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Football News: And Finally... International Football

And Finally... International Football
Image from: freelargeimages.com

And Finally.....International Footie

 


Now that the oh so boring and tedious (and seemingly ridiculously lengthy) international break is over, I thought it was time to remind of us all of the good bits of international football. It was not always just unwanted and unwelcome break from league football. Legendary teams, such as the beauty of 1970's Brazil side, have lit up the international game, which has also seen its share of beasts such as, sticking with the Brazilian theme, opponents who kicked Pele out of the 1966 World Cup.

Who can forget the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, where South Korea had a run all the way to the semi-final, beating Italy in the quarter final via the last ever 'golden goal' in a World Cup finals tournament? It is not so much the goal, or the run, that was memorable, but for the way the Italians reacted with such good grace after the defeat with claims of cheating from the referee and the goalscorer himself, Ahn Jung-hwan, losing his place with Italian Serie A side Perugia.

The international game also brought us the legend in his own lunchtime, Graham Poll's, 3 yellow card blunder when, during a 2006 World Cup match between Croatia and Australia, Poll showed Josip Simunic a yellow card in the 61st minute, then another yellow in the 90th, before finally sending him off after his third yellow card 3 minutes later! Poll never officiated in international football again after that horrendous error. Thankfully. Sometimes a mistake can have a good outcome!

It has often been wondered why Belgium have never truly competed for a World Cup tournament, as they have always produced extremely talented players. It is not just a recent phenomenom at all. In fact, in 1982 manager Guy Thys had one of the most talented squads in the whole tournament but it all blew up over a petty argument, which started over a poolside prank by one of Thys' friends, well-known (in Belgium) radio commentator Jan Wauters. Belgium's goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff was one of the best in the world and had arrived in Spain after securing a move from Beveren to Bayern Munich. Pfaff quickly upset his team-mates with an attitude they felt to be cocky.

While there, the management arranged a poolside party for the playing staff and invited along the country's media, including Wauters, who was a close personal friend of Thys. While there Wauters performed that 'classic' prank of sneaking up behind someone and pushing them into the pool. So it was that Pfaff went into the pool to the merriment of the partygoers. Until it was realised that the goalkeeper was unable to swim! Unsurprisingly a sodden, half-drowned Pfaff was furious but Thys refused to reprimand his friend for the prank. Pfaff tried to play the incident down in interviews, even claiming that he only pretended to be in trouble but that did not stop his anger festering over the incident.

This particular World Cup consisted of 2 group stages oddly, with Pfaff starting in the first group stages. The final game of that first stage was against Hungary, and just after the hour mark Pfaff came out for a cross and accidentally clobbered his captain Eric Gerets. After Gerets had lain motionless for a minute, he was subbed off and an ambulance was called (I think their medical team from the time are now working with the Swiss national team). The ambulance did not arrive until after the match, only to head off without the heavily concussed Gerets as Pfaff was already in there with a shoulder injury being whisked off to hospital!

Pfaff's injury was only minor and the whole team turned on him at this point, which saw Thys drop him and pick back up Theo Custers instead for the second stage of group games. Poland won 3-0 and Thys turned to 3rd choice keeper Jacques Munaron to save Belgium, rather than go back to Pfaff. Once again the Belgians lost, this time 1-0 to USSR and Belgium were floundering their way out of the World Cup, once more failing to make the most of their undoubted talent. And they did not even need Bobby Brown Shoes to bring about their ignominous exit that time.

Shirt swapping is something that really used to belong to international football but has now filtered down to the domestic game, however it started (or at least the first recorded instance of it) on 14th May 1931 after the French beat England 5-2 at Colombes. Obviously in those days England were still the side to beat and so the French asked if they could keep the jerseys of their opponents to commemorate the victory. By the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland it had become a tradition, though most of the public only became aware of it when Pele and Bobby Moore swapped shirts after the England-Brazil game in the 1970 World Cup.

There have been a number of controversies involving World Cup finals, in 1998 it was surrounding The Ronaldo, the striker par excellence who had been starring throughout the tournament until suddenly he was left out of the team for the final. A late change saw him restored to the line up. His performance can best be described as subdued as Brazil lost 3-0 to France. While the full story has never been confirmed, it was later revealed that the great goalscorer had suffered a fit in the night, which saw him left out of the team. Pressure from kit manufacturers Nike (who did become accustomed to picking the Brazilian team in return for their sponsorship) saw Ronaldo restored to the line up, despite clearly being unfit to play.

Returning to the subject of incompetent English referees, 2010 saw Howard Webb take the baton from Poll and show that being utterly useless runs through them all. It was in the final, between Spain and Holland that Webb saw fit to award just a yellow card to Nigel de Jong after he launched himself studs-first into Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso's chest. Even Stevie Wonder was screaming at him for that call! It was not quite as bad a call as the Harold Schumacher assault on Patrick Battiston in 1982, but it was an equally baffling decision by the referee not to send him off.

Despite all the controversies, it will still not change my thinking the moment the next international break hits. I know that, within a couple of days I will just be wishing it would hurry up and end so we can get back to 'proper' football in the league!

Written by Tris Burke April 04 2019 04:19:25