FIVE FORGOTTEN
NEAR MISSES
OF INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL
The European Championships and Copa America are currently underway and football fans around the world are praying that one of the depressingly scarce high quality teams like Luis de la Fuente’s Spain side will go home champions. The sad truth of footballing reality is that it is rare for the best side to lift the trophy. Below, Mito Football writers pick their selection of teams that shone brightly at tournaments but fell as the final hurdles approached.
An important editorial caveat is that an assumption has been made that the tragic failures of Puskas’ Hungary in 1954, Cruyff’s Holland in 1974 and Socrates’ Brazil 1982 have upset fans for long enough and, therefore, do not get the oxygen of publicity with inclusion below.
Mexico. 1993. Copa America. Ecuador.
Between Mexico ‘86 and Italia ’90, Hugo Sánchez scored 208 goals for Real Madrid, earning him his third, fourth and fifth La Liga top goalscorer awards and, as a result, the nickname Pentapichichi.
Within the same window, Mexico fielded four over-aged players at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Guatemala in April 1988 and were subsequently banned from international football for two years, robbing the world's greatest goalscorer (and scorer of greatest goals) of a starring role at the 1990 World Cup, when he was at his absolute peak.
For Mexico, seven years in the international wilderness was ended by an invitation to participate in the 1993 Copa America, South America’s premier international tournament, for the first time.
For Mexico, the tournament – and the now mythic Jorge Campos – started poorly. An unconvincing display from the Acapulco-born goalkeeper occasioned a 2-1 loss to Colombia. But draws against 1990 World Cup finalists Argentina and then Bolivia were enough to qualify el Tri for the quarter-finals in third place. And there, finally, Mexico turned on the style.
A brace from Necaxa’s García Aspe helped them to a 4-2 win over Peru, which was followed up by a 2-0 semi-final win over host nation Ecuador. In a packed Estadio Olímpico, Hugo Sánchez headed in the opener from six yards, his last ever goal for his country. At the other end, Campos – dressed in typically over-sized pink-and-multicoloured kit – kept the hosts at bay.
In the final, the CONCACAF side re-encountered Argentina, who had cut a post-drugs ban Diego Maradona before the tournament and who were also without Claudio Caniggia, himself serving a drugs ban.
Without their talismanic number 10 (and number 11), it was the man wearing 9 who would shatter Mexico’s hopes of intercontinental success, with Gabriel Batistuta netting a powerful second-half opener before beating Campos a second time to seal a 2-1 victory for Argentina.
After seven years of hurt, the tournament would serve as a launchpad for Mexico to put on a colourful display the following year at USA ’94, where with Campos in goal and Pentapichichi Sánchez watching from from the bench, Mexico would reach the second round before being eliminated by Bulgaria on penalties.
Sweden. 1994. Men’s World Cup. USA
While Brazil and Italy were the dominant teams of USA 1994, the tournament also starred some rather warm-looking Scandinavians, bombarding defences from Dallas to Pasadena. This was the Sweden team of Tommy Svensson, who finished third. In doing so, they came close to emulating their predecessors of 1958, when Sweden lost to Pele’s Brazil in the final of their only home World Cup.
Sweden were captivating in 1994. They scored fifteen goals - four more than any other team - and yet had the fourth-lowest possession share of the twenty four teams.
In other words, they liked to absolutely hoof it - and it worked. In Kennet Andersson and Martin Dahlin, they had two six-foot-plus strikers in a sort of 4-3-1-2 - with Parma’s marvellous blond imp Tomas Brolin picking up the knock-downs.
It’s surprising Brolin had the energy to play at all. “The food in America was a big problem,” recalled Svensson. “All the food we had to eat between matches was hamburgers, milkshakes and loads of rubbish…five minutes before we went into the changing room one day, Tomas Brolin came and said to me ‘this isn’t our day, we’ve got no energy, we should have had a boiled potato or two’.
Eating well wasn’t the only challenge.
The second-round encounter with Saudi Arabia kicked off at noon in Dallas: the temperature was over forty degrees Celsius. “The heat in Dallas created some problems for us,” remembered right-back Roland Nilsson, dryly, “and I think that was more worrying than facing Saudi Arabia.”
While the weather was more Mecca than Malmö, the Swedes won 3-1, setting up a quarter final with another mito side from that tournament: Gheorghe Hagi’s Romania, who they beat on penalties after an end-to-end slugfest in Stanford.
Of course, it would be Brazil - scourge of 1958 - who stood between Sweden and their second World Cup final.
Of course, it would be Brazil - scourge of 1958 - who stood between Sweden and their second World Cup final. All the burgers eventually took their revenge on this gorgeously direct, determined team, as Romário’s late goal crushed Sweden’s dream. Nilsson remembers that they were determined to “go home happy” by performing well in the third-place playoff, where they thumped Bulgaria 4-0 in Pasadena - the third goal scored by the next superstar of Scandinavian football: a twenty two year-old Henrik Larsson.
Brazil. 1996, Men’s Olympics. USA.
The 1996 Men’s Olympics is a persuasive shout for the most entertaining international football tournament of all time.
