World Cup qualifications. 24 teams were to play at the finals in Italy next year. Italy as host and Argentina as reigning world champions directly qualified to the finals. The rest of the world had to go through the process of qualifications depending on the continental quota and organization of reaching it. Oceania had no final spot as usual and their winner had to go to playoff against the winner of Group 10 – or the second South American qualification group. Israel was included in the Oceania as it had been done on previous occasions. South Africa was still banned completely from participation. Europe was divided into 7 groups, but the rules were complicated: since Europe had the largest quota at the finals, second-placed teams from the groups qualified as well, but with them all the quota was exceeded. Thus, three groups – 1, 2, and 4 – did not have direct qualification of their second-placed team, but only 2 teams with best results qualified. This was the last time ‘old Europe’ played a tournament – by the end of 1989 the European map started to change rapidly and in effect the number of countries increased dramatically. It was not just new countries popping out of the ashes of USSR and Yugoslavia, but also small fringe of the European football world was included and, eventually, ‘homeless’ Israel. So, it happened to be the last show of so to say ‘classic Europe’ in football terms. Various unpleasant events tarred the qualifications elsewhere – from Nazi swastikas meeting team Israel in Australia to expulsion of teams for cheating. Whatever happened in the world at large, football was reaching the sorry bottom of decline and entering big crisis – the decline was noticed gradually during the 1980s and critical point was finally displayed in the 1990 World Cup finals. So far, though, no big reforms were attempted. Lastly, the qualifications were largely played in 1989, which was something new, even if largely concerned Europe: previously, qualifications often lasted 3 years, but most games were more or less equally spread in two years and relatively few games were played in the fall of the year preceding the finals – this time most games were played in one year, many of them in the fall of 1989.
Europe.
Group 1
1.ROMANIA 6 4 1 1 10- 5 9
Romania reached the World Cup finals for the first time since 1970, which was great success. The team led by Gheorge Hagi already was well known and respected around Europe. The missing name was Belodedici, who left Romania for political reasons. The photo is from the friendly against Czechoslovakia.
2.Denmark 6 3 2 1 15- 6 8
Absolutely unlucky – strong campaign and great scoring record, the only team to beat Romania, but… among the second-placed teams in groups 1, 2, and 4 they had the least points and did not qualified to the finals.
3.Greece 6 1 2 3 3-15 4
Nothing special as expected. Reached 3rd place in the last group match against already eliminated and disinterested Bulgaria by winning it at home 1-0.
4.Bulgaria 6 1 1 4 6- 8 3
Everything ended pretty much after their third match, which resulted in second home loss. One more failure, which from the distance of time may look strange, for all big names well known in the 1990s were at hand and almost the whole team was soon going to play for solid clubs in the West. Sitting from left: Bozhidar Iskrenov, Pavel Dotchev, Anyo Sadkov (Ayan Sadakov), Plamen Getov, Christo Stoichlov, Ilian Kiryakov, Georgi Yordanov, Atanas Pashev. Standing: Boris Angelov – coach, Nikolay Iliev, Borislav Mikhailov, Trifon Ivanov, Dimitar Vassev, Ivaylo Kirov, Petar Aleksandrov, Georgi Dimitrov, Zapryan Rakov, Iliya Valov, Lyuboslav Penev, Ivan Kyuchukov – assistant coach.
Group 2.
1.SWEDEN 6 4 2 0 9- 3 10
Wonderful campaign of a squad yet to become well known. Talent and determination were there and the boys really build character holding their own against England. The photo is from one of the games against England.
2.England 6 3 3 0 10- 0 9
Usually England had very strong qualification campaigns only to fail at finals, but this time… yes, they ended not only unbeaten, but without permitting to score even one goal in their net. But Sweden got more points and England finished second in the group, thus depending on the results of teams in groups 1 and 4. Luckily, they had a point more than Denmark and qualified to the finals. Paul Gascoigne and all… were just lucky.
3.Poland 6 2 1 3 4- 8 5
Whatever hopes the Poles had ended quickly and quite predictably – the present vintage was a far cry from the great team of 1974. Solid – yes. But nothing more.
4.Albania 6 0 0 6 3-15 0
Albania was one of the team starting the qualifications in 1988, so the photo is from that year. Not greatly different from the squad ending predictably weak campaign – they lost every game they played. Talented vintage by Albanian standards, but the familiar outsider in the big European picture.
Group 3.
1.SOVIET UNION 8 4 3 1 11- 4 11
As expected, team USSR won the group easily. Talent was there, the team was highly regarded and players now permitted to play abroad had strong motivation to perform well and get noticed by foreign clubs. Political changes would affect them very soon – soon, but not during the qualifications. This is the squad playing in the second match against DDR – by that time, USSR already qualified to the finals and lost the game 1-2.
2.AUSTRIA 8 3 3 2 9- 9 9
Somewhat of a surprise – Austria was expected to be third. Solid team, but not at the level of team from 1978-82. Prohaska was at his last legs and not in the team most of the time. To a point, Austria benefited by the political tremors in DDR.
3.Turkey 8 3 1 4 12-10 7
Turkey improved a lot during the 1980s, but still did not have a team capable of reaching finals. Very good campaign and very encouraging final standing, but one have to keep in mind the East German situation too and take the Turkish performance with a grain of salt.
4.East Germany 8 3 1 4 9-13 7
Not even dreamed of in the beginning of 1989, but DDR was no more at the end of the year. Political unrest and eventual fall of Communism affected the qualification campaign of otherwise talented team expected to reach the World Cup finals – some of the players actually did, but with the jerseys of unified Germany (Sammer, Kirsten, Thom). Team DDR had uneven campaign and still had a chance to qualify – they beat USSR 2-1 before last decisive game against Austria in Vienna. One can question the victory over USSR, though – was it somewhat a clash on principle, like the 1974 World Cup match against West Germany or was it a last helping hand by the Soviets, which already qualified. Was it an East German finally taking revenge for having to bend over to USSR? Whatever it was, this victory did not help and very likely the German players even did not care much for World Cup finals by November 15th , when they lost 0-3 in Vienna, the last match in this group.
5.Iceland 8 1 4 3 6-11 6
The boys played as hard as they could, but whatever improvement Icelandic football made in the 1980s, it was still not a real match to most European countries. Brave campaign, but predictably Iceland finished last.
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