Group A
31.05.86 (12.00) Mexico City, Estadio Azteca
(-100000) Fredriksson SWE, Codesal MEX, Roth GER
ITA: Galli – Bergomi, Vierchowod, Scirea (c), Cabrini – de Napoli, Bagni, di Gennaro, Conti (66 Vialli) – Galderisi, Altobelli
BUL: Mikhailov – Zdravkov, Dimitrov (c), Arabov, A.Markov – Sadkov, Sirakov, Getov, Gospodinov (74 Zheliazkov) – Iskrenov (66 Kostadinov),
Mladenov
1:0 Altobelli 44, 1:1 Sirakov 85 h
booked: Bergomi, Cabrini / A.Markov
The opening match, traditionally playing the reigning world champion and right after the grand opening ceremony. And, traditionally by now, an anticlimax to the ever more elaborated and dazzling openings. A bit alarming – Italy was rather worrisome and Bulgaria displayed problems, which could only build up. Some dismissed the poor performance on the pressure, on nerves. Many saw the Italian display as a sign that Italy was going to play big role in the finals: they started poorly in Spain, only to win the championship, as opposed to great start and then going down in Argentina. Italy, however, started poorly and finished poorly in 1974… As for Bulgaria, nothing to say either way: they got a point from the world champions, which was an achievement in itself. May be some of the problems – cautious approach with prevailing defensive concept and lack of creative ideas – would be solved somewhat.
02.06.86 (12.00) Mexico City, Estadio Olimpico ’68
ARG – KOR 3:1 (2:0)
(~60000) Sánchez ESP, González PAR, Diaz COL
ARG: Pumpido – Clausen, Brown, Ruggeri, Garre – Giusti, Batista (75 Olarticoechea), Burruchaga, Pasculli (74 Tápia) – Maradona (c), Valdano
KOR: Oh Yung-kyo – Park Kyung-hoon, Chung Yong-hwan, Cho Min-kook, Kim Yong-se
(46 Byun Byung-ok) – Huh Jung-moo, Kim Pyung-suk (23 Cho Kwang-rae), Park Chang-sun (c), Kim Joo-sung – Choi Soon-hoo, Cha Bum-keun
1:0 Valdano 8, 2:0 Ruggeri 19 h, 3:0 Valdano 47, 3:1 Park Chang-sun 72
booked: Huh Jung-moo, Park Chang-sun
Argentina was expected to win and it did, but it was not convincing performance. South Korea proved to be tough cookie, somewhat of the German mold: physically fit, running constantly, battling for the ball, hacking left and right. Having the ball, the Koreans did not know what to do with it, but they made plenty of difficulties for the opposing team. The opening match was rough, but perhaps this one set the tone for the championship: nobody realized it yet, but brutal and ugly was going to be this championship. For the moment, though, it was kind of routine: Argentina got its points, the South Koreans scored a goal, which was seemingly their highest aim, quickly satisfied. 05.06.86 (12.00)
Puebla, Estadio Cuauhtemoc
ARG – ITA 1:1 (1:1)
(~32000) Keizer HOL, Snoddy NIR, Márquez MEX
ARG: Pumpido – Cuciuffo, Brown, Ruggeri, Garré – Giusti, Batista (50 Olarticoechea), Burruchaga, Borghi (75 Enrique) – Maradona (c), Valdano
ITA: Galli – Bergomi, Vierchowod, Scirea (c), Cabrini – de Napoli (65G.Baresi), Bagni, di Gennaro, Conti (87 Vialli) – Galderisi, Altobelli
0:1 Altobelli 7 p, 1:1 Maradona 34
booked: Giusti, Garré / Bergomi
The key match in the group, naturally expected with hopes, but in the same time the drop of attendees was big – true, Puebla was smaller venue, but after 60 000 attended Argentina – South Korea, 30 000 going to see Italy – Argentina was somewhat like a judgment of so-so games played so far. Fans were right… the match was rather poor, but peppered with nasty tackles and the referee’s whistle constantly stopped the game. Italy got a very suspect penalty early in the game, which Altobelli scored, but Maradona equalized soon enough – it was beautiful goal, but also pretty much the only moment having anything to do with football. In the second half there was no football at all, just hacking and butchering, but that were the 80s… instead of 4-5 red cards, three players reluctantly got yellow cards. After the game both Bearzot and Bilardo were pragmatic: each team got a point, it was nervous day with so much at stake, so there was no show.
