno Conti

13 March 1955 (aged 27)

Roma

Daniele Massaro

23 May 1961 (aged 21)

Fiorentina

Alessandro Altobelli

28 November 1955 (aged 26)

Internazionale

Francesco Graziani

16 December 1952 (aged 29)

Fiorentina

Paolo Rossi

23 September 1956 (aged 25)

Juventus

Franco Selvaggi

15 May 1953 (aged 29)

Cagliari

Giovanni Galli

29 April 1958 (aged 24)

Fiorentina

Pros, cons, and trivia: the oldest player at the finals – Dino Zoff at 40. Numbers were given alphabetically by lines – except the goalkeepers. That is, defenders, midfielders, strikers. Iron defense, as ever, very competent players, team based on Juventus, excellent playmaker – Antognoni. On the negative side: Rossi, who was banned from playing for quite a long time, was probably a liability, Zoff had problems with long shots, suspect attack, lack of development after 1978, perhaps even going downhill. Expected to win the group, but reaching the semi-finals would depend largely on lucky draw. Bearzot lamented the absence of Bettega. A favourite, but unlikely champion.

Poland and Peru were expected to compete for the second place. Peru perhaps had the edge – based on their strong play at both 1970 and 1978 World Cups. Once again Brazilian coach plus few old hands with enormous experience, going back to 1970. A bright young star in attack – Uribe.

Head coach: Tim (Brazil)

Eusebio Acasuzo

8 April 1952 (aged 30)

Universitario

Jaime Duarte

27 February 1955 (aged 27)

Alianza Lima

Salvador Salguero

10 August 1951 (aged 30)

Alianza Lima

Hugo Gastulo

9 January 1958 (aged 24)

Universitario

Germán Leguía

2 January 1954 (aged 28)

Universitario

José Velásquez

4 June 1952 (aged 30)

Independiente Medellín

Gerónimo Barbadillo

24 September 1952 (aged 29)

UANL Tigres

César Cueto

16 June 1952 (aged 29)

Atlético Nacional

Julio César Uribe

9 May 1958 (aged 24)

Sporting Cristal

Teófilo Cubillas

8 March 1949 (aged 33)

Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Juan Carlos Oblitas

16 December 1951 (aged 30)

Seraing

José González

10 July 1954 (aged 27)

Alianza Lima

Oscar Arizaga

20 August 1957 (aged 24)

Atlético Chalaco

Miguel Gutiérrez

19 November 1956 (aged 25)

Sporting Cristal

Rubén Toribio Díaz (c)

17 April 1952 (aged 30)

Sporting Cristal

Jorge Olaechea

27 August 1956 (aged 25)

Alianza Lima

Franco Navarro

10 November 1961 (aged 20)

Deportivo Municipal

Eduardo Malásquez

13 October 1957 (aged 24)

Deportivo Municipal

Guillermo La Rosa

6 June 1952 (aged 30)

Atlético Nacional

Percy Rojas

16 September 1949 (aged 32)

Seraing

Ramón Quiroga

23 July 1950 (aged 31)

Sporting Cristal

Luis Reyna

06 May 1959 (aged 23)

Sporting Cristal

Chumpitaz was not selected – with this the sensational question how really old was he was buried. Very experienced squad, capable of rising to the occasion. Uribe was a major force to reckon with. But – rather weak defense, the key stars were beyond their prime and the presence of Cubillas, now 33, was questioned in Peru. The big names played abroad, but not in the leading countries: Velasquez, Cueto, and La Rosa in Colombia, Oblitas and Rojas in lowly Seraing, Belgium, and Cubillas – in the ‘graveyard’ of stars, NASL. Quiroga was a liability since the suspect match against Argentina in 1978. A lot depended on the fitness of Leguia and Uribe, both arriving at the finals with injuries.

Poland had a chance, depending largely on how Peru played – Poland was in decline, made obvious in 1978 and clearly had not a team similar to the one of 1974. Remains of the great team were the leading players, the backbone, of the current squad and they only got older. Maybe too old.

Head coach: Antoni Piechniczek

Józef Młynarczyk

20 September 1953 (aged 28)

Widzew Łódź

Marek Dziuba

19 December 1955 (aged 26)

ŁKS Łódź

Janusz Kupcewicz

9 December 1955 (aged 26)

Arka Gdynia

Tadeusz Dolny

7 May 1958 (aged 24)

Górnik Zabrze

Paweł Janas

4 March 1953 (aged 29)

Legia Warszawa

Piotr Skrobowski

16 October 1961 (aged 20)

Wisła Kraków

Jan Jałocha

18 July 1957 (aged 24)

Wisła Kraków

Waldemar Matysik

27 September 1961 (aged 20)

Górnik Zabrze

Władysław Żmuda (c)

