by Nick Holt
THIRD-PLACE MATCH
An entertaining game; France played their reserves and they had fun, Belgium didn’t and looked a bit more deflated. Belgium had a good tournament, their best ever, but the crop of players that did so well in the 1980s was ageing and they weren’t replaced. The coach, Guy Thys, who had been in charge of the national team since 1976, was gone by the next World Cup (although he returned for a brief caretaker spell after a poor show in the Finals). Only now, in the 2010s, have Belgium unearthed a new generation of players who look capable of the sort of results they pulled off here against the USSR and Spain.
It was the end for this glorious generation of French stars, too, but France would have their moment in the following decade.
WORLD CUP FINAL No.13
29 June, 1986, Azteca, Mexico City; 114,580
Referee: Romualdo Arppi (Brazil)
Coaches: Carlos Bilardo (Argentina) & Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany)
Argentina (4–4–1–1): Nery Pumpido (River Plate); Joe Luis Cuciuffo (Velez Sarsfield), Oscar Ruggeri (River Plate), José Luis Brown (Atletico Nacional); Ricardo Giusti (Independiente), Sergio Batista (Argentinos Juniors), Héctor Enrique (River Plate), Jorge Burruchaga (Nantes), Julio Olarticoechea (Boca Juniors); Diego Maradona (Cpt, Napoli); Jorge Valdano (Real Madrid). Sub: Marcelo Trobbiani (Elche) 89m for Burruchaga
West Germany (5–3–2): Toni Schumacher (Cologne); Thomas Berthold (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ditmar Jakobs (Hamburg), Karlheinz Förster (Stuttgart), Norbert Eder (Bayern Munich), Hans-Peter Briegel (Verona); Lothar Matthäus (Bayern), Felix Magath (Hamburg), Andreas Brehme (Kaiserslautern); Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Cpt, Internazionale), Klaus Allofs (Cologne). Subs: Rudi Völler (Werder Bremen) 45m for Allofs; Dieter Hoeness (Bayern) 61m for Magath
Cautioned: Maradona (Arg) 17m, Matthäus (WGer) 21m, Briegel (WGer) 62m, Olarticoechea (Arg) 77m, Enrique (Arg) 81m, Pumpido (Arg) 85m
This was an odd match-up and not the one most neutrals would have chosen. The official Team of the Tournament selected only Maradona from either of these two sides; while that is a silly judgment, both had other excellent contributors, it is a reflection of the fact that both teams were “winning ugly”. West Germany scraped past Morocco and Mexico, then met an exhausted French team who had given everything against Brazil. Argentina sneaked a win against Uruguay, held on against an England comeback and dismissed Belgium through the genius of one man.
Both sides had good players, but the focus was on Maradona and his opposite team captain, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, anxious not to be the first man to captain two losing sides in World Cup Finals. West Germany’s other top-notch player, Lothar Matthäus, who had a good tournament, was sacrificed to mark Maradona; he did so to good effect, but it didn’t work as a tactic, for it left West Germany bereft of ideas going forward as the rest of their midfield contributed little. Presumably Franz Beckenbauer remembered the success Berti Vogts made of marking Cruyff in 1974 rather than the way his own role of tracking Bobby Charlton reduced his impact on the 1966 Final.
The opening was cagey, neither side wanted to make an error, but one came anyway. Burruchaga took a free-kick from near the right touchline, Schumacher came to meet the cross and got nowhere near it, and Jose Luis Brown headed into an empty net. See if you can guess how many goals Brown scored in his thirty-six international appearances? Yup – one. Brown had a good tournament, playing as sweeper behind Ruggeri and Cuciuffo in a three-man back line.
The first half consisted mainly of stoppages for niggly trips and pushes; delays that were lengthened by an awful lot of moaning and carping from both teams. The second half was better. The game looked dead and buried just before the hour when Enrique advanced and set Valdano free of some uncharacteristically shabby German marking. The Real Madrid striker coolly slotted the ball past Schumacher with his right foot. Two-nil down and showing nothing up front (did Franz Beckenbauer ever wonder what might have been if Schuster could have been brought back into the fold?), West Germany were deep in the mire.
