1-England
Captain Bobby Moore almost missed the 1966 World Cup. He had a contract dispute
with his club West Ham United (he was linked to Tottenham Hotspur). His
contract was due to expire on June 30th, 1966 with the World Cup
kicking off in July.
If
he was still unassociated with any club beyond that date, he would have been
unaffiliated with the English FA and ineligible for the World Cup.
On
July 7th, West Ham United Manager Ron Greenwood arrived at the
National team Headquarters at Hendon.
Moore
signed a temporary contract to avoid missing the World Cup.
Photo
From: World Soccer, April 1999
(Bobby
Moore lifting the World Cup, July 30, 1966, World Cup, England 4-West Germany
2)
Photo
From: World Soccer, April 2006
(Ron
Greenwood as England Manager with Kevin Keegan)
2-
The strangest non-transfer in the history of the Spanish La Liga took
place during the 1970/71 season.
All
four Real Madrid goalkeepers were on the injured list and a goalkeeper was
needed in haste (48 hours).
Real
Madrid Manager Miguel Munoz requested the signing of the 33 year old Jose
Pesudo of Valencia, who had recently lost his starting position at the club.
The
Management of both sides sanctioned the deal on the same day and Pesudo arrived
at Madrid the next day, passed the medical and was x-rayed and was tested
physically in training by Munoz. Within 24 hours the deal was done.
However,
the following day Real Madrid announced the transfer would not be presented for
ratification. Their reasoning was that Medical Exams had revealed an injury on
Pesudo’s left shoulder.
Valencia
were offended as it implied that they had purposefully sold an injured player.
Pesudo returned to Valencia the next day and was examined by two of the most
respected Spanish surgeons.
Their
report made Real Madrid look bad. The report stated that ‘The anomaly has been present since birth
and correctly diagnosed when first joined Valencia in 1955 (when 18)… it has no
medical significance and can have no effects upon his sporting activities…”
This
further undermined Real Madrid’s own medical staff since all their goalkeepers
and many outfield players were all injured.
Pesudo
joined Real Betis at the end of the season.
Photo
From: World Soccer, February 1971
(Jose Pesudo)
Photo
From: AS Color, Issue 125, October 9, 1973
(Real
Madrid Manager Miguel Munoz and Pirri)
3-
In England’s match vs. Morocco during the 1986 World Cup (June 6, 1986,
scoreless tie), England had three captains within three minutes in the match.
Official Team Captain
Bryan Robson had to be substituted in the 42nd minute by Steve Hodge
due to a shoulder injury.
Robson gave his captain’s
armband to Ray Wilkins. Wilkins was sent off after he threw the ball at the
referee over a disagreement over a decision. Peter Shilton then took over as
skipper for the remainder of England’s games.
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2080, February 18, 1986
(Bryan
Robson)
Photo
From: France Football, Issue 2080, February 18, 1986
(Peter
Shilton)
Photo
From: 90 minutes, March 12, 1994
(Ray
Wilkins at Queens Park Rangers)
4-Prior
to their clash with Saint Etienne for the Final of the Champions Cup (May 12,
1976, Bayern Munich 1-Saint Etienne 0), Bayern Munich’s Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
was very nervous.
To
calm him down, Bayern Munich manager Dettmar Cramer made him drink two shots of
cognac.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 5, May 1976
(Udo
Horsmann and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (wearing an exchanged jersey), May 12, 1976,
Champions Cup, Bayern Munich 1-Saint Etienne 0)
5-During
USA’s match vs. Uruguay in the 1993 Copa America (June 16, 1993, 1-0 Uruguay
win), USA Manager Bora Milutinovic was angry at his players who were not
following his instructions. At one point he turned around to the armed
Ecuadorian Police and jokingly told them to give him their guns because he
wanted to shoot his players.
