Lets take a look at the Top 10 stunning upsets in World Cup history :
Ten. West Germany 0, East Germany 1, 1974
In a perfect football epitome of the Cold War, West Germany, hosting the Cup in 1974, were drawn to play their neighbors from across the Berlin Wall - East Germans in what was to be East`s one and only appearance ever on the world football stage. Both teams having secured qualification for the next round, everything that was at stake was pride, and lots of it. West Germans, European champions of the day, having arguably one of the best line-ups in the history of the game was up against a team of eleven unknowns from the communist East. What the capacity crowd at Volks park stadium in Hamburg witnessed, happened to be a sole goal scored by one Jurgen Sparwasser for the East Germans in the 77th minute of the game. West Germany threw everything on offence in a vain attempt to equalize but the East Germans weren`t impressed. The result stood at 0-1 and Sparwasser rose from obscurity only to became something of a household name in Germany. However, West Germans recovered quickly from the embarrassment and went on to win the Cup later on.
Two. Germany 2, Switzerland 4, 1938
Nazi Germany having won a bronze medal in 1934 edition was set to conquer the soccer world in 1938. Boosted by as much as nine Austrian players that were included into the German team after the ”Anschluss” of Austria in March of that same year, they were to play Switzerland in the first round of the tournament hosted by France. Brandishing a nazi salute before the start of the match in front of a very hostile crowd at Park des Princes stadium in Paris, Germans took on the non-remarkable Swiss team but managed only a draw after taking the lead earlier in the match. According to the rules in those days a play-off was to be played within 48 hours. Two days later at the same venue, Germans were cruising comfortably 2-0 at half-time and nobody expected anything out of the ordinary. Except for the Swiss players that were determined to make life difficult for the Germans and pulled off one of the most shocking comebacks ever, scoring incredible four goals in the second half and sending the Nazi Dream Team out of the Cup.
Three. Italy 1, New Zealand 1, 2010
One could hardly imagine more unbalanced fixture than defending World Champions of 2006, Italy playing New Zealand in 2010 World Cup in South Africa. ”All Whites”, representatives of Oceania, a team occasionally being beaten up by the likes of Fiji and other exotic sides wasn`t perceived as a threat by any stretch of imagination. Though Kiwis pulled one remarkable last minute escape to a draw with Slovakia earlier in the Cup and Italy did likewise against Paraguay it was hard to expect anything but defeat at the hands of the ``Azzuri``. Saving a point with Slovakia is one thing, stopping the World Champions is quite another – yet that is exactly what happened at Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit to the amazement of anyone that even remotely knows ``who`s who`` in football world. Shane Smeltz shocked the world after seven minutes and Italians only got to equalize through a penalty kick later. As the subsequent results showed, this draw sent Italians back home alongside All Whites that still finished in front of Italy in the group!
Four. Argentina 0 Cameroon 1, 1990
Playing an opening World Cup game against reigning World champions is difficult enough, playing against Argentina as it was the case at the 1990 World Cup opener is worse, having to stop Diego Maradona, widely acknowledged as one of the best players ever to have played football is next to impossible, but beating them with one and later two men down is a stuff that legends are made. That is what the team of Cameroon pulled off at San Siro, Milan sending shockwaves around the world and becoming most successful African World Cup side to date. More resembling a pitched battle than a game with numerous wild tackles from both sides it took one mistake to decide the result and it was Argentinian goalkeeper Pumpido that dropped the ball into his own net after clumsily trying to save Omam Biyik`s header in the seconf half. Cameroonians didn`t stop there and famously went on to progress to the quarterfinals only to be stopped on the brink of a medal glance by losing in extra time against England.
Five. France 0, Senegal 1, 2002
Having to open a World Cup defending the title puts a team in precarious position, best illustrated perhaps when the French set out against Senegal, being shocking African qualifiers but not much more in footballing terms. Nothing seemed to go right for the French that day in Seoul, missing many chances to score and as it often happens when one team misses so many opportunities, punishment is swift and cruel. This match wasn`t an exception and Senegalese caught the French defence asleep on the counter attack with Papa Buba Diop scoring the only goal after thirty minutes. Efforts on behalf of the French team that included superstars such as Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira proved futile and the result of the first match at the first World Cup to be co-hosted in Asia by Japan and Korea stood at Senegal 1, France 0. France never recovered from this defeat and had a nightmare of a campaign being eliminated in the group stage without even scoring a single goal! Senegal on the other hand went strongly to make most of their single World Cup appearance ever and matched the best World Cup results by African teams narrowly missing on the semifinals.