But even deep in the mire West Germany could not be discounted. With Völler already on for Allofs, they threw on Dieter Hoeness, brother of seventies star Uli. Hoeness wasn’t much cop, but he was big and decent in the air and the Germans fancied throwing a few crosses into the mix, especially with Brown carrying his arm in a sling after he fell awkwardly. (Bilardo, normally so tough, should have made him go off as he had Oscar Garré in the squad, a perfectly serviceable centre back who had played all three group games.)
West Germany pushed Berthold and Briegel further on to the Argentinian wing-backs. This created space for Matthäus, free of his marking role, and Brehme, to try get in some quality balls. The direct approach paid off. West Germany won a series of corners, and Brehme took all of them. Argentina looked shaky at all of them with Brown ineffective. Rummenigge forced home Völler’s flick-on, and eight minutes from time Völler got the equaliser from Berthold’s firm header back across goal. The Germans, outplayed for most of the game, now fancied they were going to win it. Maradona had other ideas. The little master had been quiet for a spell, apart from one outrageous trick when he controlled the ball in the small of his back before flipping it forward and taking a shot.
Three minutes after Völler’s goal Maradona got the ball in the centre circle and pinged an instant pass to Burruchaga, charging through the middle with half the German defence still upfield. Burruchaga outstripped Briegel, itself no mean feat, ignored Valdano to his left and hit the ball low past Schumacher, who took an age to come off his line. West Germany couldn’t raise themselves again and the World Cup was Argentina’s for the second time in three tournaments.
The focus, inevitably, was on Maradona, but others played their part. They had a decent goalkeeper (Pumpido), a tough, discipline defence, willing runners in midfield with tough little Batista grafting behind Burruchaga and a good front man (Valdano) with terrific movement and a bit of nous. Add Maradona and it wasn’t at all the poor side many remember – it was certainly better than the 1978 vintage and won the cup without as much help from the officials, a certain Mr Nasser apart.
Team of the Tournament, 1986:
Pfaff (Belgium)
Berthold (West Germany) Demol (Belgium) Brown (Argentina) Brehme (West Germany)
Burruchaga (Argentina) Tigana (France)
Fernandez (France)
Maradona (Argentina) Ceulemans (Belgium)
Lineker (England)
Official Team of the Tournament: The official team obviously felt the largesse had to spread around the teams. Josimar was in (laughable), as was Manuel Amoros (better as a youngster in 1982) and the Brazilian central defender Júlio César. Tigana and Platini were both in, despite Platini having a poor competition – he was clearly preparing for his career as a football administrator. Elkjaer and Butragueño were both in on the basis of scant evidence, although Elkjaer was impressive while Denmark were still in the competition. We agreed on Pfaff, Tigana, Maradona, Ceulemans and Lineker – one Argentinian and one German seems a poor reflection of which teams got to the final. The team of the tournament should reward overall contribution, not just being easy on the eye. Berthold, for example, was excellent in every game, including the one where he was given a laughable red card.
Leading scorers: Lineker (6); Butragueño, Careca & Maradona (5)
Heaven Eleven No.10
The Soviet Union (and its constituent nations)
Coach:
Valeri Lobanovski (Ukraine) – the appliance of science
Goalkeepers:
Lev Yashin (USSR): probably the greatest-ever Soviet footballer
Rinat Dasaev (USSR): super ’keeper in the 1980s team, one of the few not from Dynamo Kyiv
Mart Poom (Estonia): really steady goalkeeper with over 100 caps
Defenders:
Kakha Kaladze (Georgia): held down a place at Milan for a few years and they know a thing or two about defending
Viktor Onopko (Russia): most capped Russian player, elegant ball
-playing defender
Anatoliy Demyanenko (USSR/Ukraine): captain of Lobanovski’s ’80s team
Vladimir Bessonov (USSR/Ukraine): attacking right-back in the 1980s
Murtaz Khurtsilava (USSR/Georgia): tough defender in the ’60/70s
Aleksandr Chivadze (USSR/Georgia): first Georgian to captain the Soviet side
Vladimir Kaplichny (USSR/Ukraine): excellent right-back in the side that played in the 1970 World Cup
Albert Shesternyev (USSR/Russia): dominant stopper in the 1960s
Midfield & wide:
Anatoly Tymoschuk (Ukraine): consistent midfielder in the last decade and won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2013