Photo
From: Soccer International, Volume 4, Issue 4, September 1993
(USA
Manager Bora Milutinovic joking with the Police, June 16, 1993, Copa America,
Uruguay 1-USA 0)
9-Włodzimierz
Leonard Lubański (Koninklijke Sporting Club Lokeren /
Belgium) [65 / 46] (13-Zbigniew Kazimierz Boniek (Robotnicze Towarzystwo
Sportowe Widzew
Łódź) [8 / 2]
85th)
10-Kazimierz
Deyna (Centralny Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Legia Warszawa) [78 / 33]
11-Andrzej
Szarmach (FKS
(Fabryczny Klub Sportowy) Stal Mielec) [39 / 24]
Coach:
Jacek Gmoch
Booked:
Henryk Piotr Wieczorek, Zbigniew Kazimierz Boniek 89th
Other
Subs:
Henryk
Maculewicz (Gwardyjskie Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisla Krakow)
Adam
Nawałka (Gwardyjskie Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisla Krakow)
Krzysztof
Sobieski (Centralny Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Legia Warszawa)
Stanisław
Terlecki (LKS (Lodzki Klub Sportowy)-Lodz )
Henryk
Wawrowski (Morski Klub Sportowy Pogon-Szczecin)
Team
Captain: Kazimierz Deyna
Official
Kit Supplier/Designer: Adidas
Uniform
Colors: White Shirts, Red
Shorts, White Socks
Photo
From: Onze, Hors Serie 7, 1978
(Poland
squad, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
Notes:
-Match
number 398 for Denmark and number 310 for Poland.
-This
was the 10th meeting between the nations.
-The
previous match between the nations, as well as the previous match on Polish
soil and the previous Polish victory, was a friendly on September 2, 1970 that
Poland won (5-0) at Warsaw.
Denmark
player: Per
Røntvedand Polish players: Kazimierz
Deyna and Włodzimierz Lubański were present that day (on the field and/or the
substitutes bench).
Deyna
and Lubanski scored for Poland in that match.
-The
next match between the nations, as well as the next Polish win and the next
match on Polish soil, was only a few months away during the Return leg of this
qualifier on September 21, 1977 at Chorzow that Poland won (4-1).
Denmark
players: Henning
Munk Jensen, Røntved, Ahlberg, Sørensen, Heino Hansen, Lund, Flindt Bjerg and Jørgen Kristensen and Polish players:
Tomaszewski, Wawrowski, Żmuda,
Maculewicz, Rudy, Kasperczak,
Deyna, Boniek, Masztaler, Nawałka, Lato, Lubański, Szarmach, Terlecki
and Wieczorek were present that day (on the field and/or the substitutes
bench).
Henning
Munk Jensen and Kazimierz
Deyna still captained their respective Nations.
Masztaler,
Lato, Deyna and Szarmach scored Poland’s goals.
Both
sets of managers were still in charge.
Jan
Sørensen and Zbigniew Boniek came on as substitutes in both matches.
-The
previous match between the nations at the same venue, as well as Poland’s
previous away win, was a Friendly on May 19, 1970 that Poland won 2 to 0.
Polish
players: Kazimierz Deyna and Włodzimierz Lubański were present that day (on the
field and/or the substitutes bench).
-The
next match between the nations at the same venue, as well as Denmark’s next win
(Their first since 1958), was a Friendly on May 16, 1986 that Denmark won 1 to
0.
Polish
player: Zbigniew Boniek was present that day (on the field and/or the
substitutes bench).
He
also captained Poland in that match.
-Denmark’s
previous win over Poland (and their previous win on home soil) was a Friendly
on May 25, 1958 that they won 3 to 2.
-Denmark’s
next away win over Poland was a Friendly on August 14, 2004 that they won 5 to
1.
-Zbigniew
Boniek Managed Poland in a friendly vs. Denmark at Copenhagen that the Danes
won (2-0).
-The two teams were in a World Cup qualifying group
that included also Portugal and Cyprus.
-In their previous qualifiers, Poland had won all
its two matches in the Group:
October 10, 1976, Porto, Portugal 0-Poland 2
October 31, 1976, Warsaw, Poland 5-Cyprus 0
-In preparation for this qualifier, Poland had
played two away friendlies in the weeks before.
On April 13th, 1977, at Budapest, Poland lost
(1-2).
On April 24th, at Dublin, they came away with a
scoreless tie.
-Jacek Gmoch had taken over as Poland Manager from Kazimierz Górski in the
Fall of 1976 after the 1976 Olympics.
-The Denmark squad was reliant on what was
referred as a ‘Foreign Legion’. It was unprecedented at those times to have a
squad of mainly foreign based players.
Denamrk had no choice since it still did not
possess a Professional League, therefore its best players were scattered across
Western European Leagues (West German Bundesliga a common destination).
Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Allan Simonsen was the
most notable and famous of the group.
