by Nick Holt
These two strong sides met in the opening game, and the first half was cagey, with both feeling their way into the tournament, Brazil looking sluggish, the USSR cautious. The Soviets took the lead, but only through a shocker from Brazilian goalkeeper Waldir Peres, who should have made a routine save from Andrei Bal’s far-from-unstoppable long-range effort. Instead, it hit Peres on the shin and bounced in, the goalkeeper showing the reactions and suppleness of an oak tree.
Brazil left it late to wake up, scoring twice in the last fifteen minutes, but the goals were worth the wait. First Sócrates sidestepped two defenders and unleashed a fantastic shot into the top left-hand corner of the goal – the ball went like a tracer bullet and swerved late. Three minutes from time Falcão stepped over a pass as Éder called from behind him; Éder flipped the ball into the air in front of him and hit a shot that left Dasaev a stunned spectator. No goalkeeping error for either of these, Dasaev was one of the best in the world.
In Malaga the next day Scotland delivered a performance of two halves, commanding in the first, stuttering in the second. They turned around 3–0 to the good. Gordon Strachan tormented the New Zealand defence and Kenny Dalglish and John Wark scored from his crosses – Wark stealing in between the defenders with a late run familiar to Ipswich fans. Wark also tucked away a rebound when van Hattum could only half save a Dalglish shot.
In the second half New Zealand had a bit of a go and got some joy. McGrain hit a weak back-pass to Alan Rough, who dithered – he was a great shot-stopper but a liability in any other situation – and let in the Kiwi centre-forward Sumner. Ten minutes later Steve Wooddin ran on to a hit and hope ball with Alan Hansen out of position and tucked it past Rough. Scotland’s blushes were spared by a neat free-kick from John Robertson and a looping header by substitute Steve Archibald from Strachan’s corner; the Aberdeen wide man was the shining light in a mixed bag of a performance.
Scotland’s suspect defence faced a much bigger test in their next game in Seville, against Brazil, now warmed up. The first goal was top drawer, a lobbed pass headed back into the path of the onrushing right-back, who pushed it ahead of him and unleashed a screamer into the corner. The surprise was the scorer: full-back David Narey scoring his only goal for Scotland in thirty-eight games. Brazil were level by half-time through a curled free-kick from Zico, but Scotland had done pretty well, keeping the Brazilians at arm’s length – not that this side were incapable of scoring from an arm’s length and more.
The floodgates opened in the second half when Oscar got ahead of his marker to head in a corner at the near post. The last two goals were pure Brazilian. Éder, released on the left, shaped to smack one and then slowed his foot into the ball, drifting a pitching wedge over the stranded Rough (who was too far out). Three minutes from time another intricate move made space for Falcão to rifle a low shot off the inside of a post. Without hitting top gear Brazil had shown their power and Scotland’s goal average took a dent, which left them needing to beat the Soviet Union, who beat New Zealand 3–0 without really breaking sweat.
Scotland recalled Joe Jordan for a bit of physical presence, and partnered him with Steve Archibald, even though Dalglish was fit again. Dalglish, such a great player at club level, was merely a good one for Scotland and never brought his A-game to a World Cup; the same could be said of Graeme Souness, that 1978 game against Holland apart. Not so Joe Jordan, the best British centre-forward of his era. Jordan had endured a torrid year, relegated with AC Milan, a great team in a lean spell, and out of the Scotland side for the first two games. He opened the scoring here, pouncing on a rare mistake by the elegant sweeper Aleksandr Chivadze, drawing Dasaev and ramming the ball into the corner. Scotland still led at half-time, but the USSR had the bulk of possession and the Scottish forwards were isolated. After an hour a neat passing Soviet move ended with a tame shot from Gavilrov; Rough flapped it away instead of catching it and Chivadze made amends by chipping neatly over the grounded ’keeper. Scotland’s fate was sealed when Hansen misjudged a long ball down the left and headed it backwards. Retreating, the Liverpool defender collided with Miller, running across to cover and the ball bounced clear for Shengalia, the skilful Dinamo Tbilisi forward. Hansen was never likely to catch him and Shengalia rounded Rough with ease and scored. Souness’s late strike, impressive as it was, meant the statistics implied Scotland came close to qualifying for the second phase. They didn’t and another rather flat campaign was over.
Scotland’s big problem in this tournament was not knowing their best defence. Stein may have been better to pick the Aberdeen pairing of Miller and McLeish – neither had Hansen’s ability, but they knew each other’s game and neither of them, individually, understood how to compensate for Hansen’s lack of pace or power in the way his Liverpool partners Thompson and Lawrenson were able to do.
