Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 13 i World Soccer Presents

France hosted the 1938 tournament, but the storm clouds of war hung over Europe with impending doom; Spain was already firmly in the grip of civil war. The German military machine had annexed Austria – and nine of its World Cup squad – with the Austrians having to withdraw. Argentina would not compete and Uruguay remained absent. But Vittorio Pozzo brought a much changed and arguably better Azzurri side; inside-forwards Giuseppe Meazza and Giovanni Ferrari, and right-back Eraldo Monzeglio (though the latter was omitted after the first game) only retained from 1934. Holders Italy began against Norway in Marseille, but after Pietro Ferraris’ early goal they found themselves run ragged by a Norwegian strikeforce that caused many problems. It was only through the agility and bravery of Aldo Olivieri, who…

“All political careers end in failure,” is a well-known saying, and one might say much the same about football. The brilliant, almost all-conquering Hungarians of the 1950s are a case in point. They were unbeaten for four coruscating years as they went into the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and there appeared to be no team that could resist them. But in the final in Berne, the West Germany side whom the Magyars had annihilated 8-3 early in the tournament bested them 3-2. With hindsight, it could be argued that the Hungarians had been cheated. Ferenc Puskas, Hungary’s dynamic captain and inside-left, who arguably should not have been allowed to talk his way back into his team that day, equally arguably had a perfectly good equalising goal disallowed for offside.…

WE WUZ ROBBED! A West German Newsletter Millions of German soccer fans will never accept the fact that their team were beaten by England, fairly and squarely, in the final of the 1966 World Cup. Having seen pictorial evidence provided by television and newsreels in slow-motion and reproduced by all papers here, they are convinced that the goal scored by Geoff Hurst in extra-time, giving England a decisive 3-2 lead, was quite illegitimate. The whole country was seething and outraged at Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst’s decision to award a goal after consulting the Azerbaijani linesman who, it is claimed, was badly posted and in any case most experts here point out that in such a case of doubt, the officials, in accordance with the rules, should have decided in favour…

NO MEXICAN BLOOD BATH While most critics had predicted a blood bath at the ninth World Cup in the heat and height of Mexico – where inflamed tempers were expected to boil over – the combination of keeping cool, strict refereeing and the good sense of the players resulted in matches free from brawls and red cards. The other most pleasing aspect was the influx of goals. Though many came from blatant defensive errors, there were others scored from quick-thinking attacks and several from memorable free-kicks. The anticipated galaxy of scoreless draws did not materialise, which certainly added to the overall enjoyment of matches by spectators. After all the gloomy predictions that the altitude and heat would reduce the finals to a shambles, the heat had in fact a beneficial…

THE ULTIMATE POWER GAME The 1970s were a unique era in world football. It was the first decade of colour television, and the dazzling tones and textures of the football played by Pele at the 1970 World Cup – and then by Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer at the 1974 finals – propelled the game at high speed towards its present remarkable pre-eminence. The perspective of time lends an ever-sharper edge to the personal duel between the greatest-ever players of the Netherlands and Germany; a duel played out in personal achievement built on the contrasting foundations laid at Ajax and Bayern Munich and also on the international stage, where the great rivalry of the age was reignited at its most rarefied level: the 1974 World Cup final. Sadly for the…

You would have to describe the Netherlands as the nearly team of the 1970s; runners-up in both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, and arguably unlucky in each one. They should surely have exploited the fact that they took an early lead against West Germany in Munich in the 1974 decider. They again faced the host nation in the 1978 final, when they came within a whisker of beating Argentina in ordinary time, only to be brushed aside by the energy and thrust of Mario Kempes and Co. in extra time. But the Oranje would surely have won had only Johan Cruyff been there. Although head coach Rinus Michels had led Ajax to the first of their three consecutive European Cup triumphs in the early 1970s and came back from…

MEXICO ’86 A WINNER The greatest test of any World Cup is the impression it makes on the casual viewer around the planet. On that simple basis, Mexico ’86 was a winner. But after every World Cup comes the moment for truth: when one tries to take stock of the state of the game based upon a month watching the supposedly finest exponents in competition at the apex of the greatest of games, analysing such things as format, tactics, etc. When the first World Cup took place in 1930 the teams were sorted into four first-round groups. A knockout system was employed in 1934 and 1938 but proved unpopular. Thus the pendulum swung to the other extreme in 1950 when even the final stage was a mini-league event. A mixture…

