Flying high after the Spain victory - Photo jcolman CCANDNC
There is so much to see on YouTube that it is tempting to stop watching programmes on the BBC so you have more advertising breaks to fit in more clips. But where to begin? Sport without Spin will guide you with a digest of some of our favourite clips.
This week, our youtube feature has been delayed after our initial plan to showcase the best bits from the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday was scuppered by the sourpuss ICC, who removed all the good clips from youtube through a copyright claim, so Coetzer’s catch on the boundary, Afridi’s innings complete with ‘BOOM BOOM’ commentary from Bumble, Dilshan’s remarkable scoop shot and Chris Gayle belting the living daylights out of Australia’s World Cup challenge will have to wait for the ICC authorised money spinning DVD instead. Probably.
Down but not out, we instead have taken inspiration from American football, and we don’t mean the throwy-catchy variety. Following the American’s unlikely victory in the Confederations Cup over the seemingly unstoppable Spain, we decidedc to take a look back at some other unlikley results in international football, including Asia’s finest hour and Africa’s double assault on the World Champions from football aristocracy.
1. USA dump European Champions out of the Confederations Cup
After providing the 4th installment of the Mission Impossible franchise in the group stage where they overcame a 3-1 defeat to Italy and a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, by picking up 3 points from their final group match as well as overhauling a 6 goal defecit to advance at the expense of Egypt and Italy, the United States surely couldn’t upset the odds against Spain in the semi-finals. . . could they? Goals from Jozy Altidore and Fulham’s Clint Dempsey, the latter capping off a smart move with a piece opportunism following some shoddy defending, sent the much decorated Spaniards packing.
2. Uruguay ruin Brazil’s World Cup carnival
In front of a record crowd believed to have been around 210,000 at the famous Maracana in Rio, Brazil went into what was effectively the World Cup Final fully expecting to win - uniquely there was no knock out matches in the 1950 World Cup, with the preliminary group stages followed by a round robin league, but going into the final round it became winner takes all with Brazil top and Uruguay second. Brazil had annihilated Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 in their other round robin games, whilst Uruguay drew with Spain and stumbled past Sweden 3-2. The result was widely seen as a foregone conclusion: the local press and fans alike proclaimed Brazil world champions in advance; Jules Rimet prepared a speach in Portuguese to congratulate Brazil on their triumph at the trophy ceremony; the Brazilian football confederation had 22 gold medals prepared with the Brazlian’s names inscribed (FIFA hadn’t thought of medals yet); and a Brazilian victory song had been composed in advance.
As Uruguay shocked the hosts, coming from behind to win 2-1 through strikes from Juan Alberto Schiaffino and Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia in the last 25 minutes, Jules Rimet was left literally speechless, the medals had to be disposed of, the anthem was never played, some fans committed suicide, many players retired early whilst others were ostracised from the national team. One major plus to come from all of this was that Brzail abandoned their white kits with blue trim, believing it jinxed, and following a competition they settled on the famous yellow shirt with green trim and blue shorts based on the colours of the national flag.
3. Africa 1, World Champions 0
The wonderful Italia ‘90 World Cup started with a bang, with Argentina coming up short against the Indomitable Lions. Cameroon, in only their second World Cup, delivered a seismic shock by defeating the holders in their first game. The goal was messy with the keeper Pumpido making a real hash of a weak header, and Benjamin Massing’s amazingly bad tackle on Claudio Caniggia that earned him a red card was even magnificently messy. Argentina recovered, with Pumpido breaking his leg in the second group game, allowing Goycochea to take his place and become the hero in the semi-final against hosts Italy before they lost to the mericlessly efficient (West) Germans in the final.
4. Africa 2, World Champions 0
The 2002 World Cup carried shades of 1990, with supposed African novices - this time debutants Senegal - taking down the World Champions in the curtain raiser. El Hadj-Diouf announced himself as a major talent (before his big money transfer to the Premier League showed he wasn’t such a big talent after all), running rings round the much vaunted French team and setting up the messy winner from Papa Bouba Diop that set the Lions of Teranga on the way to the quarter finals. France, unlike Argentina in 1990, failed to recover or even score in the tournament, managing only a 0-0 draw with Uruguay and a tame defeat to Denmark that left them bottom of their group.
5. Magnificent Magyars give England a lesson
Perhaps this shouldn’t be seen as a surprise result in that Hungary were Olympic Champions and unbeaten in three years, but England were unbeaten at Wembley against teams outside the UK, boasted Billy Wright and Stanley Matthews in their ranks and were largely ignorant of the talent they would come up against. the English expected to win and certainly didn’t see a 6-3 thrashing coming their way: Sir Bobby Robson later reflected “they were coming to England, England had never been beaten at Wembley - this would be a 3-0, 4-0 maybe even 5-0 demolition of a small country who were just coming into European football. They called Puskás the ‘Galloping Major’ because he was in the army - how could this guy serving for the Hungarian army come to Wembley and rifle us to defeat?”
Quite easily it turned out - the Hungarians brought with them a brand of fluent and immensely skillful attacking football that tore their hosts apart, none more than the legendary Ferenc Puskas - witness the third goal of the match which he scored, skillfully taking the defender out of the game with a delightful drag back before rifiling it past the keeper at his near post. Robson admitted how “that one game alone changed our thinking. We thought we would demolish this team - England at Wembley, we are the masters, they are the pupils. It was absolutely the other way.”
6. Bolivia ’stab’ Maradona in the heart six times (not literally)
In April this year Maradona’s remarkable return to the Argentinian national side as Manager hit its first setback after three consecutive victories. And what a setback. Playing at high altitude with the Bolivians requiring 3 points to keep their World Cup qualification hopes alive, Joaquin Botero scored a hat-trick as the Bolivians thrashed their prestigious visitors to leave everybody speechless as well as breathless. Maradona struggled to explain the defeat in the post-match press conference, seemingly struggling for air as he told those in attendance that “every Bolivia goal was a stab in my heart. If we had dreamed this was going to happen before the game, we would have thought it was impossible.”
7. South Korea put Asian football on the map with a shudder
2002 World Cup co-hosts South Korea, managed by miracle worker Guus Hiddink, faced Italy in the first knockout round and nobody gave them much of a chance. After Ahn Jung-Hwan missed a fourth minute penalty, their best chance seemed to have gone begging, and fourteen minutes later the uphill struggle got steeper as Vieri put Italy ahead.
The Koreans, spurred on by a passionate home crowd, refused to give up hope, and in the 88th minute Seol Ki-Hyeon forced extra-time, pouncing on a loose ball in the box. A red card for Francesco Totti and a missed open goal from Vieri later, the Koreans had another chance and this time Ahn Jung-Hwan was equal to it, heading past Buffon to register a famous Golden Goal that sent Italy crashing out. Korea would advance to the quarter finals and achieve an even more dramatic victory over spain on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes, before the Germans, written off by everybody as their weakest side in years, overcame them to meet Brazil in the final.
