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final at the expense of Brazil.
went in for some ruthless tackling. Argentina, with the crowd and referee behind them, took the lead in the 38th minute through Kempes. In the second half, the Netherlands reorganised, and scored through Nanninga. They almost snatched the game by hitting a post in the final minute of normal time. So to extra time, when Kempes scored after 14 minutes, and as they pressed for the equaliser, the Dutch were caught again, as Bertoni put the game beyond doubt. At the final whistle, the crowd celebrated, a happy end to an ill- tempered and dreary final. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12th World Cup - Spain, 1982
for the first time. The teams were put into 6 groups of 4, with half the teams going out in the first round, as the top two teams in each group went through to the second group stage. The main talking points of the first round were Cameroon's draw with Italy, and West Germany's loss to Algeria, followed by the disgraceful match between Austria and the West Germans, where both sides were assured of qualification for the next stage if West Germany won 1-0. Hrubesch scored an early goal to put West Germany 1-0 up, and the two teams spent the rest of the match passing the ball around and rarely putting their opponents' goal under any threat. This lead FIFA to change the rules for the final round of group games and have them kicking off at the same time. In Group 4, England's Bryan Robson scored the quickest goal in World Cup final history, 27 seconds into the game against France. There was also controversy in this group with the walk-off by Kuwait's players against France, which was stopped by Prince Fahid, who made his players return to the pitch! There were no real surprise qualifiers into the second round. The ridiculous group of three system meant each team only played 2 games in this group stage. Poland qualified easily from Group A, joined by West Germany from Group B. Italy came through Group C after a gripping battle against Brazil which saw a hat-trick for Paolo Rossi, and France progressed from Group D. The semi-final between France and West Germany has gone down as a classic. As well remembered for the foul by Schumacher on Battiston as the final score, the game went all the way to penalties, the first time in a World Cup, which West Germany won 5-4. Italy overcame Poland in the other semi. After a rarity in the World Cup, a good third-place match, Italy met West Germany in the final. Italy had a bad start, losing Graziani in the 7th minute, and then missing a penalty in the 24th. However, Rossi started the scoring for Italy in the second half, and they went into a 3-0 lead. West Germany pulled one back in the last 8 minutes, but it was too late, and the Italians became the first European country to win the World Cup three times. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13th World Cup - Mexico, 1986 Colombia was the original choice for the 13th World Cup, but they could not raise the finance required, and so Mexico took over. The second group stage was abolished, and it became a straight knock-out tournament after the first round, which saw 24 teams in 6 groups of 4, with the top two teams and the 4 best third place teams proceed to round two. There were few shocks in the opening group matches, except perhaps the inability of Scotland to overcome a Uruguay side that was reduced to 10 men in the very first minute. A win would have seen Scotland qualify for the second phase for the very first time. Group F saw England give very mediocre displays against Portugal and Morocco, but then come good with a fine display against Poland, going 3-0 up after just 35 minutes, and keeping this scoreline, to ensure passage into the next round. Morocco topped the group. The second round game between the U.S.S.R. and Belgium proved to be possibly the best of the competition, Belgium eventually winning an end-to-end game 4-3 in extra time. Mexico and Brazil had little trouble, as did Argentina and England, who would now meet for the first time since the Falklands conflict. France and West Germany came through tough ties against Italy and Morocco respectively, and Spain, led by Butragueno, thrashed Denmark 5-1. The Brazil- France quarter final was another classic, France eventually winning the penalty shoot-out 4-3. West Germany beat Mexico 4-1 in a penalty shootout, whilst Belgium also required a penalty shoot-out to overcome Spain, 5-4 after the score was 1-1 at the end of extra time. All eyes were focused on Argentina vs England. The security forces turned up in force, but all the action was on the pitch. The first goal for Argentina, after 50 minutes, has been talked about ever since. Maradona chased a sliced back-pass from Hodge, challenged Shilton, and fisted the ball into the net. The goal was given, and 5 minutes later, Maradona added to it with a spectacular goal, which involved running half the pitch and beating at least 3 England defenders. England scored through Lineker, but it was too late. West Germany and Argentina made the final, beating France and Belgium respectively. Argentina took the lead through Brown, and then after half-time Valdano increased the deficit. West Germany looked down and out, but goals from Rummenigge and Voeller brought them level. Three minutes after their second goal, Germany were split by a pass from Maradona, and Burrachaga went through to score the goal that gave Argentina the World Cup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14th World Cup - Italy, 1990 The same format as 1986, as Italy became the second country to host two World Cup competitions. The shock of the first round was the defeat of World champions Argentina by Cameroon, after the Africans had been reduced to 10 men, and then 9. Costa Rica beat Scotland, who again failed to make the latter stages after almost holding out against Brazil, only to lose 1-0 with a goal for Muller in the last 10 minutes, followed by an astonishing save by Taffarel from Johnston in the dying seconds. West Germany looked impressive against the U.A.E. and Yugoslavia, and Uruguay squeezed through in the last minute of their last group game against South Korea, with a goal from Fonseca. Group F saw England qualify, with Holland and Ireland drawing lots to determine their final position in the group, although the nightmare scenario of drawing lots to determine the qualifiers was avoided. Cameroon beat Colombia to reach the quarter finals, and were joined by Czechoslovakia and Argentina, who undeservedly beat Brazil. The Netherlands/ West Germany game will be remembered for the incident of Rijkaard spitting at Voeller, but the Germans had the last say, winning 2-1. Eire overcame Romania on penalties, and Italy beat Uruguay. Yugoslavia looked good in beating Spain, and England were staring a penalty shoot-out in the face until they overcame Belgium with a goal from Platt with the last kick of the game.
