Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Mundialito, Part 1
Any number of confected tournaments have formed part of the football calendar over the years; in recent times, the Confederations Cup and the Club World Cup come to mind. Generally, these ersatz events feature only two teams of substance (usually intended to meet in the final) and a number of, well, tourists.
But there was a tournament over 40 years ago, a one-off addition to the calendar, in which the logistically impossible was achieved: in the middle of a crowded modern European club season, the organizers managed to entice many of the world's top international teams, at full strength. The tournament only lasted a couple of weeks, and is largely forgotten today. Yet it featured such names as Maradona, Rummenigge, Socrates, Tardelli, Cerezo, Schumacher, Ardiles, and many more.
This was the Copa de Oro, the Gold Cup of Champions, better known at the time (and subsequently) as the Mundialito - the Little World Cup.
The idea was simple. It was fifty years since the first World Cup had been held in Uruguay. Officials in that immensely proud football nation decided to mark the occasion by inviting all the national teams which had since won the World Cup to face off in a six-team event, to be held at that same legendary Estadio Centenario in Montevideo which had played host to the competitors in 1930.
FIFA had given their blessing (although it was never entirely clear whether it hence became an official FIFA event). Hefty financial incentives were offered to ensure that the Europeans, in particular, would take the event seriously. Due to their lack of a winter break, England's FA declared their national team unable to compete adequately, and so the finalists at the last two World Cups, the Netherlands, were invited instead. Sadly, the Dutch had passed their peak, and almost none of the recognized stars of the 70s made the trip to Uruguay.
All the other former champions, however, were at virtually full strength. Brazil, under the experienced coach Tele Santana, were gradually evolving into the elegant attacking team which would win plenty of hearts at the 1982 World Cup, despite their dramatic early exit. Although the prized attacking midfielder Zico was ruled out with an injury, such 1982 stars as the Corinthians maestro Dr. Socrates, the midfield schemer Toninho Cerezo, and the fearsome attacking left-back Junior would all be present.
Argentina, the world champions, had reinforced their 1978 side with two outstanding players from the team which had won the 1979 World Youth Cup: the striker Ramon Diaz, and the phenomenon from Argentinos Juniors, a certain Diego Armando Maradona. This would be the latter's first appearance in a senior competitive event against European opposition - and he would learn a good deal from it.
The Italians, too, had barely changed their line-up since the 1978 tournament, in which they had performed very well. But their young star in Argentina, Paolo Rossi, was suspended thanks to his involvement in the Totonero scandal, and his speed and opportunism would be much missed in the key game against the hosts.
The West Germans, fresh from victory in the 1980 Nations Cup, looked formidable. Their problems at centre-forward appeared to have been resolved in the person of Horst Hrubesch, the mighty Hamburg striker who had played such a key role in their Nations Cup success. Although their other main man in Italy, the playmaker Bernd Schuster, was unavailable, there were plenty of other household names among the squad that went to Montevideo: Karlheinz Rummenigge, Rainer Bonhof, Manfried Kaltz, Felix Magath. No-one could accuse the Germans of sending a scratch team.
And Uruguay? Their international fortunes had not been good of late, and apparently one of the motives for the staging of the tournament was to revive them. The Celeste had been unimpressive in their last World Cup appearance, in 1974; in the 1978 qualifiers, they had been humiliated by modest Bolivia. And in the 1979 Copa America, they had been knocked out in the group stage by Paraguay.
And yet there were some hopeful signs. Montevideo club Nacional had just won the Copa Libertadores, with the journeyman striker Waldemar Victorino - remember that name - scoring the only goal of the two-leg final against Internacional of Brazil. A number of good young players had recently emerged. Most importantly, they would be assured of fanatical home support.
Their situation was analogous to that of the Argentinians in 1978: a nation under a brutal military dictatorship, with both junta and people desperate for success in a football tournament, for very different reasons. And as with the 1978 World Cup, there was suspicion elsewhere that the hosts would have their road to the title smoothed in various ways, not least by the referees.
So how did things play out? More to come.