Simply, it was the right result. West Germany were the best team in the 1990 World Cup finals and they were, by a long way, better than a sorry bunch of ill-assorted Argentines on the big night in Rome. The Franz Beckenbauer legend thus expands still further. Der Kaiser is the first man to have captained and managed a World Cup-winning side. Not that this victory was as pretty a sight as West Germany’s 2-1 defeat of the Netherlands in Munich in 1974. We had to endure a “phoney war” first half, two Argentines sent off in the second – Pedro Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti thus creating final history – and the decisive goal arriving courtesy of a highly-contentious penalty. A World Cup, which had seen plenty of drama but…

WIND OF CHANGE Finally, after all the ifs and buts, all the will-he-won’t-he agonising over Diego Maradona, the Joao Havelange FIFA president sideshow, a multi-million-dollar spat among the sponsors, acres of hot air over the controversial host nation…let’s get down to the football. This, in case you have forgotten it, is what the World Cup finals are all about; some 528 footballers, bound head to toe in hype, attempting to break the bonds of over-expectation and deliver 52 matches which are ensured a place in the sport’s history books. Almost the least important issue now is the one over which most blood has been spilled: the USA as hosts. In a few frantic weeks the circus will move on. But what sort of a World Cup can we expect? Every…

BIGGER, BUT BETTER? The last World Cup of the century. The biggest. The first with the golden goal rule. Also the richest, the most hyped, the most watched – with a worldwide television audience of billions. Being the biggest does not mean it will necessarily be the best. The more sides you allow in the lower the common denominator in terms of quality. At least the expansion to 32 teams will sharpen up the drama in the first round. Only the top two teams from each group will go forward to the knockout stages, meaning it is no longer enough to seek, negatively, to draw all your matches and sneak through as a third-placed team. Football’s showpiece event has become gargantuan. The Olympics may take over cities and last almost…

The fireworks exploded and the paper glitz snowstormed down from the roof to salute an historic achievement, as Brazil set off on a lap of honour to celebrate their fifth World Cup. On a personal level it was a triumph for Ronaldo, the victim of 1998, who had returned on a mission of revenge and had scored both goals in the 2-0 defeat of a German side who had never expected to share in the final party in the Yokohama International Stadium. Gold and green were the colours of glory, black and white the colours of what might have been. The 2002 World Cup had ended with world football’s hierarchy vindicated and the shocks and upsets of the past four weeks almost a trick of the memory. When it came…

Four events rolled into one. That is the World Cup. Hence the mixed, confused reactions to Germany 2006. Was it a football classic? Was it a demonstration of organisational perfection? Was it a fan fest? Or was it just a cash cow? “The best ever World Cup,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter, as he says after every World Cup, and, in financial terms, he was right. But, beyond the business end, the World Cup is a sporting romance, and FIFA does not give the competing countries the respect they are due in terms of logistics and schedule. Once upon a time, the finals generated their finest football in the knockout stages when the shackles had come off and the players were into all-or-nothing. Sadly, now, the opposite is true. The…

BELO HORIZONTE: CITY OF SHOCKS Since 1950, it seemed inconceivable that there could ever be a surprise as great as that when a job lot of part-time USA footballers beat an England team studded with stars 1-0 in Belo Horizonte, on what was a bumpy pitch in a ramshackle stadium. But in that same city, albeit in a huge imposing arena, came a surprise as great, if not greater, as Germany thrashed Brazil 7-1. How good then were Germany? How bad were Brazil? I’d suggest that a good deal of it was Brazil manager “Big Phil” Scolari’s fault, though the absence in defence of Thiago Silva – would he have let David Luiz run riot? – and Neymar in attack was crucial. When the smoke clears, I think it will…

The first World Cup took place in 1930, hosted in Uruguay, and it has since become the world’s greatest sporting event. The trophy would be named after FIFA president Jules Rimet, its most famous founding father, and the need for a true world championship stemmed from a succession of successful Olympic tournaments in the 1920s and the irreversible onset of professionalism. It was an age of comparative innocence, and when France beat Mexico on that mid-summer Sunday in the now demolished Estadio Pocitos in the Uruguayan capital – with Frenchman Lucien Laurent scoring the World Cup’s inaugural goal – history was in the making. Hosts Uruguay seemed to have everything going their way. They had dominated the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tournaments, and had offered to pay all expenses of…

Post-war, nations needed time to reorganise and it was 1950 before the World Cup took shape again. Brazil, with a new, showpiece 200,000-capacity stadium in Rio de Janeiro – the Maracana – hosted the tournament and took the first steps towards immortality. It was a strange tournament. Although Uruguay returned to the fold – back for the first time since winning the trophy in 1930 – Germany had not been readmitted to FIFA, Argentina (at odds with their Brazilian counterparts), sullenly refused to participate, and the great central European powers of the pre-war era were all missing. Austria in particular stood out because they alleged their side was too young, but by 1951 they had one of the most attractive teams in Europe. Hungary, preparing soon to astonish the world…

