world cup 2014

WORLD CUP 2014
C6-7
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Next Special Report
In the next editon of Gulf News’ countdown
to the 2014 World Cup, we look at the best
players who never made it to a Fifa
showpiece — including George Best.
WHEN MINNOWS
STOLE THE SHOW
DAYS TO GO
With just three months to go until the
2014 Fifa World Cup kicks off in Brazil,
Gulf News brings you the latest in a
series of monthly features looking ahead
to the biggest show on Planet Football.
Today we pay tribute to the teams who
produced some of the biggest upsets in the
tournament’s history.
USA 1 England 0
June 29, 1950
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Group stage
South Korea 2 Italy 1
June 18, 2002
Daejeon, South Korea
Round of 16
■■
I
taly suffered unwelcome memories of
1966 when they were dumped out of
the 2002 event in the second round by
co-hosts South Korea. Guus Hiddink’s side
fought back from a goal down to force
extra time and, with penalties looming,
Serie A striker Ahn Jung-hwan headed
home a golden goal winner. The Koreans
may have been aided by some dubious
refereeing and an extraordinary Christian
Vieri miss, but they were a real force in the
tournament as they went on to beat Spain
on penalties before losing to Germany in
the semi-finals — the furthest an Asian
team has ever progressed.
■■
Park Ji-sung is
fouled by Italy’s
Francesco Coco as
Paolo Maldini looks on.
■■
Rex Features
Uruguay 2 Brazil 1
A
fter boycotting the first three Fifa
World Cups, England — the ‘home’ of
football — finally made a debut appearance in Brazil in 1950. The Three Lions
were tipped to excel, but instead they went
out in the first round after suffering an unthinkable defeat to the American part-timers. The US had lost their previous seven international matches by an aggregate score
of 45-2, while the English opted to leave
out star player Stanley Matthews as he was
recovering from injury, but a single goal from
Joe Gaetjens and some heroics from keeper
Frank Borghi gave America victory.
(after extra time)
USA fans carry
match-winner
Joe Gaetjens
off the pitch
after the team
beat England at
the 1950 World
Cup.
Gulf News Archives
July 16, 1950
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Final round stage
O
■■
Alcides Ghiggia
scores the winning
goal for Uruguay
against Brazil at the
Maracana in 1950.
Gulf News Archives
France midfielder Patrick
Vieira is surrounded by Salif
Diao (left) and Aliou Cisse
(right)during Senegal’ s 2002
victory.
■■
Rex Features
n July 16, 1950, Brazilian football suffered a blow from which it is yet to
fully recover. The nation had all but
crowned the team world champions ahead
of the final match against Uruguay (they
only needed to avoid defeat as it was a
round-robin stage), but their South
American neighbours caused the ultimate
upset to stun a fervent home crowd estimated at more than 200,000, with Alcides
Ghiggia scoring the decisive goal in a 2-1 win
with just 11 minutes to go. For Brazil, even
with their five World Cup wins since, only
victory in the 2014 final at the same stadium
would exercise the ghosts of the ‘Maracanazo’ (the Maracana blow).
West
German
players
celebrate
the ‘Miracle
of Bern’ in
the 1954
final.
Gulf News Archives
Senegal 1 France 0
West Germany 3 Hungary 2
May 31, 2002
Seoul, South Korea
Group stage
July 4, 1954
Bern, Switzerland
Final
A
fter Cameroon’s 1990 stunner, the
opening match of the 2002 World Cup
also proved to be a banana skin for the
reigning champions at the hands of unheralded Africans. The tone was set for a miserable campaign for a strong France team
when they were beaten 1-0 by Pape Bouba
Diop’s goal for the Bruno Metsu-led Senegal
side, many of whom went on to become
household names in European football.
■■
Bulgaria 2 Germany 1
July 10, 1994
East Rutherford, US
Quarter-final
T
he Germans produced an incredible
turnaround as they recorded the ‘Miracle of Bern’ in the 1954 final. Hungary
were at that time the strongest team in
world football as, led by legend Ferenc Puskas, they had won the 1952 Olympics, were
unbeaten in six years and even thrashed
West Germany 8-3 in the group stage in
Switzerland. Puskas and Zoltan Czibor had
them 2-0 in front after just eight minutes of
the final, but the Germans rallied superbly
to level by the 18th minute and Helmut Rahn
decided the World Cup with an
84th-minute winner.