05.06.86 (16.00) Mexico City, Estadio Olimpico ’68
BUL – KOR 1:1 (1:0)(~45000) Al-Shanar ARS, Butenko ZSR, Igna ROM
BUL: Mikhailov – Zdravkov, Dimitrov (c), Arabov, Petrov – Sadkov, Sirakov, Getov (87 Zheliazkov), Gospodinov – Iskrenov (46 Kostadinov), Mladenov
KOR: Oh Yung-kyo, Park Kyung-hoon, Chung Yong-hwan, Cho Young-jeung, Huh Jung-moo – Cho Kwang-rae (71 Cho Min-kook), Park Chang-sun (c), Noh Soo-jin (46 Kim Jong-boo), Byun Byung-joo – Kim Joo-sung, Cha Bum-keun
1:0 Getov 12, 1:1 Kim Jong-boo 70
booked: Gospodinov / Cho Young-jeung, Kim Joo-sung
Bulgaria slightly changed its starters, a clear sign that the original concept, whatever it was, did not work. The changes were, as it turned out, cosmetic – there was no concept, so the only solution seemed to be just rotate players with the hope that some combination miraculously might work. But fear was stronger… and changes were not radical enough and some dead weight was stubbornly preserved. This was the match Bulgaria was going to win ‘for sure’… but weather played a cruel joke: heavy rain was pouring down, the pitch became a muddy pond. At first, Bulgaria was better – her players were superior , if playing without any idea. Getov scored early goal and the work was over… But with time and worsening conditions, the South Koreans proved that they were not some yokels: they red the playing conditions better than the Bulgarians – skill was not a decisive factor in the water. The Koreans continued to battle and when getting the ball shoot it from far away towards the Bulgarian net. Simple concept, but methodically following it, the Koreans equalized. And the clueless Bulgarian team could do nothing… 1-1. After the game Ivan Voutzov pontificated ‘Once again I was convinced that there are no weak teams at World Cup finals’. Such old wisdom should have been used before the game… or at least for the next game. Otherwise is just a joke. South Korea got its first point at World Cup finals, that is, they already achieved more than they aimed for.
10.06.86 (12.00) Mexico City, Estadio Olimpico ’68
ARG – BUL 2:0 (1:0)
(~65000) Ulloa COS, Martinez URU, Arppi Filho BRA
ARG: Pumpido – Cuciuffo, Brown, Ruggeri, Garré – Giusti, Batista (46 Olarticoechea), Burruchaga, Borghi (46 Enrique) – Maradona, Valdano
BUL: Mikhailov – A.Markov, Dimitrov (c), Petrov, Sadkov – Sirakov (72 Zdravkov), Getov, Zheliazkov, Yordanov – P.Markov, Mladenov (53 Velitchkov)
1:0 Valdano 4 h, 2:0 Burruchaga 77 h
booked: Cuciuffo
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One may expect some change of strategy or at least some motivational pep-talk after the South Korean fiasco, but Voutzov made only new changes in its starting eleven. Changes looking panicky and desperate by now. It was also clear now, that Voutzov’s selection was hardly well thought, but the whole idea was to make the numbers: a number of suspect players clearly were not going to be used, but when taken out, there was little left to rotate and change – so, some players were moved from one position to another, even to positions they never played before. Weirdly, against Argentina Voutzov chose skillful, but not physically strong players in the offensive lines. There were no real wingers but no tough center-forward either. How such midfield and attack could intimidate tough and nasty Argentinian defence was a mystery. Given the clear defensive approach of Bilardo, it was clear that the most dangerous thing would be counterattacks – Voutzov’s idea to prevent fast deadly counterattacks was to move old, slow, and out of breath Zhelyazkov to the defensive line… Bilardo changed nothing. The match was chaotic and aimless battle, which served Argentina well – a tie was quite fine. But the Argentines were more alert than the Bulgarians and did not miss opportunities. The left full-back Aleksandr Markov made stupid mistake, lost the ball, and out of nothing Argentina scored a goal. Bulgaria had no answer to that – whatever passed for ‘attacks’ was killed far away from the penalty area, Pumpido had nothing to do. Mikhaylov had nothing to do too, but Argentina was leading. And even managed to score a second goal, thanks to Zhelyazkov, who was not only slow to react, but decided to give up chasing Maradona. After the finals Mikhaylov singled out this goal, scored by Burruchaga, as his only mistake at the finals. But the goalkeeper was too tough on himself: he was uncertain and misjudged the situation, but it was defensive mistake at the first place and the goalie was put in very difficult situation. Mistake or not, Argentina was winning anyway. Not playing much either, only lucky to benefit from Bulgarian sloppiness. Voutzov was entirely out of touch with reality after the game: he blamed the make of the group for the failure – it was too tough, unfairly tough group. Bilardo was satisfied, but unlike Voutzov, he made his conclusions and looked for remedies. Borghi and Garre were replaced. It was sound change: Borghi hardly contributed, perhaps because of redundancy: he was a Maradona-type of player, thus, useless in the presence of the real thing. Argentina moved ahead, but, curiously, Bulgaria had a chance to go ahead too.
