Mammoth Book of the World Cup

by Nick Holt

  Tom Finney: almost as amazing as Stan

  David Beckham: best dead-ball kicker we’ve had, tireless, committed

  Bryan Robson: enormous lungs and heart, just the best box-to-box player England have had – deserved better support

  Frank Lampard: wonderful goalscorer from deep; super-reliable

  Paul Gascoigne: best English player in my adult viewing era

  Paul Scholes: see Lampard above

  Strikers:

  Gary Lineker: if he got past you, you didn’t catch him, and he usually scored

  Jimmy Greaves: skilful, neat, lovely finisher

  Alan Shearer: just in case we need a battering ram, even though I’m not a big fan at international level

  Omissions: Both George Cohen and Ray Wilson were fine full-backs, as was Roger Byrne (killed at Munich with Edwards) and Terry Cooper and Gary Neville (such a smart player). Johnny Haynes: beautiful passer, but found wanting at very top on occasions. Gerrard is a good player, just hasn’t delivered at crucial times, Hoddle even more so. One I wanted to include was Alan Hudson – two caps? TWO CAPS? Ramsey and Revie deserve jail for that. Michael Owen was terrific in his pomp but similar in position and style to Lineker and Greaves, while Shearer was just that bit more potent at his best than Nat Lofthouse or Geoff Hurst. Wayne Rooney? You’re having a laugh, aren’t you?

  Strengths: Excellent defence, good goalscorers

  Weaknesses: Tactical deficiencies need addressing, bit lacking in genius in midfield unless Gascoigne is sober

  Likely first XI:

  Banks

  Armfield Butcher Moore Cole

  Edwards

  Matthews Robson Gascoigne Charlton

  Lineker

  4.2 WINGERS

  A word about wingers. Ramsey became disillusioned with them during this World Cup, and they were a breed who were beginning to be treated with a deal of suspicion.

  In the pre-war years wingers had been an integral part of football tactics, especially in the British Isles. Get the ball to the wide man, let him have a little dribble, sling over a cross and the big lad in the middle can kill a few more brain cells nutting a heavy piece of leather. Wingers only scored when their opposite number was the one crossing – they were encouraged to join in and attack the ball beyond the centre-forward.

  During the 1920s and 1930s some more innovative coaches would have their winger cut in and try a shot – Cliff Bastin of Arsenal frequently caught defences on the hop by doing this. By the 1950s the best wingers were a more sophisticated breed. Czibor of Hungary could play equally well at inside-forward and would occasionally swap positions with Puskás to fool the defenders. Both Matthews and Finney for England were as adept at slipping clever passes inside to free their forwards as they were at going around their man on the outside; Finney frequently played in the middle, such was the quality of his finishing. The Brazilian Zagallo played deeper than most wingers, augmenting the midfield while his opposite wing, Garrincha, went walkabout. Zagallo perfected the deep, accurate cross from in front of the full-back, obviating the need for pointless dribbling. A precursor of the Beckham-style wide player, if you will.

  By the 1960s wingers needed to defend. The widespread use of the defensive catenaccio system by Italian and South American teams meant a plethora of attacking full-backs (some of them as fast and skilful as a winger, like Facchetti of Italy) who needed to be watched when the opposition had the ball. No longer could you just let the full-back go and rely on the half-back and fullback to deal with the problem. Players with drive and work rate were needed, and Alf Ramsey, for one, found using men like Alan Ball and Martin Peters, all-round players, more satisfactory than a beat-’em-and-cross-it winger. His tactic was enforced partly by an absence of genuinely talented wide players and partly by an innate suspicion of players with flair. Had he had any one of a number of Scottish wingers at his disposal things may have been different; in an era where England had a dearth, Scotland had Jimmy Johnstone, Charlie Cooke and Eddie Gray.