Aleksandr Mostovoi (USSR/Russia): the first great maverick of the post-Soviet era
Sergei Aleinikov (USSR/Belarus): best of the bunch from the terrific ’80s midfield
Igor Chislenko (USSR/Russia): tireless, nippy winger in the 1960s
Valentin Ivanov (USSR/Russia): goalscoring winger from the first Soviet side to emerge into the global game
Eduard Streltsov (USSR/Russia): the best player you never heard of
Igor Netto (USSR/Russia): playmaker and later sweeper in the 1950s teams
Vladimir Muntian (USSR/Ukraine): playmaker and craftsman in the 1970s Soviet side
Strikers:
Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine): forget the guy you saw at Chelsea, this is the Milan version, sharpest striker in Europe for a few years
Igor Belanov (USSR/Ukraine): exciting forward with explosive shot
Anatoliy Byshovets (USSR/Ukraine): quick feet and a good eye for goal; talented, under-rated forward in the early 1970s
Oleg Blokhin (USSR/Ukraine): the first international superstar from the Soviet Union – nicknamed the Ukraine Train, he was really, really quick
Omissions: Some good defenders didn’t make it; Anyukov and Berezutsky, the current full-backs, Dzodzuashvili, the Georgian from the ’60s/70s team, Oleg Kuznetsov, the central defender who smashed his cruciate and was never the same after he joined Rangers. Banishevsky and Malofeyev, the centre-forward and playmaker with the 1966 World Cup team, were fine players, as were most of the talented midfield players from the Kyiv and USSR teams of the 1980s: Zavarov, Rats, Yaremchuk and Protasov were all top performers.
In more recent times Sergei Rebrov dovetailed brilliantly with Shevchenko, while Georgi Kinkladze was an outstanding playmaker for Georgia for a while.
Likely first XI:
Yashin
Bessonov Shesternev Chivadze Demyanenko
Chislenko Netto Streltsov Ivanov
Shevchenko Blokhin
6.4 APPEARANCES
Only one team (Brazil) has appeared in every World Cup Finals tournament. They are unlikely to relinquish that record with the five qualifiers from ten nations system that CONMEBOL enjoy – hard to see five other South American sides heading the Brazilians in a round-robin table.
Italy and Germany (including West Germany) have played in seventeen each, Argentina in fifteen, Mexico in fourteen and England, Spain and France in thirteen each. Mexico stand out like a sore thumb – they get a free ride from the weak CONCACAF section and the distorted FIFA rankings. The USA back this theory – nine appearances in the Finals without really threatening. The only European side with a significant number of appearances but no marked progress is Switzerland, also with nine (yes, I was surprised, too).
In total seventy-six nations have made one or more appearance in the World Cup Finals – to reach this figure FIFA considers both the Czech Republic and Slovakia in adding to the statistics of Czechoslovakia, Serbia as the continuation of Yugoslavia’s record and Russia as the successor to the Soviet Union. Confused? FIFA like it that way, it makes them seem a lot cleverer than they are.
Brazil and Germany have each reached seven finals, but Brazil won five compared to Germany’s three. Germany have reached an impressive twelve semi-finals (Brazil eight). England’s most telling statistic is eight eliminations at the quarter-final stage (see the later article England at the World Cup).
Eighteen countries have made just a solitary appearance in the Finals; at time of writing (September 2013) Senegal and Ukraine look best placed to make a second, while Ethiopia and Burkina Faso are one play-off away from a debut, and Jordan will play off against the fifth-placed South American nation, either Uruguay, Ecuador or possibly Chile. In Europe Bosnia-Herzegovina are well placed to make the Finals, while Montenegro, Albania and Iceland are all still in with a sniff.
On an individual level only two players, Antonio Carbajal, the Mexican goalkeeper, and Lothar Matthäus of Germany, have appeared in five Finals tournaments; quite a few, including Bobby Charlton and Scotland goalkeeper Jim Leighton, have travelled to four.
Matthäus also heads the list of matches played in the Finals, with twenty-five (impressive), two ahead of Paolo Maldini, with Maradona, Uwe Seeler and Wladyslaw Zmuda on twenty-one. On the list of players with fifteen or more matches played there are fourteen Germans – a testimony to their success and also to their consistency of selection. England have one player, Peter Shilton, on that list. Brazil have twelve, Italy six, France four, Argentina, Belgium and Poland three each, Spain two and South Korea one.