in the first of the quarter finals. Italy beat the Irish by a single goal, and England came back from the dead to beat Cameroon 3-2 in a thrilling match in Naples. West Germany beat Czechoslovakia 1-0 in the other tie. In the semis, Argentina, for the first time, played good, attractive football, but couldn't shake Italy until the penalty shoot-out. 1-1 after extra time, Argentina won the penalties 4-3, and were on their way to another final. The following day saw the finest game of the series. England rocked West Germany as they attacked from the start, but it was the Germans that took the lead on the hour with a free kick that took a cruel deflection off Parker standing in the wall. England fought back, and equalised through Lineker with 10 minutes of normal time left. Extra time saw both teams have chances, but the game went to penalties, which West Germany won 4-3.
contrast to what was to follow. The worst game of the series, the final was full of niggling fouls by the Argentines, and blatent gamesmanship by the West Germans. Argentina had Monzon and Dezotti sent off, and Germany scored a penalty 5 minutes from time that won them the Cup. A sad game to end what had been an exciting, if not always pretty, tournament. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=============================================================================== YEAR WINNING NATION WINNING CAPTAIN WINNING MANAGER 1930 Uruguay Jose Nassazzi Odino Viera 1934 Italy Giampiero Combi Vittorio Pozzo 1938 Italy Guiseppe Meazza Vittorio Pozzo 1950 Uruguay Obdulio Varela Colonel Volpe 1954 West Germany Fritz Walter Sepp Herberger 1958 Brazil Hilderaldo Bellini Vicente Feola 1962 Brazil Ramos De Oliviera Maura Aymore Moreira 1966 England Bobby Moore Sir Alf Ramsey 1970 Brazil Carlos Alberto Mario Zagalo 1974 West Germany Franz Beckenbauer Helmut Shoen 1978 Argentina Daniel Passarella Cesar Luis Menotti 1982 Italy Dino Zoff Enzo Bearzot 1986 Argentina Diego Maradona Carlos Bilardo 1990 West Germany Lothar Matthaus Franz Beckenbauer =============================================================================== LEADING SCORERS: YEAR PLAYER(S) NATION GAMES GOALS 1930 Guillermo Stabile Argentina 4 8 1934 Angelo Schiavio Italy 4 4 Oldrich Nejedly Czechoslovakia 4 4 Edmund Conen Germany 4 4
=============================================================================== Attendances Goals YEAR VENUE MATCHES TOTAL AVERAGE TOTAL AVERAGE 1930 Uruguay 18 434,500 24,139 70 3.88 1934 Italy 17 395,500 23,235 70 4.11 1938 France 18 483,000 26,833 84 4.66 1950 Brazil 22 1,337,000 60,772 88 4.00 1954 Switzerland 26 943,000 36,270 140 5.38 1958 Sweden 35 868,000 24,800 126 3.60 1962 Chile 32 776,000 24,250 89 2.78 1966 England 32 1,614,677 50,458 89 2.78 1970 Mexico 32 1,673,975 52,312 95 2.96 1974 West Germany 38 1,774,022 46,685 97 2.55 1978 Argentina 38 1,610,215 42,374 102 2.68 1982 Spain 52 1,766,277 33,967 146 2.81 1986 Mexico 52 2,285,498 43,952 132 2.54 1990 Italy 52 2,512,900 48,325 115 2.21 =============================================================================== =============================================================================== T H E R S S W O R L D C U P R A N K I N G A N D L A T E S T O D D S Compiled By Simon Gleave =============================================================================== There are a number of ranking systems around at the moment which include the FIFA World Ranking