Unlike 1950 this time there was to be no mistake. Instead of starting brilliantly and finishing on the wrong end of the final match, the Brazilians started slowly, sorted themselves out and ended in glory with a 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden. The World Cup of 1958 will forever be linked with one of the greatest names in soccer history – Edson Arantes do Nascimento, of course Pele. A 17-year-old boy, he had been taken along virtually for the ride, for experience. After all, with strikers of the calibre of Mazzola (aka Jose Altafini), Dida and Vava in the squad, when would he play? Brazil unleashed a new and revolutionary 4-2-4 system and became synonymous with entertainment, but Brazilian self-confidence let them down. Having beaten Austria 3-0, thanks to a…

When England hosted the 1966 tournament, the Mundial was big business. The Jules Rimet trophy disappeared temporarily, though football as an art form would prove a more permanent loss. The patriotic instincts are to rejoice in a victory for the “Mother of Football”, yet the more one thinks about the 1966 tournament as a whole, the more the disappointments loom large. The glory, glory days disappeared forever, epitomised by Uruguay’s eight-man defence gaining an archetypal goalless draw with England at Wembley’s opening Group 1 match. Bobby Charlton’s stupendous 30-yard shot set up England’s 2-0 over Mexico and though a nasty Nobby Stiles tackle on Jacques Simon marred the match with France, Roger Hunt’s two goals secured a quarter-final place. Goals from Pedro Rocha and Julio Cesar Cortes against France and…

Those lucky enough to be present in the Azteca Stadium during the afternoon of June 21, 1970 will never forget the scenes of emotion and jubilation they witnessed after Brazil had beaten Italy 4-1. Around the world, too, in front of television sets numbering hundreds of millions, soccer supporters joined in the applause for a superb climax to the 1970 World Cup finals. It was not simply a magnificent, and thoroughly deserved triumph for Brazil. Here was proof that football, played the way it was meant to be performed, with artistry and skill, can still succeed. From their first match against the Czechs, the Brazilians showed that they had fully recaptured the magic that they lost four years ago. Pele provided proof that his genius lives on; and around him…

The Netherlands, with Johan Cruyff and their total football, had swept past Uruguay, Sweden and Bulgaria in the first round, then Argentina, East Germany and Brazil to reach the final against the hosts at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. But there it was to end in Dutch devastation. Here the Ajax-Feyenoord mixture, which had been good enough to dominate European club soccer since 1970, let them down. After a first-minute penalty awarded by Jack Taylor, the Wolverhampton butcher, and converted by Johan Neeskens, the Netherlands sat back. Instead of trying to ram home their advantage they tried to play with the Germans, tease them in front of their own Munich crowd. And they paid the literal penalty. A spot-kick to West Germany, and Paul Breitner equalised, and just…

ADEMIR Often named as one of Brazil’s greatest players of all time. He was centre-forward of the 1950 World Cup side, aided by equally brilliant inside forwards in Zizinho and Jair, and won the Golden Boot with nine goals. He began his career as an outside-left and played his last game for Brazil in 1953, scoring 32 goals in 39 internationals. Jose Leandro ANDRADE The first black footballer to establish an international reputation. Andrade was right-half with the Uruguayan team who won the 1924 and 1928 Olympic titles and the 1930 World Cup. His nephew Victor Rodriguez Andrade would go on to be a World Cup winner with Uruguay 20 years later at Brazil 1950. Gordon BANKS One of, if not the greatest of English goalkeepers, playing every minute of…

Each World Cup is distinctive in its own way. Each, in the immediacy of the live action, bears the personality of the host nation but then lives on in the memory through the quality and drama of the football (or lack of it). Conflicting verdicts were there in abundance after the US experience. Predictably, most American observers who had never seen a soccer match before, let alone the pinnacle of the game, called it the greatest World Cup ever. Such judgements, built on sand, were worthless. A coterie of European football intellectuals – or those who would like to consider themselves as such – dismissed USA ’94 as an over-hyped funfair, lacking class or any touch with “football reality.” Such judgements were typical evidence of European insularity and built, in…

ZIZOU OFF AND AWAY Any other exit would have been preferable. If Zinedine Zidane had missed the decisive penalty in the World Cup final shootout the world game would have thrown down its regrets but still remembered the genius of achievement in 1998 and 2000 with France, and in 2002 with Real Madrid. If Zidane had missed the final through injury or suspension it would not have affected his reputation. After all, when he quit Les Bleus after Euro 2004 no one expected to see him at another World Cup, let alone with a chance of winning it. But getting sent off for a butt, ten minutes from the end of extra-time in his very last game? Sad. But maybe not surprising. Before the final, Zidane had been sent off…

