by Nick Holt
Despite their fatalism the Dutch kept attacking, and Fillol had to be at his best to deny Rensenbrink just before half-time. In the second half Argentina tucked Kempes deeper and left Luque on his own while they defended on the edge of their area. The game became scrappy, with lots of niggling fouls and time wasting from Argentina – Gonella was far too tolerant.
With Nanninga on for the disappointing Rep, Holland were throwing a lot of crosses in to use his height, and eventually it paid off. The Argentina defence was sucked into the middle and René van de Kerkhof was given acres of space to stand up a cross just ahead of Nanninga, who attacked it and buried it to the manner born.
Extra-time started and Menotti raised Argentina, who came out of their shell and poured forward again. It was Kempes, the man of the moment, who put them into the lead, attacking the Dutch defence through the same inside-left channel and swerving around two challenges. Jongbloed came out and did well, blocking Kempes’ initial attempt, but he was unlucky and the ball bounced up for the Argentina striker to have a second chance. Kempes nearly had a hat-trick but another run was half-stopped and Bertoni was on hand to profit from the loose ball and seal Holland’s fate.
Holland were the first team to lose consecutive finals, although reaching the final here was probably as good as they expected. Argentina were the third host country to win in four tournaments – both the others had help from referees but nothing on this scale and certainly none of the political pressure that was visible here. My memory of watching the final at home is of my dad switching the TV off in disgust as General Videla, the head of the Junta, handed the trophy over with an ingratiating smile. He explained why. I never watched football with quite the same innocence again.
Happily the tournament did the Junta no favours. They hoped it would present a more positive image of their regime to the watching world, but it served only to highlight the iniquities of which they were guilty. Argentinian goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol stated later that he first became aware of the atrocities being committed within the country through the foreign media he met during the World Cup. Hey, chalk one up for The Beautiful Game.
World Cup Heroes No.18
Mario Kempes (1954–)
Argentina
Mario Kempes was the “next big thing” of Argentinian football long before he became the “big thing”. It took him ten games to score in a World Cup Finals match, but then the floodgates opened and he was unstoppable.
There was something especially exciting about Kempes in full flow. Tall and athletic, with big thighs, a chiselled jaw and long, curling black hair, he had the look of a matinee idol – or perhaps the black-clad bad guy who seeks to thwart the matinee idol.
In 1974 Kempes wasn’t ready for the attention thrust on him. He was a raw, natural player and found experienced European defenders had the measure of him, especially playing in a team that favoured measured, cautious football. Four years later, with Menotti in charge, Kempes had rein to collect the ball deeper and embark on charging runs at the defence, exchanging passes at chancy, breakneck speed with his team-mates. The goal still took a while to come, but in Argentina’s last four matches in 1978, Kempes scored six times, only blanking in the kicking match against Brazil. Four of the goals came from those irresistible cavalry charges, and the Valencia man thoroughly justified Menotti’s decision to exempt him from a policy of not picking European-based players.
In 1982 it was back to the scoreless wonder. Kempes played well in the group games, dropping into an attacking midfield role to allow Maradona room to explode further forwards, but in the second phase he was anonymous against Italy and Brazil, confirming an impression that he struggled against the very best defenders.
Kempes wasn’t a great player, taking his whole career into account, but for a couple of weeks in the summer of 1978 he was the pride of the Junta, and looked every inch a Prince.
Team of the Tournament, 1978:
Leão (Brazil)
Olguin (Argentina) Scirea (Italy) Passarella (Argentina) Cabrini (Italy)
Causio (Italy) Ardiles (Argentina) Gallego (Argentina)
Bettega (Italy) Kempes (Argentina) Rensenbrink (Holland)
Official Team of the Tournament: Fillol, Vogts, Krol, Tarantini, Dirceu, Cubillas, Rossi were all in, along with Leăo, Passarella, Bettega and Kempes from my team. I am right, they are wrong, you’ll just have to trust me.
Leading scorers: Kempes (6); Cubillas & Rensenbrink (5); Luque & Krankl (4)
Heaven Eleven No.8
Holland (with some help from the Belgians)
Coach:
Rinus Michels
Goalkeepers:
Edwin van der Sar: safe hands, best Dutch goalkeeper.