As per normal, nations selected an U23 squad with three overage players. A twenty year old Ronaldo, listed as Ronaldinho in the squad, lined up alongside fellow future superstars Dida, Roberto Carlos, Flávio Conceição and Juninho. Over age players were Rivaldo (then still playing in Brazil), Roma’s Aldair and mythic forward Bebeto.
The gold dust was complete with World Cup winning manager and player, Mario Zagello.
Brazil played beautiful attacking football throughout the tournament. Ronaldo, Bebeto and Juninho’s strike partnership proved to be particularly deadly with the trio scoring twelve goals across the competition. Highlights abound from them - Ronaldo’s delicate chip over Simon Addo in the quarter final against Ghana, Bebeto’s celebration-less hat trick against Portugal in the bronze medal game or Juninho’s finish to cap off a sumptuous team move against Hungary in the group stage.
Heartbreak foreshadowed Brazil throughout the competition, however. Without Ronaldo, they lost their group stage opener 1-0 to Japan, and wobbles at the back continued to be seen throughout the campaign, most noticeably when a surprisingly anaemic back line allowed Ghana to take a 2-1 lead in the quarter finals.
The semi final against Nigeria is what this team and tournament will always be remembered for. Taribo West, Nwankwo Kanu, Sunday Oliseh, Jay-Jay Okocha and Tijani Babangida (arguably the fastest player in the world in 1996.) were 3-2 down come the 90th minute but matched the Brazilians blow for blow in a game of dozens of chances.
In the final minute, Kanu donning his iconic #4 jersey, improvised a dramatic equaliser to take the match to extra time before he landed the killing blow just four minutes into the extra period with a golden goal. The Nigerians would go on to claim another last minute moment of glory against Argentina in the final to win gold.
Brazil would go on to demolish Portugal 5-0 to claim bronze but the glittering side would not claim the medal that their talents perhaps deserved.
South Korea. 2002. Men’s World Cup. South Korea and Japan.
The 2002 World Cup was already history-making before it kicked off. It was the first to be held in Asia, with the continent waiting until the tournament’s 17th edition to get a taste of the spectacle.
No one expected anything of South Korea, the co-host alongside Japan.
Guus Hiddink was in charge of their national team for the tournament having taken the Netherlands’s national team to fourth place in the previous World Cup in 1998. The ideal candidate, it seemed, and their performance in the tournament proved just that: with an unanticipated semi-final placing.
South Korea were named alongside Portugal and the USA in the group stage and the expectation was that the Asian side would most likely finish third. But they advanced top of the group following two wins and a draw with a catalogue of memories fans will never forget. Hwang Sun-hong’s volleyed opener in the first game against Poland, Ahn Jung-hwan’s headed equaliser against USA and Park Ji-sung’s breathtaking technique to defeat Portugal showed that Hiddink’s side were not just polite hosts, but a team that could potentially go all the way.
The knockout stage just kept getting better for the side, just don’t ask any Italians or Spaniards. South Korea overcame both European giants but not without controversy. Both games had a litany of refereeing errors, with goals disallowed, players sent off and penalties given. Italy’s defeat to South Korea is still a hot topic now, with Azzurri fans dispelling the result and refusing to acknowledge it, getting rather heated when you do so yourself.
Regardless of said controversy, and the links to the 2015 FIFA scandal, this South Korean team goes down in the books as one of the biggest World Cup underdogs. It took a Michael Ballack goal for Germany to scrape past them in the semi-finals to knock them out.
A fourth-place finish is still an incredible achievement for the side and, when the chairman of North Korea’s football association congratulates you, you know you’ve done something special.
Ivory Coast. 2012. African Cup of Nations. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon
The Ivory Coast's "golden generation" between 2010 and 2012 entered tournaments with genuine expectations, a rarity for African football. In Yaya Touré and Didier Drogba the Ivory Coast had two of the world's top players but they also boasted a strong supporting cast, positioning them to win the African Cup of Nations and maybe even make a significant impact in the World Cup.
The 2010 Men’s World Cup in South Africa wasn’t to be, however.
They were drawn into a ‘group of death’ alongside two powerhouses, a Robinho inspired Brazil and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and, despite a strong showing, they did not advance to the knockout stage. However, their performance offered hope for the future and orange-shirted fans looked expectedly to the next Afcon in 2012 hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Expectations were met: Ivory Coast did not concede a single goal throughout the entire tournament and swept almost every team side. Their 3-0 win over Equatorial Guinea was particularly dominant, Drogba scored twice and missed a penalty and Touré curled in one of the finest long range free kicks an international tournament has ever seen. Mali were sunk by an equally iconic goal from Gervinho who scored having taken the ball at electric pace from behind his halfway line.
However, they fell at the final hurdle to Zambia after one of the best penalty shoot-outs in recent history. Both Zambia and Ivory Coast scored their first seven penalties before Kolo Touré had a chance to win it in sudden death for The Elephants when Rainford Kalaba missed penalty number eight for Zambia. But he also missed, opening the door for Zambia to come back into it. Stoppila Sunzu made no mistake and caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of Afcon.
Although arguably the finest Ivory Coast side didn’t manage to hoist the trophy while being led by talisman and captain Drogba, Ivory Coast got back to the final two years later and were crowned the Champions of Africa for just the second time in their history: a rare moment of mercy from the footballing gods.