Group B was the closest to surprise:
Czechoslovakia and Nigeria ended 1-1. African success. Czechoslovakia was unable to beat Kuwait too – 0-0. But they won 3-0 against Colombia, a team which Kuwait was unable to beat. Nigeria lost to Colombia 0-1 and to Kuwait 1-3. Obviously, Czechoslovakia underperformed, but at the end everything was just as expected to be:
1. Czechoslovakia 1 2 0 4-1 4
2. Kuwait 1 2 0 4-2 4
3. Colombia 1 1 1 2-4 3
4. Nigeria 0 1 2 2-5 1
Group 3 went as expected.
The Spanish captain Francisco Buyo blocks East German attack. The future Real Madid goalkeeper played with number 3. The match ended 1-1. DDR won their other games – 1-0 vs Algeria and 5-0 vs Syria. The young Spaniards were not exactly a revelation… they were unble to win a match, finishing with 3 ties. Algeria prevailed over Syria 3-0 and finished above Spain on better goal-difference.
1. DDR 2 1 0 7-1 5
2. Algeria 1 1 1 4-2 3
3. Spain 0 3 0 2-2 3
4. Syria 0 1 2 0-8 1
Group 4 also went as expected, except for one thing – here was the only coach who was openly critical of his team, going against the grain: coaches, journalist, Olympic and FIFA observers generally spoke benevolently of the tournament. Teams were weak, football was of low quality, everybody knew that and there was no point to criticize. Ivan Toplak was the only one who abandoned the good-natured evasive platitudes, usually quickly moving from commenting a match or a team to the safe grounds of praising facilities and hospitality. Yugoslavia clearly did not take the group matches seriously – the notoriously moody Yugoslavs, knowing that the opposition is too weak, did not put much of an effort. They finished 1-1 with Iraq, 2-0 with Finland, and 2-1 with Costa Rica. It was the match with Costa Rica enraging their coach.
Yugoslavia was too strong for the other teams – even the photo suggests it. Looks like another Yugoslavian goal in the net of the helpless Costa Rica. But no… The Yugoslavs played just enough to win – they scored an opening goal and went to sleep. Then put a little effort to restore their advantage after Costa Rica equalized and went back to sleep. ‘It is shameful to play like that at the Olympics. Zlatko Vujovic alone ought to score 6 goals at least. All teams must be respected and my boys did not do this’, fumed Toplak after the game. Iraq ended 0-0 with Finland and won 3-0 against Costa Rica. Costa Rica lost 0-3 to Finland.
1. Yugoslavia 2 1 0 6-2 5
2. Iraq 1 2 0 4-1 4
3. Finland 1 1 1 3-2 3
4. Costa Rica 0 0 3 1-9 0
The group stage ended exactly as expected, which more or less voided the ¼ finals – no favourites were to meet each other at this stage. Skip this and go right to the semi-finals… Carlos Parreira spelled it out: ‘We have no chance against USSR. We can only try to put obstacles to their attacks.’ The defensive concept worked – USSR won, but not impressively.
Gavrilov scores the winning goal in the 61st minute. Two minutes earlier Kuwait equalized… USSR had great difficulties against Kuwait – a match which was supposed to be a walk-over. The unfortunate goalkeeper was anonymous… the world learned his name a couple of years later: Eltarabulsi was between the goalposts of the pleasant Kuwaiti team at the 1982 World Cup. And it was thanks to 1982 World Cup his name was properly established – the 33-yearls old in 1980 Ahmed Al-Tarabulsi was written Eltarabulsi and it did not seem to matter, for he was obviously destined to obscurity.
DDR vs Iraq – no contest here. Physically superior Germans crushed Iraq from the start. In the 22th minute they scored their 4th goal. Which practically finished the match for both teams. 4-0 was the final result.
Schnuphase scoring from a penalty the first goal for DDR in the 4th minute. Wait a second: by the rules, players participating in the World Cup matches were not allowed to play at the Olympics? Think again… Schnuphase was not the only ‘exception’.
Czechoslovakia – Cuba. No surprises either – even the Cubans thought they outdid themselves by qualifying to the ¼ finals. Czechoslovakia won 3-0.
A contest? What contest? Cubans were generally looking at the backs of the Czechoslovakians – Pereira here is not even close to Mazura.
Yugoslavia – Algeria. May be the only quarter-final with some intrigue. Toplak took Algerian team seriously on two accounts: first, he knew it, because both countries met the previous year. Algerian midfield was quite good and Toplak took measures to neutralize it. Second, Yugoslavia played leisurely so far – the players did not take the opposition seriously enough, which was dangerous. One of the Yugoslavian commentators used a single word to describe the team’s performance so far: ‘criminal’. At the end, it was not at all the possible strength of Algeria, but the ‘criminal’ attitude of the Yugoslav players the biggest danger for their advance. However, this time they played. A bit.
One more Yugoslavian goal. The difference was huge – Algeria looks entirely helpless and clumsy. The only Algerian player showing some skill was Rabah Madjer – he will be a hero in mid-1980s. As for Yugoslavia, the ‘Plavi’ still did not play at the top of their abilities, but even pulling a bit of class was enough not only to win easily, but to impress. Yet, they carelessly missed many scoring opportunities.
And at last real matches… the semi-finals opposed USSR to DDR and Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. The Soviets were supposed to win. DDR played defensive and physical football – nothing impressive. But the Russians were not impressive either. It was not a pleasant game. In the 16th minute DDR had a corner kick, Dassaev made a mistake, and Netz scored.
Khidiatulin – number 4 – going into attack. The Soviets dominated the match and DDR were largely concerned with defending, but, as the picture shows, the Russians were rather chaotic. The match ended 1-0 DDR. USSR was eliminated… and curiously there was no critical outrage. The reaction was quite ambivalent: Genady Radchuk wrote that ‘in today’s football results are needed today, not tomorrow. We expected victory, not just a promise for the future.’ Yet, he continued in the same paragraph, that it will be very dangerous to criticize the team…
The other semi-final reminded the European finals: nobody considered Czechoslovakia a favourite, the team was not impressive compared to the other top teams, expectations even of the Czechoslovaks were modest, and the team did not play great football, but only disciplined tactical one. And it worked… perhaps because of the Yugoslavian attitude: not taking seriously the opposition so far and playing leisurely, the Yugoslavs had great difficulty to change gears. It took them 30 minutes to organize their game. Key players – Mirocevic and Cukrov – underperformed and had to be substituted. Yugoslavia found its game only in the second half and started very powerful attacks, but Czechoslovakia was prepared and their defensive tactics never failed. They were leading 2-0 since the 18th minute and essentially had only to keep breaking the Yugoslavian attacks, which, as time was running out, were increasingly frustrated and therefore lacking precision. After the match Toplak bitterly commented that in the second half he realized that his team can score a goal only by accident. Heavy prize was paid for not taking seriously the tournament from start. Pantelic, considered the best and most famous among all Olympic goalkeepers, made two terrible mistakes early in the match – the Czechoslovaks did not miss his net both times. Modest Czechoslovakia reached the Olympic final.