The Supercup was barely alive, but the Intercontinetal Cup was dead. In the coffin. Until the Japanese stepped in, bringing it back to life. The new project was renamed the Toyota Cup, although nobody really used the new name. The intercontinental challenge was to be played in Tokyo and international football bodies helped by making participation mandatory – whoever declined was facing harsh legal consequences. The new format was approached cautiously – the new format was financially stable, thanks to Toyota’s money, but it was far away from home. For his part, the Japanese clearly wanted to popularize the sport at home and what could be better than a match between the top clubs of the top continents? The Europeans liked that the match was going to be on neutral ground. The main problem currently was the timing – the first Toyota Cup was played on February 11th, 1981. It was the 1980 issue of the tournament, though – the discrepancy had to be worked out and also the form of the opponents was to be a problem, for Europeans were just at the end of their winter break and the South Americans – between seasons yet. But there was no other convenient window in the year. Playing football in February was hardly the best idea, but 62 000 attended the match between Nottingham Forest and Nacional (Montevideo).
The greatest part of the crowd was Japanese, which created strange atmosphere: both teams were equally cheered by benevolent, yet, largely ignorant of football crowd. Winter football was generally benefiting the English, who played without winter break anyway. The South Americans saw themselves in disadvantage, but on the other hand the pitch was not exactly up to European standards and more familiar to the Uruguayans. May be so… both goalkeepers played with long trousers, instead of shorts,which was very unusual. The match itself was not so great – at first Nacional attacked and scored in the 10th minute.
Waldemar Victorino scores an early goal. Looks like a header – something rare against English defense, if it was indeed a header.
Nottingham Forest got control after the goal and attacked to the end of the final. Fruitlessly…
Seemingly the better team, Nottingham Forest lost 0-1.
Tokyo. Field: National Stadium.
February 11, 1981. Att: 62,000.
Nacional (Uruguay) 1-0 Nottingham Forest (England)
1-0 10′ Waldemar Victorino.
Nacional:Rodolfo Rodríguez – Blanco, Hermes Moreira, Enríquez,González, Milar, Espárrago, Luzardo, Alberto Bica,Waldemar Victorino, Morales.
Coach: Juan Mugica.
Nottingham Forest: Peter Shilton – Anderson, Lloyd, Burns, F. Gray, O’Neill, Ponte, S. Gray, Robertson, Trevor Francis, Wallace.
Coach: Brian Clough.
After losing the Supercup, Nottingham Forest lost a second international trophy. Not by much, but they lost. Standing from left: Viv Anderson, Martin O’Neill, Larry Lloyd, Kenny Burns, Peter Shilton, Trevor Francis.
First row: John Robertson, Ian Wallace, Frank Gray, Stuart Gray, Raimondo Ponte.
The development of the team was going at the wrong direction somewhat – the grizzled veterans were better than the younger players. Nottingham was already going downhill and the excuse that they won everything already and became disinterested, for there was nothing really exciting to win anymore rings hollow: the team was just not great.
Nacional won the first Toyota Cup, which was great for moral – the 1970s were dreadful for Uruguayan football, but the horror decade seemingly ended and the 1980s started successfully. Also, once again the South Americans bested the Europeans and this time there was no excuse that the losers were actually the second-best European team, as it was for the most of the 1970s. This Nacional vintage was strong indeed, but hardly great squad. There were some old, almost forgotten stars by 1981, associated with the dreadful decade: Esparrago (now 37 years old!), and Milar (29 years old), both part of the last team Uruguay had at World Cup finals. For both players 1980-81 was great restoration of pride after losing face at the 1974 World Cup. The same goes for another player, who did not play at the 1974 World Cup, but still was one of the strong players from the ‘lost’ decade: Juan Carlos Blanco (35 years old). For him, it was second Intercontinental Cup – the first he won in 1972, with Nacional, but against the losing European finalist Panathinaikos (Athens). A few others were new, rapidly rising stars – the future of Uruguayan football: Rodolfo Rodriguez and Waldemar Victorino. Hugo De Leon missed the final, unfortunately. Nacional was on the top of the world almost ten years after they were at the same place.
Nacional proudly displays the Toyota Cup in Tokyo.
Apart the winners, the greatest thing about the 1980 Intercontinental Cup was its revival. Thanks, Japan!