Scotland Squad 1982:
GK: Alan Rough (Partick Thistle, 30 years old, 48 caps), George Wood (Arsenal, 29, 4), Jim Leighton (Aberdeen, 23, 0)
DEF: George Burley (Ipswich Town, 26, 11), Allan Evans (Aston Villa, 25, 3), Frank Gray (Leeds United, 27, 22), Alan Hansen (Liverpool, 27, 14), Danny McGrain (Glasgow Celtic, 32, 60), Alex McLeish (Aberdeen, 23, 15), Willie Miller (Aberdeen, 27, 17), David Narey (Dundee United, 26, 13)
MID & WIDE: Asa Hartford (Manchester City, 31, 49), Davie Provan (Celtic, 26, 10), John Robertson (Nottingham Forest, 29, 21), Graeme Souness (Liverpool, 29, 25), Gordon Strachan (Aberdeen, 25, 11), John Wark (Ipswich, 24, 15)
FWD: Steve Archibald (Tottenham Hotspur, 25, 14), Alan Brazil (Ipswich, 22, 7), Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool, 31, 86), Joe Jordan (AC Milan, 30, 51), Paul Sturrock (Dundee United, 25, 7)
GROUP A
An unsatisfactory format saw Poland earn a semi-final place on goal difference. They owed it to Zibi Boniek, who scored a quite outstanding hat-trick against Belgium. After only three minutes Lato went past his man on the right and cut the ball back at forty-five degrees to the edge of the area where Boniek met it with an instant right-foot shot that flew past Custers. Just before the half-hour a cushioned header by Buncol from Kupcewicz’s deep cross hung in the air long enough for Boniek to nod it over Custers, who was in no man’s land. Belgium may have wished they had found a better punishment for regular goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaffs’ poolside prank with a journalist than leaving him out of this game.
In the second half Boniek started a move wide on the right and continued his run; Smolarek and Lato kept the ball cleverly and Lato nudged it through for Boniek to waltz round the goalkeeper and score his third.
Three days later the Soviets couldn’t match Poland’s score. Belgium played better and were unlucky to lose at all, to a scrappy second half goal from Oganesian. For all their good possession and midfield talent, the Soviets lacked punch up front, where the former European Footballer of the Year, Oleg Blokhin, failed dismally to live up to his reputation.
The Soviet coach, Konstantin Beskov, was really part of a triumvirate with two influential club coaches, Nodar Akhalkatsi of Dinamo Tbilisi and Valeri Lobanovsky of Dynamo Kyiv. This explains the dominance of those two sides in the make-up of the side; the starting line-up for the first game included four Tbilisi players and five from Kyiv. The Soviet league champions in 1982 were Dynamo Minsk, who had one player, full-back Sergei Borovsky, in the twenty-two, while the 1983 champions, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, were not represented at all. The Soviets were regarded as a disappointment in 1982, the defeat by Brazil their only loss in a sequence that lasted three years, but still no major progress. More accurately, they were a work in progress and had yet to find the collective system that would realise their potential. They came closer in 1986 and 1988. Khoren Oganesian, the scorer against Belgium, was an Armenian, that country’s finest player. Sergei Baltacha, the other central defender alongside Chivadze, was the first Soviet player to move to England when he joined Ipswich Town in 1988. Baltacha later played for St Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle in Scotland, and he and his wife, Olga, a pentathlete, had a daughter, El
ena, who became a professional tennis player and was British No.1 for much of the first decade of this century.
In 1982 the Soviet Union was still set in its Cold War ways, and the regime’s intolerance of opposition was highlighted in an ugly manner when, at their request, the Spanish police removed any tokens of support for the banned trade union, Solidarity, during the Poland v USSR match. The police waded in with a relish that was hard to stomach.
While violence simmered and then boiled in the stands, the game was tepid. Poland played deep and ran hard, and Blokhin had another stinker – his place in the team seemed to be untouchable, if the mystifying substitution of the lively Shengalia in his place was anything to go by. The result suited Poland – a stupid booking for Boniek didn’t, as it meant they would face the winners of Group C without him.
GROUP B
Dull, dull, dull. The first game between England and West Germany was determined by fear; two ordinary attacks (Rummenigge hit the bar late on but he was clearly not fully fit) failed to break down two well-drilled defences. Mills, the England captain, showed what an under-rated player he was and Terry Butcher dominated the penalty area. At the other end the Förster brothers negated Mariner and Francis, and Robson, like Rummenigge, was lacklustre by his standards.
