Chapter LVI - 70 Millions in Action
Group 1
For New Granada, the South American Championship had been a disaster, and had cost Francisco Zuluaga his job as the national team manager. He was replaced by the Paraguayan César López Fretes, who introduced a more defensive style - the team seemed to improve a bit, but the last pre-Cup friendly had been a 4x0 defeat to England. Thus, the Neogranadines came into the field for their debut on a even more defensive footing than usual, while their Hungarian opponents seemed intimidated by the altitude and the crowd and did the same thing. With so many precautions, the 0x0 remained until the end, although it featured Vladimír Hagara receiving the first yellow card, for a foul on Orlando Mesa, and the first substitution, when Alejandro Brand was replaced by Hermenegildo Segrera at half-time.
Two days later, Burgundy debuted against Iran. The match began well enough for the Burgundians, but then, at the 23rd minute, Homayoun Behzadi scored on a Iranian counter-attack, which seemed to throw the Burgundians off-balance. throughout the match, the Burgundians created more chances, but lost goals upon goals until they finally managed to equalize, with Wilfried Puis. The team gained momentum after that and managed to scored the winning goal, with Wilfried Van Moer, only six minutes later.
Thre days later, New Granada faced Iran. New Granada had a plan for the group stage now - the name of the game was to beat Iran, and then, run the same game of the first match against Burgundy, which would leave them with four points, just enough to qualify. So, New Granada began the match on the attack, and things looked like they were going well when Jorge Gallego opened the score at only four minutes. But Iran quickly shut itself in the defense and kept the scoreline at 1x0. In the second half, the Iranians began ever more daring counter-attacks, and equalized at seven minutes with Ali Jabbari. Conversely, New Granada began opening spaces and creating more chances, but Nasser Hejazi pulled a number of saves in these circumstances. It would be Iran who scored next, on a free kick by Hossein Kalani. The goal seemed to throw the Cafeteros into a panic, with the team rushing into the attack even more in the final minutes, not getting closer to equalizing, but almost conceding the third, on a shot by Asghar Sharafi that had to be saved by Quintana, and Iran celebrated its first World Cup win.
The next day, it was time for Burgundy and Hungary to play, and Hungary seemd to come off better after the previous match, and opened the score at only 9 minutes, when Bene hit the crossbar and Jokl headed in the rebound. However, the match grew more balanced from there, although the scoreline remained the same for almost one hour. At half-time, the Burgundian manager, Raymond Goethals, switched Devrindt, who had been producing little so far, for Cruyff, and the latter scored the equalizer on a free kick after only 21 minutes, but otherwise, neither team came close to scoring again after that.
Three days later, New Granada took the field again, this time needing to beat Burgundy by two goals' difference to advance. They did count with some help by the referee for that - 14 minutes in, Van Moer mistimed a clearance, Wim Jansen kicked it away, and Tamayo fell over his leg. Despite the Burgundian complaints, the penalty was still given, and Alfredo Arango converted it. However, New Granada would find it hard to do much more. Burgundy began attacking trying to equalize, but New Granada could do little when it tried counter-attacking in turn, and the match ended with the 1x0 still on the scorecard. Although New Granada had gotten its first World Cup win, that was not enough, and they became the first host to fall in the group stage.
Meanwhile, at Ibagué, Iran faced Hungary, and set out to play for a tie, since if both ended up tied, Iran had more goals scored, but after two largely unconvicing performances, Hungary finally seemed to bloom and got an early goal, when László Fazekas ran into the area and then cut back for Kuna to score. Hungary continued creating chances in the first half, the closest being when Bene's strong shot to the empty goal was cleared on the line by Monajati. In the second half, Hungary kept the same pace, and Lajos Kocsis scored the second within eight minutes, catching a rebound from another Bene shot. Hungary mostly managed the result through the next half-hour, but it had the time to scored the third four minutes from the end, with Kocsis scoring again after trading passes with Albert.