AFRICA EXPECTS The first World Cup in Africa is hugely symbolic for a continent that is so often mired in the misery of mankind: famine, war and poverty. It has the potential to be a coming-out party, an opportunity to put a firm foot forward and make a bid for respect where to date there has been but pity and derision. The four-yearly footballing fiesta is an event of such strong international symbolism – not to mention a media interest unlike anything else – that its mere hosting by an African country has widespread resonance. It is the first time Africa has hosted anything of this magnitude. There is no past history of failure for there has been no past opportunity. Instead there are now monuments to the potential of…

Golden ticker tape showered down on France’s rain-soaked players as they celebrated winning the World Cup for a second time in one of the most memorable finals of the modern era. Minutes earlier, as the players queued up to receive the trophy, the heavens had opened, soaking the FIFA dignitaries and adding to the chaos of an already frenetic night in Moscow. It was a frantic finale to a hugely eventful tournament. Thirty-two days packed with incident and drama, shocks and surprises. France were the last men standing but they fully deserved their victory, having overcome a Croatia side that had finally been undone by fatigue after an exhausting journey to the final. Croatia were left nursing a sense of injustice when, having brought the final level at 1-1 after…

Whether it is a true story, or merely apocryphal, it deserves to be told here as the key to all that happened when Mussolini’s Italy staged the 1934 finals. “General Vaccaro,” Mussolini is said to have addressed the head of the Olympic Committee, “Italy must win the World Cup.” “We’ll do everything possible, Duce,” replied Vaccaro. “General,” repeated Mussolini. “I don’t think you quite understood me. I said Italy must win the World Cup.” And Italy did just that – with the aid of three Argentinians, midfielder Luis Monti, and wingers Enrique Guaita and Raimundo Orsi. Their team was based on Juventus, but they also had at their head one of the greatest of managers in Vittorio Pozzo. Pozzo was the first manager to think deeply about how to bring…

The 1954 finals came to the land of clocks, cowbells and Alps. And though Switzerland’s World Cup was not the best organised in history, it has valid claims on being one of the best. The 1950s was one of European soccer’s greatest eras and Hungary – arguably the finest-ever international side – arrived in Switzerland as the hottest favourites the tournament has ever known. In fact, Hungary were more than favourites. They appeared stone cold certainties. Unbeaten in four years, Olympic champions, the team who had ended England’s resistance at home by 6-3, and then, just to rub it in, won 7-1 in Budapest…this was the team of all the talents, one of the greatest of all time. And they were recognised as such at the time. It seemed impossible…

Though the 1950s had been wonderfully entertaining, the 1960s brought defensive caution and an over-emphasis on tactics, which echoed throughout the 1962 tournament in Chile. Horrific earthquakes had devastated the country in 1960, and whilst the decision to go ahead was compassionate, Chile organised splendidly, a very disappointing tournament. After 1958 there was a massive swing to imitate the new world champions and their 4-2-4 system. Winning was becoming ever more important and possible ways and means were all eagerly followed up. Sadly, as the Chile finals proved, some of those ways and means were not pretty. Brazil had virtually the same team that had won the World Cup four years earlier, despite a lot of changes and experiments between tournaments. But how good they were is clear from the…

More than a football team, the Brazil 1970 side have become a myth. Consistently chosen as the best team ever, they are held up as the ultimate exponents of the beautiful game. Sober judges might conclude that, man for man at least, Brazil’s 1958 side was better. But the team that won in Mexico had one huge advantage – television. The 1970 World Cup was the first shown live in Brazil and many other places around the globe. The 1970 team also benefited from evolution in other areas. Their individual brilliance was backed up by tactical ideas and methods of physical preparation that put them ahead of the field. The mythology makes little space for such matters. The popular perception is of a group who swaggered off the beach to…

After being beaten 2-1 in 1974 by West Germany, the Dutch era must now surely be at an end after their failure against all the odds in the River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, to Argentina, where for the second time Rudi Krol and Co. were denied the victory they so manifestly deserved. And if the Netherlands are bitter in defeat, they have every excuse after the cynical tricks pulled by the Argentines and the organisers before the football had even begun. It was unforgivable that the Dutch team should have been allowed to walk out on their own before the start. It was unforgivable that they should have been kept waiting five minutes by their ill-mannered hosts. And it was unforgivable of the Argentines to make such a calculated fuss…

