The fury and the dream

In 1982, Northern Ireland arrived at their second ever World Cup. Despite the country’s rich footballing tradition, expectations were modest as the small British possession prepared to face Yugoslavia in their opening match. A hard-fought 0–0 draw offered a glimmer of hope: with a win over the unfancied Honduras, a place in the next round seemed possible. 

But a frustrating 1–1 left them on the brink. 

Their final match would be against the hosts — Spain. Back then, Spain were not celebrated for their style, but for La Furia — “The Fury.” 

Backed by passionate crowds and, at times, sympathetic refereeing, the home side were overwhelming favourites against the modest Irish team. Even Northern Ireland’s own players had little faith; they confirmed their plane tickets and checked out of their hotel before the match. 

But football thrives on disbelief. Against the odds, Northern Ireland stayed — not only in the tournament, but in history — when Gerry Armstrong, Watford’s tireless striker, scored the decisive goal in a 0–1 victory. Spain’s fury could not overcome Irish heart.

RIP Paolo Rossi

Another footballing legend has passed away in this horrible year. Paolo Rossi, one of the most prolific Italian strikers and the most scoring player of the 1982 Italian World Cup winners has passed away. He played for Vicenza, Perugia, Juventus, AC Milan and Hellas Verona, and 48 times for the Italian national team. He is remembered internationally for the 1982 World Cup, and most notably his three goals against one of the best Brazil sides that saw Italy take their biggest step towards the World Cup triumph.

RIP.

France-Germany in World Cup history

France-Germany are playing today in a World Cup quarterfinal that has all the elements of going over to history. Both teams have proven themselves to be favourites to win the tournament. Both have scored many goals and have shown strength in adversity. Both have proud European nations, with a lot of football tradition, behind them.

This will be the third time they play in a World Cup (Germany as West Germany). In 1958 they played the bronze match, after they had lost to Brazil and Sweden respectively. In a spectacular match France won 6-3, with the legendary Just Fontaine scoring four goals, to complete 13 goals, making him the all-time most scoring player in a tournament.

In 1982 the two sides met again in the World Cup semifinal in a match that is still considered one of the most dramatic of World Cup history. Ordinary time ended 1-1. France went ahead 3-1 in extra time, but the Germany equalized, and went on to win on penalties. The match is also remembered for one of the most disgraceful cases of violence when the German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher viciously attacked Patrick Battiston, who was hospitalized. Schumacher did not even receive a card or a suspension from FIFA.

It was the case of West Germany, the villain, winning and making it to the final.

In 1986 the sides met again in the World Cup semifinal. It was a French side that had played one of the best matches in history in the quarterfinal against Brazil. It was a German side that had defended themselves to the semifinal. It was a German side that won 2-0 destroying the dreams of one of the greatest sides in French football history.

Today both teams will again be making World Cup history.

Greatest World Cup matches: France-West Germany (1982)

