Tuesday, January 03, 2023
Victims of the Anschluss, Part 3
West Germany began their opening match at the 1982 World Cup with a formidable-looking side, which had changed little since the 1980 Nations Cup triumph. Bernd Schuster, the incisive Barcelona playmaker, was unavailable due to a knee injury, but the tricky winger Pierre Littbarski was an important addition, and the team had a charismatic leader in the forthright Paul Breitner, a hero of the 1974 tournament. Algeria, their opponents, had beaten Real Madrid in a warm-up game, but few expected them to trouble the European champions.
And the Germans did begin the game impressively, dominating the possession and making inroads on the flanks, largely thanks to the very lively Littbarski. Germany's chief supplier of goals, Karlheinz Rummenigge, had two good chances early on but failed to make the most of them, miscuing a header from Manfried Kaltz's cross before firing into the side netting when set up by Littbarski. The Algerians were gradually working their way into the game as the half wore on, and the fullbacks in particular were gaining in confidence, weathering the early storm on the flanks from the likes of Littbarski, Kaltz and Hans-Peter Briegel.
Mehdi Cerbah in goal was also growing in stature, particularly after doing well to cover Wolfgang Dremmler's shot ten minutes before the break. As the first half drew to a close, with the Algerians impressing with their close control and Cerbah covering his area diligently, it was hard to say who had the initiative. The Gijón crowd, needless to say, were cheering loudly for the underdogs.
Nine minutes after half-time, following a half-chance for Kaltz, Algeria went ahead. Djamel Zidane, his close control impressive throughout, picked a fine pass through to Lakhdar Belloumi, whose shot was saved by an advancing Toni Schumacher. The rebound, however, reached Rabah Madjer, who volleyed home from close range. "David 1, Goliath 0", remarked the German commentator, adding that the Algerians were looking more confident with every minute.
The game opened up. Zidane created another chance, this time for the left-winger Salah Assad, before Littbarski almost managed to dribble through the entire Algerian defence to score: Cerbah, again, was well-positioned to cover his eventual shot. The Germans did soon equalise, with a goal of high quality; a series of passes ended with a ball through to Felix Magath on the left, whose crisp cutback was bundled over the line by Rummenigge. Sighs of relief from the German bench.
But almost straight from the kickoff, Algeria went back in front, with a mirror-image goal: Assad, slipping into the inside-left channel, was played in alertly by Moustapha Dahleb, and pulled the ball back for Belloumi to score.
The Germans threw men into attack in the final twenty minutes, including the sweeper Uli Stielike, and were rewarded with a seemingly endless series of corners, with which, unfortunately, they did next to nothing. Horst Hrubesch, the powerful centre-forward, was winning plenty of balls in the air but could not direct them on target. At the other end, Chaabane Merzekane, having a superb game at right-back, bullocked his way right down the field and almost scored, Schumacher eventually coming to the Germans' rescue.
The final minutes were packed with incident. From the Germans' fifteenth (!) corner, Littbarski finally found the net, but the play was called back for a foul - somewhat dubiously. Then Madjer missed a superb chance to make it 3-1, putting a pass from Merzekane just wide. Hrubesch beat Cerbah with yet another header in the final minute, but the ball came back off the bar; then Cerbah flung himself to catch a powerful shot from Briegel. The final whistle blew, to Algerian delight and German disbelief.
It was, in its own way, a shock as great as North Korea's victory over Italy in 1966, or even the USA's win over England in 1950. Derwall, to his credit, ate some humble pie in the aftermath. "Algeria played very intelligently, and they surprised our defenders, who fell apart in the second half." Belloumi, pointedly, dedicated his goal to the 20th anniversary of his country's independence - due just a few weeks after the game. In Algeria, street parties abounded. In Essen, in the Ruhr, a bar owner put up a sign warning that anyone talking about football would be ejected.
But, as we saw recently when Saudi Arabia shocked Lionel Messi's Argentina, one match doth not a World Cup make. Next up for Rachid Mekhloufi's men: Austria. To be continued in Part 4.