Here they all are:
25 Lothar Matthäus (Germany)
23 Paolo Maldini (Italy)
21 Diego Maradona (Argentina); Uwe Seeler (West Germany); Wladyslaw Zmuda (Poland)
20 Cafú (Brazil); Grzegorz Lato (Poland)
19 Miroslav Klose* (Germany); Wolfgang Overath (West Germany); Ronaldo (Brazil); Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany); Berti Vogts (West Germany)
18 Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany); Thomas Berthold (West Germany); Antonio Cabrini (Italy); Fabio Cannavaro (Italy); Dunga (Brazil); Mario Kempes (Argentina); Pierre Littbarski (West Germany); Sepp Maier (West Germany); Gaetano Scirea (Italy); Claudio Taffarel (Brazil)
17 Fabien Barthez (France); Thierry Henry (France); Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany); Lúcio (Brazil); Roberto Carlos (Brazil); Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (West Germany); Enzo Scifo (Belgium); Peter Shilton (England); Dino Zoff (Italy)
16 Roberto Baggio (Italy); Giuseppe Bergomi (Italy); Andreas Brehme (West Germany); Jan Ceulemans (Belgium); Gilberto Silva (Brazil); Myung-Bo Hong (South Korea); Jairzinho (Brazil); Oscar Ruggeri (Argentina); Lilian Thuram (France); Andoni Zubizarreta (Spain)
15 Bebeto (Brazil); Zbigniew Boniek (Poland); Max Bossis (France); Iker Casillas* (Spain); Didi (Brazil); Nílton Santos (Brazil); Rivelino (Brazil); Hans Schäfer (West Germany); Francky Van der Elst (Belgium)
6.5 WORLD CUP 1990
One of the worst tournaments in the competition’s history. The goals per game ratio hit a record low, which still stands, and negativity was so rife that it prompted the introduction of the back-pass law. From now on, if a defender deliberately played the ball back to his goalkeeper, the goalkeeper was not allowed to pick it up, only kick it. The punishment for transgression was an indirect free-kick at the point where the ball was picked up. For the next World Cup, teams would be awarded three points for a win in the group stages in both qualifying and the Finals. England had experimented with this in 1981 and found it satisfactory and a few other nations had followed suit, but most waited until FIFA adopted the three-point rule to follow suit. The red-card count shot up in 1990 as well, but rule changes were largely responsible for this as FIFA tried to clamp down on really bad tackling and professional fouls.
In 1990 the World Cup was back in Italy after fifty-six years, the first time a European nation has hosted the tournament twice, a record matched since by France and Germany. The only other candidates were the Soviet Union, who shot themselves in the foot by withdrawing from the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles not long before the final vote, which was won very comfortably by Italy. Italy had one of the most prestigious and wealthy leagues in the world, and as such could offer ready-made stadia and media resources. Most of the grounds required some updating and expansion, but only two (the Stadio San
Nicola in Bari and the Stadio delle Alip in Turin) were built from scratch.
1990 ITALY
Italy needed more grounds than in 1934, and used twelve cities instead of eight. Seven of those cities also hosted matches in 1934, the exception being Trieste.
Rome: Stadio Olimpico
The stadium used for the Olympic games of 1960 became the showpiece of Italia ’90, and hosted the final. Over 73,000 souls were forced to watch a dire, bad-tempered affair between West Germany and Argentina. The stadium is the home of both major Rome clubs, Lazio and Roma.
Milan: Stadio San Siro
The San Siro was actually the biggest stadium used in the competition, but was overlooked for the semi-finals.
Naples: Stadio San Paulo
Maradona’s home ground was the source of some controversy when he asked them to support him rather than Italy, but few Neapolitans succumbed to the appeal.
Florence: Stadio Artemio Franchi
Fiorentina’s ground was down to a 41,000-capacity in 1990, and so it missed out on the bigger games. As an added insult, the Florentines had to endure an atrocious quarter-final between Argentina and Yugoslavia.
Genoa: Stadio Luigi Ferraris