France had never been World champion, but in the early 1980’s the French were fostering a team of extremely talented players that would go on to win the European championship in 1984. However, in the 1982 World Cup they were still not considered a favourite for the title, and they had started by losing 3-1 to a strong English side (in a match where Bryan Robson scored the fastest goal in World Cup history), but victories against Kuwait and a tie against Czechoslovakia had put them in the second round. There, they had not had a difficult time; they defeated Austria 1-0 and the surprising team of Northern Ireland had been easily dispatched with 4-1. France was now unexpectedly one step from their first World Cup final, facing the defending European champions of West Germany.
The French team was captained by the elegant Michel Platini from Saint-Étienne, who was already hailed as one of the best French players ever, but would only become better in the following years.
The Germans had arguably become the most unpopular team of the tournament after their first round loss to Algeria, and what everyone considered the “fixed” 1-0 win over Austria, that had put themselves and the Austrians in the second round at the expense of Algeria.
In the second round West Germany had tied England 0-0, and a 2-1 victory against the home team of Spain, was enough to put them in the semi-final, where they were nevertheless considered as favourites against the French side.
63,000 fans in Sevilla and TV audiences around the world would be witness to one of the greatest dramas in World cup history.
The match started best for the Germans when, after 17 minutes the veteran Paul Breitner made a perfect through-pass to another veterean, 1. FC Köln’s Klaus Fischer, who dashed towards goal between two French defenders. French goalkeeper Jean-Luc Ettori came out quickly and blocked the shot, but the ball fell to another 1. FC Köln player, the young Pierre Littbarski, at the edge of the penalty area, who resolutely shot the ball past Ettori.
Barely ten minutes later the Dutch referee Charles Corver, awarded France a penalty kick when Paris Saint-Germain’s Dominique Rocheteau was brought down as he was pursuing a header. Michel Platini scored, and the match was again levelled.
On goal, West Germany had Harald “Toni” Schumacher, perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world at the time, but also a controversial and provocative person, who would in 1987 be banned from the German national team and his club, 1. FC Köln, for having written a controversial autobiography, Ampfiff.
In this match, Schumacher would also play a central role in one of the most controversial incidents in the history of the World Cup.
First half ended 1-1, and fifteen minutes into the second half Michel Platini’s team-mate from Saint-Étienne Patrick Battiston came on. Only five minutes later Platini made a perfect through pass to Battiston, who had a free run towards the German goal. Schumacher came rushing out of the goal, and at the edge of the penalty area jumped violently into Battiston, who fell unconscious to the ground, as the ball calmly went past the goal.
The Frenchman had to be given emergency oxygen, lost many teeth, and was immediately taken to the hospital with a severe concussion. In one of the oddest refereeing decisions in World Cup history, the referee did not call a foul nor gave Schumacher a card. Instead, West Germany was awarded a goal-kick, while Battison had to be replaced by Christian Lopez, another Saint-Étienne player.
Schumacher’s cynicism and violence only made the Germans even more unpopular.
As the match wore on the elegant French put pressure on West Germany, whose players were increasingly resorting to fouls to stop the French attacking waves. In the 83rd minute Manuel Amoros, from AS Monaco, had a shot on the crossbar, but in the dying minutes of the match, Karl Heinz Föerster and Paul Breitner forced Ettori to some good saves.
The match had ended 1-1 and had to go into extra time.
France continued attacking, and only two minutes into extra time managed to score. Bordeaux’s elegant little midfielder, Alain Giresse took a free kick from the right side, and a slight diversion of the ball from a German defender caused it to fall to an unmarked Marius Trésor, also from Bordeaux, who scored with a perfect volley into the German goal.
But the French didn’t stop there. Six minutes later Alain Giresse himself received the ball from Didier Six in the face of meager German defending, and scored on a perfect shot out of Schumacher’s range.
3-1 in extra time, and victory seemed all but certain for France.
But the stubborn Germans refused to give up, and four minutes later Bayern Munich’s K.H. Rummennigge (European footballer of the year in 1981 and 1982), who had only entered the match five minutes before as a substitute for Hans Peter Briegel, scored the German’s second goal in a counter-attack by fighting his way ahead of a defender on a cross by Stielike.
The score was 3-2 for France as the team went on to the last 15 minutes of the extra time. The now confident Germans immediately attacked. On a cross from Littbarski into the French penalty area, Hamburg’s stupendous header, Horst Hrubesch, ascended and headed to ball towards the edge of the six-yard box where Klaus Fischer scored on an a spectacular bycicle kick to make it 3-3. After being completely down, West Germany had turned the match around in the most spectacular fashion!
Without further goals from the tired players, the extraordinary match had to be decided by the first penalty shoot-out in World Cup history. Before penalty shoot-outs matches were decided by draws after extra time, and so the penalty shoot-out was introduced in the World Cup of 1978, where it didn’t become necessary, mostly due to the fact that the tournaments were played in the form of two group stages.
France started shooting, and ahead 3-2 Uli Stielike missed the third shot for the West Germans. Disappointed and being consoled by Pierre Littbarski, Harald Schumacher leveled the match again by saving the following kick from Didier Six. As Platini and Rummenigge both scored on their following kicks, it all came down to the last kicks. Nantes’ veteran defender, Maxime Bossis shot the last one for France, and Schumacher saved. In the following shot, Horst Hrubesch made no mistake and scored, putting West Germany in their fourth World Cup final of all time, against Italy, a match they would go on to lose 3-1.
In the meantime, a disappointed French side faced Poland in the match for bronze, and lost 3-2.
This semifinal was surely one of the greatest dramas in World Cup history between these two European giants.
Michel Platini later said about the match: "For me, no book or film or play could ever recapture the way I felt that day. It was so complete, so strong and so fabulous."
Indeed.

