From left to right Wilson, Lenarduzzi, Valentine, Bridge, Ragan, James, Samuel, Norman, Sweeny, Vrablic, Dolan

Tony Waiters

Tony Waiters (49) was goal-keeper with the English FirstDivision club Blackpool from1957-69, with 257 first teamappearances . Later on, hewas transferred to Burnleywhere he finished his careeras a player . He played fivetimes for England : against

Brazil, Wales, Ireland Rep .,Belgium and the Nether-lands.Waiters began his career as amanager quite successfully :in 1973 he won the EuropeanChampionships with theEnglish youth team . In thesame year he was appointedmanager of the Third Divisionclub Plymouth Argyle andmanaged to be promoted tothe Second Division with thisteam in 1975 .In 1977 Waiters went to Cana-da . With the Vancouver Whi-tecaps he was at the sametime president, general man-ager and coach . In 1979 thisteam became champions ofthe NASL .In 1983 he took overthe Cana-dian national team, workingat the same time in an adviso-ry capacity for the CanadianSoccer Association . Canadaqualified for the soccer tour-nament of the Olympic

Games in Los Angeles in1984 . After a victory overCameroon (3 :1), a drawagainst Iraq (1 :1) and a defeatagainst Yugoslavia (0 :1), Ca-nada achieved the Quarter-Finals . The game against Bra-zil ended in a draw (1 :1), Cana-da lost the shoot-out andwere eliminated .

Development

Ct% 11 ADA,

\Z

The Canadian youth teammanaged to qualify for twoWorld Youth Champion-ships (WYC) . At the WYC'79 in Japan, Canadacaused a great surprise witha 3 :1 victory over Portugal .After losing to Korea Rep.(0 :1) and to Paraguay (0 :3)the Canadian side were eli-minated. Four players fromthe select team for Mexicowere first string players ofthat youth national team :Bridge, Gray, Segota andSweeney.

From the team participatingin the WYC '85 in USSR noplayers were admitted toCanada's Mexico team .

No less than 13 players,however, were alreadypresent at the OlympicGames in Los Angeles.

127

128

Surprisingly, there were only few changes of players in the Canadian team . Segota (9), who was nominated for the Canadiansquad only subsequently, was used as a joker in all three games.

The PlayersThe North American SoccerLeague (NASL) was dis-banded in the beginning of1985 . This also caused thedissolution of many profes-sional clubs . The internation-al players Wilson, Ragan,Samuel, James, Dolan andHabermann could not find anew club . Therefore, theywere available to their nation-al manager for a long prepa-ration programme .About half of the Canadianplayers got a job with clubs ofthe Major Indoor SoccerLeague (MISL) and thus wereable to participate in theAmerican indoors champion-ship .Three players found a jobabroad : Bridge played at LaChaux-de-Fonds (Switzer-land), Moore was under con-tract with Glentoran Belfastand Vrablic scored goals forSeraing in Belgium. Young-ster Paul James was invitedfor a test training by Arsenal,but was not engaged.The Canadian team werecomposed of players fromvarious countries. Seven ofthe standard players wereborn abroad, emigrated toCanada later on and becamenaturalized : Gray and Nor-man came from Scotland,James from Wales, Lettieriwas born in Italy and Samuelin Trinidad . Vrablic's countryof origin was the CSSR andSegota came from Yugo-slavia .

TeamOrganizationThe team organization andthe conception of play weretypically British : a classic4-4-2 system with an overallzonal marking .Young Dolan guarded thegoal in Canada's first gameagainst France . In the follow-ing matches standard goal-keeper Lettieri was givenpreference again.The four-men defence playedthree times in the same for-mation . The central defen-ders Bridge and Samuel

covered each other in themiddle . Lenarduzzi was usedas right full-back . The team'ssenior and captain Wilsonwas charged with the posi-tion of the left full-back.The indefatigable Raganplayed in the left midfield dur-ing all the games . Althoughhe did not have the qualitiesof a playmaker he was never-theless the Canadians' cen-tral organizer and their drivingforce. He was supported byGray in the encounters withHungary and the USSR .Against France, Ragan wasassisted by the talentedJames whose qualities as aslightly retreated right wingercame to bear very well in thisposition .Norman was given an offen-sive role on one of the flanks .Against France, Sweeney ranwide on the left side, operat-ing as a retreated winger.Three players were availablefor the two positions upfront.The lightning-quick Valentinewas used in all three games .Vrablic, Canada's goalgetter,was nominated for the firsttwo matches and was thenreplaced by Mitchell againstthe USSR .

Attacking PlayThe attacking play was basedon the physical and mentalqualities of the Canadians :fastness, stamina, runningpower and fighting spirit .They bridged the midfield asfast as possible and directlywent for the opposing goal .As soon as the defenders hadconquered the ball, they triedto bring the forwards into ac-tion by long passes . The mid-field players immediately fol-lowed up and tried to runclear . One of their main taskswas to chase or to fight forthe rebounds in order tolaunch their strikers onceagain.Other characteristics of theCanadian offensive play wereswift runs down the flanks fol-lowed by sharp crosses andshots from all positions anddistances . But in the penalty-area the players mostly

lacked vision and coolness .Some Canadians did not dis-pose of the necessary skill, anessential factor at full speed.This is also a reason why theCanadian team did not scoreone of their many opportuni-ties .

Defensive PlayThe strong points of the Ca-nadian team were undoubt-edly to be found in defence .They were well organized atthe back . The positional playof the defenders was next toperfect . Their mutual under-standing proved to be verygood . One really had the im-pression that this team havebeen built up over years, withonly some few changes.The physical qualities of thedefenders proved to be quiteuseful in all their defensiveactions. The two central de-fenders Bridge and Samuelcould not be harassed byhigh crosses . Thanks to thewell-trained abilities in tack-ling and the uncompromisingcommitment of all the defen-ders, the Canadians wereable to stand their groundeven against teams providedwith superior skills withouthaving to resort to unneces-saryfouls.

ConclusionsManager Waiters presenteda well-balanced team with agood mutual understanding .They had their strong sidescertainly in the mental field .The disciplined party wereprovided with an exceptionalmorale . Each player was will-ing to devote himself com-pletely to the team . Therewas no other team at thisWorld Cup tournament withsuch a highly developed feel-ing of solidarity .Some players arrived in Mex-ico - coming from the Cana-dian indoors championship -just a few days before theirfirst game and thus couldhardly adapt themselves tothe altitude . Nevertheless,the team appeared to be ingood shape. The Canadians

set a good example that evenat top level it is possible tocope with difficult situationswith determination and en-thusiasm .Manager Waiters was cleverenough to let his team per-form their familiar soccer, re-gardless of altitude and heat .To play with a pressingmeans that all team membershave to run a lot and that theharmony among them has tobe excellent . As soon as theball was lost, the opponentswere attacked and put underpression . For this reason,they had enormous difficul-ties to develop their owngame and to find theirrhythm .Canada made great troubleto the French team and hadto concede the crucial goalonly ten minutes from time .Against Hungary, the Canadi-ans assaulted continuouslythe opposing goal . It was onlybecause of a lack in coolnessand a great deal of bad luckthat they did not win a pointin their best game . The So-viets too were faced withsome problems . It took them60 minutes to break down theastonishing Canadians.Canada's first participation inthe World Cup Finals mustdoubtlessly be regarded as again . The fighting spirit of allplayers, their commitmentand enthusiasm deserve con-gratulations!

Canada-France 0:1 (0 :0)0:1 Papin (79 ')

Canada-Hungary 0:2 (0:1)0:1 Esterhazy(2')0:2 Detari (75')

Canada-USSR 0:2 (0 :0)0:1 Blokhin (58')0:2 Zavarov (741)

129

Korea Rep.

PreparationThe government and theFootball Association of KoreaRep . spared no expense togive the Korean team the bestpossible preparation for theWorld Cup Finals .Only one month after the suc-cessful qualification for Mexi-co, at the beginning of De-cember 1985, the nationalteam made at first a trip toLos Angeles where they play-ed a first international gameagainst Mexico . Immediatelyafterwards the Korean squadflew to Mexico-City . There,the Koreans participated in aninternational tournament withHungary, Algeria and hostsMexico . Three further en-counters against Mexicanclub teams formed the closeof the tour .At the beginning of February1986, the Korean side startedfor a second extensive pre-paration tour . During an inter-mediate stop in Hongkong in-ternational games were play-ed against Hongkong andParaguay . Then the trip was

The Players and TheirAppearances

130

The South Corean Kyung-Noon trieswith all means to prevent Maradonafrom receiving the ball . The Asiatics

proved to be a gain for the WorldCup, managed to win one pointand

to score four goals .

whereEuropetotally 7 games took place inGermany, Belgium and Mon-aco, partly against famousclub sides .At the beginning of May, theKoreans moved to an altituderetreat in Colorado (USA),during which they went downto sea level three times . InSan Jose and in Los Angelesfurther preparation gameswere staged (against Englandand Peru) . On May 18 the Ko-rean delegation departed forMexico .

continued in

No- Name First narne(s) Date of birth Club 1st MatchArgentina

13

2nd MatchBulgaria

11

3rd MatchItaly23

hs Final Y Final '/ Final Final

1 Cho Byung-Duk 26.05 .58 Hallelujah FC

2 Park Kyung-Noon 19.01 .61 Pohang Iron & Steel

3 Chung Jong-Soo 27.03 .61 Yukong 45

4 Cho Kwang-Rae 19.03 .54 Daewoo 68 72

5 Jung Yong-Hwan 1 0 .02 .60 Daewoo

6 Lee Tae-Ho 29.01 .61 Daewoo

7 Kim Jong-Boo 13.01 .65 Korea University 45 20

8 Cho Young-Jeung 18.08 .54 Lucky Gold Star FC

9 Choi Soon-Ho 10 .01 .62 Pohang Iron & Steel10 Park Chung-Sun 02.02 .54 Daewoo11 Cha Bum-Kun 22.05 .53 Bayer Leverkusen

12 Kim Pyung-Suk 22.09 .58 HyundaiFC 22

13 No Soo-Jin 10 .02 .62 Yukong 45

14 Cho Min-Kook 05 .07 .63 Lucky Gold Star 18

15 Yoe Byung-Ok 02,0364 Han Yang University 4516 Kim Joo-Sung 17 .01 .66 Cho-Sun University 45

17 Huh Jung-Moo 13 .01 .55 HyundaiFC

18 Kim Sam-Soo 08.02 .63 HyundaiFC

19 Byun Byung-Joo 26.04 .61 Daewoo 70

20 Kim Yong-Se 21 .04 .60 Yukong 45

21 Ch Yun-Kyo 25.05 .60 Yukong

22 Kang Deuk-Soo 16.08 .61 Lucky Gold Star

Preliminary Matches Preparatory Matches

Nepal -Korea Rep . 0 :2 Mexico - Korea Rep . 2 :1Malaysia - Korea Rep . 1 :0 Hungary -Korea Rep . 10Korea Rep - Nepal 4 :0 Mexico - Korea Rep . 2 :1Korea Rep . -Malaysia 2 :0 Algeria -Korea Rep . 0 :2

Atlante - Korea Rep . 1 :11 Korea Rep 4 3 0 1 8 :1 6 Puebla - Korea Rep . 0 :02 . Malaysia 4 2 1 1 6 :2 5 Pumas - Korea Rep . 0 :23 . Nepal 4 0 1 3 0 :11 1 Hongkong -Korea Rep 0 :2

Paraguay -Korea Rep 3 :1Korea Rep . - Indonesia 2 :0 Anderlecht - Korea Rep 2 :3Indonesia -Korea Rep . 1 :4 Leverkusen - Korea Rep, 2 1

GFR U-21 - Korea Rep . 0 :0Japan -Korea Rep 1 :2 Monaco - Korea Rep . 1 4Korea Rep . -Japan 1 0 Guadajahla -Korea Rep . 2 :0England -Korea Rep . 4 :1Peru - Korea Rep . 0 :2

From left to right, back : Cha Bum-Kun, Jung Yong-Hwan, Huh Jung-Moo, Cho Young-Jeung, Choi Soon-Ho, Oh Yun-Kyo; front. Byun Byung-Joo, Park Kyung-Hoon, Kim Joo-Sung, Cho Kanng-Rae, Park Chang-Sun

KimJung-Nam

Kim Jung-Nam, born on Jan-uary 28, 1943, began his foot-balling career with the teamof Korea University in 1962 .From 1966 he played in theKorean army team Yang-Jiand achieved one time theKorean championship . Dur-ing half a year Kim played inAustralia with SunderlandSidney, where he could profit

a great deal by the Englishcoaches . After his return hejoined the team of the KoreaForeign Exchange Bank. Alto-gether Kim was selectedabout 70 times for the nation-al team and took part in theOlyrnpic Games of Tokyo.By profession Kim is a lawyer,but after having finished hiscareer as a player, he pre

ferred to be faithful tofootball and to workas a coach . In 1976 hebecame responsiblecoach of Korea Uni-versity and gainedwith his team the titleof the CollegeLeague . Two years la-ter he was engagedby Pohang Iron Steel .Beside his club activi-ty he was also en-gaged as assistantcoach of the nationalteam .In 1980 he was ap-

pointed manager of KoreaRep., but after two years hewas dismissed for lack ofsuccess . He took over theprofessional team of the Yu-Kong Oil Co., where he is stillactive today. Besides, he wascalled back for the nationalteam . One year later Kim be-came the sole responsible forthe Korean team .Kim attended several coach-ing courses in Germany FRand also took part in the train-ing courses organized byFIFA/Coca-Cola .

Development

The Korean youth teamachieved already threetimes the Final Round of theWorld Youth Championship(WYC) . This means that Ko-rea Rep . i s the most suc-cessful country of the ThirdWorld .

From the Mexico team "86Oh Yun-Kyo, Jung Yong-Hwan, Kim Jong-Se, LeeTae-Ho and Choi Soon-Howere used at theWYC "79 inJapan .

At the WYC "81 in Australiathe following three playerstook part : Kim Sam-Soo,Kang Deuk-Soo and againChoi Soon-Ho.

Yoo Byung-Ok and KimJong-Boo, both membersof the Mexico squad, playedin the Korean youth teamthat were placed fourth attheWYC "83 in Mexico .

Byun Byung-Joo20 Kim Yong-Se

Cha Bum-Kun

All in all, 18 players got a chance in the Korean team . In the first match, Cho Min-Kook (14) played sweeper in the place of ChoYoung-Jeung (8) .

132

The PlayersThe pool of players was com-posed of footballers from tendifferent clubs. No less than18 team members came fromthe professionally managedclubs of the Super League,where the players in generalare professionals . Three in-ternationals played in Univer-sity teams and one in the Ger-man Bundesliga . The averageage of the Korean team wasrather low: 26,5 years .Three members of the Koreansquad had already gainedinternational experience ab-road . Cha Bum first playedwith Eintracht Frankfort andhas now become a dreadedgoal-getter at Bayer Lever-kusen . The left full-back HuhJung-Moo played with theDutch top club PSV Eindhov-en between 1980 and 1983 .Sweeper Cho Young-Jeungplayed in the USA, with theChicago Stings .

TeamOrganizationUsually, Korea Rep. playswith a classic 4-3-3 system,with two true wingers. At theWorld Cup Tournament, ma-nager Kim Jung-Nam madehis team play with a 4-4-2,whereby the man-to-manmarking was applied in thezone .In front of the slightly retreat-ed sweeper (Cho Young orCho Min), the three defen-ders Park Kyung, Jung Yongand HuhJung were playing . Ifthe opposing team lined upwith only two forwards, theywere closely marked by thetwo first named defenders. Inthis case, the internationallyexperienced Huh used toadvance to the left side inmidfield .Closely in front of this defen-sive block, Cho Kwang, an ex-tremely agile player, provedto be very strong in the role ofa defensive midfielder . Cap-tain Park Chang, as the actualplaymaker, exclusively actedin the longitudinal axis of the

field. The two other midfieldplayers were mainly expectedto keep their positions on theflanks . But whenever the Ko-rean team started an attack,these two players suddenlybecame true wingers . ByunByung and Kim Joo excelledby their baffling dribblesalong the touch-lines .Up front the two lightning-quick Cha Bum and ChoiSoon were a constant worryfor the adverse goal . Bothcertainly ranked among thebest players of their team .

Attacking PlayThe South Koreans showedquite a simple style of play :they tried to start off their at-tacks on the most direct wayand to surprise their oppo-nents through quick movesup front . They knew very wellhow to play this kind of coun-terattacks .The entire attacking play wasbased on the fastness andthe agility of their offensiveplayers . With quickly playedcombinations and plenty ofdirect passes they tried to putpressure on the opposingside . The constant effort tokeep up the rhythm of thegame made the Koreans de-monstrate a spectacular play- but at the same timecaused an unusual number oflost balls, often already intheir own half of field .Thanks to the extraordinaryquality of the two forwards,who were time and again fedby Korea's indefatigable mid-field star Park, the team creat-ed in all their games a num-ber of good opportunities .The majority of them weremissed because of lackingcold-bloodedness . But thefour goals were all scored ingreat style . Both goalsagainst Italy were taken aftersuperb moves . Kim Jongscored his goal after a realmasterstroke and Korea'sface-saving goal against Ar-gentina was realized by cap-tain Park with a powerfullong-range shot from 25 m .

Defensive PlayThe very goal average of 4 :7in three matches clearly re-veals that the weak point ofthe Korean team was to befound rather at their back po-sitions . In defence the teamwas not very well organized.The positional play of the de-fenders left much to be de-sired. Too often there wereproblems of coordination andmisunderstandings amongthe players. It happened fre-quently that players involvedin tackling or in offensive ac-tions were not covered be-hind .The Korean team could oftencompensate for these obvi-ous defects by their outstand-ing reaction ability and theircourage to plunge into the ac-tion, heedless of the dangerof an injury .Due to their physical inferiori-ty they were at a disadvan-tage in tacklings . Owing totheir extraordinary take-offpower they could stand theirground in heading duels. Atany rate, Korea Rep. had toconcede only one goal by aheader .

ConclusionsWith their reckless style ofplay and direct drive on theopposite goal, the team ofKorea Rep. made a very goodimpression .In the opening game againstArgentina it became obviousthat the Korean players, on aninternational level, had verylittle experience . Because ofnervousness and over-zealthey committed some unne-cessary fouls of which theArgentines took advantage,scoring two goals on free-kicks within the first twentyminutes, thus coming to anearly and comfortable 2-0lead .With a little bit more clever-ness they could have won thegame against the disappoint-ing Bulgarians . In their lastmatch against Italy they gavethe reigning World Champi-ons a real challenge and

proved their considerableprogress .During the tournament itturned out that the team ofKorea Rep. was not so well-balanced as most otherteams . The limited number oftop players, selected from anonly small potential of activefootballers, proved to be a bigdisadvantage . Thus it be-came understandable whythis side, like no other team,had to suffer from enormousups and downs ; stunning ac-tions were often followed byelementary mistakes .All this the Korean playersmade up with their tremen-dous enthusiasm and un-shakable morale . There wasno slackening or giving upwith this team . In all threegames Korea Rep. had to runafter an early goal . Twice theymanaged to equalize .The enthusiasm of the Asiat-ics soon inspired the crowds :Korea Rep. became so one ofthe favourites of the specta-tors .

Korea Rep .-Argentina 1:3 (0 :2)0:1 Valdano(6')0.2 Ruggeri (18')0 3 Valdano (46')1 .3 Park Chang-Sun (73')

Korea Rep.-Bulgaria 1 :1 (0 :1)01 Getov(11')11 Kim Jong-Boo(701 )

Korea Rep .-Italy 2:3 (0 :1)0:1 Altobelli (17')1 :1 Choi Soon-Ho (62')1 :2AItobelli 173')1 :3 own goal (82')23 Huh Jung-Moo (89')

133

Morocco

PreparationIn March 1986 Morocco quali-fied for the Final of the Afri-can Cup in Egypt and for theWorld Cup Finals in Mexico .As a first step, Morocco'smanager José Faria askedthe Football Association tomake all international playerspermanently available to himfrom January until the end ofthe World Cup . This meantthat the Moroccan champi-onship was finished withoutthe Mexico candidates . Theco-operation with the Moroc-can Football Association al-lowed Faria a preparation pe-riod of totally four months forthe World Cup Finals .At the beginning of January,a first training camp of threeweeks was held at the nation-al sports centre of Rabat .Subsequently a first testgame was arranged (inSpain) .In the middle of February theinternationals came togetherfor another three weeks train-ing camp in Rabat, right be-fore the team flew to Egypt at

The Players and TheirAppearances

134

The Moroccans, the winner of GroupF, played in the Second Round

against FRG. Here, the Moroccan de-fence keeps in check the German for-

wards Völler and Briegel .

the beginning of March . Inthe African Cup Morocco hatto face Algeria, Cameroonand Zambia in the GroupGames, Egypt in the Semi-Fi-nal and Ivory Coast in theThird Place Play-Off .Faria organized another ga-thering (with a length of tendays) for the members of thenational team, which topkplace in Saillon, Switzerland .Two training games againstlocal clubs served as a pre-paration for the next interna-tional game against NorthernIreland in Belfast .At the beginning of May allMexico candidates met againfor one week at the sportscentre of Rabat, before theentire Moroccan delegationleft for Mexico already onMay 6 .

No . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st MatchPoland0.0

2nd MatchEngland0.0

3rd MatchPortugal

3 .1

n FinalGermanyFR 0.1

'/, Final '/z Final Final

1 Zaki Badou Ezaki 02.04 .59 Real Mallorca2 Khalifa Label 55 KAC Kenitra3 Langriss Abdelmajide 12.02 .59 FAR Rabat 72

4 El Biaz Mostafa 12.12 .60 KACM Marrakesh5 Bouyahiaoui Noureddine 07.01 .55 KAC Kenitra6 Dolmy Abdelmajid 19.04 .53 Raja Casablanca7 El Haddaoui Mustapha 07.03 .56 Lausanne-Sports 87 678 Bouderbala Abdelaziz 26.12 .60 FC Sion9 Krimau Merry Abdelkarim 13 .01 .55 St-Etienne10 Timoumi Mohammed 15.01 .60 Murcia 8811 Merry Mustapha 21 .04 .58 Nîmes 8612 Hmied Salahdine 61 FAR Rabat13 Rhiatí Abdelfettah 25.02 .63 MAS Fez14 Ouadani Lahcen Hcina 14 .07 .59 FAR Rabat 1815 El Haddaoui Mohamed Monsif 21 .10 .64 AS Selé

16 Amanallah Azzedine 07.04 .56 Niort17 Khairi Abderrazak 20 .11 .62 Valladolid 218 Sahil Mohamed 11 .10 .63 WAC19 Jilal Facial 04 .03 .64 WAC

20 Bidar Abdellah 19.08 .67 OCK Khouribga21 Soulaimani Abdelaziz 30.04 .58 MAS Fez 3 4 2322 Mouddani Abdelfattah 30.07 .56 KAC Kenitra

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesSierra Leone - Morocco 0:1 Spain U-21 - Morocco 3:0Morocco -Sierra Leone 4:0 Morocco -Bulgaria 0:0

Martigny -Morocco 0:4Morocco - Malawi 2:0 N. Ireland -Morocco 2:1Malawi - Morocco 0:0

African Cupof NationsEgypt - Morocco 0 :0 Algeria -Morocco 0:0Morocco - Egypt 2:0 Cameroon -Morocco 1 :1

Morocco -Libya 3 :0 Zambia -Morocco 0 :1Libya -Morocco 1 :0 Egypt - Morocco 1 :0

Ivory Coast - Morocco 3:2

From left to right, back . Krimau, Duadani, Bouderbala, Bouyahiaoui, El Haddaoui, Zaki ; front. Timoumi, Dolmy, Lamriss, Khairi, Khalifa

José FariaJosé Faria is of Brazilian na-tionality. He started his careeras a player with BonsucessoFC. After five years he wastransferred to the world-fa-mous Fluminense FC forwhich he played as rightwinger .

After the end of his career asa player, he acquired thecoaching licence of the Brazil-ian Association of Coaches .During eleven years hetrained the juniors of Flumi-nense. Within this period hewon over 35 national titles .In 1979 Faria went to Qatar.There, working together withEvaristo Macedo, he built upQatar's youth team duringtwo years. At the World YouthChampionship 1981 in Austral-ia, Qatar sensationally be-came Vice-World Champi-ons.In 1984 Faria moved to Mo-rocco and coached the well-known F.A.R. (Force Arm6eRoyale) . Already in his firstyear with this club he wontheMoroccan championship andone year later his side wonthe African Cup of the Cham-pions .When his compatriot JaimeValente resigned his job as

manager of the Moroccanteam, Faria was additionallyentrusted with the coachingof the national team .

DevelopmentThe Moroccan junior teamonly participated in the firstWorld Youth Championship(1977) in Tunisia. For the fol-lowing four tournamentsMorocco did not manage toqualify .Not one of the talentedplayers of those teamsfound his way into Moroc-co's Mexico squad of 1986 .In return it was basically theteam of the World Cup '86who represented Moroccoat the Olympic Games inLos Angeles .

135

Merry played in midfield during the first two matches . Against Poland he operated on the left, against England on the right flank.Bouderbala"s role was modified from game to game .

136

The PlayersThe Moroccan squad wasformed by players from thir-teen different clubs. The na-tional champions FAR (For-ces Armées Royales) wererepresented by five and Ken-itra AC by three internation-als . Five players were select-ed who played abroad, inFrance and Switzerland . Mor-occo had one of the few bro-ther pairs of this World Cuptournament in their lines :«Krimau» Merry Abdelkarimand Merry Mustapha .

TeamOrganizationMorocco played a 4-5-1 sys-tem with zonal marking . Infront of the tall and very calmZaki the Moroccan defencewas formed by four men : El-Biaz and Bouyahiaoui playedas central defenders, the lat-ter operated sometimesslightly behind his team-mates . The two full-backsKhalifa and Lamriss took ac-tively part in the constructionof the game, but rather rarelywere involved in the Moroc-can attacks.The midfield consisted of fiveplayers . Dolmy acted as asweeper playing in front ofthe defensive chain. El Had-daoui, a midfielder with fineskill, was used on the rightflank. On the left side Khairiwas charged with a similarrole . He had much offensivedrive and shot two goalsagainst Portugal .Timoumi was entrusted withthe control of the left mid-field. His exceptional visionand his ideas might havebrought the Moroccan teamstill more if - after a long ab-sence due to a grave injury -he had been better in form .The light-footed Bouderbalahad an enormous sphere ofaction . He proved to be aconstant worry to the oppos-ing goal by his long rushesand his elegant dribbles .Krimau as the only striker al-ways operated as Morocco'sforemost player, near the off-side line . With short sprints

he often managed to go awayfrom his defender, and whenhe had received the ball heskilfully kept it by means ofhis magnificent control andgreat experience .In the first two games alsoMerry got a chance . AgainstPoland he played on the posi-tion of Khairi and againstEngland he substituted for ElHaddaoui .

Attacking PlayThe launch of attacks was ef-fected at a rather slow pace .The North Africans proved tobe very clever in circulatingthe ball through their ownlines . They made use of manycross and back passes .Thanks to their agility in thetackles, their continuous ef-fort to run clear and their fre-quent changes of position,the Moroccan players hardlyever lost the ball in their ownhalf of the field .A tactical variant of theirgame were sudden changesof pace : they tried to surprisethe opposing defencethrough unexpected soloruns by Bouderbala, whocould hardly be dispos-sessed of the ball, or quicklytaken double passes with Kri-mau.Midfield ace Timoumi fed hisadvancing team-mates withwide diagonal passes in theopen space on the wings.Such defence-splitting pas-ses confronted the Portu-guese defence with an unsol-vable problem more than onetime . All three goals werescored after runs on the wingthat were concluded by widecrosses into the penalty-area .

Defensive PlayMorocco's style of play wasentirely based on a solid de-fence . As soon as they hadlost the ball, the whole teammoved very quickly back-wards to be in numerical su-periority at the back . Centreforward Krimau remained upfront, but he had the clearlydefined task to disturb the

development of the opposingattacks.El Haddaoui and Khairi re-ceded immediately from theirpositions on the wings to themidfield and-together withBouderbala and Timoumi-formed a first reception net.The small Dolmy with the bigfighting spirit was in actionclosely behind . It was he whochased after the reboundsand involved the opponentswho had the ball in ruthlesstackles .The last bastion in front of theMorocca"r1 goal was the four-men defensive chain whousually played on a level .Morocco's back four comple-mented one another excel-lently and showed a remark-able harmony.Zaki ranked among the bestgoalkeepers of these WorldCup Finals . In four games hewas only beaten twice : Portu-gal scored from a reboundwhen Morocco's victory wasalready a fact . In the SecondRound clash with GFR, hewas left without a chanceagainst Matthäus'free-kick,after his defenders hadplaced the wall very badly.

ConclusionsMorocco presented a well-balanced team without realweak points . Thanks to their((Brazilian)) skill they built uptheir attacks very calmly andintelligently . The players wereable to adapt themselvesquickly to all situations .Morocco's style of play wasfounded on the extraordinaryagility and quickness of allteam members . They distin-guished themselves by witand a perfect control of theball . The Africans knew howto keep the ball in their ownlines and deliberately aimedat chasing around and wear-ing down their opponents asearly as possible : the infernalheat of Monterrey was theirally .With this over-cautious atti-tude Morocco had won twopoints after their goallessdraws with Poland andEngland . The Moroccans re-

vealed their real class only inthe third match which tookplace in Guadalajara, a venuewith a more agreeable cli-mate . They outclassed Portu-gal and, with more determi-nation in front of goal, mighthave wonwith an even higherscoreline than 3 :1 . Unfortu-nately, this quite interestingteam did not continue to per-form in the same way and fellback to his temporizing styleof play .Against Germany FR, theMoroccans speculated againon a 0:0 draw . They seemedto be ready to take the risk ofa penalty shoot-out . ManagerFaria banked on the extraord-inary reflexes of goalkeeperZaki . But this speculationfailed . Two minutes fromtime the Germans scoredfrom a free-kick.Morocco had demonstratedthe enormous progress ofAfrica in front of the wholefootballing world and hadhonourably represented theblack continent. On the otherhand, they wasted the uniqueopportunity to achieve aneven better result at thisWorld Cup .

Morocco-Poland 0:0

Morocco-England 0:0

Morocco-Portugal 3:1 (2 :0)1 0 Khairi j19')2,0 Khairi (26')3:0 Krimau (62')3:1 Diamantino (80')

Morocco-GFR 0:1 (0 :0)0.1 Matthäus (87')

137

Mexico

PreparationSince Mexico as the organiz-ing nation were qualified au-tomatically, Bora Milutinoviccould build up his team witha long-term program . Since1983 the Mexicans madetours to Europe, South Amer-ica, Africa, Asia and the Unit-ed States .Milutinovic had gathered hisinternational players in apermanent training campsince the summer of 1985 .The Mexican clubs had toplay the championship with-out their internationals! Thegames against Italy, Englandand FRG in June 1986 gaveMexico's manager the first in-formation about the standardof performance of his team .In August Mexico played fivepreparation games againstChile, Bulgaria, Peru (twice)and Corinthians Sáo Paulo inCalifornia . In mid-October atrip to Libya, Yemen ArabRep . Jordan, Egypt and Ku-waitwas carried out .Two games against Argenti-na, the first of which took

138

Mexico showed their best displayduring their2 .0 victory over Bulgariain the Second Round Centre forwardSanchez also performed well in this

game . The goals, however, were scored by Negrete and Servin

place in Los Angeles, were afurther test for Mexico .During the draw (of theGroups) in Mexico-City inmid-December, an interna-tional tournament with theparticipation of Algeria, KoreaRep . and Hungary wasstaged .San Jose was the venue ofthe international gameagainst GDR, and in Mexico-City the hosts played againstUSSR . The matches againstDenmark and Santos (Brazil)took place once again in LosAngeles .The last seven warm-ups forthe World Cup Finals took al-ternately place at home andin California .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club rat Match

Belgiurn2 .1

2nd MatchParaguay

1 .1

3rdMatchIraq1 .0

'/FinalBulgaria2 .0

'/FinalGerm . FR0 .0 a e .-t .

'/Final Final

1 Larios Pablo 31 .07 .60 Cruz Azul2 Trejo Mario Alberto 18 .09 .61 América3 Quirarte Fernando 07.07 .61 Guadalajara4 Manzo Ponce Armando 16.10 .58 América5 Javier Cruz Francisco 24.05 .66 Monterrey 11 13 11 506 De Ios Cobos Carlos 10 .12 .58 América 79 11 887 España Miguel 04.04 .61 UNAM 21 338 Dominguez E . Alejandro 09 .11 .60 América 299 Sanchez Hugo 11 .06 .58 Real Madrid10 Boy Tomas 05.07 .56 Univ . Nuevo León 69 57 79 3211 Hermosillo Carlos 24.08 .64 América12 Rodriguez Ignacio 12 .06 .56 UNAM13 Aguirre Javier 08.09 .60 Osasuna 100*14 Cruz Felix 04.04 .60 UNAM15 Flores Luis E . 08.08 .62 Sporting Gijón 79 7716 Muñoz Carlos 08.09 .62 Univ . Nuevo León17 Servin Paul 29.04 .63 UNAM18 Amador Flores Rafael 1611 .57 UNAM 61 7019 Hernandez G . Javier 01 .08 .61 UNAM20 Heredia Orozco Olaf 19.10 57 Univ . Nueva León21 Ortega Martinez Cristobal 25.07 .56 América22 Negrete Manuel 15.05 .69 Sporting Lisboa

Preparatory MatchesMexico - Italy 1 :1 Mexico -Hungary 2 :0Mexico -England 1 :0 GDR -Mexico 2 :1Mexico - Germany FIR 2 :0 Mexico -USSR 1 :0Chile -Mexico 1 :2 Mexico - NationalBulgaria - Mexico 1 :1 (Uruguay) 1 :0Peru - Mexico 0 :0 Denmark -Mexico 1 :1Peru - Mexico 0 :1 Santos - Mexico 0 :0Corinthians -Mexico 1 :1 Mexico -ArgentinosLibya - Mexico 3 :1 Juniors 5 :1Yemen Arab Rep .- Mexico 0 :2Jordan - Mexico 0 :0 Uruguay -Mexico 0 :1Egypt - Mexico 2 1 Mexico -UniversidadKuwait - Mexico 0 0 de Chile 2 :1

Argentina -Mexico 1 :1 Mexico -UniversidadMexico -Argentina 1 :1 de Chile 1 :0Korea Rep - Mexico 1 :2 Mexico -Canada 3 :0Mexico -Algeria 2 :0 HSV - Mexico 0 :2Mexico - Korea Rep . 2 :1 England -Mexico 3 :0

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From left to right, back : Muñoz, Lanus, Boy, Quirarte, F. Cruz, front. Aguirre, Sanchez, Negrete, Servin, Trejo, Flores

Velibor "Bora" Milutinovic

Development

Bora Milutinovic (47) started

limit required by the Yugo-

In 1972 Milutinovic moved to

Mexico is the only nationhis career as a player with

slavian Football Association,

Mexico and joined the well

which managed to qualifyPartizan Belgrad in 1956 . With

Milutinovic

left

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known university club UNAM

for

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World

Youththis club he won four titles al-

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(Universidad

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(WYC)together . During this time he

Monaco,

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Mexico),

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known under the name of Pu-forYugoslavia"s B-team .

guest performance to Swit-

mas .After having reached the age

zerland (FC Winterthur) .

The end of his career as a

From

Mexico's

youth

na-player in 1977 meant at the

tional team 1977 no playerssame time the start for a suc-

were to be found

in thecessful

activity as

manager

Mexican squad of 1986 .with the same club . After hav-

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finished

twice

as Vice

Goalkeeper Pablo Larios re-Champions, his team won the

presented Mexico's coloursMexican championship in thew at the WYC 79 in Japan .third year of his activity as

The left full-back Raul_

manager.

In the following

Severin played in the youthseason

Milutinovic"s side

team of 1981 that achievedwon the CONCACAF-Cu of theWYC in Australia .

-

the Champions.

After Mexico

had failed to

In theWorld Youth Champi-qualify for the World Cup Fi-

onship at home (1983), Car-nals "82 in Spain, Bora Milut-

los Muñoz took part . Fran-`

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cisco JavierCruzwas one ofer . His elder brother, Mio-

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139

In the first two matches, Mexico lined-up with the strikers Sanchez (9) and Flores (15) . Afterwards manager Milutinovic confinedhimself to one forward and completed his side by an additional midfielder .

140

The PlayersThe Mexican team was com-posed of players from eightdifferent clubs. UNAM (Uni-versidad Nacional AutonomaMexico) was represented byeight players and America byfive . Universidad Nuevo Leónprovided MilutinovicIs teamwith three internationalswhereas only one was select-ed from the Mexican champi-on Monterrey.The standard formation wasbased on five players fromUNAM and two from Leon,but not a single one camefrom America!

TeamOrganizationMexico began the Mundialwith a classic 4-4-2 system . Inthe first two matches againstBelgium and Paraguay, San-chez and Flores formed thefront pair . For the third gameagainst Iraq Sanchez was su-spended because of two cau-tions . He was substituted bythe midfield player De los Co-bos . Henceforth, Mexicolined up with just one striker .The physically strong centraldefence was formed bysweeper Felix Cruz and cen-tral defender Quirarte . In thefirst two games Trejo wasused as right fullback . Lateron the tall Amador took overthis position . Servin, a defen-der with remarkable offensivequalities, played as left full-back .In midfield, Muhoz operatedas a kind of second sweeper.Aguirre's task mainly consist-ed in running wide, thus pro-viding the Mexican attackswith pressure from the flanks .Against Belgium and Para-guay he played this role onthe right side . After Españahad taken this position,Aguirre acted as a kind of re-treated left winger .As long as Mexico lined upwith two forwards, Negrete, aplayer endowed with out-standing skill, had to assumea position near the left touch-line . After the Mexicans hadmodified their system and

played with only one striker,Negrete was given a largersphere of action and he ope-rated more in the longitudinalaxis of the field . It was obvi-ous that his extraordinaryqualities took better effect inthis position .Skipper Boy proved to be theactual leader on the field . Heorganized the game, gave or-ders to his team-mates andthanks to his superb vision healso determined the rhythmof the game .

Attacking PlayThe conception of play of theMexican team was a mixtureof South American and Euro-pean football . The attackswere carefully built up andevery risk was avoided . Therather small but extremelyagile and quick Mexicanskept the ball by rapidly playedtouches in their lines .In front of the opposing pen-alty-area, however, only twoMexicans were able to pro-vide the decisive impulses :Boy and Negrete. With run-ning passes Boy tried to feedhis team-mates who ad-vanced down the flanks . Byhis subtle and often screwedpasses he prepared somescoring chances for Sanchez.The swift and skillful Negreteturned his direct oponentstime and again by his feintsand sometimes also ha-rassed the defence by break-throughs on the wings .As long as Mexico playedwith two forwards, Flores'pace and his constantchanges of position pro-duced gaps in the opponent'sdefence. Sanchez and the at-tacking midfield players triedconstantly to take advantageof such situations .Owing to his marvellous con-trol of the ball, his dribblesand his powerful accelera-tion, Hugo Sanchez was aconstant worry for the oppo-nent - but unfortunately alsowith his provocative dives inor around the adverse pen-alty-area .

Defensive PlayAlthough Mexico had to con-cede only two goals, its de-fence was not beyond alldoubt. Manager Milutinovic'sdefensive conception wasbased on a man-to-manmarking in the zone but theMexicans had often prob-lems when the opposing stri-kers changed their positions .The direct opponents weresometimes pursued too long,thus the Mexican defendershad to leave their own zone .Therefore, the organization atthe back got mixed up onsome occasions . Yet, theMexican defenders madegood many mistakes thanksto their agility and reactionspeed .The only average body-height of most defendersproved to be a disadvantage .Both goals the Mexicans con-ceded (Belgium and Para-guay) were scored by head-ers .

ConclusionsThe Mexican team had twofaces. There were phaseswith bold and powerful play,but then some minutes laterthe same players failed inperforming the simplestthings .In the starting minutes ofevery game the Mexicans,supported by their enthusias-tic fans, took unconditionallythe offensive. The opponentwas pushed back, in somegames even beleaguered .Milutinovic obviously aimedat scoring an early goal . How-ever, they succeeded onlyonce in doing so : against Par-aguay Flores shot his team in-to the lead after only two mi-nutes. Mexico took the leadin the other matches, too, butit took them much longer toscore their goals .The initial vehement assaultmust have caused a loss ofsubstance in the Mexicanteam . In every case the Mexi-cans never managed to calmdown and to control thegame after having taken thelead . Each time, they lost the

initiative, retired to their ownhalf and contented them-selves with occasional coun-ter-attacks .The insufficient effectivenessof Mexico's offensive actionswas compensated by the var-iable execution of standardsituations . The team scoredsix goals altogether : twowere scored from free-kicksand two from counters .Moreover, it is worth men-tioning that central defenderQuirarte with two and full-back Servin with one goalscored half of the Mexicangoals.The fact that the small Mexi-cans realized three goals byheaders proved their courageand their extraordinary take-off power.

Mexico-Belgium 2:1 (2 :1)1 :0 Quirarte (23, )2:0 Sanchez (39')2:1 Vandenbergh (45')

Mexico-Paraguay 1 :1 (1 :0)1 0 Flores (31)1 :1 Romero (85')

Mexico-Iraq 1 :0 (0 :0)1 :0 Quirarte (54')

Mexico-Bulgaria 2:0 (1 :0)1 :0 Negrete (35')2:0 Servin l61 1)

Mexico-GFR0:0 Pen. 14

Northern Ireland

PreparationAs most of the Irish interna-tionals play with EnglishLeague clubs, they are onlyrarely available to their na-tional manager Billy Bing-ham . Therefore, Bingham hatto put up with a minimal pre-paration program - just likethe two other British nationalmanagers .Northern Ireland's first pre-paration game took place inParis against France . Sincethe ground was covered withsnow and ice, this matchcould hardly give any infor-mation about the real stand-ard of the teams .At the end of March, Nor-thern Ireland played againstDenmark in Belfast ; theDanes had to line up withoutsome of their key players .For the third preparationgame, Morocco were invitedto Belfast . Morocco werechosen to make the Irishteam familiar with the peculi-arities of the North Africangame, since Billy Bingham'steam had to face Algeria in

Afterhaving lost 0.3toBrazil, Nort-hern Ireland were out of the World

Cup. Not even with combinedstrength McCreery McDonald andCampbell succeeded in preventingEdinho from finishing a Brazilian at-

tack .

theirfirstgame in Mexico .Shortly afterwards, NorthernIreland flew to Bagdad to beconfronted also with theAsiatic style of play . Iraq'steam proved to be a goodtouchstone .From May 8 to May 25 thedelegation of Northern Ire-land went for an altitude re-treat to Albuquerque, NewMexico . Billy Bingham chosethis place because the condi-tions with regard to altitudeand climate were quite.simi-lar to those the Northern Irishteam were going to face inGuadalajara, the venue of the"Irish" Group in Mexico . Atshort notice, a training gamewith Scotland was arrangedto be staged at the Universityof New Mexico .

