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…