Match Stats:

• 8th July 1982, Estadio Ramon Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville
• Attendance: 63,000
• Referee: Charles Corver, Netherlands

France-West Germany 3-3 (After extra time)
Goals: 0-1 Littbarski (17), 1-1 Platini (26) (pen), 1-2 Trésor (92), 1-3 Giresse (98), 2-3 K.H. Rummenigge (102), 3-3 Fischer (108)

Penalty kicks:
France-West Germany 5-4
1-0 Giresse
1-1 Kaltz
2-1 Amoros
2-2 Breitner
3-2 Rocheteau
Stielike misses
Six misses
3-3 Littbarski
4-3 Platini
4-4 K.H. Rummenigge
Bossis misses
5-4 Hrubesch

Teams:
France: Ettori; Amoros, Bossis, Janvion, Trésor, Genghini (Battiston) (Lopez) , Platini, Giresse, Tigana, Rocheteau, Six
West Germany: Schumacher; K.H. Foerster, Briegel (K.H. Rummenigge), B. Foerster, Breitner, Kaltz, Dremmler, Littbarski, Fischer, Magath (Hrubesch), Stielike

Greatest World Cup matches: Italy-West Germany (1982)

This is the first World Cup I personally remember. I was not old, and some of the more legendary matches have gone by me. But I remember the final! I remember the knowledge, for the first time in my life, that two nations were facing one another, and that this was important. Very important!
The world cup in Spain in 1982 was a demonstration of power of European teams: all four semi-finalists were European, and the final saw the Italian national team in its first world cup final since 1970 against the defending European champions of West Germany.
Italy were in the final against the odds given to them in the first round, where they had in fact not won a single match, becoming the first team ever to qualify to the second round without a victory. They had tied Cameroun, Poland and Perú, and had in the second round faced a difficult South American draw with the defending world champions of Argentina, and the South American favourites for the title, Brazil.
After defeating Argentina 2-1, Italy was forced to defeat Brazil in what became a legendary match. The highly criticised Paolo Rossi, who had only recently returned to football after a two-year ban, scored three goals to give Italy an unexpected victory and a place in the semi-finals where they faced Poland.
Poland and Italy had tied 0-0 in the first round of the tournament, but now Paolo Rossi was on fire, and scored both goals in Italy’s 2-0 victory.
In spite of the good results that had put them in the final, Italy were not favourites to win the tournament; West Germany were considered the stronger team, although they had become very unpopular in Spain. In the first round they had started by losing to Algeria, only to go on to the second round after first defeating Chile and then Austria 1-0 in a match that left Algeria out in what was complete lack of sportsmanship from the Germans and Austrian. In the second round the Germans had first tied England 0-0 and a subsequent 2-1 victory against Spain were enough to put them in the semi-final.
The semi-final between France and West Germany was one of the most dramatic matches in world cup history. Down 3-1 in extra time, the Germans nevertheless managed to equalize, and eventually win on the first penalty shoot-out in world cup history. This semi-final had only made the Germans more unpopular due to the ferocious attack from Harald “Toni” Schumacher on the French player Patrick Battiston, that left the latter unconcious.
The final in the Santiago Barnabeu Stadium in Madrid did not start well for the Italians, as they after only seven minutes were forced to substitute the Fiorentina striker Francesco Graziani for the Inter striker Alessandro Altobelli. Although the Germans initially dominated, the Italians quietly began to fight their way into the match, and after almost half an hour were awarded a penalty kick when the Kaiserslautern defender Hans Peter Briegel brought down the outstanding AS Roma winger Bruno Conti inside the German area.