Group 2
The first match of the group pit Italy against Sweden. Overall, the defenses nulled the attacks all through the match, and the only goal was a lucky one - Domenghini pushed a corner on the left to Facchetti, took the return, and shot from outside the area. Hellström, going down at his near post, tried to cup the ball to his chest but let it in under his body.
The next day, Nubia debuted against Uruguay. Despite coming in with their usual defensive scheme, they had no trouble taking out the Nubians, even though their most talented player, Pedro Rocha, injured himself only 13 minutes in - First, Mujica overlapped on the left and put in a basic cross which bounced in front of a hesitant Faranebgoiel for Maneiro to dart in and head home. Then, in the second half, Mujica scored the second himself, driving in the rebound when Faranebgoiel saved from Maneiro, and then, Espárrago caught the rebound of a shot by Cubilla that had gone against the bar.
Three days later, Italy faced Nubia. Nobody really expected the Nubians to put up much of a challenge, and the first half only seemed to confirm this impression as Italy dominated the match entirely, and were already up by 3x0 at half-time, all from Riva. First, with a shot from outside the area, then off a pass from Mazzola, then on a header from a cross by Boninsegna. Italy spent most of the second half mostly managing the lead and even scored the fourth after Furino intercepted a pass and fed Boninsegna, who cut inside Firr and Wijingar and scored with a screaming left-footed drive. But in the final minutes, Italy began slacking off and Nubia took advantage of that, first when Abianos Zakaringar headed in from a dinked cross by Joel Eskemariam, and then scored again in the last minute when Zakaringar hit a post and Hana Bashob caught the rebound.
The next day, Uruguay faced Sweden. Without Rocha and Cubilla, Uruguay came in even more defensive than usual and gave up the attack entirely about 60 minutes in, when Dagoberto Fontes came in for Espárrago. Unsurprisingly, Sweden had more chances, with Leif Eriksson hitting the post two minutes in, and Mazurkiewicz saving Kindvall's shot late in the first half, but the goal only came in the last minute, when Kindvall headed in Persson's cross.
Three days later, Uruguay and Italy played, with Uruguay needing to win to not to depend on Sweden's result. Meanwhile, after facing criticism from the press for refusing to put Rivera and Mazzola on the same team, the Italian manager did just that, and almost as if proving him right, both got mixed up on the left and produced very little, while Riva couldn't find spaces in the Uruguayan defense. But time passed and no goals came, and around the 70th minute, Uruguay had to bring Zubía in for Castillo to improve their attack. It worked, and five minutes from the end, Zubía went around Facchetti and crossed for Cubilla to score the winning goal.
Meanwhile, Nubia faced Sweden at Santa Marta, the Swedes also needing to win. But the match was unespectedly rough, with Kindvall receiving some savage treatment from Akitameril, among others. Meanwhile the Nubians complained to the referee when Bashob was flattened by a punch. Selander’s cross from the right was sidefooted in by Turesson, but Nubia's spirit compensated for their shortcomings, and they equalised when Larsson was shocked by Stefanos Bushara's explosive long-range shot, and Sweden couldn't react after that. The tie wound up eliminating both teams.
Group 3
The first match of the group pit Bohemia against Guatemala. Before the Cup, the Guatemalan manager had praised the physical preparation of his team, but that was not enough to overcome the Bohemian technique. Petráš stood out, hammering the first goal from outside of the area and converting a cross from Ducke, who was fouled for the penalty. After the third goal, the Guatemalans began getting rough, and were soundly booed by the crowd.
The next day, England faced Navarra, and went off to a bad start when Ignacio Zoco headed in a corner from José Eulogio Gárate to open the score. Navarra quickly shut itself in the defense through the first half, but couldn't hold on to the result in the second. Five minutes, in, Edwards took advantage of dithering in the Navarrese defence to turn a half chance into a goal, getting a through-ball from Moore and dribbling past Antón Martínez to equalize. Only seven minutes later, Geoff Hurst headed in a cross from Keith Newton to put England in the lead, and nine minutes from the end, Emlyn Hughes tried to cross to the area. Iribar touched it with his fingertips, but Bobby Charlton slid in to score the third.
