1-When Paulo Roberto Falcao was named Brazil manager following the 1990 World Cup, he was initially forbidden by the Brazilian Federation to select any foreign-based player. The foreign-based players were seen as the scapegoats for the World Cup debacle.
Photo : from Mondial, July 1982
Falcao and Blokhin (June 14, 1982 World Cup, Brazil 2-USSR 1)
2-French Captain Michel Platini signed a pre-contract with Italian Serie A club Internazionale FC Milano in 1980, when borders were still closed for foreign player transfers.
However, Inter chose not to exercise that option when the borders re-opened and Platini joined Juventus two years later.
Photo : from Onze-Mondial, June 1980
(Platini and Oleg Romantsev shaking hands prior to kickoff (May 23, 1980 Friendly USSR 1-France 0)
3-PSV Eindhoven players Ronald Koeman, Hans Van Breukelen, Berry Van Aerle, Gerald Vanenburg and Wim Kieft won every tournament they participated in during the 1987/88 season.
With their club they won the Dutch League title, the Dutch Cup as well as the Champions Cup.
With the Dutch National Team, they won the UEFA Euro Championships.
Photo from: Onze, July 1988
(June 25, 1988, EC Final Holland 2-USSR 0)
Standing left to right: Marco Van basten, Ronald Koeman (PSV), Frank Rijkaard, Erwin Koeman, Ruud Gullit, Hans Van Breukelen (PSV)
Seating Left to right: Adri Van Tiggelen, Arnold Mukhren, Berry Van Aerle (PSV), Jan Wouters, Gerald Vanneburg (PSV)
4-Italian striker Alessandro Altobelli missed 3 penalty kicks with the national team in 1986.
He missed once during the World Cup vs. South Korea and then missed twice vs. Malta in December of that year. Incidentally, he scored from open play in both matches.
Photo From: France Football, Issue 2149, June 16, 1987
Alessandro Altobelli and Veloso (February 14, 1987, EC Qualifier, Portugal 0-Italy 1)
5-During the 1974 World Cup Final, between West Germany and Holland, German striker Gerd Muller scored a goal in the second half that was ruled offside. However, later Television replays showed that the goal was in fact valid.
Photo : from Onze-Mondial, February 1977
Gerd Muller and wim Rijsbergen (july 7, 1974 , World Cup Final, West Germany 2-Holland 1)
8-Paulo Manuel Carvalho Sousa(Sport Lisboa e Benfica) [8 caps / 0 goals]
10- Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre(Sport Lisboa e Benfica) [36 caps / 5 goals]
11-Jorge PauloCadeteSantos Reis (Sporting Clube de Portugal-Lisboa) [17 caps / 3 goals](16- Domingos Jose Paciencia Oliveira(Futebol Clube do Porto) [12 caps / 1 goals]81)
Coach: Carlos Manuel Brito Leal Queiroz
Booked: Futre 26, Couto 60
Other Subs:
12- Adelino Augusto Barros Neno (Sport Lisboa e Benfica)
14- Luis Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo(Sporting Clube de Portugal-Lisboa)
15- Antonio Jose NogueiraSantos (Boavista Futebol Clube- Porto)
Team Captain: Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre
Official Kit Supplier/Designer: Adidas
Uniform Colors: Red Shirts, Green Shorts, Red Socks
Photo from: 100 Melhores do Futebol Portugues, Vol II, Author Rui Dias, 2002
Scotland:
1- Andrew Lewis Goram (Rangers Football Club-Glasgow)[28 caps / 0 goals]
2- Charles ‘Richard’ Gough (Rangers Football Club-Glasgow)[61 caps / 6 goals]
4- David McPherson (Rangers Football Club-Glasgow)[27 caps / 0 goals]
3- James Edward McInally (Dundee United Football Club) [10 caps / 0 goals]
5- Stuart McKimmie (Aberdeen Football Club Limited) [21 caps / 1 goals]
6- Craig William Levein (Heart of Midlothian Football Club-Edinburgh) [11 caps / 0 goals](13- Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin (Tranmere Rovers Football Club / England)[16 caps / 2 goals]60)