The unpopular Schumacher seemed unshaken as the Juventus player Antonio Cabrini stepped up to take the penalty. In spite of his experience, and undoubtfully being one of the best Italian players of all time, Cabrini seemed nervous, and totally misplaced his weak shot, that went past the goal.
This was the first missed penalty in a world cup final.
The score was thus still 0-0 at half-time in a match that had been quite disappointing and overly tactical. The Germans again started the second half trying to put some pressure on the Italians, who were nevertheless too well-organised for the Germans to get any major chance. Instead, the Italians slowly began to play better and patiently to gain control over the midfield, as the German players seemed to be losing patience and increasingly resorting to fouling the Italians.
It was thus to a roar of approval from the entire footballing world when Italy finally broke the deadlock twelve minutes into the second half: a free kick for Italy was quickly taken by Marco Tardelli, who passed it to the Juventus defender Claudio Gentile on the right side. Gentile looked up and made a cross into the German area, where the defence was getting into position after the quickly taken free kick. In the center, three Italian strikers were almost running in the way of each other to get the ball, but the one who got the header and scored was none other than the previously so unpopular Paolo Rossi, who scored his sixth goal in only three games, and became the top scorer of the 1982 World Cup.
West Germany now had to attack; coach Jupp Derwall brought on an extra striker, Hamburg’s Horst Hrubesch, but the Germans were unable to force through the organized Italians, who now had the luxury to play exactly how they like it, awaiting for the counter-attack. The Germans, normally so cool, seemed increasingly frustrated, and in a situation that characterized both teams, Italy went ahead 2-0.
A German attack was stopped, and while the Italians counter-attacked, some German players stayed behind complaining to the referee. Rossi, and Gaetano Scirea combined with short passes in the German area, when Scirea passed the ball backwards to the edge of the German area, to the ever-fighting Juventus player, Marco Tardelli, who halfway shooting and tackling got a perfect shot that went into goal at the bottom right corner.
Tardelli’s euphoric goal celebration is remembered as one of the greatest moments of joy in World Cup football.
Italy were now in complete control of the match against the disillusioned Germans, who did not seem to believe that they would be able to pull such a comeback as they had done in the semi-final against France.
Ten minutes from the end of the match Alessandro Altobelli scored a third for Italy on another outstanding counterattack, where Bruno Conti had found an unmarked Altobelli in front of goal, who had coolly gone around Schumacher to score.
Altobelli, who had replaced Graziani at the start of the match, thus became the first substitute to score in a world cup final.
Although Paul Breitner scored a goal for the Germans only two minutes later, everyone knew it was just a consolation. However, with this goal Breitner, who had also scored in the final of 1974, became part of an exclusive family of only four players who have scored in two World Cup finals (the others being Pelé, Zinedine Zidane and Vavá).
Italy had won their third World Cup title, and were popular and worthy champions following their great matches against Brazil, Poland and West Germany.