-Denmark started the match with Eight Foreign
based players (seven of them from the Bundesliga), but were still misisng
players such as :
Lars
Bastrup
(Offenbacher Fußball Club Kickers 1901 e.V. / West Germany)
Niels Tune(Fußball -Club Sankt-Pauli
1910 e.V.-Hamburg / West Germany)
Morten
Olsen (Racing White Daring Molenbeek / Belgium)
Benny
Nielsen (Racing White Daring Molenbeek / Belgium)
Ulrik
le Fevre(Club
Brugge Koninklijke
Vereniging / Belgium)
Henning
Jensen (Real
Madrid Club de Fútbol / Spain)
Jørgen
Kristensen
(Berliner Sport-Club Hertha 1892 e.V. / West Germany)
-Denmark’s
Johnny Hansen
was a former Bayern Munich player.
-Strangely
Denmark’s Jan
Højland started the match with the jersey numbered 14 on his back.
The
rules specifying a starting lineup of 1 to 11 was still not enforced.
-Poland
were missing players such as:
Antoni
Szymanowski (Gwardyjskie Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisla Krakow),
Paweł
Janas (Robotnicze Towarzystwo Sportowe Widzew Łódź)
Jerzy
Gorgoń (Klub Sportowy Górnik Zabrze)
Janusz
Kupcewicz (Morski Związkowy Klub Sportowy Arka Gdynia)
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 19, July 1977
(World
Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-The
more experienced Poles gave a demonstration of dominance on an away venue and
took control from the start.
-Poland
took the lead in the 5th minute.
Zmuda
on the right side in his own half, crossed into the path of Lato, who in turn
laid it on for Lubanski to score into the empty net as the Danish goalkeeper
and the defense had already committed.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Polish
players celebrating the first goal, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark
1-Poland 2)
-In
the 24th minute, Poland defender Wojciech Rudy had to be substituted
due to injury.
Czesław
Boguszewicz came on to take his place.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Władysław
Antoni Żmuda, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
Photo
From: Onze, Hors Serie 7, 1978
(Poland
Captain Kazimierz Deyna, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-Poland
continued their domination and it was very much against the run of play when
Denmark tied up the match.
In
the 50th minute, from the center Lund sent a through pass for Jan Højland, who passed it
back into the box for
Simonsen to score.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Wojciech Wladyslaw Rudy, May 1, 1977, World Cup
Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 24, December 1977
(Henning Munk Jensen and Grzegorz Lato, May 1,
1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-Just
a few minutes later, in the 54th minute, Henryk Kasperczak took a
corner from the right side, that was headed in by Lubanski who scored his
second goal.
Danish
goalkeeper Birger Jensen had mistimed his jump and should have saved or punched
out the corner kick.
Photo
From: Special thanks to @rightbankwarsaw for providing this
photograph
(Lubanski
scoring Poland’s second goal, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark
1-Poland 2)
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Lubanski
scoring Poland’s second goal, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark
1-Poland 2)
-Danish
Captain Henning
Munk Jensen had been somewhat at fault for Poland’s first goal early in the
match. As a result, the crowd jeered him from that moment on and his game
suffered as a result.
Danish
Manager Kurt Nielsen was forced to substitute him with Lars Larsen.
Kurt
Nielsen declared that at first he regretted his decision, but by pulling him
out, he felt Denmark were able to make more headway in the game.
-A
goal by Lato was called off by the Referee due to an infraction.
-Zbigniew
Boniek came on the 85th minute, replacing Lubanski, and was booked
shortly thereafter just before the final whistle. At 21, he was the youngest
member of the Polish squad.
Photo
From: Onze, Hors Serie 7, 1978
(Henryk
Kasperczak and Ove Frindt Berg, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark
1-Poland 2)
-Despite
the introduction of the two substitutes, Denmark could not make it back and
Poland were deserved winners.
-Poland took control of the match and especially dominated in
midfield. Their game was based on quick counter attacks.
-Poland’s Lubanski, Lato, Kasperczak and Tomasweski impressed the
most, while Denmark goalkeeper Birger Jesen prevented Denmark from losing with
a bigger score (despite his mistake on the second goal).
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Lubanski and Birger Jensen, May 1, 1977, World
Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-Poland Manager Jacek Gmoch declared ‘I am very satisfied for my
team’s performance, but in my opinion, our victory could have been much
larger’.
-Allan Simonsen was always marked closely by one or two defenders
and was unable to make much of an impact. Though, he did score Denmark’s tying
goal.
-Poland’s
Czesław Boguszewicz and Denmark’s Ole Bjørnmose played their last ever matches with
their respective National Teams.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Flemming Ahlberg and Grzegorz
Lato, May 1,
1977, World Cup Qualifier, Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-This
third straight win in the Group more or less qualified Poland for the following
year’s World Cup in Argentina. At the end of the match, the players celebrated
as if their goal had been achieved.