which the majority of RSS subscribers think is patently ridiculous, and a ranking which is compiled by European journalists on a regular basis. They do this by each producing a top ten of the 24 World Cup qualifiers and scoring ten points for a first rank down to 1 point for a tenth rank. In April, I decided to do something similar on RSS - I thought it would be a more accurate reflection as we have a wider variety of nations represented and it would also have a large enough number of voters to give some meaning to the results, so below is the fan's World Cup ranking and alongside it are the latest odds to win the World Cup available in the UK. SHORTEST LONGEST POINTS ODDS ODDS
GERMANY 1139 (39) 7-2 4-1 ITALY 932 ( 6) 11-2 6-1 NETHERLANDS 857 (11) 11-2 8-1 COLOMBIA 740 ( 6) 8-1 9-1 ARGENTINA 627 (11) 8-1 11-1 SPAIN 329 16-1 22-1 NORWAY 327 ( 1) 33-1 40-1 NIGERIA 257 33-1 45-1 BELGIUM 255 18-1 33-1 SWEDEN 150 28-1 50-1 SWITZERLAND 140 ( 1) 40-1 50-1 MEXICO 110 40-1 80-1 CAMEROON 101 66-1 100-1 IRELAND 88 ( 1) 25-1 40-1 RUSSIA 76 33-1 50-1 ROMANIA 41 40-1 66-1 BOLIVIA 27 ( 1) 40-1 66-1 BULGARIA 17 40-1 80-1 GREECE 11 100-1 150-1 SOUTH KOREA 11 200-1 500-1 MOROCCO 8 200-1 250-1 USA 6 50-1 125-1 SAUDI ARABIA 0 250-1 500-1 =============================================================================== P R E V I E W O F W O R L D C U P ' 9 4 Simon Gleave =============================================================================== If you're a football fan, some of the great memories come from the World Cup finals held every four years - I first became enthusiastic about football when I was 9 years old, sitting in front of the TV screen mesmerised by the fantastic Dutch side of 1974. 20 years on, I'm as obsessed as ever with the World Cup Finals, one of the greatest sporting events around.
shock? Well, this is impossible to answer because if we expected it, it wouldn't be a shock but Nigeria can certainly cause a lot of problems in Group D and the recent form of the Irish cannot be taken lightly - after winning in the Netherlands and then inflicting Germany's first home defeat in six years, they must have a chance of overturning Italy, and recording their finest ever hour. The real shocks though cannot be predicted - four years ago, who would have thought that Costa Rica would reach the second round and Cameroon would beat the World Champions, Argentina in the opening game and go on to win their group, making them the second African side in a row to top their first round group! Will it happen again?
before being eliminated and flying back to their homes. Only a minority of the nations can actually lift the World Cup trophy and more often than not, the best team in the tournament will fail to win the World Cup - remember the Dutch side of 1974 and 1978, the marvellous Brazilians in 1982, the Danish maestros of 1986, and the Italian side who threw it away in 1990. This year, the exciting sides are likely to be the Swiss, Romanians, Colombians and Nigerians, but I don't think for a minute that any of these teams are capable of actually winning the coveted title. There are only 6 teams in my opinion who are capable of winning the World Cup - they are Germany, Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, Argentina and Spain. All (with the exception of Spain) have reached the World Cup final itself and all (barring the Netherlands and Spain) have lifted the trophy in the last 25 years.