Match Stats:

• 11th July, 1982, Santiago Barnabeu, Madrid
• Attendance: 90,000
• Referee: Arnaldo Coelho (Brazil)

Italy-West Germany 3-1
Goals: 1-0 Rossi (56), 2-0 Tardelli (68), 3-0 Altobelli (80), 3-1 Breitner (82)

Teams:
Italy: Zoff, Cabrini, Scirea, Gentile, Collovati, Oriali, Bergomi, Tardelli, Conti, Rossi, Graziani (Altobelli) (Causio)
West Germany: Schumacher, Kaltz, Stielke, K.H. Forster, B. Forster, Dremmler (Hrubesch), Breitner, Briegel, Littbarski, Fischer, Rummenigge (H. Muller)

Greatest World Cup matches: Italy-Brazil (1982)

In the 1982 World Cup in Spain Brazil participated with what was unquestionably its most talented squad since their legendary 1970 triumph. These stars, coached by Tele Santana, included; Flamengo’s Zico, considered the third best Brazilian player of all-time (after Pelé and Garrincha); AS Roma’s Falcão, considered one of the best midfielders of all time; Corinthians’ legendary and charismatic midfielder Sócrates; and Atlético Mineiro’s Eder, known as “the cannon” because of his powerful shot.
In the first round of the tournament the Brazilians had also confirmed their status as favourites for the title: first they had defeated the powerful Soviet Union 2-1, after being 0-1 down until 15 minutes before time, before going on to destroy Scotland and New Zealand 4-1 and 4-0 respectively. In all matches the Brazilians had entertained and scored spectacular goals, but were in the second round drawn in a difficult group with Italy and the defending world champions of Argentina.
The Brazilians started by defeating their Argentinean arch-rivals 3-1 in a match that is more remembered for Maradona’s dramatic red card, and before the last match against Italy, the Brazilian were heavy favourites to progress to the semi-finals, only needing a tie against the Europeans.
Italy on the other hand had not started well: before going to the World Cup the team had been heavily criticized at home for its poor results, and in the World Cup itself this had not changed. In the first round Italy had been in group A with Poland, Perú and Cameroon, and had just squeezed through to the next round on second place (behind Poland) after three ties, in fact becoming the first team in World Cup history to go through the first round without winning a match (and simultaneously Cameroon ended in third place with three ties as well but with one goal less than Italy, and was thus the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated from the first round without losing a match!).
The critique was so massive after the first round that the Italian coach Enzo Bearzot completely isolated the team for the second round, prohibiting any contact with the press. This apparently helped when in their first second round match against Argentina the Italians had improved a lot and won 2-1, but still needed a victory against the strong Brazilians if they were to make it to the semi-final.
The Italian team had a very strong defense centered around the Juventus players Gaetano Scirea and Claudio Gentile, both considered some of the best defenders in the history of football, although very different in style: Scirea was the elegant and fair defender (he never received a red card in his career, something rather unusual for an Italian defender...), while Gentile was the ruff and tough defender who never held back on injuring a player. Behind them they had the ageing Juventus goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who was also captain of the team.
The main problem of the Italian team lay in attack, where Enzo Bearzot had controversially selected Paolo Rossi, who had only recently returned to football after a two-year ban for being involved in a betting scandal. In the first four matches he had not scored a goal and was heavily criticized for being out of shape. It took only five minutes into the important match against Brazil for Rossi to silence his critics.
Brazil started the match somewhat arrogantly, perhaps expecting Italy to defend. Instead, the Italians attacked, and were given the space by the Brazilians. On a high cross from the Juventus’ midfielder Antonio Cabrini, Paolo Rossi came rushing into the area to score on a header, and give the Brazilians the first nail of what would be one of the most thrilling matches in World Cup history.
Brazil was nevertheless not defeated, and after 12 minutes Zico and Sócrates combined beautifully: Sócrates passed to Zico, and ran into the area, receiving a perfectly masked pass from Zico. Rushing towards the end of the line, Dino Zoff was perhaps expecting a cross, and didn’t cover the near goalpost, exactly where Sócrates shot to make it 1-1.
Although Brazil was rated as the favourites to win the cup, they were not strong on every position. The defense was known for being shaky, something Rossi took advantage of after 25 minutes: Atlético Mineiro’s Toninho Cerezo made a sloppy pass in defense which was quickly picked up by Rossi, who made no mistake in rushing into the area and shooting, catching the defense and the goalkeeper on the wrong foot, and bringing Italy 2-1 ahead, a score that held until half-time.
Italy came out more defensively into the second half, knowing that Brazil would attack, and hoping for some deadly counter-attacks. Brazil did indeed put pressure, but the disciplined defense and an extraordinary Zoff were not letting them into the match, while Rossi missed an extraordinary chance to make it 3-1 for Italy. However, halfway into the second half, Falcão received the ball from Junior outside the Italian area during a Brazilian attack; Toninho Cerezo ran towards the right side, attracting the attention of the Italian defense just enough to give Falcão the needed space and time to shoot from outside and equalize for Brazil.
Brazil would be in the next round if the result held, so the Italians did not give up. Only six minutes later AS Roma’s Bruno Conti shot a corner-kick for Italy. The ball was not cleared properly by the Brazilian defense, giving Marco Tardelli the opportunity to shoot. Tardelli’s shot was not particularly hard, but made it through the defense into the six-yard box where none other than Rossi deflected it to make his third goal of the match.
During the last fifteen minutes Brazil pressed ahead, but Italy had a goal disallowed (Antognoni for Italy on an nonexistent off-side). In the last minute of the match Oscar had a chance to equalize with a great header that was spectacularly saved by Dino Zoff. The score of 3-2 for Italy held, and the Brazilian giants had been eliminated by the efficient Italians, and notably by the much-criticized Paolo Rossi, who went on to score two goals in the semi-final against Poland and one in the victorious final against West Germany, earning him the Golden Boot of the tournament and the hero of the Italian World Cup victory. Like a British commentator said after the Brazil match about Rossi’s rise: “You just couldn’t have written it and been believed it if you had been responsible for a work of football fiction.”
Of the many legendary encounters between Brazil and Italy in the World Cup, this was probably the most thrilling.

