Rant about football

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On 7th July, 1990 Italy and England played out an open, attacking game of beautiful football for the right to claim third place in the World Cup, with Roberto Baggio and star of the tournament Toto Schillaci scoring to give the hosts a deserved 2–1 win and the bronze medal.

All in all, everyone thought that this was a fair result and would have made for a really great final, had penalty shoot outs not denied both teams.

The following night brought the final between West Germany and Argentina, described by veteran football writer Brian Glanville as:

“probably the worst, most tedious, bad-tempered Final in the history of the World Cup.”

It actually brought about several football firsts. In the 65th minute, Argentina’s Pedro Monzon was sent off for a foul on Jurgen Klinsmann, making him the first player ever to be sent off in a World Cup final. It has been claimed that Klinsmann exaggerated his reaction to the foul, causing the referee to perhaps have been more severe with the punishment.

Team-mate Gustavo Dezotti received the second red card of the game with four minutes left after he hauled Jürgen Kohler to the ground during a stoppage in play. Shortly before Dezotti’s departure, referee Edgardo Codesal Mendez of Mexico awarded a penalty to West Germany, from which Andreas Brehme scored the only goal of the game.

In addition, the legendary cheat Diego Maradona was seen arguing with Mendez about the dismissal of Dezotti, and on being waved away, Maradona pushed a linesman to the ground, resulting in him being shown a yellow card.

The 1–0 scoreline provided yet another first: Argentina were the first team ever to take part in a World Cup final without scoring.

With their third title (on top of three second place finishes) West Germany became the most successful World Cup nation at that time, until Brazil won their fourth title in 1994. West German team manager Franz Beckenbauer became the second footballer, after Mário Zagallo of Brazil, to win the World Cup as a player (in 1974) and as team manager. In doing so, Beckenbauer also became the first captain of a winning team to later manage a winning squad. Italy’s Salvatore Schillaci won both the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top goalscorer, with six goals, and the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.

Despite England’s good showing, the 1990 World Cup is widely regarded as one of the poorest World Cups ever. It generated a record low goals-per-game average and a then-record of 16 red cards.

A lot of teams relied heavily on defensive play and hard tackling, as well as aggressive intimidation of the referee. In the knockout stage, many teams played it safe for 120 minutes and try their luck in the penalty shoot-out, rather than risk going forward. Ireland and Argentina were prime examples of this trend of cautious defensive play; the Irish making it to the quarter-finals after scoring just twice in five games and drawing all their matches until their defeat to Italy. Argentina, meanwhile, scored only five times en route to the final.

Cameroon were one of the few teams to choose an attacking style and really should have beaten England, truth be known. Eventual champions West Germany also concentrated on offensive footy, but even they too became more defensive as the tournament progressed. The final encapsulated a tournament largely worth forgetting.