Group 5 – Football Journey

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.