  By the next decade the working winger was a part of most teams, especially in Europe. Steve Coppell was the personification of the wide player in England; hard-working, quick, intelligent and able to defend as well as pass and cross. Other countries boasted similar hybrids. The Pole Grzegorz Lato, ostensibly a winger, was his side’s biggest goal threat attacking from a wide position and using his extreme pace (think Cristiano Ronaldo or Bale). The Germans Littbarski and Graboswki, both clever players, combined old-fashioned wing play with link play in an inside-forward position (think Ginola or Waddle). In 1982 the Italians had Bruno Conti, who would play on both wings as a solitary wide player – whichever side he chose the ever-willing striker Graziani would move out to the opposite side. Neither Brazil nor Poland nor West Germany in the latter stages could cope with the movement and flexibility. There were no longer pure wingers, they were too much of a luxury. After Conti, no side fielded a proper winger in a World Cup Final until France started the 2006 Final with Ribéry and Malouda as the wide players in a five-man midfield. The modern system favoured by the big sides demands wide attacking players, but they are the outer prongs in a 4–3–3, and expected to offer an extra dimension than the old-fashioned run-and-cross brigade.

  4.3 WORLD CUP 1970

  Mexico was awarded the 1970 World Cup in 1964 when the only rivals for the honour, Argentina, pulled out after a doing a deal that saw them granted the 1978 tournament in a similarly uncontested manner. Mexico offered up only five grounds for the tournament, allowing them time to make each as suitable as possible. The principal ground, the magnificent, raucous Azteca Stadium, was already in progress for the 1968 Olympic Games – a convenient economy for the Mexicans. The large Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara was updated and another near-50,000-capacity ground was built in Puebla (Estadio Cuauhtémoc). The smaller, high-altitude ground at Tolucs would share group duties with Puebla, while the final group would take place in the Estadio Nou Camp in Leon, the most northerly city used.

  The division of places, finally, was more equable, as each of Africa, Asia and North America were awarded a place, with Mexico effectively taking one South American place and Europe losing one spot.

  Qualifying

  Qualification threw up a shock or two. Brazil – forced to undergo the indignity of qualifying for the first time in twelve years – found it remarkably easy. Played six, won six, twenty-three goals scored, two conceded. The centre-forward, Tostão, scored ten of the goals, including two hat-tricks. He was quick and mobile as well as good in the air and strong, but he had just come back from an operation on a detached retina and no one knew whether he would be quite the same player. It should be said that the opposition in the group was less than taxing. The manager who revived the squad’s fortunes, a former journalist João Saldanho, was replaced just before the tournament after one more fiery outburst; his successor Mario Zagallo, was looking to be the first man to play in and manage a World Cup-winning team.

  1970

  MEXICO

  Mexico offered up five large stadia, all in the heavily populated central part of the country.

  Mexico City: Estádio Azteca

  This huge edifice was begun in 1961 and finished five years later as part of Mexico’s plans for the 1968 Olympic Games. It has held innumerable major sporting contests and 107,412 people watched the 1970 World Cup Final inside this overheated cauldron.

  Guadalajara: Estádio Jalisco

  Another impressive stadium with capacity for over 50,000 spectators, the Jalisco was England’s home for the group stages in 1970 and hosted Brazil’s semi-final against Uruguay. The city’s major club, Guadalajara, left the stadium in 2010 for the newly constructed Omnipan.

  Léon: Estádio Nou Camp

  Like the Azteca this stadium was built for the Olympic Games and opened in 1967; this was a smaller ground, holding around 24,000.

  Puebla: Estádio Cuauhtémoc

  Sitting right next door to the city’s baseball stadium, the Cuauhtémoc
was also built for the Olympics and opened in early 1968. This stadium held 35,000 spectators but wasn’t full for its three 1970 group matches.

  Toluca: Estádio Luis Dosal

  Older than the other stadia used, the Luis Dosal was opened in 1954 and held around 27,000 people. Now known as the Estadio Nemesio Diaz, the ground is known to all and sundry as La Bombonera.