10.06.86 (12.00) Puebla, Estadio Cuauhtemoc
ITA – KOR 3:2 (1:0)
(~20000) Socha USA, Urres MEX, Al-Sharif SYR
ITA: Galli – Collovati, Vierchowod, Scirea (c), Cabrini – de Napoli, Bagni (67 G.Baresi), di Gennaro, Conti – Galderisi (88 Vialli), Altobelli
KOR: Oh Yung-kyo – Park Kyung-hoon, Chung Yong-hwan, Cho Young-jeung, Huh Jung-moo – Cho Kwang-rae, Choi Soon-ho, Park Chang-sun (c), Byun Byung-joo (71 Kim Jong-hoo) – Kim Joo-sung (46 Chung Jong-soo), Cha Bum-keun
1:0 Altobelli 18, 1:1 Choi Song-hoo 62, 2:1 Altobelli 73, 3:1 Choi Kwang-rae
82 o, 3:2 Huh Jung-moo 89 (26 Altobelli missed penalty)
Another match leaving no memories. The last group matches were played at the same time, in order of avoiding schemes, but that had little to do with actual improvement of football. Bearzot studied well the opposition and knew perfectly what his squad was capable of doing. And what he needs. Italy needed 2 points to kill any weird option, coming out of Argentina – Bulgaria, and South Korea was beatable. Without extra effort, just play enough to get the points. It worked at the beginning of the match – Altobelli scored early. Then Italy got a penalty and Altobelli missed, but no worry – the game was over. Game is over as soon as the result is 1-0 Italy… Perhaps South Korea was still too ignorant of big teams habits, for the Asians did not give up, but continued to run methodically and even tried to attack. To their big displeasure, the Italians had to run and fight for the ball – it was not going to be economic game of mild possession and walking in the center of the pitch. In the second half South Korea equalized. It was too late for Italy to change its approach, but they stepped up a bit and class helped – South Korea was still naive and chased a possible victory. Which was exactly what Italians liked best: now they had opportunity for counterattacks and used them well. Altobelly scored his second goal, then own goal made it 3-1 in the 82nd minute. South Korea continued to attack and managed to score a second goal, but there was no time for something more.
1. ARG^ 3 2 1 0 5 6-2
2. ITA^ 3 1 2 0 4 5-4
3. BUL^ 3 0 2 1 2 2-4
4. KOR 3 0 1 2 1 4-7
South Korea was out, but did well at the 1986 finals. By their own standards, it was satisfying participation: played almost like equals against 2 world champions, scored goals, got a point. All this was good stepping stone for development, going up. Internationally, it was recognized that South Korea is no joke – not much, but tough enough team, which would be dangerous to ignore. The Koreans were physically fit and had the right fighting spirit. Compact team, still beatable, but not without effort. It was shaping in German mode, which was not pleasant, but at that time advanced football was like that, so nothing to blame the Koreans for following the leading approach. It was serious, disciplined approach to the game and greatly beneficial for technically inferior players. In terms of Asian football, South Korea was already a few steps ahead of everybody else and they were closing the gap with European football.
As a whole, Group A was disappointment. Not a single bright and entertaining match. Italy and Argentina were not only no fun, but the way they played it was doubtful either team could go far. South Korea was no fun either – the only excuse for them was that were developing and not very weak, but they were out, and that was a relief in some way. As for Bulgaria… that was the team leaving no memories at all. Just blank… The group ended according to prediction: Italy and Argentina were expected to be on top and they were, no surprises.