Match Stats:

• 5th July 1982, Estadio Sarriá, Barcelona
• Attendance: 44,000
• Referee: Abraham Klein (Israel)

Italy-Brazil 3-2
Goals: 1-0 Rossi (5), 1-1 Socrates (12), 2-1 Rossi (25), 2-2 Falcão (68), 3-2 Rossi (74)

Teams:
Italy: Zoff; Cabrini, Collovati (Bergomi), Gentile, Scirea, Antognoni, Oriali, Tardelli (Marini), Conti, Graziani, Rossi
Brazil:Valdir Peres; Leandro, Oscar, Luisinho, Cerezo, Junior, Socrates, Serginho (Paulo Isidoro), Zico, Eder, Falcão

Greatest World Cup matches: Algeria-West Germany (1982)

The match between Algeria and West Germany in 1982 is perhaps as much remembered for the later match in the group between West Germany and Austria, one of the most disgraceful matches in world cup history that effectively left the charming Algerian team out of the world cup in what smelled awfully as a fixed match between the two Germanic teams. But to put the West Germany-Austria match as one of the greatest matches would be a crime against all other football matches in history (one Spanish paper properly wrote about this match under their crime-pages). Instead, Algeria’s memorable first match against West Germany is what should be written about. Before Algeria’s too early exit, the North Africans had been the first African team to defeat a European side in the World Cup. This happened only four years after Tunisia, in the 1978 World Cup, had been the first African team to win a match when they had defeated Mexico 3-1 in Argentina.
Nobody really expected that Algeria, who were participating in their first World Cup ever, had a chance in their opening match against the reigning European champions of West Germany and their many stars, such as the veteran Paul Breitner, Hamburg’s extraordinary header Horst Hrubesch, Bayern Munich’s Karl Heinz Rummenigge (European footballer of the year in 1981 and 1982) and the young FC Köln talent Pierre Littbarski, as the teams drew each other in the first round group 2 together with Austria and Chile.
The opening match was thus important for the Algerians who played one of the best games in their lives, and in a very entertaining match managed to pull one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.
First half had been quite tactical, with the Germans dominating, and with most observers thinking that the Europeans champions, in spite of the lack of goals, would in the second half have no problem scoring, as first half ended 0-0. However, the Algerians came out to the second half with renewed energy and faith in their abilities and started using their quick counter-attacking players as the Germans quietly pressed forward. Nine minutes into the second half this bore fruit, when Djamel Zidane (no relation to the later French superstar) made an excellent pass that completely tore through the German defense, putting the outstanding Lakhdar Belloumi alone with Harald Schumacher. The German goalkeeper managed to deflect the shot with his foot, but the ball bounced to Rabah Madjer, the later FC Porto star, who made no mistake and surprisingly brought Algeria ahead.
The Germans now put more pressure and player harsher. Horst Hrubesch and Karl Heinz Rummennigge both had chances before the latter equalized for West Germany when he pushed in a good cross from Felix Magath. But only one minute after the equalizer Algeria went ahead again on a goal that looked almost like a copy of Rummennigge’s a minute earlier: the excellent technical player, Salah Assad, combined on the right side of attack and rushing to the back-line made a perfect cross to Lakhdar Belloumi in front of the goal, who scored what would be Algeria’s winning goal.
Lakhdar Belloumi is still considered one of the greatest stars of Algerian football of all time, but in spite of many big European clubs trying to lure him to Europe, he always remained in his hometown club GCR Mascara.
The last part of the match was both very entertaining and hectic. West Germany attacked while the Algerians defended heroically. Horst Hrubesch had a goal annulled, while Rummennigge hit the post and goalkeeper Mehdi Cerbah made an incredible save on a shot by Real Madrid’s Uli Stielike in the dying minutes.
However, Algeria was also very dangerous on the counter-attacks, and had a couple of excellent chances, as well as Madjer having a goal strangely annulled.
Jupp Derwall, West Germany’s coach, had before the match said that he would jump into the Mediterranean if they lost, but he had to eat his words and the Mediterranean was saved. Algeria had pulled a huge sensation and were now the darlings of the tournament. Losing their second match 0-2 to Austria, they got a much-needed 3-2 victory in their last match against Chile, almost putting them in the next round. However, Austria and West Germany were to play their last match right after Algeria’s victory, and both knew that the only result that would see both teams go through was 1-0 for West Germany. After only 10 minutes Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany, and the rest of the match both teams just stopped playing while the Algerians desperately looked on.
Algeria had been eliminated by the pitiful West Germans and Austrians. Although they had obviously played on the result, FIFA made no attempts at punishing the teams. However, it did lead to one change in the rules: since then all last round matches are played simultaneously so as to avoid speculation on the result.
However, this was a meager consolation to a great Algerian team that were nevertheless the moral and real victors of the group.