Three days later, Navarra faced Guatemala, and the latter seemed to be holding up well until the end of the first half, when the referee conceded a foul close to the side line. The Guatemalans though the free kick was in their favor, and as they prepared to take it, Navarra took the kick, Txetxu Rojo crossed, Uriarte missed an open goal but Arieta didn’t. Despite the Guatemalan protests, the referee confirmed the goal and gave out three yellow cards. In the second half, the Guatemalans did little except try and kick as many Navarrese as possible, conceding goals to Gárate (a cross shot after beating a man and a shot from outside of the area), and to Larrauri (a header from a Gárate corner).
The next day, England faced Bohemia, in a match not too dissimilar from their previous 1966 encounter - a stuttering performance by England, the only goal coming off a dubious penalty, combined with a highly defensive performance by Bohemia, whose only chance was when a speculative shot from twenty-five yards by right-back Dobiaš swerved in the thin air. Banks, at full stretch, managed to tip it on to the bar and as as he turned the ball rebounded into his arms.
Four days later, Bohemia and Navarra played to define the second qualifed team. Navarra got an early lead on a free kick from Fidel Uriarte, but spent most of the rest of the match on the defensive, only helped by another poor offensive performance from Bohemia. František Veselý equalized with a fierce left-footer from outside the area in the first half, but that was it, an Navarra advanced due to having scored six goals to Bohemia's four.
Meanwhile, at Bucaramanga, Guatemala played against the already-qualified England just looking not to do too badly. Meanwhile, Ramsey had given a few first-team players a break and done a few experiments on the attack. Guatemala did their best, but it still wasn't enough, and Allan Clarke put away a through-pass from Mullery and shot the second after Edwards had beaten three men.
Group 4
The first match of the group featured Georgia's debut against Argentina. Somewhat intimidated by Argentina's reputation as the reigning South American champion, Georgia shut itself on the defense almost from the outset, and gave no spaces to the Albiceleste through most of the match, Dzodzuashvili throughly nulling Brindisi on the right, and Khurtsilava and Kavazashvili pulling superb performances on their own end. As the match wore on, the Argentines grew more frusrated and it seemed like the 0x0 would stay, until five minutes from the end, Fischer scored while offside. the goal was duly disallowed, but Kanteladze, who was tasked with delivering the resulting indirect free kick, shot the ball directly to Onega, who touched it for Más to score.
The next day, Scotland debuted against Wallachia, with a clear problem on the attack, the team having only scored three times in the past 6 matches. Surprisingly, they managed to get a goal in only five minutes in, with a sharp header by Bobby Lennox, but the attack had no luck on the rest of the first half and in the second, Wallachia improved its game, and turned the score around in less than 30 minutes - Neagu beat Greig before shooting the equaliser and was fouled by McKinnon for the penalty.
Three days later, Wallachia returned to play against Georgia. This time, Georgia went for a more offensive posture, but found that their usual play, through-balls to Metreveli or Nodia through the middle, were consistently broken up by Cornel Dinu. The first goal came through a defensive error in part of Georgia, when Khurtsilava's attempt at kicking away one ball came out weak and the ball instead went to Mircea Lucescu, who opened the score. In the second half, Wallachia scored another one, when Florea Dumitrache headed in a cross by Neagu.
The next day, it was Scotland and Argentina's turn. The match was rigorously balanced in the first half, but despite a great performance from the Argentinian defense, Scotland once again came into half-time with the lead - shortly before the break, David Hay hit a shot into the crossbar from far outside the area, catching the defense by surprise, and as the ball bounced back, Colin Stein dove in to score. But in the second half, Scotland didn't have the calm needed to guarantee their result and conceded the tie within eight minutes, when Pastoriza ran into the area and passed the ball to Veglio, who shot from near the edge of the area. After that, Argentina came the losest to score again, but the 1x1 remained.