7- Paul Michael Lyons McStay(The Celtic Football Club-Glasgow) [65 caps / 9 goals]
10- John Angus Paul Collins (The Celtic Football Club-Glasgow) [12 caps / 2 goals](15- Ian Durrant (Rangers Football Club-Glasgow)[9 caps / 0 goals]75)
8- Andrew Stuart Murray 'Stuart' McCall (Rangers Football Club-Glasgow)[23 caps / 1 goals]
11- Kevin William Gallacher (Blackburn Rovers Football Club / England)[15 caps / 0 goals]
Coach: Andrew Roxburgh
Other Subs:
12- Bryan James Gunn (Norwich City Football Club / England)
14- Brian John McClair (Manchester United Football Club / England)
16- John Grant Robertson (Heart of Midlothian Football Club-Edinburgh)
Team Captain: Richard Gough
Official Kit Supplier/Designer: Umbro
Uniform Colors: Black Shirts, White Shorts and Black Socks
Notes:
-Match number 313 for Portugal and number 545 for Scotland.
-This was Scotland’s first match at Portugal since a World Cup Qualifier in the same stadium on November 18, 1981 that Portugal won 2-1.
Portugal player: Veloso was only player still remaining from that match.
-The previous match between the two nations was a 0-0 tie on October 14, 1992 World Cup Qualifier at Glasgow.
Portugal players: Baia, Couto, Veloso, Oceano, Semedo, Domingos and Futre and Scotland players: Goram, McCall, Levein, Gallacher, McStay, Mc Coist, Collins and Durrant were the players still remaining from that match.
Scotland’s McClair also played in that match, though for this match he was an unused substitute.
-Scotland has never won in Portugal since the first match between the nations on May 21, 1950 (2-2 tie).
-Scotland’s previous victory over Portugal was a 4-1 win in a UEFA European Championship Qualifier on March 26, 1980 at Glasgow.
-The next match between the two nations would be on a friendly on November 20, 2002.
The match ended in a 2-0 win for Portugal.
Portugal’s Couto and Rui Costa were the only players still remaining from that match.
-Switzerland and Italy qualified from this World Cup Qualifying Group.
-Kevin Gallacher scored a goal that was ruled offside in the 24th minute.
Captains Gough and Futre
-Scotland’s Eion Jess missed this match with a broken ankle.
-Portugal’s only foreign-based players were Barros and Oceano. Scotland’s players were all British based.
-Ally Mc Coist was carried off in the 83rd minute with a fractured leg. Scotland having already made both its substitutions was forced to play with ten men.
-This was Scotland’s worst defeat since losing to England 0-5 in 1973 and 3-9 in 1961.
This was Scotland’s worst defeat vs. non-British opposition since losing 0-7 to Uruguay during the 1954 World Cup.
-Craig Levein is the current manager of Scottish national team.
Ally McCoist is the current manager of Rangers FC Glasgow.
-At the post-match analysis, Scotland manager Roxburgh said'a team died out there!'
- Portugal captain João Domingos Silva Pinto missed this match through injury, Paulo Futre skippered in his place.
-Sandor Puhl, the referee of this match, refereed the World Cup Final match between Brazil and Italy the following year.
-This defeat essentially sealed Scotland’s fate in this group, as well as, Scotland manager Andy Roxburgh’s. He resigned before the end of the year on September 13, 1993, a few days after a 1-1 tie with Switzerland. He had been in charge since after the 1986 World Cup. His assistant Craig Brown replaced him.
-Scotland Captain Richard Gough quit the Scotland team in disgust after a bitter dispute with the manager over the tactics for the game.
He ended his national team career after 10 years after this match.