  Unlike Brazil, Argentina had not such an easy ride, coming up against a tidy Bolivia and the best group of players Peru has ever produced. The first five games in the group were all won by the home team, and Argentina needed a win against Peru in their final match; 2–1 down, they equalised in the eighty-ninth minute, and a scandalous ten minutes of further time was played while they pressed in vain for a winner. It wasn’t the last Argentina–Peru match with a bit of an odour to it. On this occasion it was Peru who took their place in the Finals, while Argentina retreated to rebuild their squad. The coach Pedernera, one of the greats of Argentinian football during their years of isolation either side of the Second World War, was sacked with the unenviable record of overseeing the only unsuccessful qualification campaign in Argentinian football history – although another great player, Maradona, almost managed it with a far better squad. England must have been relieved; had they played Argentina in Mexico there would have been scars. Uruguay clinched the last place without conceding a goal to Chile (in a trough) or Ecuador (still finding their way). They only scored five, mind, but that was the Uruguay way in the sixties and seventies. Defend, kick, see what happens.

  The fun and games (far from it, actually) took place in the CONCACAF qualification. Four groups produced four semi-finalists; Haiti would play the United States (not such a mismatch as it might appear now), while neighbours El Salvador and Honduras contested the other.

  Trouble was brewing between the two; the larger but less populous country, Honduras, had drafted punitive legislation to seize back land from Salvadoran immigrants who propped up the smaller, non-corporate agricultural system in the country’s rural areas. Two years later, with the legislation still souring relations between the nations, the countries met in a World Cup qualifier. There was fighting in Tegucigalpa after the first leg (won by Honduras) and more after the second match a week later in San Salvador. Eleven days later a decisive play-off in Mexico City was won by El Salvador with two late goals deep into extra-time. Whether football passions fanned the flames, who knows, but El Salvador broke off all diplomatic relations with her neighbour immediately, and less than three weeks later troops were massing on the border between the countries. The war lasted only days and a peace was brokered by the Organization of American States, a loose pan-American alliance intended to keep the peace in the region.

  El Salvador still had a match to negotiate, and they needed another play-off to see off Haiti, a goal by Juan Ramón Martinez settling the decider in Kingston, Jamaica.

  African and Asian qualification passed off relatively peacefully, although the heroes of 1966, North Korea, withdrew in objection to the presence of Israel in their qualifying group – the Israelis played in various qualifying groups to avoid the other Middle Eastern nations before settling in, sensibly, as part of the European zone. The Israelis had their first decent side, and their two best players, Mordechai Spiegler and Giora Spiegel, scored the goals that took them past Australia in the final eliminator. Spiegler, the captain, remains Israel’s leading goalscorer. Morocco just pipped Nigeria in a final group of three to clinch the African spot.

  In Europe it was largely as you were. Scotland put in some creditable performances, but defeats in their last two away games, one a humdinger in Hamburg, meant they lost out to West Germany. Wales were in a tough threesome with Italy – European Champions in 1968 – and East Germany; nul points for a weak Wales team. Both Wales and East Germany were savaged by Italy’s star striker, the fast, aggressive Luigi “Gigi” Riva, who scored seven times in the four games. Northern Ireland also had a tough gig and were unable to get past the Soviet Union, especially with George Best missing for the crucial away tie.

  In the other three-team group France blew their chance with a home defeat to Norway, allowing Sweden unencumbered passage. The goal by Odd Iversen gave Norway their best competitive win to date. The Swedes’ centre-forward Ove Kindvall netted six times in the three matches he played and came to the Finals high on confidence after scoring the winner for Feyenoord against Celtic in the European Cup Final. Bulgaria came through a tough group that included Poland and Holland by winning their home games and getting a point in Amsterdam courtesy of Hristo Bonev’s goal. Both Holland and Poland were entering a decade of unprecedented success, but this qualification came too soon.

  In the European Group 1 the favourites Portugal managed to finish last in the group. Portugal relied on a generation of fading stars, and they weren’t up to the challenge. The key results came in the spring of 1969 when Romania fought hard for a point in Athens and won in Switzerland; when they beat Portugal later that year they were as good as through. Hungary were another team whose fading stars couldn’t earn them a place after they finished level on points with Czechoslovakia (and would have won through if goal average or difference had counted). The play-off in Marseilles swung on a disputed penalty at the end of the first half for Czechoslovakia; a flurry of second-half goals saw the Czechs go through comfortably – the fourth team from the Communist East to qualify.

