I WANT FOOTBALL

World Cup 1994

In taking the game to a new frontier I wonder if the FIFA bods fully realised the futility of trying to break the beautiful game in the States. For us football purists, things weren't that auspicious right from the opening ceremony as Diana Ross theatrically missed a shot from the penalty spot - but then ultimately missed penalties are what won the World Cup for Brazil.

For the first time since 1950 there was no representative of Great Britain in a world cup finals, although the Republic of Ireland had qualified. Furthermore, 1994 was to be the first time since 1938 that a united Germany would take part. Hapless Graham Taylor was the England Manager in charge of their dreadful attempt at qualification. Some of the players that he picked truly beggared belief. I’m not going to name names here because it’s not their fault (that he picked them) – and as for Taylor himself it really is odd how a man so tactically out of touch with the game can actually come across as so in touch spiritually.

Group Stages

Anyway, back to the tournament itself. This time around we had the usual 24 teams, split into 6 groups of 4. In Group A, Romania and Switzerland qualified as of right with the hosts getting one of the 4 ‘fastest loser’ berths. From Group B, Brazil and Sweden were too strong for Russia and Italia 90’s surprise package, Cameroon. Group C gave us Germany and Spain, Group D saw a blanket finish with Nigeria, Bulgaria and Argentina all winning 2 and losing one of their games. The Africans ended up top of the group by virtue of their +4 goal difference whilst Bulgaria’s win over Argentina saw them finish second despite their having identical records. The Group of Dearth, Group E saw another blanket finish, with all four teams acquiring 4 points, Mexico topped the group with a record of (P)3-(W)1-(D)1-(L)1-F(4)-A(4)-Pts(4). Ireland and Italy scored identical records of 3-1-1-1-2-2-4 with the Irish finishing second due their 1-0 win over Italy in New York. It was Norway who were unlucky, going out with their record of 3-1-1-1-1-1-4. In the final group, Saudi Arabia slipped in between the Netherlands and neighbours Belgium, although all three qualified for the second round.

Round of 16

The Round of 16 threw up a couple of surprise results, not least the 3-2 victory for Romania over Argentina - guess who had the South Americans in the office sweepstakes?! In another victory for former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, Bulgaria (who had never won a game in a world cup finals before) prevailed on penalties versus Mexico. More was to come from the Bulgarians, but for now let's just leave it at that.

The other matches went pretty much to form, with Brazil beating the USA, Sweden defeating Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands mercifully sending Ireland packing, Germany had a close call against Belgium, but ran out 3-2 winners, Italy did just enough to beat Nigeria and Spain proved too hot for Switzerland to handle in a 3-0 win.

Quarter Finals

At last things started to get interesting. In the first quarter-final an all European clash saw a close game between Italy and Spain. Italy took the lead through Dino Baggio, but were pegged back by a goal from Caminero on the hour mark. Finally with just three minutes left for play Roberto Baggio scored the winner for the Azzurri. The next game was even closer. Brazil took the lead through Romario on 53 minutes and this was doubled by Bebeto ten minutes later. Brazil were seemingly coasting through to their umpteenth semi-final before Dennis Bergkamp and then Aron Winter levelled the score. However, parity was to last for just 5 minutes, this time Branco's goal was decisive for the Brazilians.

The third quarter-final was something of a shock. The tournament's surprise team Bulgaria were pitched against the metronome that is Germany. Things were going pretty much to plan when Lothar Matthaus notched from the spot just after half time to send the Germans one up. However, Bulgaria were now made of sterner stuff and with fifteen minutes left the tournament's joint highest scorer Hristo Stoichkov was on hand to equalise. Less than five minutes later and Yordan Letchkov scored what turned out to be the winning goal. The fourth quarter-final was the closest of them all. Locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and then 2-2 after extra time, Sweden kept their cool from he penalty spot to see off Romania by a score of 5-4.

Semi Finals

So we came to the semi-finals stage. We had two old timers, past masters of world cups with an incredible six titles between them - three each for Italy and Brazil. Then there was Sweden, runners-up in 1958 and third in 1950 and finally Bulgaria. The first match between Italy and Bulgaria produced a 2-1 win for the Italians, Roberto Baggio scoring twice in 5 first half minutes before Stoichkov ended the scoring with a penalty on the stroke of half time. So we our first finalist. In the second semi-final Brazil was pitched against Sweden - a result similar to their group match was on the cards until Romario rose to nod home from a right wing cross with just ten minutes left.

Final

So we were delivered of our finalists. Based upon their record of six wins between them, surely a classic final was in the offing. However things, especially in football, never turn out as one might expect and this game was no surprise on that score. A turgid affair was still locked in a goalless stalemate after 120 minutes, so for the first time ever a world cup final was to be decided by penalties. With the penalty count at 3-2 in Brazil's favour Italy's hero Roberto Baggio stepped up to take his side's 5th penalty - he needed to score to keep the tie alive. Unfortunately he missed and Brazil, almost by default, were crowned World Cup Winners for the fourth time. It was hard on Baggio, having rescued Italy in the 88th minute against Nigeria in the round of sixteen he had then scored the winner versus Spain and both goals against Bulgaria in the semi-final win. But then Diana Ross had missed the tournament's first penalty so it was perhaps fitting for a talent such as he to miss the last one.