-Two
weeks later they further sealed their place by defeating Cyprus at Limasol
May
15, 1977, World Cup Qualifier, Cyprus 1-Poland 3
This
was their fourth straight win in the qualifiers.
-A
few weeks after that in late May and June, Poland toured South America for a
number of Friendly matches in preparation for the following year’s World Cup.
-Denmark’s
Allan Simonsen was in the Borussia Moenchengladbach side that just a few weeks
later on May 25th, 1977, were defeated in the Champions Cup Final at
Rome vs. Liverpool (1-3).
He
did win the Bundesliga Title with Borussia Moenchengladbach that season.
By
the end of the year, his performances had impressed enough jurors that he was
elected as France Football’s Ballon d’Or.
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 18, June 1977
(Jan Tomaszewski and Henryk Kasperczak
celebrating Poland’s virtual qualification, May 1, 1977, World Cup Qualifier,
Denmark 1-Poland 2)
-Poland,
after defeating Denmark again on September 21st (4-1), completed
their qualifying campaign at home on October 29, 1977 by tying Portugal (1-1).
-Poland
won the Group and only dropped one point, the inconsequential last match with
Portugal, after having already qualified.
Portugal
finished second with Denmark finishing third and Cyprus last.
-Poland’s squad contained 1972 Olympic winners: Kazimierz Deyna,
Wlodzimierz Lubanski and Grzegorz Lato.
-Poland’s
squad included many members of the 1974 World Cup squad that had finished
third.
The
seven players were: Jan Tomaszewski, Henryk Wieczorek, Wladyslaw Zmuda,
Kazimierz Deyna, Henryk Kasperczak, Grzegorz Lato and Andrzej Szarmach.
-Poland’s
squad included many members of the 1976 Olympics Silver Medalist squad.
The
nine players were: Jan Tomaszewski, Henryk Wieczorek, Wladyslaw Zmuda,
Kazimierz Deyna, Henryk Kasperczak, Grzegorz Lato, Andrzej Szarmach, Henryk Wawrowski and Wojciech
Rudy.
-Jacek
Gmoch selected twelve of the players on duty for this qualifier in Denmark for
the following year’s 1978 World Cup Finals squad.
These
included: Jan Tomaszewski, Adam Nawalka, Henryk
Kasperczak, Wladislaw Zmuda, Wojciech Rudy, Bohdan Masztaler, Kazimierz
Deyna, Grzegorz Lato, Andrzej Szarmach,
Zbigniew Boniek, Wlodzimierz Lubaňski
and Henryk
Maculewicz.
-Poland’s
Wladislaw Zmuda and Zbigniew Boniek also participated in the
1986 World Cup.
Denmark’s Allan Simonsen was also part
of the Danish squad in that World Cup.
-Both Team Captains Henning Munk Jensen and
Kazimierz Deyna played in the NASL in the United States.
Henning
Munk Jensen played for Edmonton Drillers and San Jose Earthquakes, while Deyna
played for San Diego Sockers.
Wladislaw Zmuda played 4 matches with New
York Cosmos in 1984.
-Poland’s
Henryk Kasperczak managed many clubs in France, as well as National Teams such
as Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, Mali (twice), and Senegal and is the current
Manager of Tunisia.
-Władysław
Żmuda played in four World Cups (1974, 1978, 1982 and 1986).
He
has played a total of 21 matches in World Cup Finals.
He
is bettered by Lothar Matthaus and Paolo Maldini and is tied with Uwe Seeler
and Diego Maradona.
-Jan Sørensen would join
Birger Jensen at Club Brugge that summer and stay until 1983.
-Kurt
Nielsen remained as Denmark’s Manager until 1979, when Sepp Piontek took over.
-The
following month, Denmark’s Preben Elkjaer made his debut for the National team.
He would have a successful partnership with Poland’s Lato and Lubanski at
Belgian club Lokeren in the early 80s.
-Poland
Captain Kazimierz Deyna was killed in a Car Accident on September 1, 1989 at
San Diego, California in USA. He was aged just 41.
It
had promised to be a Tournament showcasing the best of the continent. In the
end it was won by a Portuguese squad, who despite boasting one of the greatest
players in the history of the game (not to mention a more than adequate
supporting cast), stuck with its safety first mentality to defeat the host
Nation of France, who themselves would not have been particularly worthy
winners.