Now, Scotland was in the situation of needing to win and hope that Argentina lost to Wallachia to qualify, and they set out to do exactly that in the final match, the only one played at Pereira. In the other hand, Georgia also went on the offensive, having nothing to lose, but wanting to get at least one goal in. hey got their wish in only four minutes, with Metreveli scoring on a counter-attack. Over the first half, Georgia kept betting on counter-attacks and exploiting openings left bt the Scottish defense and scored the second at the half-hour mark with Givi Nodia. However, Scotland decided to go for broke in the second half, replacing Willie Carr for John O'Hare to give extra power to their attack, and the team came back with greater incisiveness for the second half, and the goals finally started coming in, Lennox scoring twice, and O'Hare and Stein between them.
Meanwhile, Argentina and Wallachia played in the other match. Argentina needed a tie to advance without worrying about the result of the Scottish match, but found itself largely outplayed by the Vlachs in the first half. However, their defense was as solid as ever, and only conceded a goal through a penalty kick. Argentina spent most of the match betting on counter-attacks, and equalized shortly before the break, on a free kick by Brindisi. The match slowed down somewhat during the second half, but just when the result seemed settled, Fischer received a pass from Conigliaro and hit a shot from the half-moon to give Argentina the victory.
Group 5
The first match of the group, played mostly in Panamá, pit Morocco and Germany. Better adapted to the 32-degree heat, the Moroccans opened the score when Houmane knocked in a bad defensive header by Hottges. The most Germany got in the first half was a ball in the post. As such, the German manager, Helmut Schön, switched Haller for Grabowski, turning the 4-3-3 that they had been using ito a 4-2-4. Eleven minutes into the first half, Seeler scored in a scramble to equalize. In the final 15 minutes, the Moroccans began tiring out. Schön then tried switching Höttges for the forward Lohr, and it worked. Three minutes later, the winning goal came when Gerd Müller put in the rebound when Seeler’s leaping header looped onto the bar.
Before the Cup, Peru had undergone a battery of friendlies between February and April. Overall, the team had won four times, tied three and lost six, the last against Porto Alegre's Internacional, and so the team went on to New Granada without the enthusiasm provoked by the qualification months before, but the worst was yet to come. The day before the debut, a severe earthquake happened close to Chimbote, devastating that city and some nearby towns, and also setting off an avalanche at Mount Huascarán, further inland, that buried the towns of the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca. Overall, about 60,000 people died.
In th day of the match, in sign of mourning, the players came into the field with a tobbaco leaf tied to their arms, and still in shock, conceded a goal at only 12 minutes. After a free kick, the Bulgarians, with three fast touches, scored while the Peruvian defense just stood staring. Worried, Didi, now Peru's manager, subbed Campos for Javier González in the first half. Peru missed chances through some wild shooting, and four minutes into the second half, Bulgaria scored again. Only then Peru finally woke up - three minutes later, one of Alberto Gallardo’s thunderbolts finally went in, crashing in off the bar. Héctor Chumpitaz scored on a free kick four minutes after that, and later, Teófilo Cubillas played a one-two with Ramón Mifflin before beating a man and shooting an excellent winner.
Three days later, Peru came back into the field again against Morocco. Once again, the Moroccans put up a feverish demonstration of speed in the first half, but Peru quickly began dominating the match once they tired out, and scored four times in only twelve minutes - Cubillas smashed a loose ball into an empty net from very close range, and Allal got a touch to his strong shot for the third, after Hugo Sotil had beaten assorted defenders. Roberto Challe ran into the penalty area before smashing the ball past the keeper and León scored with a strong shot from five meters out. And there was still time for Sotil to score his own near the end, even though the Moroccans complained about a supposed foul on Lamrani that should have made that goal invalid.