The Players and TheirAppearances

142

No . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club Ist MatchAlgeria

11

2nd MatchSpain12

3rd MatchBrazil03

'/s Final Y Final 'h Final Final

1 Jennings Patrick 12.06 .45 Tottenham Hotspur

2 Nicholl James 28.12 .56 West Bromwich Alb .

3 Donaghy Malachy 13.09 .57 Luton Town

4 O'Neill John 11 .03 .58 Leicester City

5 McDonald Alan 12.10 .63 Queens Park Rangers

6 McCreery David 16 .09 .57 Newcastle United

7 Penney Steven 06 .01 .64 Brighton 67 53

8 Mcllroy Samuel 02 .08 .54 0rgryte

9 Quinn James 18.11 .59 Blackburn Rovers

10 Whiteside Norman 07 .05 .65 Manchester United 81 68

11 Stewart Ian 10.09 .61 Newcastle United 23 37

12 Platt James 26.01 .52 Coleraine

13 Hughes Phillip 19 .11 .64 Bury

14 Armstrong Gerard 23.05 .54 West Bromwich Alb . 20

15 Worthington Nigel 04 .11 .61 Sheffield Wednesday 68

16 Ramsey Paul 03.09 .62 Leicester City

17 Clarke Colin 30.10 .62 Bournemouth 9

18 McClelland John 07.12 .55 Watford

19 Hamilton William 09.05 .57 Oxford United 22 22

20 NcNally Bernard 17 .02 .63 ShrewsburyTown

21 Campbell David 02.06 .65 Nottingham Forest I 70

22 Caughey Mark 27 .08 .60 Linfield

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesFinland -N .Ireland 1 :0 France -N .Ireland 0 :0N . Ireland -Romania 3 :2 N . Ireland -Denmark 1 :1N . Ireland -Finland 2 :1 N . Ireland -Morocco 2:1N .Ireland -England 0 :1 Iraq -N .Ireland 1 :0N . Ireland -Turkey 2 :0Turkey -N.Ireland 0 :0Romania -N.Ireland 0 :1England -N.Ireland 0 :0

1 . England 8 4 4 0 21 :2 122. N . Ireland 8 4 2 2 8:5 103. Romania 8 3 3 2 12 :7 94. Finland 8 3 2 3 7:12 85 . Turkey 8 0 1 7 2:14 1

BillyBingham

Billy Bingham (54) can lookback on a very successfulfootball career . He playedsuccessively with GlentoranBelfast, Sunderland, LutonTown, Everton and Port Vale,where he finished his careeras a player . Between 1951 and1964 he was selected for theIrish national team no lessthan 56 times. As a tricky left-

winger he scored ten goalsfor his country. At the WorldCup '58, in Sweden, NorthernIreland achieved the Quarter-Finals ; Bingham was used inall five games.Bingham started his career asa coach with Linfield . Then hebecame national manager ofGreece . After his return fromSouthern Europe, Bingham

became manager ofEverton as well as na-tional coach of Nor-thern Ireland(1967-71) . Bingham'snext station wasMansfield Town be-fore he became ma-nager of Northern Ire-land for the secondtime (1980), succeed-ing Danny Blanch-flower .With Northern IrelandBinghamwon the Brit-ish championship in1980 and 1983 . At the

From left to right, back McDonald, Donaghy Jennings, Clarke, 0"Neill, Whiteside, front McCreery, Penney, Worthington, Mcllroy. Nicholl

World Cup '82 in Spain, Nor-thern Ireland topped theirgroup and, for the first time,qualified for the SecondRound. The Irish team failedto qualify for the Final Roundof the European Champion-ships in France only becauseof their worse goal average .With the qualification for theWorld Cup '86 Billy Binghambecame the most successfulmanager Northern Irelandeverhad.

DevelopmentThe youth national team ofNorthern Ireland did notmanage to qualify for one ofthe five World Youth Cham-pionships staged up to now.One of the reasons for thisfailure might be the fact thatthe English top clubs en-gage the greatest talents ofNorthern Ireland as footballapprentices already at avery early age so that for in-ternational games they areonly rarely available to thecoaches in charge of the Ir-ish youth teams .

143

In the team of Northern Ireland the effected changes only concerned the four most offensive positions . From the beginning, inplace of Penney, Clarke and Worthington, also Campbell, Hamilton and Stewartwere used .

144

The PlayersFrom the 22 men selected forMexico only two played intheir own country. The wholerest of the party were en-gaged in England ; fifteen ofthem in the First Division .Manager Bingham's squadwere recruited from 19 differ-ent clubs. Only West Brom-wich Albion, Leicester Cityand Newcastle United suppli-ed two players.In the first two games the in-itial line-up of the Irish teamconsisted of players comingfrom eleven different clubs!

TeamOrganizationIreland played a classic 4-4-2system with a four-men zonalmarking at the back, four mid-field players and two actualcentre forwards . In the en-counter with Brazil, Binghamintroduced a fifth midfielderat the expense of a forward .The defence remained un-changed during all thegames. In front of goalkeeperJennings performed the twocentral defenders McDonaldand O'Neill as well as the full-backs Nicholl and Donaghy.In midfield McCreery actedthe part of an advancedsweeper, Mcllroy was theirkey player in midfield .Against Algeria and Spain,Penney and Worthingtonmanoeuvred as retreatedwingers, combining the rolesof midfield player and winger .Campell and Stewart re-placed them in the last matchagainst Brazil .Norman Whiteside played inthe first two games as a trueforward . Against Brazil hehad to assume a role furtherback in midfield .Centre forward Hamilton wasused from the beginning onlyagainst Algeria . In the follow-ing games he came on thefield only as substitute .Clarke was then charged withspearheading the Irish attack-ing play .

Attacking PlayNorthern Ireland displayed atypical British football . Fromthe back they tried to providethe strikers with long passes,the forwards were expectedto play the ball back for theadvancing midfielders . Buttoo often these mostly highrunning passes were inter-cepted by the attentive de-fenders of the opponent . TheIrish side were definitelymore dangerous when theyattacked from the wings .With dribbles by the «mid-field-wingers» Penney andNorthington and fast ad-vances by the full-backs Ni-choll and Donaghy they triedto break up the adverse de-fence . Their sharp crossescreated many a dangerous si-tuation in the opponent'spenalty-area .As soon as Mcllroy was in-volved in the Irish attacks,their game proved to havemore inspiration and imagi-nation . Thanks to his enor-mous sphere of action andhis precise passes he be-came the actual pivot in mid-field . But in the first halfagainst Spain and during 90minutes against Brazil he wasnot very well supported by histeam-mates .With regard to variants at thetaking of free-kicks and corn-ers, Ireland had nothing spe-cial to offer. Generally thesekicks were aimed at theheads of their numerous tallplayers. Yet, they had no suc-cess with this kind of attacks.Only a few free-kicks were di-rectely converted in thecourse of these World CupFinals . Norman Whitesiderealized one of these goals,giving his team the leadagainst Algeria .

Defensive PlayThe defensive conception ofthe Irish team was aimed atstopping their opponents al-ready in midfield . That's whythe defenders advanced asquickly as possible to wardthe midfield, thus reducing

the space between defendersand midfield players.As soon as the opposingteam had played the ball intothe midfield zone, the wholeIrish team moved forward .The player nearest to the ballat once attacked the man inpossession of the ball andwas covered by his team-mates. Through a constantpressing they wanted to in-duce their opponents to over-hasty passes and to mis-takes . This kind of pressingmade it more difficult for theopposing team to penetrateinto the Irish defensive zone .Against Algeria they weresuccessful with this style ofplay, but Spain were of a dif-ferent stamp: the Irish weretoo down after only 20 mi-nutes . Therefore, theychanged their defensive atti-tude in the clash with Brazil .As soon as they had lost theball, the whole team retired totheir own defensive zone andleft Brazil the control over themidfield . Only Clarke as theone nominal forward re-mained up front and watchedfor counter-attacks . But verysoon the Irish defence wastotally overtaxed ; the pres-sure of the Brazilian attackingwaves became too strong .

ConclusionsIn their first two gamesagainst Algeria and Spain,Northern Ireland played apositive and at the same timean aggressive football . As allBritish players also the Irishdistinguished themselves bytheir extraordinary fightingspirit .The physical fitness and thestamina of the internationalswere excellent . Nevertheless,in all three games, they grad-ually lost their initial rhythmduring the second half . Alsothe physically strong Britishplayers had to pay tribute tothe high pace of the gameand to the strange climaticconditions . In such phases ofincreasing weariness onecould notice considerable

gaps between defence andmidfield . The team did not al-ways manage to withstandthe constant pressure of theopponing team .Northern Ireland played withvery much enthusiasm, buttheir actions up front lackedinspiration . A good organiza-tion, a great deal of disciplineand enthusiasm may some-times cover up certain defi-ciencies in a team . But with-out a sufficient number ofplayers who stand above av-erage with regard to skills,the progress of a side will al-ways remain limited . Nor-thern Ireland is a small coun-try with a restricted numberof active football players .Their performances duringthe World Cup Finals in Mexi-co were not bad at all .

N. Ireland-Algeria 1 :1 (1 :0)1 :OWhiteside(6')11Zidane(59')

N. Ireland-Spain 1:2 (0:2)0:1 Butragueño (1')0:2 Salinas (18')1 :2 Clarke (46')

N . Ireland-Brazil 0:3 (0 :2)0:1 Careca (15')0:2Josimar (42')0:3 Careca (871)

145

Paraguay

PreparationAfter the very difficult WorldCup qualification ties, whichwere completed only in mid-November1985, national man-ager Cayetano Reworked outan extensive preparation pro-gram .When at the end of January1986 the first preparationgame was played gainst Ca-nada in Vancouver, most ofParaguay's internationalsplaying abroad were notavailable . At the following in-ternational Miami-tourna-ment Paraguay had to faceJamaica and Colombia (re-presented by Deportivo Cali) .In mid-February the Para-guayan team started for anextensive Asia tour . At atournament in Hongkongthey played against the hostsand Korea Rep . Then theteam flew to Jakarta wheretwo other matches tookplace . In the first days ofMarch, Paraguay played twogames in Qatar, one in Bah-rain and a last one in SaudiArabia .

146

Paraguay placedsecond ofGroup Bbut in the Second Round were clear-ly defeated (0 .3) by England. All thesame theirgoalkeeper Fernandez

(right) impressed the crowd by hisreflexes .

After having come back Cay-etano Re organized furthertraining games against clubsides .Shortly before the World Cup,Paraguay moved to Colombiato hold a training camp athigh altitudes (3800 m) . Fromthis extreme height they wentdown twice to Bogotá(3500m) where two furthergames were played .Subsequent to this long alti-tude retreat, the Paraguayandelegation left for Toluca(2700 m) .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st Match

Iraq1 :0

2nd MatchMexico

1 .1

3rd MatchBelgium2 .2

'/s FinalEngland

0 .3

Y Final '/ Final Final

1 Fernandez Roberto 22.07 .56 Deportivo Cali2 Torales Juan 18.03 .58 Libertad 75 64

3 Zabala Cesar 18.11 .61 Cerro Porteño4 Schettina Vladimiro 08.10 .55 Guarani5 Delgado Rogelio 12.10 .59 Olimpia6 Nunez Jorge 18 .02 .61 Murcia

7 Ferreira Buenaventura 16.08 .59 Deportivo Cali8 Romero Julio César 28.08 .60 Fluminense9 Cabañas Roberto 11 .04 .61 América

10 Cañete Adolfino 13 .09 .56 Cruz Azul11 Mendoza Alfredo 31 .12 .63 Independiente 88 62 6712 Bataglia Jorge 12 .01 .60 Sol deAmerica

13 Caceres Virginio 28.06 .66 Guarani14 Caballero Luis 17 .09 .62 Guarani15 Cabral Eufemio 21 .03 .55 Guarani16 Guasch Jorge 17 .01 .61 Olimpia 2 28 26

17 Alcaraz Francisco 04.10 .60 Nacional

18 Isasi Evaristo 26.10 .55 Olimpia19 Chilavert Rolando 22 .05 .61 Guarani 15 23

20 Hicks Ramon 30.03 .60 Sabadell21 Alonso Faustino 15.02 .61 Sol de América22 Coronel Julian 23.10 .58 Guarani

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesBolivia -Paraguay 1 :1 Canada -Paraguay 0 :0Paraguay -Bolivia 3 :0 Jamaica -Paraguay 1 :4Paraguay - Brazil 0 :2 Colombia -Paraguay 2 :0Brazil -Paraguay 1 :1 Hongkong -Paraguay 1 :1

Korea Rep . -Paraguay 1 :31 . Brazil 42206:26 Indonesia -Paraguay 2 :32 . Paraguay 4 1 2 1 5 :4 4 Indonesia -Paraguay 0 :63 . Bolivia 4 0 2 2 2 :7 2 Qatar - Paraguay 1 :1

Qatar -Paraguay 0 :3Paraguay -Colombia 3 :0 Bahrain -Paraguay 1 :2Colombia - Paraguay 2 :1 Saudi Arabia -Paraguay 0 :0Paraguay -Chile 3 :0 Paraguay - Independiente 3 :2Chile -Paraguay 2 :2 Denmark -Paraguay 1 :2

From left to right, back. Zabala, Schettina, Torales, Delgado, Fernandez, front: Ferreira, Romero, Cañete, Cabañas, Nuñez, Mendoza

Cayetano Re

Cayetano Re began his ca-reer as a player with CerroPorteno. As forward he soonmade a name for himself,was selected several timesfor the national team and par-ticipated in the World Cup '58in Sweden . Although Para-guay were already eliminatedafter the Group games, Rehad something to be proudof : he had scored a goalagainst Scotland .His good performances at theWorld Cup allowed Re to ac-cept an offer from the Span-ish First Division club Elche.Three years later, in 1962, heeven joined the famous CFBarcelona. In 1966 he wastransferred to their town ri-vals Español Barcelona,where he finished his careerin 1972 .In the next year already, Restarted his career as a coachwith the Spanish provincialclub Eldense, after one year

he changed to Ontenienteand in 1978 to C6rdoba. From1980 to 1984, Re coached hisformer club Elche. Then hereturned to Paraguay andtook over the First Divisionclub Guarani. With this teamhe won the Paraguayanchampionship .At the beginning of 1985, Re

was given charge of the na-tional team . After the suc-cessful qualification for theWorld Cup, he resigned hispost, thus protesting againstunjustified criticism. Soon af-terwards, the Football Asso-ciation managed to call himback and he resumed hiswork .

Development

Paraguay's youth team ma-naged to qualify already threetimes for the WYC. At theWYC '77 in Tunisia, the teamwere eliminated in the Groupgames . From this side notone player reappeared in Par-aguay's Mexico team of '86!At the WYC '79 in Japan, Par-aguay reached the Quarter-Finals, losing to USSR in theshoot-out. ManagerRe nomi-nated four players from thisvery strong team for theWorld Cup in Mexico : Rom-ero, Cabañas, Delgado andCoronel.From the team that took partin the WYC '85 in the SovietUnion nobody was selectedfor the World Cup Fínals'86.

147

148

Ferreira

The Paraguayan team remained almost unchanged during the whole tournament ; no other team manager did effect so few sub-stitutions . Chilavert (19) played for a short time against Mexico and Belgium .

The PlayersParaguay's manager CaetanoRe had selected no less thansix players who were en-gaged at foreign professionalclubs. Fernandez, Nunez, Fer-reira and Cabañas played inColombia, Cañete in Mexicoand Romero in Brazil . All sixplayers had a firm place inParaguay's squad and wereused in all four games .Paraguay was the only teamof this World Cup to beginnall four games with the sameline-up. Only in the thirdmatch, against Belgium,Guasch had to substitute forthe left full-back Schettinawho had been booked twice.

TeamOrganizationParaguay played a classic4-3-3 system with a very spe-cial kind of zonal marking .It was striking how far thewhole team was drawn asun-der both during the attacking- and during the defensivephase . Therefore, the co-or-dination of the different linesdid not always function well .In front of the tall goalkeeperFernandez, Paraguay's backfour operated on a level . Thetwo central defenders Delga-do (skipper) and Zabala alter-nated with each other in themarking of the opposing stri-kers . According to the situa-tion, Delgado also assumedthe part of a sweeper. Whenit was necessary they assist-ed their full-backs on thesides. The Paraguayan teamdisposed of two disciplinedfull-backs : Torales and Schet-tina .The defensive midfielder Nu-nez had quite an extraordi-nary sphere of action andturned out to be the drivingforce of the team . Romeroand Cañete were both en-trusted with offensive tasks inmidfield and managed to co-ordinate their actions in avery clever way.Ferreira was a typical rightwinger - fast, agile andstrong in dribbling . He mostlystayed on the touch-line, try-

ing to cut in from the wingand to penetrate into the pen-alty-area . Centre forward Ca-bañas usually remained inthe central attacking position,near the offside line . Mendo-za, the left winger, tended tomove towards the middle,thus opening the room for theplayers whofollowed up .

Attacking PlayThe whole offensive concep-tion was concentrated onmaking for the opposing goalon the most direct way. Theball was played as fast aspossible to the attacking po-sitions . Goal-keeper Fernan-dez did it in the most strikingway: his powerful goal-kickscaused many delicate situa-tions in the opponent's pen-alty-area . Against Belgium,Cabañas even succeeded inscoring a goal after a goal-kick .As soon as they had won theball at the back, the Para-guayans passed it to one oftheir midfield players who alldisposed of excellent skills .This allowed them to controlthe ball, even when they ap-peared to be marked by theirdirect opponents. They ma-naged to disengage them-selves by surprising feintseven when faced with a vio-lent pressing . With short pas-ses the midfield was crossedas fast as possible . Then, inopportune moments, Rom-ero and Cañete launched thethree agile strikers by subtlepasses .Romero did not only excel asa brilliant playmaker, but alsoas a dangerous goalscorer .He proved to have the flair tobe on the right spot in theright moment . Against Iraqand Mexico, he was takenclear by Cañete severaltimes. Twice the opposinggoalkeeper was left without achance .When the strikers weremarked, the Paraguayan mid-fielders tried to bring into ac-tion Cabañas by a long ball .Despite his height, the vigo-rous centre forward was veryagile and a constant worry for

the opposing goalkeeper,above all by his powerfulheaders.

Defensive PlayWith two attacking midfieldplayers and three strikerswhose defensive work wasfar from being overwhelming,the Paraguayans were neces-sarily confronted with prob-lems regarding their defen-sive organization . They copedwith these difficulties in quitea clever way, by continuousimprovisations at their back .Sometimes the direct oppo-nents were followed step bystep when they changed theirposition, in the next action,however, they were givenover to a team-mate. Thecovering of advancing defen-ders was not always ensured .It often happened that theParaguayan defenders werenot in numerical superiority atthe back, several times theywere even outnumbered.Such shortcomings in de-fence engendered countlessturbulent scenes within theParaguayan penalty-area . Butthanks to the outstanding an-ticipation and reaction abilityof the two central defendersand a very reliable goalkeep-er, the harm could be keptwithin bounds . Paraguayconceded but three goals intheir three Group games .Against England, however,the defenders' individualqualities alone were no long-er sufficient .

ConclusionsParaguay presented a veryharmonious and extremelywell prepared team, whosestyle of play was completelyaimed at the offensive . Thespecial merits of this reallysympathetic side were theteam-spirit and the extraordi-nary fighting-strength of allplayers . Paraguay's game ref-lected the pride and the joy ofa footballing nation that hadqualified for a World Cuptournament for the first timesince 28 years .After a painful victory over

Iraq in their opening game,paraguay had to run after anearly goal in each of the threefollowing matches. Theywrested a highly deserveddraw from hosts Mexico,whowere never defeated duringthese World Cup Finals . In athrilling game, Belgium, thelater Semi-Finalist, wasbrought to the verge of de-feat . During the Second-Round tie against England,Paraguay was in control ofthe game till Linekers open-ing goal . It was not beforethey were cheated out of anunquestionable penalty thatthey gave in .During this World Cup, Para-guay managed to confirm ful-ly the high repute they hadacquired in South Americaover the last years .

