The Football Tragic

The two three-team groups for the Mundialito were: Uruguay, Italy and the Netherlands (Group A) and Brazil, Argentina and West Germany (Group B). The group winners would contest the final. No third-place game; time, in the middle of the European club calendar, was at a premium.

The hosts' preparation for the tournament had been intense. Taking a leaf out of the Argentinians' book once again, the Uruguay squad had been in preparation for two months, under the tutelage of Roque Maspoli, the goalkeeper of the Celeste side which had shocked hosts Brazil to win the World Cup in 1950.

Against a jet-lagged and second-rate Holland, Uruguay had a comfortable start. The teams had met at the 1974 World Cup, when Johan Cruyff's Oranje had looked imperious in a 2-0 win over Uruguay's creaking side. This time, the result would be reversed, and it would be the Dutch who looked listless and uninspired against Maspoli's young team.

Although the Uruguay eleven did feature a survivor of the 1970 World Cup in the left-winger Julio Morales, the majority of the team had yet to reach their 23rd birthday. It was two of the 21-year-olds who particularly caught the eye in the tournament opener: the Penarol playmaker Ruben Paz, adroit, skilful and energetic, and his clubmate Venancio Ramos, a fast, deft right-winger. 

These two dominated the play from the start, and were both involved in the opening goal just after half an hour. Paz, who had already hit the post, played in the veteran Morales on the left, whose cutback was smartly side-footed past two lunging Dutch defenders by Ramos. 

The Dutch were stung into action, driven on by the sole survivors of the great team of the 1970s, the muscular van de Kerkhof twins. They did fashion a good chance a few minutes from the break, when the Uruguay keeper Rodolfo Rodriguez had to dive at the feet of the Dutch captain Jan Peters. But just before the half-time whistle, Uruguay went further ahead when Morales' left-wing corner was flicked on at the near post by Paz, and the striker Waldemar Victorino, Nacional's hero in the recent Copa Libertadores, dived full-length to head the ball in, off the far post.

Paz and Ramos continued to rule the field in the second half, combining to create a good chance on 55 minutes which was saved well by the veteran Dutch keeper, Pim Doesburg. Peters, Holland's best player throughout the event, almost made the score respectable with a cross-shot which flew just wide, and Uruguay might have added another when Paz played the substitute Ernesto Vargas in on the right 12 minutes from the end; again, Doesburg managed a good save. Uruguay had gotten off to a winning start without unduly exerting themselves.

Two days later, on the first day of 1981, one of the showpieces of the tournament took place: the encounter between the world champions and the newly-crowned European champions. The last competitive encounter between Argentina and West Germany had been at the 1966 World Cup: a dour, spiteful game in which Argentina dealt resourcefully with the Germans' blunt attack after Jose Albrecht was sent off. 

As in the tournament's first game, the roles were now somewhat reversed. Diego Maradona's reputation had preceded him, and the German manager Jupp Derwall had just the man to undertake the task of close-marking football's new superstar.

Hans-Peter Briegel had been an athlete of no mean ability before turning to football, and opponents found him a daunting prospect throughout his career. Fast, resilient and built like the proverbial tank - his nickname was Die Walz, "the steamroller" - he had cemented his place in the national side during their successful Nations Cup campaign. Now, his job was to keep the extraordinarily skilful and elusive Maradona quiet, and he did it with aplomb.

It was still the era of man-marking, and the Germans had their designated watchers elsewhere: the young Karlheinz Foerster looked after Ramon Diaz, while the 1978 hero Mario Kempes was in the capable hands of Manfried Kaltz. Perhaps with Franz Beckenbauer in mind, Derwall had assigned the sweeper role to a converted midfielder in Rainer Bonhof, by now the team's senior figure. (In 1982, it would be another former midfielder, Uli Stielike, who would play as libero).

The pattern of the game was quickly established: Argentina making the running, the Germans playing on the counter. Although Diaz created an early chance, by the half-hour it was becoming clear that Argentina were running out of steam and ideas, frustrated by the diligent marking of the Germans. Briegel was dominating Maradona, and Kempes, who had been struggling for form and fitness at Valencia, was barely sighted. Karlheinz Rummenigge missed a good chance on the half-hour, but just before half-time the Germans took a deserved lead, when Horst Hrubesch headed home Hansi Muller's left-wing corner.

Kempes was replaced by José Valencia, but the Germans still looked well in control after the break. A poor first touch robbed Hrubesch of another good chance just after the teams re-emerged, and the big striker forced Ubaldo Fillol into action with a thumping free kick later in the half. Things were not entirely quiet at the other end: Daniel Passarella was cleverly sneaking up from the back as he often had in 1978, once receiving the ball in the box and forcing a good save from Toni Schumacher. But as the half wore on, the fight seemed to be going out of Argentina, and the only half-chances on offer were German ones.

But there was to be a twist in this tale. 

With six minutes remaining, Argentina won a corner on the right. Diaz took it, and Passarella met it with a gentle header from twelve yards. It should have posed no danger at all, but somehow Schumacher and Kaltz got into a nightmarish tangle on the goal-line, and the Hamburg fullback prodded the ball into his own net.

It was a horrible goal to concede, and just four minutes later the shell-shocked Germans let in another. Valencia played Diaz through on the right, and the young striker powered a shot past the advancing Schumacher. Against all logic, Argentina had won.

The tournament story continues in Part 3.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 9:47 PM