Jean-Marie Pfaff*: excellent Belgian ’keeper in the ’80s
Michel Preud’homme*: Pfaff’s successor, unlucky to overlap for a few years
Defenders:
Wim Suurbier: one of the great ’74 team
Ruud Krol: attacking left-back or sweeper, or pretty much anywhere
Jaap Stam: dominant centre-half, untypical of a Dutch player
Ronald Koeman: sweeper and set piece specialist
Vincent Kompany*: one of the best contemporary defenders
Danny Blind: under-rated sweeper, part of the Ajax revival and absurdly under-used for Holland in a weak era
Eric Gerets*: super reliable right-back for the strong ’80s Belgian team
Midfield & wide:
Ruud Gullit: the dreadlocked one could play anywhere but was at his best in an attacking midfield role
Johan Neeskens: hard-tackling, hard-shooting star of the ’74 team
Frank Rijkaard: great defensive midfielder, part of the Milan– Holland trinity with Gullit and van Basten
Clarence Seedorf: just preferred ahead of Edgar Davids, a reliable all-round midfielder
Arjen Robben: inconsistent but match-winning winger
Wesley Sneijder: attacking playmaker in the side that reached the 2010 Final
Faas Wilkes: first great post-war Dutch attacking player
Paul Van Himst*: regarded by many as Belgium’s best ever
Strikers:
Dennis Bergkamp: one of the most intelligent forwards of recent years
Johan Cruyff: genius
Rob Rensenbrink: wonderful left foot and great dribbling skills
Marco van Basten: fierce shooter and finisher, unlucky with injury
Jan Ceulemans*: dangerous Belgian attacker from the ’80s, strong as an ox
Omissions:
We could have included Frank De Boer at the back, or the ’50s great Cor van der Hart. Edgar Davids was unlucky, as were Marc Overmars and Piet Keizer, we went for Robben’s trickery instead of pace. Arie Haan was a top player, just too similar to Rijkaard; van Hanegem was a terrific player but more influential at club level. The Belgian Enzo Scifo was over-rated and rarely delivered in big matches, while Ludo Coeck, tragically killed at thirty, would be a sentimental choice rather than a pragmatic one.
None of the Belgian attackers from their heyday was quite in this class, and nor were Johnny Rep, Patrick Kluivert, Ruud van Nistelrooy or Robin van Persie (another great club player who was never quite as effective at international level); Kluivert had all the talent but rarely had his head on the right way round. Ask in a few years and Fellaini, Hazard, De Bruyne, Benteke or Lukaku might be pushing for a place – Belgium have an exciting crop of players at time of writing.
Likely first XI:
Van der Sar
Gerets Stam Koeman Krol
Rijkaard
Gullit Neeskens van Himst
Cruyff van Basten
* indicates a Belgian player
HEROES & VILLAINS
6.1 WORLD CUP 1982
Spain underwent major changes in the years immediately before and immediately after the country served as host for the World Cup. After forty years of one-party rule (the fascist Falange party led by General Franco was the only legally permitted political party) i
n the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament), the dictator’s death in 1975 precipitated a change. The King, a cipher under Franco’s rule, became the Head of State and a new democratic constitution was put in place in 1978. Unsettled, the military tried to initiate a new coup in 1981, but King Juan Carlos’ personal intervention and lack of public support nipped the mini rebellion in the bud.
During Franco’s reign Spain pursued an isolationist policy in foreign affairs, although the 1960s saw greater inclination to court alliance with other western powers, particularly the United States, as paranoia about Communist infiltration crept in. In the early 1980s the new Spain was enthusiastically displaying its new democracy – they joined NATO two weeks before the tournament began – and embracing the unique cultural heritage of its regions in a more devolved system. The World Cup, embraced by Franco initially as a propaganda coup, became a very different symbol of national pride.
Spain was a football mad country, with a really powerful league whose best sides had a terrific record in European competition. Games drew big crowds, so the availability of large-capacity stadia was not an issue; no other European country could boast two grounds as big as the Camp Nou in Barcelona and the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, the homes of the two giant clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. The other games were dotted around the regions, in line with the new flavour of government, and there were two further grounds with capacity for over 50,000 fans in Sevilla in the south-west and Valencia on the east coast.
1982
SPAIN
The expansion of the number of clubs taking part meant more grounds were needed and Spain used seventeen grounds in fourteen cities. They employed a nicely egalitarian system, letting the smaller cities share the group matches, only bringing Barcelona and Madrid into play for the second-group phase.
Madrid: Santiago Bernabéu
Real Madrid’s magnificent stadium in the capital was the venue for the final and also hosted Spain (and England’s) second-phase matches. Only the Nou Camp as a club stadium has a bigger capacity.
Madrid: Vicente Calderón
Opened in 1966, the Vicente Calderón was the second stadium in the capital and is the home of Atlético Madrid. The stadium never filled its 60,000-plus capacity during the tournament.
Barcelona: Nou Camp
Probably the most splendid football stadium in Europe, the glittering Nou Camp seems to reach into the sky these days, with a capacity for just under 100,000 people (all seated). At its peak, which encompassed this World Cup, the ground held a staggering 120,000 people, but didn’t come close to filling it for the finals’ matches.
Barcelona: Sarriá
The Sarriá was the home of Espanyol, the second Barcelona club, but was demolished in 2007. The club moved into a new stadium after a couple of years playing in the Barcelona Olympic Stadium.
Group 1 was shared between Vigo and A Coruña in the north west. The Balaídos had been home to Celta Vigo since the 1920s, while the Estádio Riazor was home to Deportivo de La Coruña. Until the last two or three years when Deportivo have struggled, the Riazor was a noted bogey ground for the mighty Real Madrid.