He claimed Scotland’s tactics for this match were decided following a conversation the coaching staff had with a Lisbon taxi driver.
In an interview with “Herald Scotland” on March 25, 2011, Gough regretted his decision to quit and stated that he should have carried on playing.
-Scotland failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 1970. They had qualified for the past five World Cups.
-Portugal’s Jorge Cadete played at Celtic FC Glasgow from April 1996 to 1997. He also played at Patrick Thistle FCin 2004.
-Portugal’s Barros and Scotland’s Collins played for french club AS Monaco during their career.
-Portugal’s Barros and Futre joined french club Olympique de Marseille the following season.
-During this calendar year, Paulo Futre played for 4 clubs. He left his club Atletico Madrid in early 1993 to join Benfica. He left Benfica in the offseason to join Olympique Marseille and finally in November he joined Italian club Reggiana.
-Portugal’s Abel Xavier and Paulo Futre had spells in Britain in the English Premier League, Xavier with Everton and Liverpool and Futre with West Ham United.
In another Football/Soccer Forum, I came across a Thread about interesting and strange facts about the sport.
I even left some posts, however, this thread was started 3-4 years ago and I believe input was sporadic.
Instead, I will use my own Blog to post oddities and interesting facts on soccer, in addition to my regular match posts.
I will add five events per posting.
As always, my aim is to get people involved, therefore if anyone has any comments about these posts please feel free to contribute.
The First series of soccer Trivia/oddities/anecdotes/interesting stories:
1-During the 1982 World Cup Final between Italy and West Germany, with a minute remaining to the conclusion of the match, Italian Coach Enzo Bearzot sent on Franco Causio as a substitute. This was a sentimental gesture, as Causio had been a mainstay of Italy during the 1970s, but was now at the veteran stage of his career largely a substitute and in fact had not played at all during the tournament up to that point.
Causio did not even get to touch the ball, although he did make a throw- in.
Photo From: Azzurri, Storia della Nazionale di calcio tre volte campioni del Mondo, 1910-1983
France Causio prior to the kickoff of (June 10, 1978 World Cup, Argentina 0-Italy 1)
2-French club Paris St. Germain prior to the 1984 UEFA European Championship Finals could have signed Danish striker Preben Elkjaer.
However, PSG President Francis Borelli decided to gamble on Austrian striker Richard Niederbacher. Both players had been playing in the Belgian League that season (Niederbacher at Waregem and Elkjaer at Lokeren).
Borelli had decided on Niederbacher because he was younger and had scored more goals.
Of course, Elkjaer became a big star during the finals and afterwards transferred to Italian club Hellas Verona, while Niederbacher left PSG after only a few months, having failed to make an impact.
Photo : from Onze, July 1984
Preben Elkjaer after scoring Denmark ‘s winner vs. Belgium (June 19, 1984, UEFA Euro Champ., Denmark 3-Belgium 2)
3-Czechoslovakia and Belgium used all their three goalkeepers during the 1982 World Cup.
In Belgium’s case, Starting goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff was dropped for indiscipline after the first round. Theo Custers played vs. Poland in the second round. After conceding three goals, he was also dropped in favor of Anderlecht’s Jacky Munaron for the final match vs. USSR.
For Czechoslovakia, Zdenek Hruska started vs. Kuwait. For the second match vs. England, Stanislav Seman started but was replaced during the match by Karel Stromsik.
Karel Stromsik played the third match vs. France.
Photo From: France Football, Issue 1992,June 12, 1984
Jean-Marie Pfaff prior to the kickoff of (June 6, 1984 Friendly, Belgium 2-Hungary 2)
4- England did not have a sole selector as manager until after the 1962 World Cup. Until then England’s players were selected by a FA Committee and then the manager would coach the chosen players.
Alf Ramsey insisted upon being sole selector as a condition for his acceptance.
5-The 1958 World Cup is the only one to date where all four British Home Nations (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) participated.