Six. Holland 1, Egypt 1, 1990
Hopes of winning the World Cup are commonplace, and chances of winning the Cup backed by the likes of Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Ronald Koeman having the European throne already in their back pocket must have seemed very realistic. The Dutch team was set to achieve in Italy in the summer of 1990 what had eluded them twice in the final matches in 1974 & 1978, even more so because their first obstacle wasn`t too scary by any way conceivable. It was Egypt, another African ``loose mine`` waiting to strike at unsuspecting favorites. Maybe not as easy as expected but the flamboyant Dutch still took the lead in the second half and had control over the game. That was so until 83rd minute when Koeman`s foul on Hossam Hassan just inside the 18-yard box led to a penalty from which Abdelghani equalized and stopped the Dutch dead in their tracks. A one-off shocker, Egypt failed to make further impact finishing bottom of the group and the Dutch fared only marginally better being eliminated in the second round.
Seven. West Germany 1, Algeria 2, 1982
German players were so sure they`ll beat Algeria in 1982 that they never even bothered to watch a tape of how Algeria, their opponent in an upcoming fixture – plays the game. Along with jokes and funny remarks for the upcoming fixture against the North African debutants, to say that Germans underestimated Algeria is an understatement. And it backfired badly. Algerians played their heart out and deservedly won the game in Gijon, to the amazement of the crowd and TV spectators around the globe.
As sensational as it was, this result was overshadowed by an apparent match fixing scandal when Germany and Austria went on to finish their match in the only way possible that would see them both through and eliminate Algeria. No evidence was presented and the Cup went along without Algeria except it prompted FIFA to change the rules for the last matches in the group to be played at the same time in the future, minimizing the chances for `friendly` outcomes, just in case.
Eight. Italy 0, North Korea 1, 1966
It was a shock in it`s own right that North Korea qualified for the 1966 World Cup in England and having been drawn in a group with the Soviet Union, Italy and Chile it was clear that it would take a miracle to beat all miracles if North Korea was to advance further into the knockout phase. Having lost comfortably against USSR and drawing with Chile, North Koreans were left with only one option in the final match and that was to beat the European football powerhouse, Italy. Renown for their defensive tactics, even a draw was enough for the Italians that day at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough. Pak Do Ik`s stunner just before the half time sent North Korea in front and all subsequent efforts by the Italians to score were hampered by Korean defense and especially their goalkeeper, 19 year old Lee Chang Myung who rose from obscurity and saved the day, launching the North Korean players for a brief moment to world fame. Once in the quarter finals, North Koreans were on a brink of another sensation leading 3-0 against Portugal only to receive five goals later that put an end to the dream. 46 years later, a BBC documentary gathered all seven surviving team members for a reminiscence of what many consider to be one of the major upsets in international football.
Nine. Hungary 2, West Germany 3, 1954
It was the big final of the 1954 World Cup at Wankdorf stadium in Bern, Switzerland. Hungarians, one of the finest teams ever to be assembled surprised no one by progressing to the final match. Unbeaten in four years and 31 matches, having already destroyed Germany 8-3 in the group stage it must have seem natural that the Cup was already in their hands, especially after Puskas & Csibor scored two goals in the opening nine minutes of the final itself. Dubbed ``The miracle of Bern`` it was the quintessential German die hard attitude that made the difference and shortly afterwards the score line stood at 2-2, Morlock and Rahn with the goals. Helmut Rahn was to became a hero of post war resurging Germany by scoring his second goal of the match with only six minutes to go. Puskas scored a last minute goal for Hungary that was disallowed for an apparent offside and Germany ended winners, with millions of TV spectators watching the first televised World Cup. In later years, suspicions grew over alleged methamphetamine use by the German players which could explain the edge they had over their rivals. Sadly, Hungarian ``Golden team`` was to decline rapidly after the 1956 Hungarian revolution with most players emigrating and being adopted by other national football teams.
Ten. England 0, United States 1, 1950
At last, England ended the World Cup boycott and qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. As a country where football originated and having the best professional league in the world expectations run high. After an initial easy victory over Chile, English stars were to play United States, rank outsiders of the tournament in Belo Horizonte. Featuring legends such as Finney, Mortensen, Ramsey and Stanley Matthews they were up against a United States team, a strange mixture of semi-pro`s, expats and amateurs hoping to gain experience on the world stage. As the game opened, England pressed on to score and created several chances but executed none. And then in the 37th minute, it happened. Joe Gaetjens, Haitian emigrant and a part-time dishwasher while at Columbia University scored the goal that would decide the match and immortalize the greatest upset ever to occur at any World Cup. English threw everything they had at the Americans but it wasn`t to be. Indeed, in the closing moments of the game, U.S.A almost doubled their lead and moments later it was all over. England 0, United States 1. Such an outcome was so unthinkable that news reports around the globe assumed a mistake on the part of telegraph operators and printed 10-1 result in favor of England! United States finished the competition with a defeat by Chile, while the English, evidently still in shock, lost their final match against Spain and crashed ingloriously out of the Cup.
No comments:
Post a Comment