COMPELLING BUT BRUTAL In 1982, Spain hosted the tournament, which increased to 24 finalists, evoking considerable controversy long before a ball was kicked in what Argentina’s Diego Maradona would later label “a World Cup of bruises”. Group1 was dreadful: Italy offering little indication of the transformation to come, sneaking through after tedious draws with Poland, Peru and Cameroon. In Gijon, Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi scored against West Germany to create the upset of the finals, but Algeria were eliminated from Group 2 by the Austria-Germany “Anschluss” game. Belgium’s Erwin Vandenbergh scored the first opening-game goal since 1962, against holders Argentina, but the latter still qualified from Group 3 after they beat Hungary and El Salvador. In Bilbao, England beat France, Czechoslovakia and Kuwait without any fuss to progress from…

“Brazilian football is a thing played to music.” So said the ever-controversial, innovative, explosive and eccentric Joao Saldanha, sceptical of the stewardship of Claudio Coutinho before the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina. Rightly, as it proved: Coutinho was essentially a physical trainer putting emphasis on fitness and hard running. Saldanha himself had been Brazil’s team manager from 1969 to 1970 until Mario Zagallo took over the team and won the World Cup in great style. The 1982 team had a manager, Tele Santana, far more closely in tune with the ethos of Brazilian football and the desires of its fans – for attacking football, pure and simple, the kind that had so triumphantly brought the World Cup back to Brazil in 1970. Santana promised, and made good his promise,…

ITALIA ’90 HITS & MISSES No one can pretend that Italia ’90 produced a football feast. Much of it was mediocre. Instead it will be remembered for its drama with penalties resolving both semi-final ties; for Argentina’s remarkable progress despite themselves; for the emergence of “Toto” Schillaci; for the African confirmation provided by Cameroon’s incredible progress; for England’s best-ever “away” finish. These finals were supposed to be about super teams and superstars. And superstars there were in abundance. The trouble was, many did not live up to their reputations. Three obvious failures spring to mind: Marco van Basten, Emilio Butragueno and Ruben Sosa. What about Diego Maradona and Ruud Gullit, the game’s great heroes? Maradona, performing as a lone striker, was soon being trodden on to such an extent that…

For a brief spell in the late 1980s and early 1990s it seemed that El Dorado was real after all. Glistening in their yellow shirts, Colombia played like exuberant ambassadors for the mythical golden city that had gripped the imagination of European colonisers. Their football sparkled and glittered, but when some were convinced they were on the gilded path, it crumbled to dust. Much of the story takes place between two goals from centre-back Andres Escobar. In May 1988 his header earned the team a well-deserved 1-1 draw with England at Wembley during their first European tour. Their excellent performance confirmed the promise shown when coming third in the previous year’s Copa America, and it was seen as the moment that the team came of age. Six years later they…

‘BRAZIL DESERVED TO WIN’ “One year ago I would not have expected to share in such an historic night, with a fifth World Cup victory for Brazil. We had so many problems in qualifying that it was impossible to think we would succeed. Instead, after a World Cup of shocks, this may have been considered one more. Yet I believe that by the end Brazil were the most outstanding team at the finals and, above all, they had a far superior attack to everyone else. “Ronaldinho was the individual surprise of the tournament and, of course, I was delighted with Ronaldo. It was not just that he was scoring in every match; it was his whole game, his confidence, his creative skill. Anyway, he had a mission of revenge after…

So accustomed to ask what went wrong, Spain – for so long the game’s great underachievers, now its world and European champions – are now asking what went so right? And so too is everyone else. The temptation might be to answer everything, but that just wouldn’t be true. And not just because Spain lost their opening game against Switzerland. Until Spain beat Paraguay in the quarter-finals, there were countless questions and debates swirling around the Seleccion. It is as if it took Spain breaking that barrier and reaching a first-ever semi-final for critics to agree that, actually, they were rather good after all. Maybe just not good in quite the same way as everyone had expected. By the end of the tournament, as much was being said about the…

BRAVE ENGLAND SHINE IN RUSSIA In the event, it has to be said that England surpassed themselves in Russia, maintaining a brave challenge while other more fancied teams fell by the wayside: Germany, in the most embarrassing manner; Brazil who, even if they avoided anything like the humiliation of Belo Horizonte and Germany in the previous World Cup, were never the power of bygone times; Spain fell early; Portugal, even with Cristiano Ronaldo, made scant progress; and Italy were not even there. For a gloriously deluding first half it did look as if England could defeat Croatia. They scored that magnificent early goal through Kieran Trippier’s sublime free-kick. They largely bettered a Croatia team that looked predictably weary after playing extra-time in their previous two games. Harry Kane, not at…