Cup - Germany have reached the semi-final at least in every World Cup finals bar one since 1966, actually appearing in the final on the last three occasions. For this reason alone, they cannot be taken lightly as they always appear to produce a team at just the right time. However, this time around, they appear weaker than usual with an ageing team and some very patchy results in the run up to the finals - I'm not suggesting an early exit, but I think that this German team will struggle to match up to it's recent counterparts. The Brazilians are associated with flair and attacking power, but in the last World Cup they revealed a new meaner style which didn't do them much good - they are thought to have reverted back to the expressive Brazilian style that we all know and love and with strikers like Romario and Bebeto they must be feared. However, it's now 24 years since the great side of 1970 and they haven't reached the final since and their reputation appears to be based on the teams of old, not on their present side. Argentina have reached 3 of the last 4 finals, but disgraced themselves in 1990 with a physical and ugly style which culminated in 2 sendings off in the worst final to have ever graced this great stage. After losing the final, Argentina had an incredible unbeaten streak of 33 games which only ended last year in Colombia. Since then, they have lost to Colombia again and Brazil, but still remain a team to take seriously. However, their great years coincide with the presence of Diego Armando Maradona, the World's greatest player of the last 15 years. He will be playing in the USA but after his problems with drugs, he is surely not the same player. The Netherlands are another exciting team to watch, but they have a woefully slow defence which should be found out by the first good all round team that they meet. I personally think that they are being overestimated by everybody and I'll be surprised if they go further than the quarter finals - this team is nothing like as good as the finalists of 1974 and with Ruud Gullit recently walking out on the team and Marco Van Basten injured, they have more problems than most. That leaves 2 teams, Italy and Spain, my personal choice to win the World Cup and my 'dark horse' selection. I know every South American is going to say that no European team has ever won the World Cup outside Europe - this is true, but what might be the reason for this? The only reasonable one that I can find is that the heat and humidity have been difficult for the top European teams of the time to adjust to. This should be no problem for Italy or Spain if they have to play in the more humid climbs of the USA.
have always been in Europe's top echelon, but the national side have failed on the big stage. However, a recent change in management and a clearout of the team's ageing stars may have made a big difference. There is said to be more steel in the team than ever before and with a number of the victorious Olympic side of 1992 in the squad, they know how to win a major trophy. This could be the year that the Spanish finally fulfil their potential.
soundest of any of the finalists and with Roberto Baggio weaving his magic up front, they should be a match for anybody. They start in an extremely tough group which should be very good for them as they won't be taking any of their opponents lightly. They know all about the Norwegians having played them in qualifying for the Euro Championships in 1992, and the Irish will be no surprise after their closely fought match in the last World Cup. By the time they play Mexico, they should have done enough to progress. From there on, it is a case of luck with the draw and composure on the field - the Italians should have won the last World Cup, but they were unable to be composed when they came up against a tough opponent in Argentina - this shouldn't happen this year, because their first round opponents will be as difficult as anybody else. Forza Italia!!
Computing Officer, LS Support Group, Social Statistics Research Unit, The City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK =============================================================================== W O R L D C U P G R O U P A
Colombia 7 1 2 4 9 15 2 Second Round (1990) Romania 12 3 3 6 19 20 5 Second Round (1990) Switzerland 18 5 2 11 28 44 6 Quarter-Final (1954) United States 10 3 0 7 14 29 3 Semi-Final (1930) The most open of the six groups in the final, and it will probably turn out to produce the most exciting games. The reason for this is that Colombia, Romania and Switzerland all put more emphasis on attack than defence and the USA will feel that they must put a show on for their fans in their own country. We can therefore expect plenty of goals from these four teams, but how will the group shape up? Well, as you can see from the records above, none of these four have been World beaters in the past and so none have much of a World Cup pedigree. However, Colombia are overwhelming favourites to take the group and are as low as 8-1 to win the trophy itself. This is plainly nonsense and is a complete overreaction to their 5-0 win in Argentina during qualifying - they undoubtedly have highly talented players in Valderrama and Asprilla but they have not suddenly leapt from big outsiders in 1990 to one of the favourites in 1994. For this reason, I am inclined to look elsewhere for the group winners although Colombia should progress from Group A.
coach and players like Chapuisat and Knup are undoubtedly World class. Their achilles heel is in defence, which could be a problem with the attacking sides in Group A, but the Swiss should just scrape top place. Romania are an interesting side due to their constant underachievement in World Cup finals - in 1990, they had some outstanding talent in Hagi, Popescu and Lacatus, but having reached the second round, they found Ireland's defence too strong and tamely lost in a penalty shoot-out. This time they should again progress because of their attacking prowess, but the first team to play a defensive game against Romania will probably put them out. This leaves the hosts, and unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a place for them - no host nation has ever failed to get past the first round phase, but I think the USA are about to rewrite this statistic. In a group of outstanding attacking sides, the US will really be up against it and will need goalkeeper, Tony Meola to be on outstanding form to prevent 3 defeats.
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