Paraguay-Iraq 1 :0(1 :0)1 :0 Romero (35')

Paraguay-Mexico 1 :1 (0 :1)0:1 Flores (3')1 :1 Romero (85')

Paraguay-Belgium 2:2 (0 :1)0:1 Vercauteren 30')1 :1 Cabañas (50')1 :2 Veyt (59, )2 :2 Cabañas (76')

Paraguay-England 0:3 (0:1)0:1 Lineker(31')0:2 Beardsley (561)0:3 Lineker (73')

149

Poland

Preparation

After the successful qualifica-tion for the World Cup Polandreceived World ChampionItaly in Chorzow . At the be-ginning of December, afterthe championship had beeninterrupted for the winterpause, the team played twointernational games in Tuni-sia and in Turkey .The actual preparation for theWorld Cup began with asports-medical investigationat the Air Force Academy .Following this check-up atraining camp (in Wisla) tookplace from January 5 to Janu-ary 17, 1986 . On January 20the Polish team departed forCamerino (Italy) and played aseries of test matches againstlocal clubs .From Italy they flew straightto South America . Threefriendlies against Argentinetop clubs and an internationalgame against Uruguay wereon the program .At the beginning of March,the Polish championship wasresumed whereby the games

The Players and TheirAppearances

150

In the game against England Polan-d's defence revealed some unexpec-

ted flaws . Goalkeeper Mlynarczykwas not at his best either and couldnot prevent Lineker from scoring a

hattrick.

followed one another in a fastrhythm (Sunday-Wednes-day-Sunday) .The championship was onlyinterrupted for the interna-tional game against Spain inCadiz .After the end of the seasonthe national team took upquarters for another trainingcamp in the South of Ger-many (Allgäu) . Two testgames against Bundesligateams provided Poland's ma-nager with further informa-tion about the actual form ofhis players . Subsequent tothis gathering Poland playedagainst Denmark in Copen-hagen . On May 21 the Polishdelegation flew to Mexico . AsPoland were to play in theMonterrey Group it was notnecessary to go for an alti-tude retreat .

No. Name First name(s) Date of birth Club Ist MatchMorocco

0 .0

2nd MatchPortugal

1 :0

3rd MatchEngland

0 .3

'/e FinalBrazil0 4

Y Final '/z Final Final

1 Mlynarczyk Jozef 20.09 .53 FC Porto2 Przybys Kazimierz 11 .07 .60 Widzew Lodz 45 573 Zmuda Wladyslaw 06.06 .54 Cremonese4 Ostrowski Marek 22.11 .59 Pogon Szczecin5 Wojcicki Roman 08.01 .58 FC Homburg6 Matysik Waldemar 27.09 .61 GornikZabrze 457 Tarasiewicz Ryszard 27.04 .62 Slask Wroclaw8 Urban Jan 14.05 .62 GornikZabrze 359 Karas Jan 17 .03 .59 Legia Warszawa 34 6710 Majewski Stefan 31 .01 .56 FC Kaiserslautern11 Smolarek Wlodzimierz 16.07 .57 Eintracht Frankfurt 7512 Kazimierski Jacek 17 .08 .59 Leg ia Warszawa13 Komornicki Ryszard 14 .08 .59 GornikZabrze 56 2314 Kubicki Dariusz 06.06 .63 Leg ia Warszawa 4515 Buncol Andrzej 21 .09 .59 FC Homburg 4516 Palasz Andrzej 22 .07 .60 GornikZabrze17 Zgutczynski Andrzej 01 .01 .58 Auxerre 1518 Pawlak Krzysztof 12 .02 .58 Lech Poznan19 Wandzik Jozef 13 .08 .63 GornikZabrze20 Boniek Zbigniew 03 .03 .56 AS Roma21 Dziekanowski Dariusz 30.09 .62 Leg ia Warszawa 5522 Furtok Jan 09.03 .62 GKS Katowice 33

Preliminary Matches Preparatory Matches

Poland -Greece 3:1 Poland - Italy 1 :0Poland -Albania 2:2 Tunisia - Poland 1 :0Belgium -Poland 2:0 Turkey -Poland 1 :1Greece - Poland 1 :4 Pisa - Poland 0:2Albania -Poland 0 :1 Boca Juniors -Poland 0 :1Poland -Belgium 0 :0 River Plate - Poland 5:4

Racing Club -Poland 0 :11 . Poland 6321 10 :6 8 Uruguay -Poland 2:22 . Belgium 6321 7 :3 8 Spain - Poland 3:03 . Albania 6 1 2 3 6:9 4 1 .FCNurnberg -Poland 0 :14 . Greece 6 1 2 3 5 :10 4 Eintracht Frankfurt - Poland 1 :5

Denmark - Poland 1 :0

From left to right, back. Mlynarczyk, Majewski, Pawlak Wojcicki, Urban, Ostrowski, front: Boniek, Matysik Dziekanowski, Komornicki, Smolarek

Antoni Piechniczek

Antoni Piechniczek (44) wonwith his first club Zryw Chor-zowthe Polish junior champi-onship . As he was studying atthe sports academy in War-saw, he joined Legia Warsawin 1961 . In the course of hisfour years' activity with thisclub he won one time the Pol-ish Cup .

After having finished his stud-ies in 1965 Piechniczek re-turned to his native town andjoined Ruch Chorzow. Withthis team he gained one timethe national title . In 1972Piechniczek moved for ashort time to France, playingwith a club of the Second Di-vision : Châteauroux.

Antoni Piechniczek was se-lected three times for Po-land's national team and se-ven times for the Olympicteam .He began his career as a

www+....,~ _ wriw~-wiwiw-ne .,, "wr~w+rsww

coach in the Second Divisionwith BKS Bielsko-Biala. Aftertwo years Piechniczek tookover Odra-Opole, whoseteam he led to the First Divi-sion . In 1979 he was appoint-ed technical director of theregional football association .Two years later the responsi-

ble members of the PolishFootball Association electedhim to be Poland's manager.With his team Piechniczekqualified for the World Cup'82 in Spain and achieved aremarkable third place.

Development

In the past years, Polandhad one of the most suc-cessful youth teams in Eu-rope . They managed toqualify for three WorldYouth Championships(WYC) .

From the team taking part inthe WYC '79 in Japan, man-ager Piechniczek selectedKazimierski, Buncol and Pa-laszfor the Mexico team .

At the WYC '81 in Australia,Poland were placed onlytenth ; four players of thisside were nominated for theWorld Cup in Mexico : Tara-siewicz, Urban, Wandzikand Dziekanowski.

At the WYC '83 in Mexico,Poland finished third, butonly Wandzikasserted him-self later on and got a placein Poland's A-team .

The position of the right full-back was the most contested one . After Kubicki had got a chance in the opening game, Pawlak sub-stituted for him, in the second and third match . Against Brazil, Przybys was eventually entrusted with this role .

152

The Players

midfield . But in the following

from the full-backs all defend-

This time the four profession-

The22 members of the Polish

games he had to put up with

ers had already participated

als

engaged

abroad

were

squad were

recruited

from

the substitutes'

bench

and

in the World Cup Finals '82 in

available only temporarily, so

eleven different club sides .

was only allowed to play in

Spain . Most of them were

that the harmony within the

The

three

most

important

the

second

half

against

very athletic and tall . There-

side left much to be desired .

clubs of the Polish League

England .

fore, they usually dominated

Obviously, manager Piech-

provided Piechniczek"s teamm

The agile and dynamic Urban

their opponents in the air . In

niczek was faced with prob-

provid tally 14 players : Gorn

came on the field during the

contrast, they had great pains

lems of co-ordination in mid-

wZabrzeith t

with six, Legia War-

second half against Morocco.

to control quick and nimble

field . This was clearly shown

with five and WiWew

He performed quite well and

strikers .

in the opening game againstsabraLodz with three. The remain-

secured a firm place for the

In general, the defence made

Morocco. Boniek was given

ing eight clubs each supplied

three following games .

a solid impression, but was

an offensive role in midfield

one player .

Dziekanowski, regarded as a

sometimes faced with prob-

and played on the right wing .

At the time of the World Cup

future star by many experts,

lems of organization . As soon

After the

disappointing

0:0

four

Polish

internationals

was taken from the field

as the foremost adverse for-

the tasks were newly distri-

ed

at

foreign

against Morocco, because of

ward broke out to the wings

buted . Boniek operated nowwereclubs : Bo

engagedd

and

an insufficient performance.

and thereby lured out the Pol-

as striker on the right side .

Zmuda oniemonS R

both in

For the following games he

ish central defender Majew-

Dziekanowski had to recedefin-Italy, goalkeeper Mlynarczyk

found

approval

again,

but

ski, the

individual flaws

of

to the midfield, where his fin-

at Porto in Portugal and cen-

was provided with another

some defenders were re-

ishing abilities were hardly

tral defender Majewski at task .

vealed . Sweeper Wojcicki noticed .ra l erslaute

in the Federal

Boniek assumed the leading

lacked quickness and there-

This new midfield was a good

Republic of Germany.

role

in

Poland's

game.

He

fore was not always able to

combination of skill, fightingtried to organize the team on

stop the gaps . These defi-

strength, running power andthe field and acted as a pivot

ciencies caused some turbu-

dynamism, but there was anTeam

for most attacks . Frequently,

lent situations in and arount

almost total absence of im-OrganiZation

he retired far back to the Pol-

the Polish penalty-area .

agination

and

inspiration .ish midfield . Then suddenly

In the firs two games goal-

Smolarek and Boniek werePoland played a 4-4-2-system

he turned

up

as foremost

keeper Mlynarczyk remained

only rarely launched as theywith a man-to-man marking

striker, showing his finishing

unbeaten . Against England

like it : with long passes intoin the zone .

abilities .

and Brazil, however, he had

the open space . Thus, one ofGoalkeeper Mlynarczyk was

Smolarek acted as foremost

to concede seven goals . Four

the main arms of the Polishused in all four games. At the

forward

on

the

left

wing .

of these goals were scored

team was hardly used at all .back, sweeper Wojcicki re-

From there he tried time and

after standard situations : onemained far behind his de-

again to cut in and to pene-

goal from a corner againstfenders and

only rarely left

trate into the penalty-area .

England, one by a free-kickthis position . Central defen-

and two on penalty againstder Majewski was always

Attacking Play

the South Americans .charged with the marking ofthe foremost adverse striker .

The launch of the Polish at-

ConclusionsNo less than three players got

tacks was effected at a slowa chance as right full-back :

pace. They usually played a

In their Group Poland wereKubicki, Pawlak and Przybys .

lot of short cross passes . By

placed third . In the SecondOn the left side Ostrowski re-

direct combinations and nu-

Round clash with Brazil theymained uncontested .

merous

double

passes,

took a 0:4 beating, despiteIn the Polish midfield there

sometimes even within their

their excellent starting mi-were

several

modifications

own half of field, they tried to

nutes.during the tournament . In the

elude hard tackles .

The Polish team have alwaysthree group matches Matysik

The

co-ordination

of

the

distinguished themselves byassumed the role of the de-

several

team

parts worked

a style of play based on team-fensive midfielder. In the

excellently . All ten outfield

work and tactics . Hardly an-Second Round clash with

players took part in the con-

other team worked as hardBrazil he was replaced by Ka-

struction of the attacks. Since

on various automatisms dur-

Poland-Morocco 0:0

ras, a player with more offen-

the full-backs constanly tried

ing the

preparation training

Poland-Portugal 1 :0(0 :0)sive qualities.

to run clear out on the touch-

as

the

Poles .

The

running

1 :OSmolarek(68')Komornicki was also to be

lines, their team-mates were

power and the quickness offound in the initial line-up of

allowed

to feed

them

with

the players were the main cri-

Poland-England 0:3(0 :3)

the three group games . In the

long diagonal passes and so

teria for being picked for the

01 Lineker 9')

third game against England,

to displace surprisingly the

Mexico squad.

o2Lineker 14'0 :3Lineker~34'~

Karas substituted for him in

focus of attack .

The

Polish

teams were

al-the 23rd minute, when

Po-

ways prepared very carefully

Poland-Brazil 0:4(0 :1)

land were already 0:2 down .

fortheWorld Cup Finals . This

01 Socrates (30' :Penalty)

In the opening game against

Defensive Play

excellent

preparation

was

0:3Edi' ')0: Ednho

(79)

Morocco, Buncol was given

Poland's

defence

consisted

mostly the basis of their mar-

0.4Careca (83' : Penalty)an offensive role in the right

of experienced players . Apart

vellous successes in the past .

153

Portugal

PreparationUntil the end of the Portu-guese championship manag-er José Torres had plannedonly three internationalgames . All three preparationgames took place in Portugal- all three opponents rankedamong the smaller football-ing nations of Europe!In mid-January Portugal play-ed against Finland in Leiria .Two weeks later the matchagainst Luxemburg was onthe program in Portimao . Inmid-February the promisingGDR team were received inPortugal .As Portugal had to play inMonterrey at the World CupFinals, the preparation pro-gram did not include an actu-al altitude retreat . After theclose of the national champi-onship the internationalswere gathered for a twoweeks training camp inLisbon .At first the 22 players had totake various physical andsports-medical tests . Afterthe long and hard season the

154

The two points from their 1.0 victoryoverEngland remained the only po-

sitive result for Portugal. Afterde-feats against Poland and Morocco

the Portuguese were eliminatedpre-maturely.

main accent was put on anactive recreation .Before the team flew to Mexi-co on May 11, the playerswere allowed to return totheir families for four days . InMexico the Portuguese tookup quarters in Seltillo(1500m, 80 km away fromMonterrey) .The whole training programwas divided into four stages :First an acclimatization of oneweek during which there wasonly one daily training . Forthe second stage an intensivephysical trainingwas planned .The third stage was mainlydedicated to the tactical in-struction, including severaldaily training sessions . In thelast four days the playerswere made familiar with theEnglish style of play .

The Players and TheirAppearances

Preliminary MatchesSweden

-Portugal

0:1Portugal -CSSR 2:1Portugal -Sweden 1 :3Malta

-Portugal

1 :3Portugal

-Germany FR

1 :2CSSR -Portugal 1 :0Portugal

-Malta

3:2Germany FR

-Portugal

0:1

1 . Germany FR

8 5 2 1 22 :9

122. Portugal

8 5 0 3 12:10 103. Sweden

8 4 1 2 14 :9

94. CSSR

8 3 2 3 11 :12

85. Malta

8 0 1 7 6:25

1

Preparatory MatchesPortugal -Finland 1 :1Portugal -Luxemburg 2 :0Portugal -GDR 1 :3

No . Name Firstname(s) Date of birth Club Ist MatchEngland10

2nd MatchPoland0:1

3rd MatchMorocco

13

'/e Final '/< Final 'h Final Final

1 Galrinho Bento Manuel 25.06 .48 Benfica2 Silva Pinto Joáo Domingos 21 .11 .61 F .C . Porto3 Gomes Sousa Antonio Augusto 28.04 .57 F.C . Porto 654 Pimentel Ribeiro José Joaquim 02.11 .57 Boavista5 Monteiro De Magalh5es Alvaro 03.01 .61 Benfica 556 Correia Santos Carlos Manuel 15.01 .58 Benfica7 Moreira Pacheco Jaime 22.07 .58 F.C . Porto8 Nobre Rosa Frederico 06.04 .57 Boavista9 Soares Gomes Fernando Mendes 22.11 .56 F .C . Porto 69 45

10 Santos Futre Paulo Jorge 28.02 .66 F.C . Porto 21 4511 Bandeirinha B . Fernando Oscar 26.11 .62 Académica Coimbra12 Martins Da Silva Jorge Manuel 22.08.54 Belenenses13 Farinha Henriques Morato A.M . 06 .11 .64 Sporting Lisboa14 Fernandes Magalhäes Jaime 10.07 .62 F.C . Porto 1715 Jesus Oliveira Antonio Henrique 08.06 .58 Benfica16 Prudencio C.B . José Antonio 29.10 .57 Belenenses 717 Fernandes Miranda Diamantino M . 03.08 .59 Benfica 83 2518 Peixoto Gonqalves Sobrinho L.F . 05 .05 .61 Belenenses19 LopesAguasJos6 28.04 .60 Benfica 3520. Scares In6cio Augusto 01 .02 .55 F .C . Porto21 Santos Ferreira Andre Anton D . 24.12 .57 F .C . Porto 7322 . Alfonso Damas de Oliveira V.M . 08 .10 .47 Sporting Lisboa

José TorresTwenty years ago Jose Torres(48) was one of the bestknown football players in Eu-rope . His powerful headerswere a constant threat to allrearguards and made him anextra-class centre forward.Torres began his career as aplayer with Torres Novas in

From left to right, back.' Frederico, Oliveira, Inacio, Alvaro, Bento, front' André, Pacheco, Gomes, Sousa, Diamantino, Carlos Manuel

1956 . After three years hemoved to Benfica Lisbon andhad a considerable share inthe unique series of successof this club . He could cele-brate with his side no lessthan nine Championshipsand five Cup wins .In 1961 Benfica, playing withTorres, Eusébio and Coluna,won for the first time the Eu-ropean Cup of the Champi-ons with a victory over CFBarcelona. One year later thePortuguese repeated theirsuccess, defeating Real Ma-drid in the Final .With the Portuguese nationalteam Torres had a great dealof success, too. At the WorldCup '66 in England Portugalplaced third ; José Torresscored three goals . In all heplayed 21 international gamesand scored 14 goals.In 1971 José Torres left Benfi-ca Lisbon and joined VitoriaSetubal.

Torres began his career as acoach with Estoril Prahia in1978 . After two years he wasengaged by Estrela Amadora.From 1982 to 1984 he workedwith Varzim .After the European Champi-onships '84 in France JoséTorres was selected to bemanager for the nationalteam .

DevelopmentPortugal as one of the smallfootballing nations in Eu-rope found it very hard inthe past to assert them-selves against the greatpowers of football .The Portuguese junior teammanaged only one time toqualify for the World YouthChampionship : in 1979 theyachieved the remarkableseventh place. ManagerJosb Torres placed confi-dence in one player of thisteam, selecting him for theWorld Cup Finals : Diaman-tino .

155

The Portuguese played with only one nominal forward during the first two games . In both encounters, Futre substituted forgames. In the third match against Morocco, both were used from the beginning .

156

The PlayersNational manager JoséTorres selected players fromhalf a dozen different clubs .Benfica and Porto each pro-vided the Portuguese teamwith six internationals, Sport-ing with four . Belenenseswere represented by threeand Boavista by two players .One member of the Portu-guese Mexico squad playedat Coimbra .The standard formation wasonly composed of playersfrom the three leading Portu-guese clubs, with the excep-tion of Frederico from Boavis-ta Porto.

TeamOrganizationPortugal played a 4-5-1 sys-tem with zonal marking . Butin all three games a secondforward was nominated : Dia-mantino in the first twomatches and Futre in the lastone. Both, however, were giv-en a task in midfield ratherthan in attack .Bento, the Portuguese stan-dard'keeper and captain, onlyplayed against England . Dueto an injury suffered in train-ing he had to be replaced byDamas for the followinggames.The defence was newlyshaped by Torres in view ofthe World Cup Finals . It re-mained unchanged during allmatches . The key player atthe back was Frederico, thesweeper of Boavista . Benfi-ca's central defender Oliveiraonly played his second matchfor the Portuguese squad.These two formed a goodpartnership and comple-mented one another quitewell .Alvaro as right and Inacio asleft full-back were responsi-ble for the zones along thetouch-lines . Both remainedbehind even when there wereno opponents in their zones.They did little to support themidfield players by this de-fensive attitude .Pacheco wasthe central play-er in the defensive midfield .

In the first two games he wassupported in his defensivework by André.The two driving forces in theoffensive midfield were Car-los Manuel and Sousa. Theytook a hand in almost all at-tacks . They determined therhythm of the game and aftercounter-attacks fully went forthe opposing goal .Diamantino acted far retreat-ed on the right side . How-ever, in the decisive matchagainst Morocco, Jaime wasgiven preference . Gomes ascentre forward was very iso-lated and mostly left to hisown resources

Attacking PlayThe Portuguese took greatcare that they did not lose theball . It was obvious that theyavoided every risk . Throughplenty of cross and backpasses, they made use of thewhole width of the field .Torres' team aimed at beingalways in numerical superior-ity around the ball . This re-quired that all players con-stantly tried to run clear to of-fer their team-mate who hadthe ball several possibilitiesto address his pass .By this style of play Portugalintended to force their oppo-nents to a great deal of run-ning and so to wear them out.These tactics proved to bevery effective in the extraordi-nary heat of Monterrey. ThePortuguese wanted to sparetheir forces for the really deci-sive phases of the game . Itwas above all the duoGomes/Diamantino whotried to embarrass their op-ponent by sudden changes ofpace . Through individualbreakthroughs or swiftly play-ed double passes the Portu-guese created severalchances . But their finishingabilities were far from beingexcellent.The substitutions effected byTorres illustrated too whattactical orders the Portu-guese manager gave to hisplayers . When in the firstmatch the English players re-vealed signs of fatigue, he re-

placed Gomes by the highly-talented Futre. After someminutes Portugal scored theclincher .Against Poland, Torres triedto do the same thing . Futre,who had substituted forGomes again, immediatelylivened up the actions upfront. But this time the deci-sive goal was shot by the op-ponent .

Defensive PlayAfter having lost the ball, noother team withdrew to theirdefensive zone as quickly andsystematically as the Portu-guese. Thus, the opponentswere practically not disturbedin their development of at-tack .In front of their own penalty-area the Lusitanians built up abarrier . Centre forwardGomes alone remained upfront to be ready when hisside launched their counters .The five midfield playersformed the first reception net.Just behind them the four-men defence, that could notbe unbalanced easily, was inaction . If the opposing sidetried to feed their own strikerswith running passes, the Por-tuguese defenders built upan offside trap in a flash . TheBritish were taken in time andagain.