For their next match against Spain, Derwall brought Littbarski back for the inadequate Reinders. Littbarski scored the opening goal at the beginning of the second half when Arkonada again failed to hold a ball he should have smothered – for such a good goalkeeper he really did have a disastrous tournament. Breitner’s run after seventy-five minutes cut into the Spanish defence; he found Littbarski, who spun dexterously, drew Arkonada and laid the ball sideways for Fischer, who sealed Spain’s fate. Zamora’s late header flattered the Spanish, who were well beaten by an improved West Germany.
England still had a chance to qualify by bettering West Germany’s score against a despondent and eliminated Spanish side. They barely even tried. It was a lifeless end to a depressingly negative campaign. Ron Greenwood took over as England manager with a reputation for attacking football born of his involvement in the flair-driven, exciting West Ham sides of the 1960s. His assistant was Don Howe, a former international right-back and acolyte of the “if they don’t score we can’t lose” school of coaching. Howe’s influence was clear and Greenwood seemed to lack the will to resist falling back on English “virtues”. The defence was excellent, admittedly, but that’s irrelevant when the job in hand is to win by two goals.
England’s central midfield was Ray Wilkins as the holding player – never as poor as people made out, the Deschamps of his age – and Bryan Robson. On the flanks were Steve Coppell and Graham Rix, neither a committed attacking player. When Coppell failed a fitness test England had limited options; Keegan was still unfit, as was Brooking, and Glenn Hoddle was poor against Czechoslovakia and Kuwait. England’s answer looked adventurous, picking the Cologne attacker Tony Woodcock in a front three, using Trevor Francis as a roving forward.
Woodcock contributed little; neither he nor Mariner managed to fluster the Spanish central defenders like Armstrong and Hamilton had, yet England never looked to use Peter Withe of Aston Villa, whose power might have disturbed their equilibrium. Withe probably felt pretty good having scored the winner in the European Cup Final a few weeks earlier. Until the last twenty minutes neither of the England full-backs ventured forward – Sansom’s best qualities were wasted sitting behind a defensive, character-less player like Rix. The press had clamoured for Keegan and he came on for Woodcock, but was woefully under-prepared and missed England’s one gilt-edged chance, putting a header wide from Robson’s cross. Brooking’s introduction made a more noticeable difference – he should certainly have been risked from the start instead of Rix.
Mark Pougatch’s book Three Lions Versus the World quotes various England players claiming they were the best team in the group and desperately unlucky to be going home without losing and conceding only one goal. They go to great lengths to defend Ron Greenwood, too – he was adored by his players. But all this is more an indication of the cocoon in which football squads are kept, bolstering their self-belief and convincing each other that setbacks are never of their making. Ex-pros are fond of telling lay pundits they don’t understand the game and have no valid opinion. Twaddle. If companies struggle they bring in outside help; the panoramic view is far more revealing than the one at ground level.
Ron Greenwood got it wrong; England were too cautious and not quite good enough.
England Squad 1982:
GK: Peter Shilton (Nottingham Forest, 32, 37), Ray Clemence (Tottenham Hotspur, 33, 58), Joe Corrigan (Manchester City, 33, 9)
DEF: Viv Anderson (Nottm Forest, 25, 10), Terry Butcher (Ipswich Town, 23, 4), Steve Foster* (Brighton & Hove Albion, 24, 2), Mick Mills (Ipswich, 33, 37), Phil Neal (Liverpool, 31, 37), Kenny Sansom (Arsenal, 23, 23), Phil Thompson (Liverpool, 28, 35)
MID & WIDE: Trevor Brooking (West Ham United, 33, 46), Steve Coppell (Manchester United, 26, 36), Glenn Hoddle (Tottenham, 23, 11), Terry McDermott (Liverpool 30, 25), Graham Rix (Arsenal, 24, 8), Bryan Robson (Man Utd, 25, 19), Ray Wilkins (Man Utd, 25, 47)
FWD: Trevor Francis (Man City, 28, 28), Kevin Keegan (Southampton, 31, 62), Paul Mariner (Ipswich, 29, 21), Peter Withe (Aston Villa, 30, 6), Tony Woodcock (Cologne, 26, 22)
GROUP C
This had the potential to be a dour affair; Italy’s disciplined and tough defence against Maradona and his cavalry charges. The cavalry charges never materialised, the runs were cut off in their prime as Italy’s feared man-marker Gentile got a grip on the young maestro, often very literally in some uncomfortable regions of his anatomy. The full-backs harassed Bertoni and Kempes, and Tardelli, almost as intimidating as Gentile, was in Ardiles’ face from the first minute. The Romanian referee, Mr Rainea, got some stick in the press, but there were five bookings in the first half (but only two to Italians) and a late red card for Gallego (pure frustration). The game never got out of hand, it was just cynical. Argentina never settled, and when Italy started to play in the second half they had no answer.