Most
would be hard pressed to find a truly deserving winner for a Tournament that
dragged on longer than it should have.
Therein
lies the major problem for this edition of the Euros. In the decades past, the
Euro Finals were restricted to eight teams only (the hosts and teams that had
won their qualifying groups outright). Starting the 1996 edition, the number of
participants was raised to sixteen. This seemed like a good balance, the
Tournament had the feel of a mini World Cup without losing quality.
Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, August 2016
(Portugal’s winning squad)
However,
UEFA (no thanks to Michel Platini) had the grand idea of increasing the number
of participants even more to 24. The reason needless to say was economics, but
by doing so they increased the quantity, which directly decreased the quality
at hand.
UEFA
contains slightly more than 50 members; therefore roughly half the members
participated in the Finals. To make up the numbers, playoffs were needed
between Nations who had finished third in their qualifying groups. While many
Nations’ fans were overjoyed to see their Nation in the Finals after so many
years of absence, it went against all sense of fair competition to have third
placed teams in the Finals of a major Tournament (Turkey, Ukraine, Republic of
Ireland, Hungary and Sweden advanced in such manner).
It
was also a year of many firsts as traditional absentees Iceland, Albania, Wales
and Northern Ireland qualified. Wales had been absent from the Finals of any
major competition since 1958.
France
had last hosted the Finals in 1984 in relatively simpler times. In fact the
success of those Finals had kicked off the Euros in high gear and made it the
most important Football competition after the World Cup. Michel Platini, the
player and Captain, was at his zenith and scored nine goals to lead France in
its first major trophy.
Platini,
the Administrator, was conspicuous by his forced absence (due to his suspension
from the FIFA Ethics Committee).
Didier
Deschamps, who as a player, captained France to victory in the 1998 World Cup
as well as the 2000 Euros was tasked with building a squad to triumph at home
just like 1984.
Unfortunately,
his squad was not as talented as the Platini/Giresse/Tigana generation of 1984
nor his own generation led by Zinedine Zidane that contained the likes of
Thierry Henry and Laurent Blanc among others.
France’s
hopes were to be carried over the shoulders of new leaders Paul Pogba and
Antoine Griezmann. Unfortunately, despite a late burst of goals from Griezmann,
neither rose to the occasion in a manner of a Platini and /or Zidane.
Pogba
and Griezmann have the talent and the potential to succeed at the highest level
but clearly lacked the match (and Tournament) winning personalities of their
glorious predecessors.
Griezmann
finished as top goalscorer, but he was guilty of missing a glorious chance in
the Final.
Deschamps
was also criticized for constantly tinkering with his formations (sometimes
even during matches). While this may have suggested the symptoms of an
unsettled side, his positional switches worked, especially in overturning a
deficit in defeating the Republic of Ireland.
Deschmaps
seemed unable to place Pogba in an ideal position to exploit his talents.
France seemed hesitant at times and only impressed in patches during matches.
In fact, it is hard to remember a match that they dominated completely from
start to finish. In the end the match against Portugal seemed one match too
many fort France to maintain their late momentum that reached its height in
defeating Germany in the semifinals.
Deschmaps’
success was getting this ‘not yet ready’ side all the way to the Final.
France’s
surprise package was Dimitri Payet, who made the Finals squad after a
successful season at West Ham United. His winner vs. Romania in the opener made
him the toast of the Nation and an unlikely early Hero.
Newcastle
United midfielder Moussa Sissoko also helped to improve France once Deschamps
chose to start with him.
If
the previous World Cup could be dismissed as an accident, these Euros confirmed
that Spain’s Era, as a power appears to be over. Despite opening up solidly
with two wins, no one could blame misfortune for their defeats against Croatia
and Italy.
Vicente
Del Bosque stepped down after eight years and some players may also follow.
As
far as Italy, they flattered in the early going for their tactical discipline.
They played efficiently as a unit, especially the defensive end. Many praised
the ever-youthful Gianluigi Buffon’s rapport with his Juventus teammates in
defense (Chiellini, Bonnucci and Barzagli). Perhaps they were unlucky that in
the Quarterfinals, they were paired with Germany. Germany had advanced as
always by efficiently defeating weaker opposition. Thomas Muller had been
disappointing by his standards and injuries had forced the recall of Mario
Gomez, who had been out of International reckoning for many seasons.
The
first round had been such business as usual that for the Germans the talking
point had been Joachim Löw’s
hand movements on the bench (I will spare the details).