  Yugoslavia, the European Championship finalists from 1968, were expected to be the fifth, but they had to get through easily the toughest group, which included Spain, Belgium, improving fast, and Finland. Finland, like Norway, took a good scalp with a 2–0 home win over Spain, and, while Spain took points off Yugoslavia, Belgium won all their home games and did well to draw in Madrid. An early goal from Johann Devrindt set the stage for a Spanish siege, but it only yielded a solitary goal in reply. Devrindt then scored twice in the return to put Belgium in the box seat. Yugoslavia’s 4–0 defeat of Belgium came too late as placings in the group were already decided and the Belgians put in an appearance at the Finals for the first time since 1954. The Belgium team was built around the Anderlecht side that dominated their domestic football at the time – in a 1964 international against Holland the entire Belgian side was made up of Anderlecht players after the coach brought on their goalkeeper as a substitute. The World Cup squad had eight from Anderlecht and seven from their closest rivals Standard Liège. They were regarded as the tournament’s dark horses by many pundits.

  Finals

  In the heat of Mexico, Brazil were the favourites for the 1970 World Cup, although many European journalists, including some who should have known better, thought they lacked the heart for the campaign. Memories were still strong of an all-European semi-final line-up in 1966, and the best of the competition would come from the European sides. Since winning the trophy four years previously England had been beaten only four times; by Brazil, Scotland (famously in 1967), West Germany (for the first time in the history of matches between the two) and Yugoslavia, in the 1968 European Championship semi-final. Add West Germany and European Champions Italy for the main threats to a gifted but defensively suspect Brazil.

  I mentioned heat. It was a major factor. This was the first World Cup where games were scheduled for the convenience of TV channels rather than players or live spectators. It is a common problem now, and coaches take precautions to deal with it, but in 1970 nutritional science was more basic, and slow-release salt tablets were all players had to combat midday heat in the high thirties. It nullified some major performers, and led to numerous cases of serious dehydration and sunstroke – there were reports of players losing half a stone during a game.

  The format was the same as in 1966, but this time two substitutes were allowed per game

  GROUP 1

  The opener in the top group, the last opening game for a while to feature the host country rather than the holders, was the usual stinker, Mexico and the USSR cancelling each other out. The German referee was hard on s
ome of the Soviet tackling, but equally censorious of some of the play-acting by the Mexicans, which augured well after the excesses of 1966. In the other opening game – three days later, oddly – Belgium easily beat El Salvador, who looked way out of their depth.

  El Salvador were better against Mexico, but were undone by an odd goal. Referee Kandil (woeful throughout the match) clearly awarded a free-kick to El Salvador on the right touchline and the players started moving back towards the Mexican half. When the ball was knocked back onto the field, the Mexican left-back Mario Pérez cheekily took the kick and played the ball up the line to Padilla. Instead of bringing play back and telling Pérez to stop playing silly buggers, the referee just waved his arms pathetically and allowed Padilla to cross the ball into the middle, where Valdivia scored after Borja missed the ball completely. Play to the whistle, fine, but there was nothing ambiguous about the initial decision, it was El Salvador’s free-kick. The second half was a rout as El Salvador lost the plot, but the game turned on that incident as they looked comfortable for the first half and Mexico were short of creativity. In the other match the USSR surprised many by completely outplaying Belgium. Belgium suffered more than most in the heat, certainly more than the super-fit Soviets, and their touted forward line just didn’t deliver, especially their respected playmaker Van Himst; he, and his team, fared better in the European Championships two years later, finishing third. Early on, Semmeling’s header was cleared off the line and Van Moer drove the follow-up against the bar, but that was it for Belgium. The Soviets took over the game, with Shesternev imperious at the back and Byshovets and Muntian running the Belgian defence ragged.