Wednesday, January 04, 2023
Victims of the Anschluss, Part 4
The day after the Algerians had shocked West Germany in Gijón, the other two teams in Group B of the 1982 World Cup took to the field for their opening match in Oviedo. It was the Austrians who prevailed, beating Chile by the only goal. It was, however, a laboured performance by the European side: soon after Walter Schachner's early headed goal, they conceded a penalty, which Chile's veteran forward Carlos Caszely put feebly wide. The Austrians held on to their lead for the remainder of the game largely thanks to the efforts of their excellent veteran goalkeeper, Friedrich Koncilia.
The Algerians, in other words, had every reason to believe that they could beat the book again when they faced Austria in Oviedo four days later (West Germany had thumped Chile 4-1 in the meantime).
The game was played in sapping heat, and initially the Austrians looked even more ponderous than they had against Chile. Koncilia came to their rescue early, when a right-wing move by the Algerians ended in a shot by Djamel Zidane, which brought a brilliant save from the Austrian keeper. At the other end, however, the canny strikers Schachner and Hans Krankl were already posing the somewhat inflexible Algerian defence some problems. When Krankl was tripped in the box by Faouzi Mansouri on 18 minutes, the referee, Australian Tony Boskovic, should certainly have awarded a penalty.
The rest of the half saw the Algerians on top. Koncilia needed to be on his mettle again just after the half-hour when Rabah Madjer shot from close range; from the resulting corner, Madjer tested Koncilia again with a looping header which the Austrian keeper tipped over the bar. Boskovic again showed undue leniency when Moustapha Dahleb was shockingly body-checked on the way to goal by the Austrian captain Erich Obermayer.
The second half was a different story. Having withstood the early pressure, Austria now brought on an energetic attacker in Kurt Welzl, and pounced on the Algerian lapses.
The first goal arrived just before the hour. Chaabane Merzekane, as adventurous as ever at right-back, became stranded upfield, allowing the Austrian left-back Josef Degeorgi to advance down the left; he passed to Welzl in the middle, whose shot was deflected to the alert Schachner. The Cesena striker placed the ball deftly past Mehdi Cerbah to open the scoring.
Lakhder Belloumi was withdrawn in favour of another attacker, Tedj Bensaoula, but the rapid sequel was another Austrian goal. Again, the substitute Welzl was the provider, sliding a delightful pass through to Krankl on the left, who sent a superb curled shot past Cerbah. A couple of minutes later it was almost three, Schachner connecting with Krankl's pass and beating Cerbah again, only for Noureddine Kourichi to clear off the line.
The Algerians were now a beaten side, with the clever Austrian attackers drawing them out of shape at will, and coming close to adding to the scoreline on several occasions. There was a chance at the other end, Salah Assad being left unexpectedly free in front of goal, but the winger's pitiful miskick summed up Algeria's afternoon.
After the game, some of the Algerian players admitted that they had become a little over-confident after their giant-killing feat in Gijón. But they were still in with a good chance of qualifying: the points table read Austria 4, West Germany and Algeria 2, Chile 0, and the demoralised Chileans were to be encountered next. If Algeria could beat the South Americans by a decent margin, they were virtually through.
And, but for a certain lack of tournament nous, they would have been. More in Part 5.