6 June 1954 (aged 28)

Widzew Łódź

Stefan Majewski

31 January 1956 (aged 26)

Legia Warszawa

Włodzimierz Smolarek

16 July 1957 (aged 24)

Widzew Łódź

Roman Wójcicki

8 January 1958 (aged 24)

Śląsk Wrocław

Andrzej Buncol

21 September 1959 (aged 22)

Legia Warszawa

Andrzej Pałasz

22 July 1960 (aged 21)

Górnik Zabrze

Włodzimierz Ciołek

24 March 1956 (aged 26)

Stal Mielec

Grzegorz Lato

8 April 1950 (aged 32)

Lokeren

Andrzej Szarmach

3 October 1950 (aged 31)

Auxerre

Marek Kusto

29 April 1954 (aged 28)

Legia Warszawa

Andrzej Iwan

10 November 1959 (aged 22)

Wisła Kraków

Zbigniew Boniek

3 March 1956 (aged 26)

Widzew Łódź

Jacek Kazimierski

17 August 1959 (aged 22)

Legia Warszawa

Piotr Mowlik

21 April 1951 (aged 31)

Lech Poznań

Competent team with strong attacking line – Boniek, Iwan, Smolarek plus famous veterans Lato and Szarmach. If in form – lethal. Four players from the great 1974 squad – Lato, Szarmach, Zmuda, and Kusto (another one – Kapka – was dropped at the final selection). A whole bunch with 1978 experience. On the negative side was the sense that the team was disjointed – rather ordinary goalkeepers, defense largely dependent on the veteran Zmuda, so-so midfield, and crowded attack, which may place young Iwan and Smolarek on the bench. Clear absence of capable playmaker. As a novelty – the famous veterans kept the numbers they became famous with in 1974: Zmuda – 9, an anomaly for a central defender, Lato – 16, Szarmach – 17. Only Kusto had a different number – 22 in 1974, 18 in 1982 – but he was a reserve 8 years earlier. And so he was now. Piechniczek declared that his team is young, but stronger than the 1974 one – his statement sounded strange.

Cameroon was the outsider. Nobody expected anything from the unknown team – yes, Tunisia played well in 1978, but Cameroon was coming from ‘black’ Africa, so Zaire – and its pathetic performance – was invoked. In any case, the team was entirely unknown – yes, 5 players were professionals abroad, but only Tokoto was familiar name and now he was 34, playing in North America.

Head coach: Jean Vincent

Thomas N’Kono (c)

20 July 1956 (aged 25)

Canon Yaoundé

Michel Kaham

1 June 1952 (aged 30)

Stade Quimperois

Edmond Enoka

17 December 1955 (aged 26)

Dragon Douala

René N’Djeya

9 October 1953 (aged 28)

Union Douala

Elie Onana

13 October 1958 (aged 23)

Federal Foumban

Emmanuel Kundé

15 July 1956 (aged 25)

Canon Yaoundé

Ephrem M’Bom

19 October 1955 (aged 26)

Canon Yaoundé

Grégoire M’Bida

27 January 1955 (aged 27)

Canon Yaoundé

Roger Milla

20 May 1952 (aged 30)

Bastia

Jean-Pierre Tokoto

26 January 1948 (aged 34)

Philadelphia Fever

Charles Toubé

22 January 1958 (aged 24)

Tonnerre Yaoundé

Joseph-Antoine Bell

8 October 1954 (aged 27)

Africa Sports

Paul Bahoken

7 July 1955 (aged 26)

Cannes

Théophile Abega

9 July 1954 (aged 27)

Canon Yaoundé

François N’Doumbé

30 January 1954 (aged 28)

Union Douala

Ibrahim Aoudou

23 August 1955 (aged 26)

Cannes

Joseph Kamga

17 August 1953 (aged 28)

Union Douala

Jacques N’Guea

8 November 1955 (aged 26)

Canon Yaoundé

Joseph Enanga

18 November 1956 (aged 25)

Union Douala

Oscar Eyobo

23 October 1961 (aged 20)

Dynamo Douala

Ernest Ebongué

15 May 1962 (aged 20)

Tonnerre Yaoundé

Simon Tchobang

31 August 1951 (aged 30)

Dynamo Douala

The debutantes had nothing in their favour. They even changed their head coach – again with European, but more famous – at least as a player – than the Yugoslav Zupic, who qualified them to the finals. But it was more than suspect that Jean Vincent will elevate the team – it was rather typical African approach, leading to nothing: changing the coach in the last moment. One may be happy that a long time and respected professional – Tokoto – finally has a chance to play a bit of World Cup football, but the rest were nobodies and the only interest Cameroon would create can be among coaches – possibly some cheap promising African player can be hired. Otherwise, Cameroon was only to provide points to the other teams and perhaps who scored most goals in their net would advance.