Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Africa's Pioneers, Part 4
Tunisia's final 1978 group opponents, defending champions West Germany, had come to life after their dull opening draw against Poland; they had put six goals past Mexico, who were still smarting from their first-up loss to the African side. The German team had been improved by the addition of the young Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in midfield, who had scored twice against the Mexicans. But following the Tunisians' victory against Mexico and their second-half onslaught against the Poles, German manager Helmut Schoen would not have been inclined to take Abdelmajid Chetali's team lightly.
There were subsequently rumours that Schoen had "settled for a draw" against Tunisia in order to be placed in a more favourable second-round group, but these are hard to believe; for one thing, the match was played a day before the placings in two of the opening four groups were decided. For another, if the Germans had conceded a goal, they were out...at the hands of the 1000-1 outsiders.
So then: an encounter between the defending champions, medal-winners at the past three tournaments, and the first-time entrants. Yet in the first half, the Tunisians matched the West Germans as they had matched the Poles. Rainer Bonhof, a star in 1974 and supposedly the Germans' trump card in midfield, was surprisingly ineffectual. Rummenigge posed more danger, but there was no-one to apply the finish that his incisive runs deserved; the loss of Gerd Muller was keenly felt.
The Tunisians were not just soaking up the pressure. The fullbacks made their way upfield regularly, and just before half-time Sepp Maier had to make a smart save from Mohammed Agrebi. The contrast between the Tunisians' short-passing game and the individual runs of the Germans was making it a very watchable game, despite the relative lack of goalmouth action.
On the hour, Mokhtar Naili again came into the picture, making a brilliant save from the German centre-forward Klaus Fischer, a peripheral figure up to that point. Then Tunisia started to get on top, as they had against Poland, and the chance to pull off an improbable win again fell to the mercurial Ali Kaabi. Once again, the left-back drifted unnoticed into the box on 68 minutes and was presented with a free header; once again, he sent it wide. And once again, the Argentinian crowd took up the chant of "Tu-NEZ! Tu-NEZ!" as the ultimate upset seemed within reach.
But it was not to be. The Germans gradually regained control of the game, but five minutes from the end they decided to "agree the draw" that would see them scrape into the second round. The Tunisians, like New Zealand against Paraguay 32 years later, contented themselves with the laurel of a draw against such distinguished opposition, rather than risking a final assault which might have seen them through to the next phase.
0-0 it finished. A win, a draw and a narrow loss for the African first-timers against the three "respected" football nations, and their impact was immediate: FIFA granted Africa two full places at the forthcoming tournament, and the Tunisians' feats in Argentina inspired their successors to adopt a similarly confident approach to the event. Algeria, in 1982, went one better than Tunisia in defeating the Germans, while the other African team at the Spanish World Cup, Cameroon, went through the first round without defeat, missing out on a second-round place only on goal difference to...the eventual champions, Italy.
The Tunisians themselves were not to repeat their success: knocked out by Nigeria in the first round of the qualifiers for 1982, they were to endure a long period in the World Cup wilderness. But never mind: they had proven the point, reinforced many times since, that African teams were no longer easybeats at the big event.