The next day, Germany went up against Bulgaria, in a match with a very similar script to the past ones - gain West Germany conceded an early goal, again Bulgaria scored from a free kick - again the match was quite balanced in the first half, and again one team dominated the second half entirely. That time Schön replaced Nöldner for Libuda, and he dominated the match, especially the Bulgarian captain, Boris Gaganelov, who wasn’t capped again. First he beat Gaganelov to Seeler’s throughpass and jabbed a low cross into the penalty box, where Simeonov let it slip under him and just over the line. Libuda’s credited with the goal, but it was clearly an own goal. Next he scuttled through a gap, slipped, got up and dribbled Nikodimov to make an easy volleyed goal for Müller. Then Gaganelov fouled him for the penalty. Seeler arrived at the far post to meet a low cross from Müller, who headed the fifth from a free kick, and only after that, Bulgaria managed to score the second.
Three days later, Bulgaria and Morocco, already eliminated, played their last match at the tiny Agustín Sánchez stadium, in La Chorrera, posting the worst attendance of any match of the Cup. The Bulgarians, looking for their first victory, went out to the attack all through the first half, and opened the score at 40 minutes, when Zhechev scored off a free kick by Mitkov, but in the second half, thinking the match was already decided, the manager switched Penev and Yakimov for Dimitrov and Bonev, draining much of the team's creativity on the midfield. Predictably, Morocco tied with Ghazouani at 60 minutes, and Bulgaria couldn't get the ball rolling to try a second goal anymore. Morocco had the distinction of being the only team to come out without any cards, yellow or red.
Meanwhile, Germany and Peru played for the first place at Panamá. Peru tried to impose their usual pace, but Germany was already prepared for that, and bet on with high crosses from the wings, and Müller scored thrice this way - first, one from Libuda, deep on the right, floated over a defender’s head for Müller to chest down and push home. Then Lohr beat González on the left and his low centre to the near post was knocked in by Müller’s left foot. Finally Seeler’s cross from the right was put in with a cleverly placed looping header. Cubillas scored with a deflected free kick late in the first half, but Peru still could celebrate getting through the group stage for the first time.
Group 6
After the defeat in the South American Championship, the magic of the first matches in 1969 seemed to be gone, and Saldanha was losing most of his emotional stability. First, after Flamengo's manager, Yustrich, insulted him on a interview, he went to Flamengo's concentration [1] to confront Yustrich, with a gun in hand. Then he got into a fistfight with a particularly obnoxious journalist, then he startd making noises about cutting Pelé due to a supposed myopia. Meanwhile, the results weren't good - The team played three friendlies in March, first losing against Sweden, then beating Argentina and then only tying against Bangu, eighth place in the previous Rio de Janeiro city championship. That was the last straw, and Saldanha was fired and replaced with Zagallo, who had begun his managing career only three years before. Brazil under Zagallo played another seven friendlies - the team started well, with a 5x0 victory over Chile, but entered a string of unconvincing performances, including a 0x0 tie against a Bulgarian team almost entirely made up of AS-23 players.
And when Brazil debuted against Provence, it didn't seem like things had improved - only eleven minutes in, Brito had the ball, but missed a simple pass and led the ball into the feet of Combin, who dragged the ball past him and clipped it past Félix for a splendid individual goal. Brazil tied at 24 minutes, on a free kick by Rivellino. Then at 29 minutes, in a magical instant, Pelé shot from inside his own half and narrowly missed the goal. Then, in the second half, Brazil improved greatly, and went ahead with another marvellous goal - Gérson hit a perfect aerial ball which dropped just over Baeza for Pelé to chest down and push the volley across the keeper. Then another Gérson pass was in the air long enough for Jairzinho to look offside as he ran on. Flipping the ball over the onrushing Carnus, he slammed it into the empty net. In between these goals, Di Nallo missed Provence's one big chance -after Henri Michel's cross reached him five yards out, he blasted the ball over the bar. Jairzinho completed the scoring with a superb individual goal, resisting two sliding tackles in that inelegant but oddly skilful way of his before finishing with a low cross-shot.