A good Italian passing move ended with Antognoni’s perfectly weighted ball into the inside-left channel and Tardelli shot precisely across Fillol’s body. Ten minutes later another break found Italian attackers queuing up to finish with the Argentinian defence panicking – it was the outstanding left-back Cabrini who administered an excellent left-footed finish high into the goal. Passarella’s thunderous free-kick gave Argentina hope but there were only seven minutes remaining and the dark-blue wall tightened and held.
WORLD CUP CLASSIC No.11
Referee: Rubio Vázquez (Mexico)
Coaches: Telê Santana (Brazil) & César Luis Menotti (Argentina)
Brazil (4–2–3–1): Waldir Peres (São Paulo); José Leandro (Flamengo), José Oscar (São Paulo), Luiz Carlos Ferreira, known as Luizinho (Atlético Mineiro), Leogevildo Júnior (Flamengo); Toninho Cerezo (Atlético Mineiro), Sócrates de Souza Vieira (Cpt, Corinthians); Paulo Roberto Falcão (AS Roma), Arthut Coimbra, known as Zico (Flamengo), Éder Aleixo de Asiss (Atlético Mineiro); Serginho Chulapa (São Paulo). Subs: Edevaldo de Freitas (Internacional) 82m for Leandro; João Batista (Grêmio) 84m for Zico
Argentina (4–4–1–1): Ubaldo Fillol (River Plate); Jorge Olguín (Independiente), Luis Galván (Talleres de Córdoba), Daniel Passarella (Cpt, River Plate), Alberto Tarantini (River Plate); Daniel Bertoni (Fiorentina), Juan Barbas (Racing Club), Osvaldo Ardiles (Tottenham Hotspur), Mario Kempes (River Plate); Diego Maradona (Boca Juniors); Gabriel Calderón (Independiente). Subs: Ramón Díaz (River Plate) 45m for Kempes; Santiago Santamaría (Newell’s Old Boys) 64m for Bertoni
Cautioned: Passarella (Arg) 33m, Waldir Peres (Bra) 77m, Falcão (Bra) 85m
Dismissed: Maradona (Arg) 87m
Argentina was in a bit of a pother. General Leopoldo Galtieri had initiated the invasion of the Islas Malvinas, the disputed territory held by Britain and known as the Falkland Islands. It
was a populist (and popular) cause, as most Argentinians felt Los Malvinas were, by right, Argentinian. Margaret Thatcher, another politician in need of an electoral lift, disagreed and Britain sent her better trained and better equipped navy and forces to take back the islands. They did so, easily, in two months. Galtieri resigned and his successor, General Bignone, succumbed to calls for free elections – they finally took place in October 1983, when Raúl Alfonsin won the Presidency. The team shared the national sense of self-doubt during the World Cup of 1982, plagued by uncertainty and no little despondency; Osvaldo Ardiles, resident and employed in England, felt it keenly; he would spend the next season on loan at Paris St Germain before returning to Tottenham. Argentina had arguably a better squad than when they won the tournament four years earlier. Kempes would never reproduce the exciting form of 1978 but most of the team was still under thirty and the new superstar, Diego Maradona, could shred even the tightest defences with his pace and close control. It just never clicked for them; Menotti erred in picking the over-hyped Díaz and Calderón ahead of Valdano, who linked with Maradona so effectively four years later in Mexico. Their playmaker, Ardiles, a huge hit in English football, stated later he played his worst football at this tournament, his mind in turmoil over the conflicts the war had caused him.
Brazil was still ruled by generals in 1982, but they too were undergoing a steady transition to democracy; the age of the military dictators in South America was coming to an end, although any hope that the attendant economic and social problems would disappear with them proved wildly optimistic. Brazil’s coach, Telê Santana, appointed in 1980, had put the joy back into Brazilian football, and team had rediscovered the attacking samba football of their glory years.