ConclusionsPortugal presented a teamprovided with outstandingskill . They disposed of a dis-ciplined defence and a flexi-ble midfield with a great dealof imagination . The forwards,however, were rather isolat-ed ; they often got not enoughsupportfrom behind .At the European Champion-ship 1984 in France, Portugalproved to be quite an attrac-tive team with a modern de-fensive conception . The play-ers interpreted the zonalmarking very intelligently dur-ing this tournament . The op-ponent in possession of theball was already side-swipedin midfield and then encircledby the Portuguese . This

pressing induced the oppo-nent to take over-hasty andoften inaccurate passes . Ow-ing to their natural agility andquickness the Portuguese in-tercepted many of these inex-act passes . Thus, they wereable to start off new attacks atonce .At the Mundial Portugal di-verged from this style of play .They deliberately left the mid-field to the opponent andblocked up their goal with tenplayers. So, a breakthroughbecame extrëmely difficultfor the opposing team . But af-ter having conquered the ballin or near their own penalty-area, the Portuguese hadeach time to make quite aneffort to arrive in front of theother goal . This led to the si-tuation that very frequentlyonly few Portuguese playersdisengaged themselves fromtheir compact defence to takeresolutely the offensive .With this style of play, basedon counter-attacks, Portugalwere successful againstEngland . It was indeed acounter that led to their win-ner. But since neither Polandnor Morocco exposed them-selves at the back, Portugal'splan did notwork in these en-counters . They did not man-age to score against Poland .In the Morocco game, theface-saving goal was onlyrealized when the match wasalready decided in favour ofthe North Africans .

Portugal-England 1 :0 (0 :0)1 :0 Carlos Manuel (76')

Portugal-Poland 0 :1 (0:0)0 :1 Smolarek(68')

Portugal-Morocco 1 :3 (0 :2)0 :1 Khairi (19 ')0 :2 Khairi 126'0 :3 Krimau (62')1 :3 Diamantino (80 , 1

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Scotland

PreparationAfter Jock Stein's death AlexFerguson was appointed in-terim national coach, but des-pite this additional activity heremained manager withAberdeen . The fact that manyScottish top players playedfor English First Divisionclubs and that Archibald wasengaged in Spain and Sou-ness in Italy rendered the taskof the national manager evenmore difficult . Not for onesingle preparation game allMexico candidates wereavailable to him .At the end of January, theScottish team flew to Tel Avivwhere Ferguson could watchhis players for the first time inthe international gameagainst Israel .Only two months later thesecond preparation gametook place : Scotland met Ro-mania in Glasgow . At the endof April, Scotland first playedagainst their arch-rivalsEngland in London and thenagainst the Netherlands inEindhoven .

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With tremendous physical commit-ment the Scottish defence tries to

prevent Briegel from heading at theirgoal . A single point resulting fromthe drawagainst Uruguaywas not

enough to achieve the SecondRound.

Since the championships inScotland and in Englandwere finished only on May 3and on the following week-end in both countries the CupFinals took place, Fergusoncould gather his internation-als only in mid-May . In a twoweeks altitude retreat in San-ta Fe, New Mexico (USA), theScottish team was given thefinal touch .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st Match

Denmark0:1

2nd MatchGermanyFR12

3rd MatchUruguay00

'/e Final '/< Final '/s Final Final

1 Leighton James 24.07 .58 Aberdeen2 Gough Richard 05.04 .62 Tottenham Hotspur3 Malpas Maurice 03.08 .62 Dundee United4 Souness Graeme 06.05 .53 Glasgow Rangers5 McLeish Alexander 21 .01 .59 Aberdeen6 Miller William 02.05 .55 Aberdeen7 Strachan Gordon 09.02 .57 Manchester United 75

8 Aitken Roy 24.11 .58 Celtic Glasgow

9 Bannon Eamon 18.04 .58 Dundee United 15 75

10 Bett James 25.11 .59 Aberdeen11 McStay Paul 22.10 .64 Celtic Glasgow

12 Goram Andrew 13.04 .64 Oldham Athletic

13 Nicol Stephen 11 .12 .61 Liverpool 60 7014 Narey David 12.06.56 Dundee United

15 Albiston Arthur 14.07 .57 Manchester United16 McAvennie Francis 22 .11 .59 West Ham United 29 3017 Archibald Steve 27.09 .56 Barcelona

18 Sharp Graeme 16.10 .60 Everton19 Nicholas Charles 30.12 .61 Arsenal 20

20 Sturrock Paul 10.10 .56 Dundee United 61 7021 Cooper David 25.02 .56 Glasgow Rangers 15 2022 Rough Alan 25 .11 .51 Hibernian

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesScotland - Iceland 3 :0 Israel -Scotland 0 :1Scotland -Spain 3 :1 Scotland -Romania 3 :0Spain -Scotland 1 :0 England -Scotland 2 :1Scotland -Wales 0 :1 Netherlands -Scotland 0 :0Iceland -Scotland 0 :1Wales -Scotland 1 :1

1 . Spain 6 4 0 2 9:8 82 . Scotland 6 3 1 2 8:4 73 . Wales 6 3 1 2 7:6 74 . Iceland 6 1 0 5 4:10 2

Scotland -Australia 2 :0Australia -Scotland 0 :0

From left to right, back . Strachan, Sharp, Narey Gough, Leighton, Aitken, front. McStay, Nicol, Albiston, Sturrock Miller

Alex Ferguson

On September 10, 1985, thelegendary national managerJock Stein deceased on thecoaches' bench, at the end ofthe World Cup qualificationgame against Wales in Car-diff .Alex Ferguson, manager ofAberdeen, took the respon-sibility to coach the Scottishteam until the end of theWorld Cup Finals . But at thesame time, he continued tobe manager of Aberdeen .Ferguson was a good footballplayer, as centre forward heplayed with Queen's Park andSt . Johnstone . Further sta-tions in his career as a playerwere Dunfermline, GlasgowRangers, Falkirk and lastlyAyr United.As manager he took over EastStirlingshire, then coachedSt. Mirren and finally was en-gaged by Aberdeen in 1978 .Ferguson led this club to aunique series of success.

Aberdeen won both the Scot-tish championship and theScottish Cup three times . Inthe Final of the European Cupof the Cup Winners Aber-deen beat Real Madrid2 :1 .

DevelopmentIn Scotland, for decades ex-tremely talented youngplayers have appeared timeand again . Many amongthem are engaged byEnglish top clubs already ata very young age .In spite of the great numberof such talents, the Scottishyouth national team suc-ceeded only once in qualify-ing for the World YouthChampionship .At the WYC '83, in Mexico,Scotland were eliminated inthe Quarter-Final by Poland .From this side, only PaulMcStay was selected byFerguson for the Mexicoteam .

159

The Scottish manager Ferguson used no less than 19 players . Upfront, three different formations got a chance .

160

The PlayersNational manager Fergusonrecruited his players fromfour different national cham-pionships . Thirteen playerswere from Scottish clubs andseven were engaged inEngland . Souness was undercontract with SampdoriaGenova and Archibald inSpain with CF Barcelona.Kenny Dalglish, who acted asa playing coach at Liverpool,had to recall at short noticedue to injury .

TeamOrganizationThe Scottish team playedtheir usual 4-4-2 system withzonal marking.Miller and McLeish formedthe central defence . The latterwas replaced by Narey afterthe first game . Gough playedas right full-back in all threegames. Malpas was in actionas left full-back, whereas, inthe last game against Uru-guay, Albiston took this posi-tion .Souness was entrusted withthe central role in midfield . Inthe decisive third match hewas substituted by youngMcStay . Aitken played in thedefensive midfield, while Ni-col was given an offensiverole on the left side . Moreand more Gordon Strachandeveloped into the actual pi-vot in midfield .No less than five players wereused in the two forward posi-tions : Nicholas, Sturrock, Ar-chibald and Sharp . McAvennie, the top scorer of theEnglish league, came on thefield as a substitute twice.

Attacking PlayOffensive style of play ischaracteristic of Scottishfootball . A high pace andphysical fitness are theirtrumps . The players are ag-gressive and like to run a risk .By putting on constant pres-sure the opponent is to be in-duced to make mistakes .Ferguson and his key playersthought to suffer shipwreck

with these tactics in Mexico .Therefore they tried to play astyle adapted to the climaticconditions .The attacks were startedslowly, including many cross-and diagonal passes . The twofull-backs Gough and Malpaswere often included in thedevelopment of the game .Frequently, flowing moveswere to be seen in midfield .At times they tried to achievea breakthrough by triangleplay on the flanks . Much laterthan usual the forwards wereincluded in the attacks .In the first two matchesagainst Denmark and Ger-many FR this style of playproved to be quite attractive -but lacking in efficiency!

Defensive PlayLike all British teams Scot-land were well organized indefence. Through their two-club connection at the back,including players fromAberdeen and Dundee Unit-ed alone, the mutual under-standing was guaranteed .After having lost the ball theScottish players did withouttheir usual pressing . Theywithdrew behind the halfwayline without strong resist-ance . The two strikers werepractically dispensed of anydefensive work .It was interesting to see thatin the match against Den-mark Scotland diverged fromtheir usual defensive play . Attimes Miller assumed the roleof a sweeper. Somewhatsluggish McLeish markedElkjaer. Malpas, the left full-back, changed to the middleto guard Laudrup.This tactical move made ob-vious that the Scots didn'tstart their games as carelessand selfconfident as before .The opponent was exactlyanalysed and the Scottishteam prepared accordingly .In spite of this additional se-curity through sweeper Mis-ler the Scottish defenceshowed some difficulty whenthe Danes performed theirswift and refined movesthrough the middle . It was in

this way actually that Elkjaerscored the decisive goal .It was proved once more thatit is very difficult for a teammanager to change a style ofplay which has been employ-ed by players since their earlyyouth. Particular problemsarise when the players'mindsshould be changed from theiroriginal football of high paceto a more considered andmore variable game . It takesmonths, sometimes years, toachieve this . Ferguson didn'thave this time . He had to con-tent himself with a minimumpreparation programme .Thus, Scotland's eliminationseems logical - with theslight reservation that some-times football reality beliesevery logic.

ConclusionsFerguson tried to teach histeam a synthesis of Britishand continental football . Itwas by a richly varied con-struction of play and by manydisplacements of the gamethat the midfield wasbridged. But some deficien-cies came to light in the ad-verse defensive zone .No defender or midfield play-er managed to give creativeimpulses in this zone . Onlyvery rarely the two strikerswere really taken clear. Riskydribbles, surprising doublepasses or swift movesthrough the middle werehardly to be seen . The Scots,being used to a high speed,were not able to split the op-posing defence by changingimmediately from slowmoves to a sudden accelera-tion of play .The players'charges in mid-field did not seem optimal.Souness played in quite abackward position and fromthere tried to launch the Scot-tish attacks. But only rarely heappeared near the oppo-nents'penalty-area where hisexcellent skill and his subtlepasses would have been re-quired most urgently . Aitkenwas most active on the de-fensive. Nicol only endan-gered the adverse goal by his

runs down the left flank andhis sharp crosses.Only Strachan's elegant drib-bles with surprising turns andhis sudden accelerationswere suited to trouble the op-ponent . It was by such an in-dividual attack that he actual-ly scored the only ScottishWorld Cup goal against GFR.Strachan was a good individ-ual player, performing withexemplary committment -but collectively his effect waslimited .After a good start againstDenmark and a powerful firsthalf against GFR, the Scottishgame was losing in effective-ness . The players visibly lostself-confidence . In theirmatch against Uruguay-dur-ing 85 minutes they playedagainst only ten South Ameri-cans-the Scots did not ma-nage to achieve a single op-portunity.

Scotland-Denmark 0:1 (0 :0)0:1 Elkjaer(57')

Scotland-GFR 1 :2 (1 :1)1 :0Strachan (18')1 :1 V611er(23 1 )1 :2Allofs (49')

Scotland-Uruguay 0:0

Spain

PreparationThe successes of the Spanishclubs in the three EuropeanCups affected the preparationof the Spanish team consid-erably . Since the Finals withReal Madrid and Atletico Ma-drid took place only at the be-ginning of May, Spain's ma-nager Muhoz had to put offthe departure for Mexico,planned for May 5 . The short-ening of the training camp, tobe held in Tlaxcala, was allthe more grave as Muñoz hadto put up with a modest pre-paration program .From November 1985 on-wards Spain could play an in-ternational game everymonth . As the first team, theSpaniards received Austria inZaragoza, in December Bul-garia came to Valencia . InJanuary, Muhoz's team play-ed against USSR in Las Pal-mas . The match against Bel-gium in February was held inElche . The last preparationgame against Poland tookplace in Cadiz .After the arrival of the Span-

162

Spain impressed the fans by their 5.1victoryover Denmark. In this SecondRound game Butragueño beat the

Danish keeper Hogh (No. 22) no lessthan four times.

ish delegation in Mexicothere was a very easy trainingduring the first week . Onlygradually the Spanishcoaches increased the train-ing rhythm . Various gamesagainst Mexican clubs re-laxed the ordinary trainingsessions .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st Match

Brazil0 .1

2nd MatchN Ireland

2 :1

3rd MatchAlgeria3 :0

Ye FinalDenmark

5 :1

'/ FinalBelgium11 a .e .-t .

'/ Final Final

1 ZubizarretaAndoni 23.10 .61 FC Barcelona

2 RehonesTomas 09.08 .60 Atletico Madrid 45

3 CamachoJoséAntonio 08.06 .55 Real Madrid4 Maceda Antonio 16.05 .57 Real Madrid5 Muñoz Victor 15.03 .57 FC Barcelona

6 Gordillo Rafael 24.02 .57 Real Madrid 537 SeñorJuan Antonio 26.08 .58 Real Zaragoza 8 29 758 Goicoechea Andoni 23.08 .56 Athletic Bilbao9 Butragueño Emilio 22.07 .63 Real Madrid 45

10 Carrasco Francisco José 06.03 .59 FC Barcelona

11 Moreno Julio Alberto 07.10.58 FC Barcelona12 Setien Enrique 27.09 .58 Atletico Madrid

13 Urruticoechea Francisco 17 .11 .52 FC Barcelona

14 Gallego Ricardo 08.02 .59 Real Madrid

15 Chendo Porlan Miguel 12.10 .61 Real Madrid

16 Rincon Hipolito 28.04 .57 Real Betis Sevilla 12

17 Lopez Francisco 01 .11 .62 Sevilla FC 82 7

18 Caldere Ramon Maria 16 .01 .59 FC Barcelona 37

19 SalinasJulio 11 .09 .62 Atletico Madrid 78 45 63

20 OlayaEl 10.07 .64 Real Sporting Gijon 45 45 57

21 Michel Gonzalez Miguel 23.03 .63 Real Madrid 61 83

22 AblanedoJuan Carlos 02.09 .63 Real Sporting Gijon

PreliminarySpain

Matches-Wales 3 :0

PreparatorySpain

Matches-Austria 0 :0

Scotland -Spain 3 :1 Spain - Bulgaria 2:0Spain -Scotland 1 :0 Spain -USSR 2:0Wales -Spain 3 :0 Spain - Belgium 3:0Iceland -Spain 1 :2 Spain -Poland 3:0Spain -Iceland 2 :1

1 . Spain 64029:8 82 . Scotland 631 28:4 73. Wales 631 27:6 74. Iceland 61 054:102

From left to right, back : Zubizarreta, Salinas, Michel, Goicoechea, Camacho, Gordillo ; front: Butragueño, Victor, Francisco, Tomas, Gallego

Miguel Muñoz

Miguel Munoz (64) was theoldest and certainly also themost experienced of all man-agers present in Mexico . Hewas born in Madrid and start-ed his career as a player withRacing Santander (1945/46)and Celta de Vigo (1946-48) .Then he joined Real Madridand had a decisive share inhelping this club to an inter-national reputation . As rightmidfield player he won sever-al titles and Cup competi-tions. As captain of Real Ma-drid he led his side to threevictories in the European Cupof the Cup Winners : in 1956against Stade Reims (4 :3), inthe following year against Fi-orentina (2 :0) and in 1958against AC Milan (3 :2) .After having finished his ca-reer as a player in 1958, Mu-hoz was appointed coach ofPlus Ultra (today Castilla), ateam affiliated to Real Ma-drid . After two years Real Ma-

drid called him back and en-trusted him with the coachingof the first team . After onlyfour months he gained theEuropean Cup of the Champi-ons, with a 7 :3 victory overEintracht Frankfurt. In thesame year Real Madrid alsowon the Intercontinentalwhich then was staged forthe first time - against Peña-rol Montevideo (5 :1, 0:0) . Dur-ing 14 years Muñoz led hisclub to countless successes .

After having left Real, he suc-cessively took over Granada,Sevilla and Las Palmas .After Spain's disappointingperformances at the WorldCup '82 in their own country,Miguel Muñoz was selectedto be the successor of nation-al coach Santamaria . At theEuropean Championships inFrance his team surprisinglyachieved the Final, losing in adramatic game to hostsFrance (0 :2) .

Development

After USSR, Spain's juniorteams turned out to be thesecond strongest Europeannation at the World YouthChampionships (WYC) .Nevertheless, only two for-mer junior internationalssucceeded in getting aplace in Spain's Mexicosquad .Ricardo Gallego played atthe WYC '77 in Tunisia,Francisco Lopeztook part intheWYC "81 in Australia .

163

164

Standard sweeper Macedo could only play the opening game due to injury . In the subsequent matches Gallego took over hisposition . In the Quarter-Final clash with Belgium, the suspended Goicoechea was replaced by Chendo .

The PlayersThe Spanish team were com-posed of players from eightdifferent clubs. ChampionsReal Madrid (7) and Barcelo-na (5) were the main suppli-ers of players to the Spanishside . Three internationalswere selected from AtleticoBilbao and twofrom SportingGijon and Atletico Madrid .Real Zaragoza, Betis Sevillaand Sevilla FC providedthe national squad with oneplayer .

TeamOrganizationSpain's defensive conceptionwas based on a combinationof man-to-man and zonalmarking . If the opponentplayed with only two for-wards, they were closelymarked by two Spanish de-fenders. In this case, the freefull-back moved forward tothe midfield .Against Brazil sweeperMacedo directed his de-fence . Tomas, Goicoecheaand Julio Alberto formed thedefence. In midfield Cama-cho was charged with guard-ing Socrates . On the rightside playmaker Franciscowas supported by the dan-gerous Michel . On the leftside Victor's defensive roleproved to be very valuable .Since Macedo was no longeravailable because of an oldinjury, the midfield playerGallego was converted intothe new sweeper againstNorthern Ireland . Julio Alber-to's position as left full-backwas taken by Camacho . Onthe left side in midfield thedynamic Gordillo did his bestto bring more pressure intothe Spanish attacking play .Forthe third game against Al-geria there was only onechange in the initial line-up :the injured Gordillo was re-placed by Caldere, a playerknown for his great runningabilities .In the Second Round clashwith Denmark, Goicoecheaguarded Elkjaer and Cama-cho tried to neutralize Lau-

drup . Francisco had to stayon the substitutes' bench forthe first time . Julio Albertowas used for the secondtime .In the Quarter-Final clashwith Belgium, Goiceocheawas suspended because oftwo cautions . In place of him,Chendo was entrusted withthe marking of Claesen, theonly nominal striker of theBelgian side .

Attacking PlayIn the game against BrazilSpain preferred a style of playbased on counter-attacks.The two forwards, however,did not receive enough sup-port from the midfield andwere often too isolated . Al-though Butragueño with hisskillfull turns and his quickdribbles was a constant wor-ry to the Brazilian defence,the effectiveness of the Span-ish attacks remained rathermodest . Midfield strategistFrancisco had no real impacton the course of the game .With a totally different atti-tude Spain took the offensiveagainst Northern Ireland andAlgeria . Direct runningpasses, brilliant doublepasses and quick moves onthe wings, mainly on the leftside, proved to be the mainfeatures of their attackingplay . Even at top speed theSpaniards displayed theiroutstanding skill . It was Mi-chel who particularly caughtthe eye by his precise pass-ing. Francisco impressed theexperts by his tremendoussphere of action . After havingtaken the lead in both en-counters, they slowed downthe pace and kept the gameunder control .

Defensive PlayAt the back, Spain seemed tobe fairly compact. The defen-ders were used to mark theiropponents closely and tack-led hard .Their defensive conceptionwas built on a pressing inmidfield . Victor and Calderedisposed of an enormous

range of action and usuallyattacked their opponents al-ready at the halfway line, try-ing to win back the ball veryearly. In the further advancedzone the offensive midfieldplayers Francisco and Michelconstantly disturbed the play-ers who were in possessionof the ball, tempting them in-to over-hasty actions .When the Spanish team wereone goal down, they beganwith this intensive pressingalready near the penalty-areaof their opponent . In doing sothe two strikers Butragueñoand Salinas proved to be ex-tremely clever . Two Spanishgoals emerged from situa-tions in which their oppo-nents were attacked so early.