The next day, Mexico faced Morea. Much like Scotland, Mexico also had been having problems with its attack lately - the joke going around then was that the team was divided into two sections: the defensive and the inoffensive. And much like Scotland, they managed to get an early goal - three minutes in, Padilla crossed towards the area. Borja tried to head it in, Oikonomopoulos palmed it away, but Javier Fragoso ran in to open the score. Mexico played better all through the match, occupying all the spaces in the field when it defended, and striking the Greeks with skill and energy, but the ball wouldn't go in, and this eventually came back to bite them, as three minutes from the end, Michalis Kritikopoulos ran in from the right and cut back for Mimis Papaioannou to shoot from just inside the area to equalize.
Three days later, Mexico returned to face Brazil. The firat few minutes started balanced enough, but only eight minutes in, Jairzinho was fouled inside the area by Mario Pérez and Pelé converted the penalty kick to open the score. Then, two minutes later, another magnificent goal, as Pelé took a pass from Clodoaldo, flicked a backheel pass to Rivellino, who passed it back for him to shoot from the edge of the area. But the defense still had it issues, as two minutes after that, Piazza tried to kick away a ball, but wound up giving the ball to Borja, who scored. The very next play after that, after wrestling the ball from two defenders, Pelé passed to Jairzinho, who lifted the ball just enough to head it in. Over the rest of the first half, Brazil dominated the match entirely, and Mexico struggled to not to concede any more goals. On the second half, the match slowed down even more, but Brazil got in the fourth within ten minutes, when Pelé passed to Tostão after running from his own half all the way to the half-moon with the ball, and Tostão dribbled past Peña to shoot from the penalty box. Brazil mostly managed the result from that point on, giving Mexico chances to try and score the second, and it came two minutes from the end, when Horacio López Salgado scored on a scramble in the area.
The next day, Morea faced Provence, the latter trying to erase the bad impression left after the last match. The match started well enough for them, when Loubet escaped from Giorgos Skrekis's marking and shot from the edge of the area. However, Morea reacted almost instantly, when Rostagni tried to head away a crossing by Papaioannou, but headed the ball on Mimis Domazos' direction instead. At the 22nd minute, Hervé Revelli put Provence in the lead again with a free kick, although that free kick itself was controversial because the fouled player, Bereta, was supposedly offside at the moment of the foul. Provence then managed to establish some control on the rest of the match, and even scored a third with Combin, but it was disallowed. However, Morea still attacked when it could, and five minutes from the end, equalized again with Nikos Gioutsos.
Three days later, Provence and Mexico played at Manizales, with both teams needing to win and hope that Morea lost against Brazil to advance. Provence seemed to have the greater offensive impetus, shooting at the goal 15 times during the match, but lacked the calm and the category necessary to get past the vigilance of the Mexicans. Michel played excellently in the midfield, but saw the chances he created being wasted by the forwards. In the other hand, Mexico's defense played superbly, and their attack proved more effective, and with goals from Borja and Valdivia, the team put itself in a good position to advance.
Meanwhile, Brazil faced Morea at Medellín. Needing a tie, Morea tried to put up a defensive game in the first minutes, but two defensive errors wrecked their plans. First, eleven minutes in, Pelé crossed from the right. Kamaras slipped and chested the ball straight to Tostão, who immediately pushed it to Rivellino, whose shot went in off the bottom of the far post. Next Tostão took a short corner on the left, ran round a defender to get to the goal line, and hit Rivelino’s return pass straight at Oikonomopoulos, who let it in at the near post. After that, Morea had no choice but to go out to the attack, and got their own goal at 28 minutes, when Papaioannou beat Carlos Alberto down the left and hit his shot at Félix, who was just a little out of position and let the ball go between him and the right post. After Oikonomopoulos had fumbled Pelé’s shot onto a post, Jairzinho put Pelé clear on the right, a defender deflected his gentle cross over the diving Oikonomopoulos into the path of Tostão, who knocked it in then put his hand over one ear to cut out the roar of the crowd. Eleftherakis met a clearance with a low volley from the edge of the area, but Jairzinho went past the hapless Oikonomopoulos to score the fourth. Both teams went out under applause, and Morea had put on a good impression despite the elimination.
And thus, the groups of the second stage were defined:
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Let me know your predictions and stay tuned for Part 57!