Further along the north coast to the east, Oviedo and Gijon hosted Group 2, using two smaller grounds; Sporting Gijon’s El Molinón (opened in 1908) and Real Oviedo’s Carlos Tartiere. The Carlos Tartiere was the smallest of the grounds used in the 1982 finals and was knocked down and re-built at the start of this century.
Group 3 was in the far south-east of the country in Elche and Alicante. The Nuevo stadium in Elche (since renamed after a former club president) and the José Rico Pérez in Alicante were the two grounds used, home to Elche FC and Hércules FC respectively. A lucky 23,000 in Elche watched Hungary score ten against El Salvador – a World Cup record.
England’s group games in 1982 were played in the San Mamés (locally referred to as La Catedral) in Bilbao in the heart of the Basque country along the border with France. In 2013, one hundred years after the old stadium opened, a new San Mamés stadium opened in the city. Other games in Group 4 were played in Valladolid, at the smaller José Zorrilla stadium, built especially for the 1982 tournament.
Of the stadia used for the group games the biggest was the Luis Casanova (now Estádi Mestalla) in Valencia, opened the same year as the original Wembley. The spectators at the Luis Casanova looked on in shock as the host nation lost to Northern Ireland. Valencia shared hosting duties for Group 5 with Zaragoza, where the la Romareda stadium, home of Real Zaragoza, was renovated for the finals.
Two grounds in Seville saw service in 1982, the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán and the Benito Villamarín. The larger Ramón Sánchez, home of Sevilla, hosted the classic West Germany versus France semi-final; the Benito Villamarín is the home of Real Betis. La Rosaleda in Malaga to the southeast shared Group 6 duties with Seville.
Elsewhere Argentina and Great Britain were at loggerheads over the Falkland Islands, so an England or Scotland game against Argentina was to be avoided if possible. England v Argentina games were passionate affairs without this new martial twist to the relationship.
The second-phase groups leading straight to the final was clearly unsatisfactory, so in 1982 FIFA introduced a new twist – second phase groups followed by semi-finals. It was marginally better, but as there were now twenty-four finalists (and commensurately more income for the FIFA coffers) some device was needed to whittle them down.
The biggest problem was the second phase groups – they each had three teams, which imbalance meant one team in the second and third matches had much less preparation time, and one team in the last match would probably have good reason to stifle the game and play for a draw. In three of the groups such fears were confirmed – in the other the system produced an out-and-out ripper.
Qualifying
UEFA changed their qualifying system quite dramatically, moving from three- and four-team groups to five teams with two going through from each section. (Plus one odd little three-team group with one qualifier, which made things very easy for Poland, drawn against a declining East Germany and Malta, who couldn’t really decline because they were never any good.)
The British Isles came within a whisker of having five teams in the Finals.
England had the easiest task in a group including Romania, Hungary, Switzerland and Norway – no dross, but nothing intimidating. Easy or not, England’s away form nearly saw them eliminated; defeats to Romania, Switzerland and Norway were only partially compensated by an excellent win in Budapest in June 1981 orchestrated by Trevor Brooking and Kevin Keegan. England’s two best players were both past thirty and rarely fit at the same time – the match in Budapest was England’s sixth game in the group and the first for which both were available. The defeat in Oslo three months later was a landmark win for the Norwegians, and is memorable for a historic rant by the Norwegian commentator Bjrge Lillelien.
We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten England 2–1 in football!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants. Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana – we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign, [the Norwegian election of 1981] I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the football World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!
Brooking was again absent and his replacement, Glenn Hoddle, the “great hope” of English football was anonymous. An anxious two months ensued while the other participants caught up with their games; Switzerland did England a huge favour by winning in Bucharest and a win over Hungary sneaked England into the Finals. Norway finished bottom for all Lillelien’s rhetoric but their time was not so far away. Few people outside the tabloids were optimistic about England�
��s chances. Young Bryan Robson and Manchester United colleague Steve Coppell provided great box-to-box energy and Brooking was still a crafty player, but the defence was pedestrian and while Paul Mariner worked commendably hard he was no one’s idea of an international quality centre-forward. A record of won four, drew one and lost three didn’t have the world’s best teams quaking in their boots.
Scotland and Northern Ireland were in with Sweden and Portugal – sounds tough but those countries were at a low footballing ebb. Scotland won in Sweden in the autumn of 1980 with an excellent goal from Gordon Strachan, while Northern Ireland beat Portugal the following Spring when Gerry Armstrong headed the game’s only goal fifteen minutes from the end. Neither of these results was a major surprise; Scotland still had a handful of top-class players and the Irish had their best team since the late 1950s. When Portugal lost twice to Sweden the two home nations were left in control of the group and could afford to play out a dreary 0–0 in October 1981. A humiliating 4–1 defeat for the Portuguese in Israel meant even a draw in their last match at home to Israel would see Northern Ireland join Scotland in the Finals. Another Armstrong goal saw them home with yet another 1–0 win. Northern Ireland were more than the sum of their parts – no superstars but a fantastic work ethic; they conceded only three goals in eight qualification matches, none of them at Windsor Park.