ConclusionsDuring these World Cup Fi-nals, Spain presented a teamprovided with great poise andfighting spirit . In front of thewell organized defence play-ers like Gamacho, Victor andCaldere, all very strong intackling, complemented in anideal way those team-mem-bers (Francisco, Michel) whodisposed of brilliant skills . Upfront the tall and vigorous Sal-inas and the lightning-quickand nimble Butragueñoformed an excellent partner-ship .Muñoz had succeeded inproviding his team with amodern and effective style ofplay . The players took on re-sponsibility and were able toadapt their play to the cir-cumstances . They had theability to put under pressureevery opponent and to con-trol them in each zone of thefield . This kind of pressingcombined with the well-known Spanish temperamentgave Spain's opponents onlylittle room and time to con-struct their play . However, theSpanish team were some-times lacking in creativity andimagination which came tolight in certain critical situa-tions .As soon as the Spaniardswere one goal down, asagainst Brazil, Denmark and

Belgium, they seemed to bepanic-stricken and assaultedthe opposing goal, but insuch moments completelylacked ideas . They too oftenran through the middle . Allmidfield players went aheadat the same time and left alarge gap behind, inviting theopponents to launch theircounters . In such hectic situa-tions Gallego's calm and vi-sion were missed . Playingsweeper he was a great helpin starting off attacks from theback, but in midfield he couldnot be replaced fully .In five games Spain scoredeleven goals. Four of themwere scored from standardsituations (two penalties, onefree-kick and one goal from acorner). Four goals were real-ized after typical pressing si-tuations . Three goals weretaken through counter-at-tacks. But not a single goalwas scored after a flowingcombination!

Spain-Brazil 0:1 (0 :0)0 1 Socrates (621)

Spain-N.Ireland 2:1 (2:0)1 :0 Butragueño (1')2:0 Salinas (18')2:1 Clarke(46')

Spain-Algeria 3:0 (1 :0)1 :0 Caldere (15')2 :0 Ca ldere (68',3 :0 Eloy (70')

Spain-Denmark 5:1 (1 :1)0 :1 J. Olsen (33' : Penalty)1 :1 Butragueño (43')2:1 Butragueño (56'3:1 Goicoechea (68' : Penalty)4:1 Butrague6o180')5:1 Butragueño (88' : Penalty)

Spain-Belgium 1 :1 (1 :1, 0:1)Pen. 4:5

0:1 Ceulemans(35')1 :1 Sehor(85')

165

USSR

PreparationAt the beginning of January1986 the Soviet national teammoved from their wintryhome to the sunny Canary Islands for two weeks . This firststage of the preparation wasmarked by three trainings dai-ly . During a tournament inLas Palmas, organized atshort notice, with the partici-pation of the two GermanBundesliga teams Saarbrük-ken and Leverkusen, theplayers were tested for thefirst time . The internationalgame against Spain formedthe conclusion of this trainingcamp .The Soviet delegation moveddirectly on to Toluca in Mexi-co where a first training campat high altitudes took place .Various sports-medical ex-aminations were carried outin order to inform managerMalofejev about the endur-ance of his players . After tendays of intensive training afirst game (against Atlas) wascarried out . Three days laterthe game against Mexico fol-

166

The USSR and France drew 1 :1 afterthe Soviets had outclassed Hungary6.0 . So, their defeat against Belgium

was quite an upset .

lowed and later on a thirdmatch against Irapuato .In the Soviet Union the na-tional championship began inMarch, interrupted by the of-ficial international matchesagainst England in Tiflis(March 26), Romania in Bu-charest (April 23) and Fin-land in Moscow (May 7) . Af-ter the disappointing resultsin these games Malofejevwas dismissed and replacedby the coach of Dynamo Kiev,Valerij Lobanovski .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st Match

Hungary60

2nd MatchFrance

1 .1

3rd MatchCanada2 .0

'/e FinalBelgium3 .4 a .e .-t .

'/ Final '/z Final Final

1 Dassaiev Rinat 13 .06 .57 Spartak Moscow2 Bessonov Vladimir 05.03 .58 Dynamo Kiev3 Chivadze Alexandr 08.04 .55 Dynamo Tbilisi4 Morozov Gennadi 30.12 .52 Spartak Moscow5 Demianenko Anatoli 19 .02 .59 Dynamo Kiev6 Bubnov Alexandr 10.10 .55 Spartak Moscow7 Yaremchuk Ivan 19 .03 .62 Dynamo Kiev8 Yakovenko Pavel 19 .12 .64 Dynamo Kiev 72 68 799 Zavarov Alexandr 24.04 .61 Dynamo Kiev 58 29 7210 Kuznetsov Oleg 22.03 .63 Dynamo Kiev11 Blokhin Oleg 05.11 .52 Dynamo Kiev 32 6112 Bal Andrei 16 .02 .58 Dynamo Kiev13 Litovchenko Gennadi 11 .09 .63 Dnepr14 Rodionov Sergei 03.09 .62 Spartak Moscow 21 22 4815 Larionov Nikolai 19 .02 .57 Zenit Leningrad16 Chancy Viktor 21 .07 .59 Dynamo Kiev17 Yevtushenko Vadim 01 .01 .59 Dynamo Kiev 18 4118 Protasov Oleg 14.02 .64 Dnepr 5719 Belanov Igor 25.09 .60 Dynamo Kiev 69 3320 Aleinikov Sergei 07 .11 .61 Dynamo Minsk21 Rats Vasili 25.04 .61 Dynamo Kiev22 Krakovskii Sergei 11 .08 .60 Dnepr

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesIreland Rep . -USSR 1 :0 1 . FC Saarbrücken - USSR 1 :1Norway -USSR 1 :1 Bayer Leverkusen - USSR 0 :1Switzerland -USSR 2 :2 Spain -USSR 2:0USSR -Switzerland 4 :0 Atlas -USSR 0 :3Denmark -USSR 4 :2 Mexico -USSR 1 :0USSR -Denmark 1 :0 Irapuato -USSR 0 :2USSR -Ireland Rep, 2 :0 USSR -England 0 :1USSR -Norway 1 :0 Romania -USSR 2 :1

USSR -Finland 0 :01 . Denmark 8 5 1 2 17 :6 11 USSR -Torpedo2. USSR 8 4 2 2 13 :8 10 Moscow 1 :03. Switzerland 8 2 4 2 5 :10 84. Ireland Rep . 8 2 2 4 5 :10 65. Norway 8 1 3 4 4 :10 5

From left to right, back Dassaiev Demianenko, Aleinikov Kuznetsov, Bessonov ; front. Yakovenko, Rats, Larionov, Yaremchuk, Belanov Zavarov

Valerij Lobanovski

From 1958-1965, Valerij Loba-novski played at DynamoKiev, then moved to Odessaand concluded his career atShakhtjor Donez .

In 1968, he began his careeras a coach with Dnjepr . In

1973, he went to DynamoKiev . With this team he couldcelebrate six national titlesand four Cup wins . In 1975/76,Lobanovski was appointedmanager of the USSR teamfor the first time, got a chanceagain in 1981/82 and took overthe national team in 1983, be-fore the qualification gamesfor the European Champion-ship . After his team hadfailed, he was replaced byMalofejev. But only threeweeks before the openinggame of the World Cup Finalsin Mexico, Lobanovski wascalled back .

Eduard Malofejev (44), in hisyouth player at Spartak Mos-cow and Dynamo Minsk, hasalso had a share in the devel-opment of the Soviet team .

After having finished his ca-reer as a player, he went toHolland for a short time to

study the Dutch soccer(Ajax) . After his return, he be-came manager of DynamoMinsk whose team were pro-moted to the First Division in1978 .

In 1983, Malofejev firstcoached the Olympic teamand then became responsi-ble for the Soviet nationalteam . He banked primarily onthe players of his former clubDynamo Minsk and with thisnew side managed to qualifyfor Mexico . But in the prepa-ration games the Sovietswere no longer convincing,although now ten playersfrom the Soviet championsDynamo Kiev were selected .

After Dynamo Kiev had wonthe European Cup in styleand the USSR had onlydrawn against Finland (0 :0),Malofejevwas dismissed .

Development

The Soviet junior teamshave always been very suc-cessful . They managed toqualify for four World YouthChampionships (WYC).

USSR won the WYC 77 inTunisia. From this success-ful side Bessonov and Balwere picked for the WorldCup Final Competition .

At the World Youth Cham-pionship in Japan USSR fin-ished second . Three playersof this side were to befound in the World Cupteam : Zavarov, Chanov andKrakovskii .

At the WYC 83 in Mexico,however, the Soviet teamplaced only 15th . Of thisteam, Yakovenko, Litov-chenko and Protasov werelater on selected for the na-tional team .

167

After the Soviets had already qualified for the Second Round, manager Lobanovski used no less than nine new players againstCanada .

168

The PlayersThe pool of players of the So-viet squad was recruited fromonly six teams. Dynamo Kiev,the Soviet champion andwinner of the European Cup,were represented by twelveplayers . This club also suppli-ed the manager of the nation-al team, Valerij Lobanovski .Four internationals were fromSpartak Moscow . Dnepr wasrepresented by three men .Dynamo Tbilisi, DynamoMinsk and Zenit Leningradprovided the USSR team withone player each .

TeamOrganizationThe Soviet manager Loba-novski, in former timesknown as an advocate of adefensive style of play,surprisingly presented themost offensive team of allWorld Cup participants .At the back, the Soviets usedto play with a mixed man-to-man zonal marking. Goal-keeper Dassaiev also distin-guished himself by his longand rapidly taken throw-offs .Despite his excellent skill andhis nimbleness, sweeper Bes-sonov only rarely supportedthe Soviet attacking play .If the opposing team lined upwith a forward and a winger,central defender Kuznetsovmarked the centre forwardand one of the full-backs thewinger . Aleinikov, as in hisclub side, was then chargedwith a defensive role in mid-field . But if the opponentplayed with two strikers in thecentral attacking position,Aleinikov had to guard one ofthese forwards .Right full-back was first Lario-nov. After his injury he wasreplaced by Bal . Demianen-ko, a full-back with tremen-dous offensive qualities,played as usual on the leftside .The lean Yakovenko provedto be the key player in mid-field . His outstanding skill,combined with his exception-al vision, made him the actualmastermind of this team . AI-

though he was sometimes alittle playful, he had a goodeye for the quick release ofrunning passes .The attack consisted of twodifferent lines . Up front thelightning-quick Belanov play-ed . He was constantly in mo-tion and often drew away hisdirect opponent from the cen-tre . Zavarov, the second for-ward, also manoeuvred at thecentre, but mostly in a slightlyretreated position . This verytalented striker - disposed ofan excellent control and anenormous accelerating pow-er . As soon as the USSRteam came under pressure,Zavarov retired to the mid-field and had to take on de-fensive tasks.In the second line the smalland extremely agile Yarem-chuk played on the right side .During the attacking phase,with his surprising dribbles,he became an actual rightwinger . Whenever the oppo-nents were in possession ofthe ball he actively took partin the Soviet pressing .On the left side, also Ratsproved to have many quali-ties of a true winger . When hewas fed with long passes, hecould hardly be held by hisopponents and prepared histeam-mates a number of ex-cellent opportunities, aboveall with his strongly cutcrosses .

ConclusionsThe Soviet team surprised thefootballing world with theirperfect skill and tactical var-iants . Their displays werebased on the joy to play andnot primarily on factors likestamina and fightingstrength . Even when therewas no room and the oppos-ing team set up a violentpressing, the Soviets had notrouble to control the ball . Attop speed they managed to((kill)) the ball and to run withit, to produce well-timedpasses, to shoot or to headfrom all positions. In tacklingall players revealed tough-ness and agility .The attacks were usually

launched from a well-covered defence . Since allplayers were fairly quick, theyhardly ever failed in doing so .In attack the positions wereconstantly changed, from leftto right and from behind tofront and vice versa . In thisrespect the players demon-strated the versatility of theirtraining and at the same timebaffled their opponents.Through their tremendousamount of running the USSRsucceeded time and again inachieving a numerical superi-ority near the ball . Thiscaused their tactical advan-tages in defence and in at-tack . In the first game theHungarian actions were fre-quently stifled by the con-stant numerical superiority ofthe Soviet players.In the decisive match againstBelgium, the Soviet team, forall their excellent and convinc-ing performances, were de-feated . There were severalreasons for this upsetting re-sult . Primarily, one has to ap-preciate the Belgian perform-ance . After having equalizedin the first minutes of the sec-ond half, the Belgians cast offall fear of the favourites andprofited by their large interna-tional experience . The So-viets incomprehensibly tookin sail, slowed down the paceand tried to keep the ball intheir possession . Also the de-fenders took part in this kindof play . Nowthe Belgians hadmore room and they energet-ically took advantage of it . Af-ter the leveller, the Sovietslost control of the game, theycontinued to run and to fight,but their actions were nolonger convincing . Individualmistakes eventually led toBelgium's voctory . Rhythmplays an important part insoccer . Each player has hisown and the team their parti-cular rhythm . The key playersdetermine the pace of thegame . The USSR squad - asit was composed in Leon -were obliged to put theirstamp on the game, to be incommand and to assault theopposing goal . That is theirplay . They had not such a

complete command of theother style of play : to slowdown the pace and to keepthe ball in their rows .Each team has to learn to putthrough their style of playover 90 minutes. Only then itcan be labelled a real firstclass team . Each player mustdo what he knows best andnot try what his team-matesknow better . The true masterproves himself in limitation .This is true for each player aswell as for the whole team .We shall soon see again theSoviet team on the interna-tional scene . We may lookforward to that!

USSR-Hungary6:0(3 :0)1 :0 Yakovenko (2')2:OAleinikov (4')3:0 Belanov (24' : Penalty)4:OYaremchuk (66')5:OYaremchuk 75'6:0 Rodíonov (80')

USSR-France 1 :1 (0 :0)1 :0 Rats (53')1 1 Fernandez(60')

USSR-Canada 2:0 (0 :0)1 :0 Blokhin (58')2:0 Zavarov (741 )

USSR-Belgium 3:4 (2 :2,1 :0)1 :0 Belanov (27')1 :1 Scifo(56')2:1 Belanov(70')2.2 Ceulemans (77')2'.3 De Mol (102')2:4 Claesen (110')3:4 Belanov (111' : Penalty)

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Hungary

PreparationAlready in April 1985,Hungary, as the first Euro-pean team, were qualified forthe World Cup Finals . There-fore, in June a Hungarian del-egation, including managerMezey and several scientists,departed for Mexico to studythe conditions on the spotprecisely one year before thestart of the World Cup .The actual preparation of theteam began in October 1985with an international gameagainst Wales in Cardiff .In the first days of December,Hungary flew to Mexico toparticipate in an internationaltournament with Algeria, Ko-rea Rep . and hosts Mexico .After an indoor tournament inLucerne the Hungarian teammoved on to Southern Spain(Benidorm), where the Hun-garian coaches directed atraining camp of three weeks(in January 1986) . In Spain,Hungary played some train-ing matches against localclubs . From Spain the Hun-garian delegation flew direct-

The Hungarian defence with goal-keeper Disztl and defender P6terhadnot the least chance against the So

vietstrikers ; in particular Belanov(No. 19) could hardly becontrolled.

ly to Qatar . Three games inDoha allowed Mezey to giveall his internationals an op-portunity to perform beforethe start of the second roundin Hungary .At the beginning of March,the championship was re-sumed . With several Englishweeks the Mexico candidatesgot used to the rhythm of theWorld Cup . On March 16, aninternational game was play-ed against Brazil in Budapest .After the end of the champi-onship, the Hungarian inter-nationals were gathered in analtitude retreat in the AustrianaIps, before the team left forMexico in mid-May .

The Players and TheirAppearances

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No . Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st MatchUSSR0:6

2nd MatchCanada20

3rd MatchFrance03

% Final 'A Final '/z Final Final

1 Disztl Peter 30.03 .60 Videoton2 Sallai Sandor 26.03 .60 Honved3 Roth Antal 14.09 .60 Pecs 13 624 Varga Jozsef 09 .11 .54 Denizli5 Kardos Jozsef 22.03 .60 Ujpest Dozsa6 Garaba Imre 29.07 .58 Honved7 Kiprich Jozsef 06.09 .63 Tatabanya8 Nagy Antal 17.10 .56 Nancy 62 459 Dajka Laszlo 29.04 .59 Honved 28 2810 Detari Lajos 24.04 .63 Honved11 Esterhazy Marton 09.04 .56 AEK Athen12 Csuhay Jozsef 12.08 .57 Videoton13 Disztl Laszlo 04.06 .62 Videoton14 Peter Zoltan 23.03 .58 Zalaegerszeg 6215 Hannich Peter 30.03 .57 Nancy 4516 Nagy Jozsef 21 .11 .60 Haladas17 Burcsa Gybzb 13.03 .54 Auxerre 77 2818 Szendrei Jozsef 25.04 .54 Ujpest Dozsa19 Bognar Gy6rgy 05.11 .61 MTK/VM 2520 Kovacs Kalman 11 .09 .65 Honved 6521 Hajszan Gyula 09.10 .61 Raba Eto Gybr22 Andrusch Jozsef 31 .03 .56 Honved

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesHungary -Austria 3:1 Wales - Hungary 0:3Netherlands -Hungary 1 :2 Korea Rep . - Hungary 0 :1Cyprus -Hungary 1 :2 Algeria - Hungary 1 :3Hungary -Cyprus 2:0 Mexico - Hungary 2:0Austria -Hungary 0:3 Le6n - Hungary 1 :4

Hungary -Netherlands 0 :1 Asian Selection - Hungary 0:3Asian Selection - Hungary 0:2

1 . Hungary 6 5 0 1 12 :4 10 Qatar - Hungary 0:32 . Netherlands 6 3 1 2 11 :5 7 Hungary -Brazil 3:03. Austria 6 3 1 2 9:8 74. Cyprus 6 0 0 6 3:18 0

From left to right, back . Disztl, Roth, Kardos, Esterhazy, Dajka, Garaba, front. Detari, Varga, Hannich, Sallai, Kovacs

György Mezey

György Mezey's career as aplayer had no exciting high-lights . He began with theyouth team of RAC Budapest.After having stayed with thissmall Fourth Division club forfive years, he joined (in 1959)a club which performed onecategory higher : TF Buda-

pest. After further five years,Mezey climbed another stepof the ladder : he joined forthree seasons Budafok FC,which at that time played inthe Second Division . At theage of 27, Mezey managed tojoin a club of the First Divi-sion : with the famous MTKBudapest he played the lastfive years of his career .Already in the course of hiscareer as a player, Mezeytrained to be a certified P.T .instructor and a footballcoach . He also showed agreat interest in the latestsport-scientific findings . Thehighest diplomas of thesports college in Budapest al-lowed Mezey a direct trans-ition from the career as aplayer to his future job as acoach . In 1974, he took overthe first team of MTK Buda-pest. This team finished thirdfouryears later.In 1980, Mezey was engaged

by the Hungarian FootballAssociation as assistantcoach of the national team . Inthis function he also partici-pated in the World Cup '82 inSpain and was the most im-portant collaborator of ma-nager Kalman Meszbly . In1982, Mezey' was givencharge of the U-21 team andof the Olympic team . Alreadyin the following year he wasappointed national manager.

Development

The Hungarian youth teamtook part in three WorldYouth Championships (WYC)up to now. In 1977, in Tuni-sia, they were placed tenth .From this team Zoltan Peterwas selected for the WorldCup team of 1986 .From the team taking part inthe WYC '79 in Japan, thefollowing five players are tobe found again in Hungary'sMexico team : Peter Disztl,Sandor Sallai, Antal Roth,Jozsef Kardos and JozsefNagy.From the very strong sidewhich finished ninth at theWYC '85 in the Soviet Uniononly forward Kalman Kov-acs managed to get a placein the actual national team .

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There were numerous changes in the Hungarian team . Kiprich for example, substituted for Kovacs on the right wing during thefirst twogames . Daika and Hannich were replaced by Bognar and Nagy in midfield .

ExcellentPreparationIn the computer age one is in-clined to compare the Hun-garian team of Mexico '86 toa black box. Manager Mezeyand his collaborators knowwhat they put into it - organi-zation and form of the train-ing ; number, selection, de-gree of difficulty of the pre-paration games and trainingpartners ; adaptation to heat,altitude and time-shift in Le-on ; medical, physical andpsychological care in thetraining camp - and theywere struck with terror whenthey observed what came outof it . The outside observercan merely guess, maybe im-agine, but certainly not knowwhat was going on within theteam, inside of the black box.

Only Victoriesbefore the WorldCupSince 1983 the Hungarianshave played 27 internationalgames : only four were lost,five matches ended in a drawand 18 games were won. Intheir qualification groupHungary held their ownagainst the Netherlands, Aus-tria and Cyprus . They had awhole year to prepare forMexico : During this time theyplayed eight friendlies that -with the exception of one -were all won . In Cardiff Waleslost to Hungary 0 :3 and theBrazilians were defeated withthe same score in Budapest .The Hungarians had no diffi-culties in their training gamesin Leon, just before the be-ginning of the Mundial . Theywere all won and at the sametime used to stabilize the de-fence, to practice attackingmoves and standard situa-tions. The preparation ap-peared to be accomplishedsuccessfully and the Hungar-ians approached the WorldCup with very much self-con-fidence. There was only oneabsence that later on proved

to have grave consequences :Nyilasi could not be used dueto injury .