As
always the Germany-Italy matchup will be considered a classic in the history of
their encounters. But this was THE worst penalty kick shoot-out that I have
witnessed.
The
Italian Simone Zaza’s run-up to take his spot and the ensuing miss was virally
parodied mercilessly.
And
what can be said of England and Roy Hodgson. Unlike their Welsh neighbors who
rose to the occasion and reached the semifinals, the English never impressed
with Rooney a major disappointment in perhaps his last Finals of any kind.
For
Wales, Bale rose to the occasion as did Aaron Ramsey, whose absence cost the
Welsh significantly in the semifinals.
England
Manager Roy Hodgson failed to bring out the best in a youthful squad and
resigned after the shock elimination against Iceland.
Speaking
of Iceland, if you had a heart, you had to be on the Iceland bandwagon.
They
reached as far as the Quarterfinals and were soundly defeated by the hosts
(2-5), though they did manage to show some French defensive deficiencies in the
second half of that match and did not give up until the end.
The
Iceland Clap-Chant led by Team captain Aron Gunnarsson at
the end of matches is sure to remain as one of the highlights of an otherwise
emotionless Cup.
Although
at times the praise went overboard (If I had a dollar every time I heard
commentators make statements such as:
“This is a Nation with a population of only 330,000…. This is similar to
what Leicester did in the EPL this season…..About a decade ago they decided to
set up a program to develop better players, etc…..”.
Photo
From: Guerin Sportivo, August 2016
(Iceland’s Clap Chant)
Since
we live in a viral age, a day would not go by where something would pop up on
Facebook on the events on and off the field.
The
most noticeable were the Irish fans. There would be a barrage of viral videos
on a daily basis showing the warm nature of the Irish fans. These included
events such as ‘cheering for the French Police’, ‘Singing to help a baby sleep
on a train’, ‘serenading beautiful women in the streets’, etc.
Despite
the praises, Republic of Ireland’s Assistant Manager, the fiery and competitive
Roy Keane actually criticized the mentality of the Irish fans for being too
eager to be liked.
As
far as Northern Ireland’s, their song “Will Grigg’s on Fire” about the Wigan
Athletic striker also became a viral hit (even though, the player did not play
a single minute).
We
also had to relive the emotional commentary of Icelandic Television Reporters
when describing Icelandic winning goals. Many likened these to the Norwegian
Commentator after the 1981 World Cup qualifier on September 9, 1981 (2-1 Norway
win over England).
And
finally, to sum it all up, “The Commissioner of Football”, Eric Cantona had to
get in the mix and comment on the events of the day and even sang “Will Grigg’s
on Fire” on one occasion.
In
the end we should be thankful that Eder’s goal in the overtime at least spared us
from a penalty kick shoot-out.
Portugal
earned its long overdue title as a Nation, but did it in such a miserly way
that most pundits compared them to the Denmark of 1992 and especially Greece of
2004, before the trophy and medals were even handed out.
It’s
virtually unprecedented for a team that only won once in regulation during an
entire Tournament to be triumphant. Not many would have bet on them after they
were unable to defeat teams such as Austria, Iceland and Hungary that were very
much for the taking (at least on paper) in the First Round. Just to think that
they advanced as the third best team in their Group also makes a mockery of the
new Tournament format.
Naturally
Cristiano Ronaldo will take all the plaudits and has finally won the International
trophy that he craved. Although his detractors will repeatedly point out that
he was not even on the field at the moment of his Nation’s greatest triumph.
Given
this triumph, we are unfortunately still set for the unending Cristiano
Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duopoly for the Ballon d’Or and of course this time CR7
will edge ahead.
He
certainly did not dominate the Tournament the manner in which a player of his
caliber should, but neither did anyone else.
In
fact it is hard to distinguish a single team, nor player, that truly rose above
the competition and dominated it reminiscent of France with Michel Platini in
1984 and Holland and Marco van Basten in 1988 to name just two.
The
Tournament spanning a whole month in the end felt long, by a week or two. This
may have actually longed some fans for the days of Eight Team Finals. But alas,
we are sure to be stuck with this format. This may turn out to be Platini’s biggest mistake as an UEFA Boss. Platini, the player, dazzled the
continent as a player in 1984 like no other on the same soil. Thirty-two years
later as an Administrator (even if absent), he has tarnished his legacy by kick
starting a bloated and listless Tournament on the same soil.
Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 52, July 1984
(Michel
Platini, June 27, 1984, UEFA European Championships, France 2-Spain 0)