Match Stats:

• 16th June 1982, El Molinón, Gijón
• Attendance: 42,000
• Referee: Enrique Labo Revoredo (Perú)

Algeria-West Germany 2-1
Goals: 1-0 Madjer (54), 1-1 K.H. Rummenigge (67), 2-1 Belloumi (68)

Teams:
Algeria: Cerbah; Guendouz, Kourichi, Merzekane, Assad, Fergani, Belloumi, Madjer (Larbes), Zidane (Bensaoula), Dahleb, Mansouri
West Germany: Schumacher; Briegel, Breitner, Foerster, Dremmler, Littbarski, Hrubesch, K.H. Rummenigge, Magath (Fischer), Stielike, Kaltz

Greatest World Cup matches: Hungary-El Salvador (1982)

In the 1982 first round group Argentina, Belgium, Hungary and El Salvador drew each other in group 3. Argentina surprisingly lost 1-0 to Belgium in the opening match, before Hungary was to open in Elche against El Salvador, who were only playing their second world cup ever, after losing all their three matches during the 1970 World Cup.
There were not many expectations to El Salvador against the strong European side. The small central American country was in the midst of a civil war, and the team itself was unknown and with little to offer.
In the meantime, the Hungarians had a strong team, although they had been decaying since their golden days, and didn’t have the same stars they used to, although some of them were stars in their respective clubs, such as Royal Antwerp’s Lászlo Fazekas and Ferencvaros’ Tibor Nyilasi.
As the match started it was also Tibor Nyilasi who opened the scoreboard after only four minutes, on a nice header following a corner-kick. On two further goals by Gabor Pölöskei and Lászlo Fazekas, the score was 3-0 by half-time; a large difference, but worse was to come.
Ten minutes into the second half József Toth and Fazekas had made it 4 and 5-0 respectively against a pathetically passive Salvadorean defense. It all looked as a training session for the Hungarians who understandably relaxed and gave the Salvadoreans more space, and in the 64th minute this bore fruit when Luis Ramírez Zapata scored for El Salvador. The Salvadorean players celebrated the goal as if the goal was important, and in some ways it was, as it remains the only goal El Salvador has ever scored in a World Cup.
The Salvadorans appeared so happy to score one goal, that they perhaps forgot to play, and for the remainder of the match El Salvador completely fell apart. Lászlo Kiss became the first and only player in a World Cup to come on as a substitute and score three goals, while Lázár Szentes also scored before Tibor Nyilasi, who had opened the scoreboard, also closed it with the tenth Hungarian goal.
El Salvador had been utterly humiliated while Hungary had started the tournament very well to say the least!
However, in the end the match meant nothing: El Salvador went on to lose with a bit less, 1-0 to Belgium and 2-0 to Argentina. Hungary on the other hand lost 4-1 to Argentina and after a 1-1 with Belgium, were  out of the tournament alongside the Salvadorans despite of their impressive scoreline.
Their victory against El Salvador still stands as the largest scoreline in World Cup history.

Match Stats:

• 15th June 1982, Nuevo Estadio, Elche
• Attendance: 23,000
• Referee: Ibrahim Youssef-Al-Doy (Bahrain)

Hungary-El Salvador 10-1
Goals: 1-0 Nyilasi (4), 2-0 Pölöskei (11), 3-0 Fazekas (23), 4-0 Tóth (50), 5-0 Fazekas (54), 5-1 L. Ramirez (64), 6-1 L. Kiss (69), 7-1 L. Kiss (72), 8-1 Szentes (73), 9-1 L. Kiss (76), 10-1 Nyilasi (83)

Teams:
Hungary: Meszaros; Martos, Balint, Tóth, Mueller (Szentes), Garaba, Fazekas, Nyilasi, Torocsik (L. Kiss), Poloskei, Sallai
El Salvador: Mora; Castillo, Jovel, Recinos, Ventura (Fagoaga), Rugamas (L. Ramirez), Hernandez, Huezo, Gonzalez, Rivas, J. Rodriguez

Top 5 Best teams that never won a World Cup

With the World Cup coming up, the World Cup historical geeks start discussing before games. An interesting one I heard recently was the a discussion on the top 5 best teams that had not won a World Cup. I have spent some time thinking about this list. I find it a big difficult, because should it entail teams that almost won it? Teams that played very well but did not make it far, or teams that should have won it, but lost after huge upset?