The DisastrousFirst GameThen the first World Cupgame against the USSR tookplace and everything turnedagainst the Hungarians . Afteronly four minutes the Sovietshad taken a 2:0 lead and out-played their opponent onevery point . The Hungarianswere stunned . After their 3:0lead at half-time the superior-ity of the Soviet side becameso immense that instead of6:0 they could have also won10 :0 . Hungary were neverable to recover from thiscrushing defeat as the follow-ing games were to prove .The fear of failure is a psycho-logical phenomenon . It para-lyzes mind and body andleads to black-outs which forother persons are incompre-hensible and completely il-logical . The Hungarian teamseemed to have forgotten allthey had learnt . Next to noth-ing worked, both in defenceand in attack most actionswent wrong . . . Ninety percent of all tackles were lost, atthe back there was completedisorder and up front the for-wards did not run clear. Theoutside observer had the im-pression that the team actedas if they were paralyzed .They were neither a match forthe Soviets with their pacenor for the French with theirflair and wit. They could noteven dominate the robust Ca-nadians .It was to no avail to discusson things like line-up, system,tactics and strategy . Hungarywere completely put out andplayed far below their value .After the second goal againstCanada there was a glimmerof hope . Now the anguishwas shaken off and Hungaryperformed at their best forthe remaining 15 minutes .Playing France the Hungar-ians had some other goodphases : at the beginning of

the first half and immediatelyafter the interval . But after theFrench had taken the lead inthe first half and the decisive2 :0 in the second half, theHungarians fell out of stepand uncertainty pervailedagain.

ConclusionsWhoever tries to analyseHungary's failure has to takeinto consideration the psy-chology of soccer . He willsoon find out that top playersand first class sides aboundin self-confidence, that theyare convinced of their abili-ties and are not even afraid ofthe devil . These are the basicrequirements for success .Then other aspects come in,the problems regarding phy-sical fitness, tactics or skill .And here one is faced withanother weakness of theHungarians : they failed tokeep up with a high pace . Themodern player is forced toperform all his actions at ahigh pace and under pres-sure of the opponent . He haslittle room and time . His di-rect opponent chases him,other players encircle himand block the routes . Just asthere are only two playing si-tuations - attack and defence-, there are only two realproblems on the field : spaceand time . Much space meansmuch time to assert oneselfproperly both in attack and indefence . When challengedby the best, one is short oftime and space and the op-ponent's pressure mounts .Good players have to getused to such situations, dur-ing practice sessions as wellas in their national champion-ships and internationalgames. Such a developmenttakes time and cannot beachieved overnight.This is another experiencethat the Hungarian players -above all the highly talentedLajos Detari - took home . On-ly those who learn from expe-riences get on in life . Whocovers up a bad experienceby excuses will always fail .

Hungary-USSR 0:6(0 :3)0:1 Yakovenko (2')0 :2 Aleinikov(4')0:3 Belanov (24' : Penalty)0:4Yaremchuk(66')0:5Yaremchuk(75')0:6 Rodionov (80')

Hungary-Canada 2:0(1 :0)1 :0 Esterhazy (2')2:0 Detari (75''

Hungary-France0:3 (0 :1)0:1 Stopyra (29, )0:2Tigana (62')0:3 Rocheteau (84')

Uruguay

PreparationUruguay was one of the firstnations which, in April 1985,qualified for the World CupFinals . That gave managerBorras the opportunity to of-fer his team a long-term pre-paration .As two thirds of the Uruguay-an internationals were em-ployed with foreign clubs andonly rarely were released forpreparation games, Borrascould give several youngplayers the chance to distin-guish themselves on an inter-national level .In May 1985 a first tour led thenational team to Peru, Col-ombia and Brazil . At the endof May six training gameswere played in Japan . In mid-September Uruguay, asSouth American Champion,faced European ChampionFrance in Paris, on the occa-sion of the newly created Altemio Franchi-Cup . The lastinternational game in thatyear was staged in October inChile .At the beginning of February

174

Uruguay's defence underpressure .goalkeeperAlvez between his defen-ders Acevedo (No. 3) and Bossio (No.5) . With only two scored goals Uru-

guayqualifiedfor the Second Round.Then Argentina meant the end of the

road for Borras team .

1986, Uruguay participated inan international tournamentin Canada, where they playedagainst Canada, USA andColombia . Shortly afterwardsPoland's team arrived inMontevideo for an interna-tional game .On April 1 the members of theUruguayan squad were ga-thered in Montevideo . After ashort time the team flew toLos Angeles where they play-ed a match against Mexico .Uruguay's next opponentswere Wales and Ireland Rep .on the British Isles .At the end of April, Uruguaywent to their altitude retreatin Colombia . Several gamesagainst club teams were or-ganized . On May 18 the wholedelegation arrived in Toluca .

The Players and TheirAppearancesNo. Name First name(s) Date of birth Club 1st Match

GermanyFR 1 :1

2nd MatchDenmark

1 :6

3rd MatchScotland

0 .0

'/ FinalArgentina

0

'/o Final /2 Final Final

1 Rodriguez Rodolfo Sergio 20 .01 .56 FC Santos

2 Gutierrez Nelson Daniel 13 .04 .62 River Plate3 Acevedo Eduardo Mario 25.09 .59 Defensor 614 Diogo Victor Hugo 09.04 .58 Palmeiras5 Bossio Miguel Angel 10.02 .60 Valencia 19'6 Batista José Alberto 06.03 .62 Deportivo Español 17 Alzamendi Antonio 07.06 .56 River Plate 82 57 68 Barrios Jorge Walter 24 .01 .61 Olympiakos Athen 569 Da Silva Jorge Orosman 11 .12 .61 Atletico Madrid 84 45

10 Francescoli Enzo 12 .11 .61 Racing Paris11 Santin Sergio Rodolfo 06.08 .56 Nacional 5612 Alvez Fernando 04.09 .59 Peñarol13 Vega Cesar 02.09 .59 Danubio14 Pereyra Alfonso Dario 19 .10 .56 Sáo Paulo15 Rivero Eliseo 27.12 .57 Peñarol16 Saralegui Mario Daniel 24.04 .59 Elche 34 2017 Zalazar José Luis 26.10 .63 Peñarol 3418 Paz Ruben Walter 08.08 .59 Racing Paris 2919 Ramos Venancio Ariel 20.06 .59 Lens 8 33 7020 Aguilera Carlos Alberto 21 .09 .64 Nacional21 Cabrera Wilmar 31 .07 .59 OGC Nice 4522 Otero Celso 01 .02 .58 Wanderers

Preliminary Matches Preparatory MatchesUruguay -Ecuador 2:1 Peru -Uruguay 2 :1Chile -Uruguay 2:0 Colombia -Uruguay 2 :1Ecuador -Uruguay 0:2 Brazil -Uruguay 2 :0Uruguay -Chile 2:1 Japan -Uruguay 1 :4

France -Uruguay 2:01 . Uruguay 4 3 0 1 6:4 6 Chile -Uruguay 1 :02. Chile 4 2 1 1 10 :5 5 Canada -Uruguay 1 :33. Ecuador 4 0 1 3 4:11 1 USA -Uruguay 1 :1

Colombia -Uruguay 0:2Uruguay -Poland 2:2River Plate -Uruguay 1 :1Mexico -Uruguay 1 :0Wales -Uruguay 0 :0Ireland Rep . -Uruguay 1 :1

From left to right, back Alvez, Diogo, Gutierrez, Pereyra, Acevedo, Santin, front. Ramos, Barrios . Francescoh, Cabrera, Batista

OmarBorras

In his young years Omar Bor-ras (57) studied to become asports coach . This may be al-so the explanation for his all-round-talent in sports . In ad-dition to soccer he has prac-tised other sports, too. At theOlympic Games of 1968 heacted as chief of the track-and-field athlete's team . Buteven as a basket-ball coach

sï

he made a name for himself.In football Borras was en-gaged by Peñarol Monte-video as technical director in1963 . From 1964 he worked inthis function during five yearsfor Cerro. The next two yearshe was active at Huracan Bu-ceo. In 1973 he moved toWanderers FC.Omar Borras carried out all

these functions on apart-time basis. Hischief occupation wasteaching sports at theUniversity of Monte-video .Borras had his firstcontacts with theUruguayan team in1966 when he was ap-pointed responsiblefor the physical train-ing of the nationalteam for the WorldCup in England.In 1978, Borras wasappointed technical

director by the Football Asso-ciation, in 1982 he was thenadditionally given charge ofthe national team .

Development

After Brazil Uruguay is thesecond most successfulcountry at the World YouthChampionships (WYC). Atthe WYC '77 in Tunisia, thefollowing six players fromBorras' Mexico squad tookpart : Diogo, Alvez, Rivero,Saralegui, Pazand Ramos.Two years later at the WYC'79 Gutierrez, Bossio, Barri-os, Alvez and Ruben Pazplayed ;Also at the WYC '81 in Aus-tralia some World Cup parti-cipants gained their first in-ternational experiences : Gu-tierrez, Batista, Da Silva,Francescoliand Aguilera .At the WYC '83 in MexicoZalazar and Aguilera madethemselves familiar with theconditions in Mexico .

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The PlayersUruguay's manager Borrasselected no less than 14 play-ers who were active abroad .Nine of them played withSouth American clubs. Fivearrived from Europe . The se-lected players were recruitedfrom altogether seven coun-tries .

TeamOrganizationIn Uruguay most teams playwith a zonal marking and withthe four defenders on a level .This defensive conceptionwas not taken over by ma-nager Borras . He preferred toplay with a sweeper and acentral defender . But he keptthe zonal marking. When theopposing players changedpositions they were immedi-ately given over .Standard goalkeeper Rodri-guez could not be used dueto injury, he was well repre-sented by Alvez. After varioustries the team manager de-cided on Acevedo as sweep-er . The central defenderswere Gutierrez and later onPereyra . Diogo operated asright full-back in the firstthree games. On the left sideBatista was used first, afterhe had been sent off Riverosubstituted for him.In midfield Bossio assumedthe most defensive role .Sometimes he even operatedas second central defender .Barrios had his strong pointsin the defensive area, too . Inthe match against Argentinahe had to mark Maradona .Santin proved to be a playerwith excellent skill and goodvision .In the attack, formed by threemen, only Francescoli had afirm place. He was Uruguay'skey player and the pivot of theteam . From his position in-side left he often broke out tothe sides .On the right wing Alzamendiand Ramos alternated witheach other. As centre for-wards Da Silva and Cabreraplayed alternately .Ruben Paz was allowed to

play the last thirty minutesagainst Argentina. This wasthe strongest phase of theUruguayan team at thisWorld Cup tournament .

Attacking PlayUruguay had the intention toadapt themselves to the spe-cial climatic conditions ofMexico with an economicstyle of play . For this reasonthey tried at first to slowdown the pace . With a sud-den change in pace theywanted to catch the opposingdefence on the hop .Such a style of play, however,would demand that eachteam member constantlytries to run clear. It can onlybe successful if the respec-tive player in possession ofthe ball is offered severalpossibilities to direct hispass .But mostly only the player ranfree who was nearest to theball . Sometimes even thatwas omitted . In no otherSouth American team therewas so much running withthe ball as in the Uruguayanone . This made their attacksso transparent . Therefore,Uruguay could hardly createreal chances .In four games the teamscored two goals . Twice theyprofited by generously of-fered gifts. Against FRG, Al-zamendi took advantage of afailed back pass by the Ger-man midfield player Mat-thäus and thoughtfully placedthe ball past Schumacher .Against Denmark, Francesco-li shortened the result (1 :2) byscoring a penalty.

Defensive PlaySweeper Acevedo directedhis defence in superior style .He always tried to push for-ward his defenders so thatthere were no gaps betweendefence and midfield . Theroom was thus considerablynarrowed . At least eight play-ers were always involved inthe defensive work .All the same Uruguay had toconcede nine goals in 360

minutes, six alone in thegame against Denmark. Justin this match a disagreeableweakness of the Uruguayanfootball was revealed :The players did not under-stand to tackle correctly . Theopponent in possession ofthe ball was often attackedtoo early. If this player thendribbled or made use of afeint, he was frequently floor-ed with a brutal tackle .Some of the players were notused to the energetic inter-ventions of the referees . Theyseemed to be surprised andlost part of their self-confi-dence . After Barrios hadbeen sent off so early, theUruguayans were afraid of at-tacking the Danes properly .Frequently, several playersrushed at the opponent whowas in possession of the ball,but then they seemed to beafraid of a real tackle .The experienced Danesnever lost their calm . Theycirculated the ball cleverly .The Uruguayans were simplynot able to contain their swiftmoves.

ConclusionsManager Borras tried to com-bine the South American skillwith the European fightingstrength . This attempt clearlyfailed .The Uruguayans concentrat-ed too much on destroyingthe game of their opponents .For this reason, the ability todevelop their own attackingplay did hardly correspond tothe temperament of the Uru-guayans.Moreover, such a defensiveattitude provoked clever op-ponents to attack Urugay al-ready in midfield and to in-volve them in tacklings.Against Denmark it becameapparent that Borras' menwere not used to a pressing .When they were under pres-sure, they reacted precipitate-ly and lost control . The factthat they lost plenty of ballsprematurely made them evenmore nervous and someSouth Americans lost theirself-control . With two players

sent-off they were diggingtheir own grave.The real qualities of this veryskillful team did only come tolight when, being 0:1 down intheir Second Round clashwith Argentina, they had no-thing left to lose . Suddenlythe Uruguayans demonstrat-ed remarkable moves . Theysucceeded in troubling theArgentine defence seriouslyand created within 20 mi-nutes more opportunitiesthan in the three preceedingmatches altogether . No otherteam during these World CupFinals embarrassed the de-fence of the World Champi-ons in such a way. Unfortu-nately, it was too late whenBorras and his players calledto mind that they should havebuilt up their game primarilyon their exceptional playingabilities!

Uruguay-GFR 1 :1 (1 :0)1 0Alzamendi (4')1 1 Allots (84')

Uruguay-Denmark 1 :6 (1 :2)0 :1 Elkjaer(11 , )0 :2 Lerby (41 ')1 :2 Francescoli (45' : Penalty)1 .3 Laudrup (52')1 :4 Elkjaer(68')1 :5 Elkjaer(791)1 :6J . Olsen (89')

Uruguay-Scotland 0:0

Uruguay-Argentina0 :1 (0 :1)0 :1 Pasculli (42')

177

World Cup Report- Conclusions

The XIII World Cup in Mexi-co was a football festival . Afootball "fiesta" . It was an ex-cellent tournament and theoverall quality of play wasminimally affected by thehigh altitude and the heat . Itwas clear that the playerswere physically better pre-pared than 16 years beforewhen, under identical cir-cumstances, they were fre-quently in need of oxygenbottles.

For the second time (Spainwas the first) 24 teams parti-cipated in the tournament .Each one proved to be an in-tegral part of the competition .Football from the Third Worlddefinitely made its mark .Morocco was not only thefirst African team to get pastthe first round, but was theproud winner of its group - infront of England, Poland andPortugal .

The World Cup was dividedinto two different phases : thepreliminary tour of 36 gamesin the form of regular leagueplay, after which 8 teamswere eliminated . The remain-ing 16 teams played for the ti-tle under the single elimina-tion Cup formula . Hence,three of the four quarter-finalgames were decided by apenalty shoot-out as is calledfor by the rules . The penaltykicks are a far better way ofdetermining a winner thanflipping a coin . There wassimply not enough time to re-play tie games. It was encou-raging to see the game forthird place be more than a"formality" . The game be-tween France and Belgiumwas intense and saw sixgoals scored . Both teamswere able to showcase play-ers who had not seen actionduring the weeks before . TheFinal was a most memorablegame with Argentina emerg-ing as a worthy champion ofthe world and the Germanteam a proud second .

In the course of the tourna-ment different teams caughtthe eye and fancy of the spec-

178

tators . First the Russianswere admired for their physi-cal presence, their attacksoriginating on defense, andfor their use of space.

Then the Danes captivatedthe public with their shortcrisp passes and movementof the ball . In the preliminaryphase these two teams puton a veritable demonstrationof football and each wonthree games . But their firstgame defeats in the finalround surprised the world.Had they given too much intheir first round encounters?Hadthey "peaked" too early?And then came the game themedia called "The Game ofthe Century" between Franceand Brasil . A pity it was thatone of the two had to disap-pear .

Suddenly, the Belgians roseto the forefront . Having fin-ished third in their group afterlosing to Mexico, they climb-ed into the semi-finals . Con-trary to the predictions of theexperts, the four semi-final-ists included three Europeansquads and one from SouthAmerica . Nonetheless, thelatter became World Champi-on . Also in this World Cup,we saw that football has be-come more physical and ath-letically demanding . Thegame has gotten tougher, butnot to the detriment of its ar-tistry . Here we must mentionMaradona . He often domi-nated because of athleticqualities by dribbling throughentire defenses . Not only didhe demonstrate his technicalsuperiority, but he showedgreat speed coupled with anability to evaluate situations .He provided the greatest sur-prises both in passing andscoring . And in the final,when the opponent did all itcould to limit his effective-ness, he was a model of goodbehavior . Though he didn'tscore, he did make the deci-sive pass for the third Argen-tine goal .

During this World Cup, no tru-ly new tactics were seen . We

have already spoken aboutthe style of the Danish squadand the talent of the Rus-sians. However, we can talkabout some general tenden-cies . To increase efficiency,the optimal occupation of thelateral back position is be-coming more and more im-portant . Most of the time theyare the ones who have thelargest space in front ofthemThe lateral backs cangreatly influence a game .They can also score . The Bra-zilian Josimar, the GermanBerthold, the Russian Demi-anenko, and the FrenchmanAmoros were the most effec-tive defensive players .

Their colleagues, the centerbacks, were not to be slight-ed : the Dane Morten Olsen,the Argentine Brown (who al-so scored a goal), the BelgianRenquin . The stoppers aswell : the German Förster, theBrazilian Julio Cesar and theMexican Quirarte who scoredtwice.

In the midfield, we didn't seethe dominant team leader .This responsibility oftenchanged hands in different si-tuations . Hence it is difficultto compare the performancesof the midfielders . Offensive-ly, Burruchaga, Lerby, andMatthäus were impressive .On the defensive end theFrenchmen Fernandez andTigana, and the South Ameri-cans Elzo, Batista, and Nunezstood outfortheirfine play .

At the origin and conclusionof the 132 goals scored in thisWorld Cup were strikers 60%of the time, this signifying a"Renaissance" for attackers .

The Britain Lineker led thepack with 6 goals. Maradonawas the leader if we take intoaccount goals and "assists" .

The two did not shine alone .They were joined by the Spa-niard Butragueho, the DaneElkjaer-Larsen, the RussianBelanov, and Yakovenko,Zavarov, Careca, Valdano,and Altobelli.

The following pages containa detailed analysis of the suc-cessful and deligthful 1986World Cup .

Walter Gagg

In Mexico, Maradona was in a classby himself. He proved to be superiorin all respects andat the zenith of hiscareer He has also a talent for theshow as he demonstrates here withhisjump over Forster and goalkeeperSchumacher

Return to the Offensive

The World Cup 1986 in Mexi-co brought a pleasing deve-lopment of football . The qua-lity of the game improved ingeneral . One could observeanother increase in pace . Itwas obvious that most teamstried to play a more offensivestyle of play .The worldwide adjustmentupwards was a conspicuousfact of this World Cup. Therewere no more weak teamswho were not able to challen-ge their opponent . Three ap-parently strong teams had toaccept the highest defeats ofthis tournament : secret fa-vourites Hungary (0:6 againstthe USSR), South AmericanChampions Uruguay (1 :6against Denmark) and Den-mark (1 :5 against Spain), whoafter the First Round hadbecome one of the top favou-rites .Mexico-what a surprise-presented us with the rebirthof the forwards . These WorldCup Finals showed us thatdespite an increasingly col-lective style of play individualperformances become moreimportant again. A brilliant in-dividualist, clearly surpassingall other players of this WorldCup, helped a good team towin the World Cup: Marado-na . Perfect control of the ball,explosive acceleration, bothan exceptional playmakerand a goalgetter-the foot-balling world has got a newgenius .

HardlyanyProblems withAltitude andClimate

Before the World Cup, the al-titude and the special climaticconditions of Mexico had be-come the main topic of manydiscussions . A multitude ofexperts asked leave to speakand thereby expressed themost contradictory views inthe mass media . All this ledto a feeling of insecurity onthe part of players and coa-ches . For that reason the firstgames were played with acertain reserve by mostteams . But soon it becameobvious that the players en-

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dured the altitude and theheat much better than duringthe last World Cup in Mexicoin 1970 . The improvement ofthe game, new findings intraining theory and in sportsmedicine contributed to thefact that today's footballerscan much better adapt to ex-treme conditions than pre-viously . It was also provedthat the players are mentallysolid enough to assert them-selves even under unfavoura-ble circumstances .Most apprehensions becau-se of Mexico's altitude pro-ved to be unfounded ; manypredictions did not cometrue . An offensive style ofplay with a high pace waspossible, it was even themost striking feature of somegames, as for exampleUSSR-Hungary, Denmark-Uruguay, France-USSR, Pa-raguay-Belgium, Spain-Den-mark, USSR-Belgium, Fran-ce-Brazil and Belgium-Spain.Only in the lower situatedMonterrey the extreme clima-tic conditions of this regionhad an effect on the perfor-mances of the players. Everyhuman performance sufferswith more than 40 °C in theshade and a very high humi-dity .