Bulgaria’s Hristo
Stoichkov delivers his
unstoppable freekick over the German
wall and past keeper
Bodo Illgner.
Do not adjust your set!
■■
North Korea players celebrate their famous 1-0 victory over Italy in
the group stage of the 1966 World Cup. Unpredictable results have
been a feature of the tournament throughout its 84-year history.
Rex Features
Rex Features
T
Cameroon
striker Roger
Milla (centre)
runs at the
Argentina
defence
during his
side’s 1990
victory.
■■
■■
Cameroon 1 Argentina 0
Video
June 8, 1990
Milan, Italy
Group stage
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Northern Ireland’s
Norman Whiteside
— who broke the
record for youngest
player to appear at a
World Cup — moves
between Jose Antonio
Camacho (right) and
Miguel Alonso.
Rex Features
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July 19, 1966
Middlesbrough, England
Group stage
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On the web
North Korea 1 Italy 0
orth Korea, widely viewed with
suspicion ahead of the tournament
in England following the Korean
War of 1950-53, won over the people of the
industrial town of Middlesbrough, and many
others beside, with their showing at the
World Cup — which included an incredible
victory over two-time winners Italy.
Pak Doo-ik scored the only goal to take the
Koreans into the quarter-finals, where they
romped into a rapid three-goal lead against
Portugal before Eusebio inspired a 5-3
turnaround win.
■■
T
Italy goalkeeper
Enrico Albertosi
is beaten by Pak
Doo-ik’s shot at
Ayresome Park,
Middlesbrough, in
1966.
Gulf News Archives
he reigning World Cup holders also suffered a shock defeat in USA 94, when
mighty Germany were dumped out at
the quarter-final stage by Bulgaria, who had
never won a finals match before the tournament began. The match looked to be going
to form when legendary skipper Lothar
Matthaeus put the Germans ahead from
the penalty spot soon after half-time. But
Bulgaria levelled thanks to a superb freekick by mercurial Barcelona forward Hristo
Stoichkov and, just three minutes later, the
bald-headed Yordan Letchkov delivered an
inch-perfect diving header that decided the
match.
he Italia 90 tournament was given
an almost unthinkable start as 1986
champions Argentina, Diego Maradona
SMSet
us al, were stunned 1-0 by Cameroon
in the opening match. Francois OmamBiyik scored the only goal when his tame
header squirmed under the body of
goalkeeper
Nery Pumpido, and the African
Facebook
side held on despite having two men sent
off. Cameroon won neutral hearts as they
progressed to the quarter-finals, with
Call usflag-dancer Roger Milla named in
corner
the event’s all-star team.
■■
Northern Ireland 1 Spain 0
June 25, 1982
Valencia, Spain
First group stage
H
osts Spain suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of Northern
Ireland and, although both sides
progressed, the result meant Spain finished
as runners-up and were paired with West
Germany and England in the second group
stage and they crashed out. Gerry Armstrong — who soon earned a move to Real
Mallorca and is now a Spanish football
pundit — scored the only goal after keeper
Luis Arconada palmed the ball straight to
him inside the area, while legendary Irish
stopper Pat Jennings kept the Spaniards at
bay at the other end.
Archie Gemmill
weaves his way
through the
Netherlands
defence on his
way to scoring a
memorable goal.
Rex Features
Scotland 3 Netherlands 2
June 11, 1978
Mendoza, Argentina
Group stage
R
unners-up four years earlier, the
Netherlands went into their final
group game in 1978 only needing
to avoid a three-goal defeat by Scotland,
who were embarrassed 3-1 by Peru in
their first match, to progress. The Dutch
made it — even going all the way to the
final again — but only after surviving a
massive scare as a delightful Archie
Gemmill goal put the Scots 3-1 ahead
with 22 minutes to play. Johnny Rep
scored a long-range thunderbolt to
reduce the deficit, but the result
was still a big surprise.