My very personal top 5 (which I will defend any time though) is:

5. Brazil 1950: Brazil should have won its first World Cup ever in 1950, at home in Maracana, in front of a record crowd of 200,000 spectators. Instead, facing all the adversity in the world, little Uruguay put a stop to the celebrations in all Brazil, to give the Brazilians their most painful defeat ever, by winning 2-1. Brazil has still never won the World Championship on own soil.

4. Czechoslovakia 1934: The Czechoslovaks had one of the best teams of the world in the mid 1930's, although playing a World Cup final in Rome during Mussolini was never going to be an easy task. Il Duce made sure that Italy would have all advantages, even a very friendly referee. In spite of this, the Italians only managed a narrow 2-1 victory after extra time.

3. Brazil 1982: 1982 and 1986 probably were the two World Cups with most of the legendary players assembled at one time. The teams were amazing, and it is difficult to choose one that could not have been a worthy champion (France, Germany, Poland...). However, I have chosen Brazil, because it was undoubtfully one of the most talented generations of Brazilian football: Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Junior, Cerezo, etc. In spite of their magic, they never lifted the trophy.

2. Netherlands 1974: This team, led by the legendary Johann Cruyff, took the world with storm with its relaxed attitude and marvelous "Total Football". They were a beauty to watch, and were far superior to every team in 1974 in Germany. Until the final, they had cruised through, even trashing the mighty Brazilians. In the final in Munich, they started with a pentalty goal in the first minute against the West German hosts. However, the Germans managed to fight back to win 2-1 in one of the most legendary finals of all time.

1. Hungary 1954: In the first half of the 1950's, Hungary had the best team in the world. Led by legendary Puskas, and with amazing strikers such as Hidegkuti and Koscic, Hungary entered the 1954 World Cup without having lost a game for 3 years. In Switzerland, they started amazing, scoring amazing 25 goals in 4 games. In the final against Germany, they started by getting ahead 2-0 after 8 minutes, and the whole world thought that was the end... However, in one of the most amazing comebacks ever, West Germany won 3-2, to get their first World Cup ever. Hungary has never really recovered...

This was my list. Any opinions?

Top 5 World Cup Goal Celebrations

A friend recently asked me about my top 5 world cup goal celebrations. This is an interesting topic, as I think a particular celebration is very much connected to the feeling of the fan himself when the goal was scored. For instance, I vividly remember Brian Laudrup's celebration when he scored against Brazil in the WC 1998 quarterfinal.
But I think I have come to my own personal top-5 of celebrations that are stuck in my football-fanatic mind:

5) Diego Armando Maradona in WC 1994, when he scored against Greece. It was with much anger and releif he went towards the camera screaming. I personally felt "The Greatest is back"...

4) Roger Milla from Cameroon did a little dance by the corner flag after scoring in WC 1990 against Romania (this was the first time, although he did it later), really underlined the happiness of playing of this "grand old man"!

3) Liliam Thuram from France, in the semifinal against Croatia in WC 1998. He had never scored on the national team, and scored two goals, to bring France in the final. When scoring, sat down with a hand to his face and looked thoughtful. Indeed a very arrogant but charming Frenchman!

2) Bebeto , from Brazil in the quarterfinal against the Netherlands in WC 1994, when he did the little "wiggle the baby" dance with Romario. It has been done since, but it was the first time, and was kinda cool back then.

1) Marco Tardelli from Italy, when scoring the second goal against West Germany in the 1982 WC Final. I will never forget Mr. Tardelli's face, in complete euphoria, as the camera focused right on him, running screaming towards his teammates! It seemed like an out-of-body experience, and I am sure it must have been

I would really like to hear opinions on this though!