Despite aMore OffensiveStyle ofPlay Fewer Goals

In Mexico a total of 132 goalswas scored in 52 games,which means an average of2,5 goals pergame . There areseveral reasons for this slightdecrease in comparison withthe World Cup 1982 in Spain .In the extraordinary heat ofMonterrey merely nine goalswere scored in eight matchesor not even half of the goalsrealized at other venues . Ifthe games in Monterrey hadproduced the same numberof goals as in the other stadi-,ums, this World Cup wouldhave been the tournamentwith the largest number ofgoals within the last 20 years.The considerably better goal

average of the footballingThird World countries is a se-cond and important reason .In Spain, these teams had toconcede 40 goals, in Mexicoonly 23 . At the World Cup 82,El Salvador took a 1 :10 mau-ling from Hungary-in Mexi-co, Algeria's 0:3 defeatagainst Spain meant theworst result of a so-calledminnow .The change-over to the cupsystem after the Group ga-mes had positive effects . Theplayers took more risks, thestyle of play of most teamswas now characterized by afast pace . There were somereally upsetting results . Allthis led to the pleasing factthat more goals were scored .During the 16 matches of thetournaments's second stage48 goals were shot which cor-responds to an average of 3,0goals per game . Since theWorld Cup 1958 in Swedensuch a high average was ne-ver again achieved .

The GreatImportance ofTaking the Lead

The psychic factors becomemore and more important insoccer, too. How else shouldwe account for the fact thatnever before during a WorldCup tournament the openinggoal did mean the prelimina-ry decision as frequently as inMexico . The 52 games werewon 34 times by the teamwho had taken the lead . 14matches ended in a draw andonly four times that side leftthe field as winnerswho werebehind initially .In the Group games, onlyGermany FR-against Scot-land-managed to transforman early 0 :1 into a victory (2 :1) .In the Second Round clashDenmark-Spain a failedback pass by Jesper Olsenled to Spain's equalizer. TheDanes did not recover fromthis shock and took a sensa-tional 1 :5 beating .The biggest upset, however,was caused by Belgium in thegame against the USSR . The

Belgians were twice one goaldown, but refused to give inand won 4:3 after a dramaticencounter. In the Third PlacePlay-Off, Belgium did notsucceed in defending theirlead and after extra-time lostto France 2 :4 .

TheRisksofanExaggeratedAdaption

Before the start of the WorldCup, Italy's manager Bearzotwas convinced that scoringchances would only resultfrom an attacking play basedon short passes . For that rea-son he let his squad frequent-ly practice on small fields ofplay in order to achieve acomplete command of shortpasses . Moreover, he instruc-ted his players to operate ex-tremely in the zones. By thistactical order he wanted toachieve an efficient team or-ganization and an economicstyle of play .During the starting phase ofeach game, the Soviet sidedemonstrated an attackingplay which ranked among thebest displays ever seen . Theywanted to take the lead atonce or at least impress andintimidate their opponents.After this starting offensivethe pace used to be reducedas planned . The players slow-ed down deliberately to savetheir strength for the next at-tacking waves .In view of the World Cup Fi-nals in Mexico, England'smanager Bobby Robson hadbuilt up a team with three ex-traordinary playing personali-ties in midfield : Wilkins,Hoddle and Brian Robson .Assisted by left wingerWaddle they were expectedto set up chances for the twotop scorers Hateley and Line-ker.An economic style of playwith short passes, a gamebased on high pace interrup-ted by phases of recovery, acareful construction of thegame with surprising chan-ges of pace in front of the pe-nalty-area-all this corre-

sponded to a realistic estima-tion of the tactical possibili-ties in Mexico .However, such a style of playwas against the footballingtradition of Italy, the USSRand England . A modificationof the conception of play andan adaptation of the style ofplay to unusual conditions isalways connected with bigrisks . Players, who from theirearliest youth have been fa-miliar with just one style ofplay are confronted with diffi-culties when they have to ad-just themselves to a new sty-le at short notice . So muchthe more as the mental strainat a World Cup tournament isfar bigger than during everyother competition .Italy created only very fewchances during their four ga-mes . Altobelli converted fourof them and in addition theItalians profited by an owngoal of a South Korean .After the USSR had alreadytaken the lead early againstBelgium, they slowed downthe pace of the game . Butwhile doing so they lost thecontrol of the game and werebeaten by the Belgians 3 :4 af-ter a dramatic encounter.England performed ratherweakly with the above men-tioned formation . Sometimesone had the impression thatthe players in certain situa-tions did not know what todo . Just the experienced Eng-lish professionals were con-fronted with an obvious fee-ling of insecurity .

Readiness to take more risks -courage foran offensivestyle of play.

Third WorldCountries on theAdvance

After their astounding resultsat the World Cup 1982 inSpain (victories of Algeriaover Germany FR and Chile,Cameroon eliminated with-out a defeat), the Third Worldcountries could no longerhope for an effect of surprise .And yet, for the first time aThird World team managedto be on top of their Group af-ter the First Round . Moroccorealized the unexpected featto precede England, Polandand Portugal .The South Korean attack suc-ceeded in scoring at leastone goal in each match .Against World Cup holdersItaly, the Asiatics even hit twomarvellous goals . The SouthKoreans contributed much tothe animation of this WorldCup by their enthusiasm andtheir total commitment .

Iraq impressed the experts bytheir well-organized style ofplay . They lost all threegames, but each time with adifference of just one goal .Canada were defeated byFrance and the USSR only inthe last phase of the game .Algeria won a point againstNorthern Ireland and alsoembarrassed seriously Brazil .If one takes into account theproblems these teams werefaced with during the prepar-ation stage for the WorldCup, their performances de-serve full appreciation .

Further Development ofSkill

Good skills are the precondi-tion for an economic style ofplay . Those players who areable to control the ball with-out problems are not so oftendispossessed of it and theyneed less strength to recon-quer it .In Mexico, another improve-ment in skill was observed .Deflections of the ball, re-fined double passes and skil-full lifters were part of therepertoire of the first classplayers .Undoubtedly, the defendersmade the biggest progress

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with regard to the skill factor .In Mexico most of them hadsuch a high level that theywere always able-even un-der hard pressure-to pass toa team-mate and only rarelyhad to resort to uncontrolledreleasing kicks . Consequent-ly, there were fewer losses ofthe ball in the defensive zone .The better control also al-lowed the defenders to getincreasingly involved in theconstruction of the game .This meant that most teamsplayed better and more var-iable from the back .

The Game without BallBecomes More andMoreImportant

Argentina and Uruguay aretwo countries with a greatfootballing tradition . In theSecond Round these twoteams had to play one an-other. There were but two es-sential differences betweenthem : on the one side thegame without ball and on theother side- Maradona .One can practise the gamewithout ball, but it takes char-acter, playing intelligenceand self-confidence . Mara-dona, however, is certainly agodsend for every coach.

Argentina and Uruguay playasimilar style . Their game isbased on excellent skills . Theaccuracy of the passes ismore important than thequickness of the action . Bothteams prefer to keep and tocirculate the ball and to limitthe amount of running to aminimum .In Mexico both teams per-formed with the same attack-ing conception . The launch ofattacks was effected by shortpasses . The ball was kept aslong as possible ; at a slowerpace in Uruguay's team,more directly in Argentina'sside .In the team of the WorldChampions, the player whohad the ball could usuallychoose from several possibil-ities to address his next pass,whereas the Uruguayans did

not run clear sufficiently andthus had difficulties to find anunguardedteam-mate . There-fore, their attacks were notvariable enough and theirconception of play was quitetransparent . Argentina builtup their attacks with morevariations and so posedmany problems for their op-ponent . When an Argentineattack came to a standstilldue to a good defensive workby the opponent, the Argen-tines passed the ball to Mar-adona who was able to re-ceive and to keep it even inthe most difficult situations .He was at any time capableof disengaging himself fromthe adverse embrace or tosend the ball through to ateam-mate by a refined pass .Bilardo"s men knew that Mar-adona-even in critical mo-ments-was always ready toreceive the ball and to guar-antee the continuation of therespective attack .

The Uruguayans obviouslydid not have this security .They hesitated in delicate si-tuations during which theplayer in possession of theball depended all the moreon the support by his col-leagues. They avoided everyunnecessary risk and only ranclear in safe areas . These,however, were mostly at theback of the player who hadthe ball . Thus, the ball wasnot lost and was circulatedquite nicely in their lines, butwithout gaining in room-itwas therefore not astonishingthat the Uruguayans had butfew scoring chances.

In four games they merelyscored two goals . The firstone was realized after an un-fortunate back pass by Mat-thäus (FRG) and the secondone was scored on penalty(against Denmark) .Argentina became WorldChampions not least becauseof Maradona"s ability to ani-mate his team-mates to runclear incessantly . South Am-erican Champions Uruguay,however, had to go home ear-lier than expected .

Team OrganizationThe numbers (4-3-3, 4-4-2,3-5-2) that ought to corre-spond to the tactical systemsapparently do not say muchabout the actual organizationof a team . The functions ofthe players can be constantlymodified during a match : ac-cording to the possession ofthe ball, the scoreline and theopposing way of performing .The USSR are a good exam-ple to illustrate this . Belanovoperated as foremost striker .Just behind him acted threeplayers provided with all qual-ities of a striker : Yaremchuk,Zavarov and Rats . As soon asthe opponent had the ball, allthree assumed the defensivetasks of actual midfield play-ers . However, when the ballwas in their own lines they ra-ther acted as forwards . Thus,one could interpret the Sovietplaying system by a 4-5-1, butjust as correct by a 4-2-4 .At the back, one could ob-serve basically three differentforms of organization : Firstlythe defence without sweeperand with all defenders on alevel, with central defenderswho cover each other mutual-ly and two full-backs . All Brit-ish teams, but also Canada,Iraq, Portugal and Brazil gavepreference to this variant.Some teams played with alibero/sweeper, a central de-fender and two full-backs .This traditional division ofroles, however, seems to dis-appear gradually . As exam-ples one could mentionFrance, Belgium, Mexico, theUSSR and Algeria.A third form of organizationconsisted of a sweeper, twocentral defenders who had tomark the opposing strikers,an anchor player and twomidfield players instructed tocover the flanks . Argentina,Spain, Denmark and Uruguayused to play with such an or-ganization .According to the playersavailable to the team manag-ers, the midfield was organ-ized in different variants . Inthis respect one could hardlynotice any uniform tenden-cies .

Man-to-Man MarkingLoses in Significance

The individual close markingas an actual defensive con-ception for the whole teamhas disappeared . However, itis still employed on some po-sitions . For instance, manycentral defenders follow theirdirect opponents when theychange their position .Several team managers gaveorders to use a man-to-manmarking on the opposingplaying personality in mid-field . Thus, the SpaniardCamacho was instructed topursue the Brazilian playmak-er Socrates during ninety mi-nutes . But this did not pre-vent the Brazilian from decid-ing the game by his header .In the encounter with France,the Italian Baresi was notmore successful than Cama-cho . Despite the man-to-manmarking, his direct opponentPlatini put France into thelead .Maradona, whom we regardas a striker, had to put up witha special man-to-man mark-ing several times . The ma-nagers of Korea Rep., Italy,Uruguay and GFR tried withdiffering success to limit hisrange of action .

Maradona was always able-thanksto one ofhis dribbles-to break awayfrom the opposing marking and con-tinue the attack(above).

Group winner Morocco-ahead ofEngland, Poland and Portugal-ad-vanced to the eighth finals and wasmore or less an equalpartner for Ger-many FR (right).

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Zonal Marking Has Been GenerallyAdopted

In Mexico, all 24 teams gavepreference to zonal marking .Several variants were chosenaccording to the training andmentality of the players beingat disposal .

During the past years, theway of marking has more andmore oriented itself towardsthe ball . By a clever encirclingand surrounding of the playerwho has the ball one putspressure on him in order toprovoke an over-hasty action,a harmless back pass or ashort cross pass . The playerin possession of the ball wasfrequently not attacked di-rectly, by actual tackles . Theinterception of over-hastyand often inaccurate passesbecame increasingly import-ant.Such a defensive play re-quires a very elastic defence.High demands are made onthe physical and mental flex-ibility of the defenders . Theymust be capable of adaptingthemselves constantly to newsituations . Aggressive defen-ders who try to intimidatetheir opponents by an uncon-trolled commitment and anexaggerated toughness are inthe minority today.

The "Windscreen Wiper"in Front ofthe Defence

Over the past years, a newrole has been formed in mid-field : the sweeper in front ofthe defence . It is interestingto note also the differentnaming of this new position .In Brazil, Belgium and Franceit is called "windscreen wip-er" (essuie-glace) : in Englandanchor player or midfield lib-ero and in Germany FR "Vor-libero" .Contrary to the former defen-sive midfielder, who mostlytried to mark closely the op-posing playmaker, the anchorplayer operates in zonal mark-ing in the immediate near-ness of the central defenders .His main task consists instabilizing the defence by pri-marily intercepting the op-posing passing runs through

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the middle . Part of his field ofactivity is also the covering ofhis own defenders when theyadvance from behind .At the World Cup 86, manyteams played with such ananchor player . Batista as-sumed this role in Argenti-na's team . But he did not con-fine himself to defensivetasks as quite a number ofplayers did in the otherteams. He was constantly inmotion, tried to run clear andafter having received the ballfed his team-mates with intel-ligent passes .

Batista's example illustratesonce more that not the posi-tion of a player within theteam organization is decisive,but rather what he makes outof it . Batista was obviouslyaccepted by his team-matesas a strong playing personali-ty and was therefore alsoconstantly involved in theconstruction of the game .

The Argentine took cleverlyadvantage of his increasedliberty on this position . Hehad more room and time ashis fellow-players who ope-rated more in front . Being fre-quently in possession of theball he developed into a kindof playmaker in the defensivemidfield . From this retiredposition he managed to givemore impulses to the Argen-tine attacking play than Olar-ticoechea, Giusti and Enriquewho mostly played in front ofhim.

Modified Role oftheFull-Back

In modern soccer, manyteams play without true wing-ers . This fact will have furtherconsequences for the role ofthe full-back in future . To-day's attacking formationswith one forward as troublespot up front and a secondstriker who comes more fromdeep will even acceleratethese changes .

On the one hand, the full-back has still to assert him-

self against an opposing for-ward in man-to-man mark-ing. Due to the growing con-centration in midfield thelaunch of attack is now veryoften effected out on theflanks . This requires that thefull-backs constantly runclear in order to offer addi-tional posibilities to the team-mate who has the ball .

Advances down the flanksbecome a dangerous offen-sive weapon provided thatthe full-backs are capable ofsetting up chances for theirteam-mates by precisecrosses or intelligent backpasses .

Since running passes to thewings are often not advis-able, full-backs endowedwith quickness and a tightcontrol can allow a team tobreak up the opponent's de-fensive block from the wings.Coaches should train the fin-ishing abilities of the full-backs as it occurs frequentlythat after breaks the directway towards the opposinggoal is open .

Taking into account all quali-ties required for this position,one should designate the roleof the full-back rather as acombination of midfield play-er andwinger.

In Mexico some full-backsexcelled by spectacular ac-tions, but all in all theserushes were not very suc-cessful . It is true that the full-backs scored a total of fivegoals, but three of them re-sulted from standard situa-tions. Only the Brazilian Josi-mar realized two stunninggoals after flowing moves :the first by a long-range shotagainst Northern Ireland, theother one by a solo runagainst Poland .

Full-backs were not often di-rectly involved in the prepara-tion of scoring chances, ei-ther . Nine goals were set upby full-backs, three of themfrom standard situations . Ser-vin (Mexico), Ayache

(France), Khalifa (Morocco),Zdravkov (Bulgaria) and GaryStevens (England) gave thedecisive pass or cross . Amo-ros (France) was fouled in thepenalty-area after a break-through during the gameagainst Belgium . He convert-ed the penalty himself.

Two reasons might be re-sponsible for this rather mod-est output . Firstly, the openspaces on the wings were notyet exploited perfectly . Be-cause of lacking courage orinsufficient control of the ballthe numerous advances onlyrarely progressed up to theopposing goal-line . The play-ers mostly preferred to take arelatively harmless diagonalcross into the penalty-area .Secondly, surprising weak-nesses came to light whenthe full-backs tried to centerafter having succeeded intheir breakthroughs on thewings .

During the 52 games in Mexi-co it often happened that twoopposing full-backs had toplay against one another. Themost striking example ofsuch a situation occurred inthe Final when Berthold(GFR) and Olarticoechea(Argentina) were confrontedwith one another. They neu-tralized each other. None ofthem was able to provide hisside with decisive impulses .In this field there are certainlystill great possibilites for de-velopment!

Playmakers are Dying Out

Due to the particular condi-tions in Mexico one had ex-pected that those playersprovided with an exceptionalskill would set the tone of theWorld Cup. The midfieldstrategists were ready toprove their real value . Butthen everything was com-pletely different.

Germany's midfield ace Ma-gath managed to providetheir own attacking play with

some inspiration only in theSemi-Final clash with France .The French Platini and Gi-resse could display their un-contested abilities but occa-sionally, Socrates used tohave an impact on the Brazil-ian style of play merely dur-ing the first 45 minutes of agame . The performances ofthe Mexican playmaker Boyfell off to such an extent thathe was replaced four timesduring the match . TheEnglish Hoddle was subjectto considerable inconsisten-cy . Souness was left on thesubstitutes" bench by his ma-nager for the decisive matchagainst Uruguay . The Uru-guayan Santin had excellentmoments but his impact onUruguay's attacking play re-mained modest .

Borghi (Argentina), Scifo(Belgium), Dziekanowski (Po-land) and Detari (Hungary),who before the World Cuphad been considered as bighopes, were for various rea-sons not or only partly able tocome up to the expectations .The two North African play-makers Timoumi (Morocco)and Belloumi (Algeria) hadsuffered grave injuries duringthe preparation stage for theWorld Cup. Both had to un-dergo operations and under-standably did not achievetheir usual performance.

Platini and Zico, too, had notcompletely recovered fromwearisome injuries .

The above mentioned longlist of players who did not ful-ly meet the expectations putinto them may be accidental .But perhaps there are realreasons forthe increasing dif-ficulties of the midfieldstrategists .

Today's soccer with the over-populated midfield limits theroom of activity in this zone toa large extent . Little time isleft for the control of the balland the vision of the game .

The player who awaits theball standing or in slow run, is

attacked immediately and putunder strong pressure .The midfield stars have thetendency, however, to waitfor the ball . To run constantlyclear is not always one oftheir strong points . But asstrong personalities they areonly accepted unreservedly

A captivating duel between the Brazilian Elzo and the Frenchman Giresseduring "the match of the century" in Guadalajara between France and Brazil.Too bad thatone of the two had to be eliminated,

by their team-mates as longas their performances areoutstanding . Whenever theyshow a slight decrease in effi-ciency, they lose their centralposition and their impact onthe game .

All players who were not iritop physical shape and whotherefore were not able to runclear constantly to get in-volved in the attacking ac-tions, did not bring much totheir teams . With regard tothe equivalence of manyteams, neither outstandingskills nor tactical movescould compensate for insuffi-cient stamina or lacking wil-lingness to perform . Mexicodid not allow any half-heart-ed thing.

Those midfield players whoexcelled in Mexico distin-guished themselves by atleast one of the two followingqualities. Either they dis-posed of a good anticipation

ability and above-averagequalities in tackling so thatthey were very often able towin back the ball by them-selves . Or they were willing todisengage themselves con-stantly from their direct oppo-nents in order to get involvedin the course of the action .

Among the first group rankedMatthäus (GFR), Lerby (Den-mark), Tigana (France) andElzo (Brazil) . The secondgroup was formed by playerssuch as Ceulemans (Bel-gium), Burruchaga (Argenti-na), Yakovenko (USSR), Ar-nesen (Denmark) and Boud-erbala (Morocco) .

Truth of Today-Error ofTomorrow

Football is a simple game .But the requirements arecomplex. Even experts arehardly able to predict the re-sult of a game in advance andfor that reason soccer is sofascinating-and often injust .During the penalty shoot-outagainst France, the Braziliangoalkeeper Carlos had betterdived to the other side or notreacted at all . His team wouldthen have possibly achievedthe Semi-Final . But since hedived to the right side, he def-

lected the ball into the net af-ter the ball had bounced offthe post and unfortunately hithis back .

It is in the nature of sportsthat the winner is celebratedand the loser is forgotten. On-ly the winner sets an exampleto other people . Soccer is notan exception in this respect.

World Champions Argentinahave not disclosed new di-mensions to soccer . Withinan outstandingly organizedteam with clear hierarchicstructures the great Marado-na stimulated his team-matesto become better from gameto game and thus to gain insecurity . This self-confidencewas probably decisive in theFinal against GFR .

The teams of the USSR andDenmark may claim to haveshown the most dynamic andspectacular style of play .Whether the Soviet or theDanish style will be showingthe way in future cannot yetbe said today. Somewhat ex-aggerated seems to be thestatement that the Sovietswere stopped by their ownpace and the Danes by theiroverdone self-confidence.

Also in football, today's truthhas already often turned outto be the error of tomorrow .

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