World Cup 1990

[Hammoudi]

Primo mentioned that today was the day Germany beat Argentina to win WC1990 in Italia. It was one of the best world cups ever, and it had many great moments, and since a picture says a thousand words, I will try and show the story of the cup in pic's.

 

[Hammoudi]

From planetworldcup.com
Story of Italy '90

Italy became the second country, after Mexico, to host two World Cups when their bid was preferred in competition with England, Soviet Union and Greece. The upgrading of stadiums took more time than planned and the organizers feared they would have to start the competition with some of the stadiums unfinished, but everything was perfect by June 8th 1990 - the date for the opening match in Milan. The only thing that went wrong was the official opening of the tournament and the order of speeches. FIFA President Joao Havelange waited for the President of the Organizing Committee to hold his speech and vice versa. So no speeches were held.

Cameroon kept their unbeaten run in the World Cup (3 draws in 1982) after the opening match against defending champions Argentina. Omam-Biyick headed past Pumpido and gave the Africans a sensational 1-0 win. The Indomitable Lions had more in store and beat Romania in the following match with the hero being a 38 year old semi-retired substitute. Roger Milla burst onto the scene with two magnificent goals and became an instant favourite among neutral fans around the world. He took his team all the way to the quarterfinals and a legendary match with England. Prior to that game he had scored two more brilliant goals against Colombia in the round of 16. Both again as substitute. He helped Cameroon turn the game against England when he came on at half-time, but two late penalties by Lineker ended the dream for the Lions. Cameroon's successful run along with Egypts respectable showing made FIFA increase Africa's quota of spots from two to three for USA '94.

England had a tiresome World Cup and got nothing for free. Three tight matches in the groupstage were followed by three more matches that went to extra-time, the last against West Germany, even to penalties. Paul Gascoigne had a fine tournament and Lineker got better as the tournament progressed and scored four goals.

Italia '90 was a World Cup for the old powers. All the previous winners were present. All the previous winners survived the groupstage and the semifinal places were occupied by four of the five best teams on the all-time ranking. Only Brazil disappointed and lost against Argentina against the run of play in the second round. A single Maradona-Caniggia combination was enough to send Careca and company home. Maradona showed glimpses, like against Brazil, of his old self but couldn't fully repeat what he did in 1986. Argentina were a shadow of the side that triumphed in Mexico, but they were tactically and mentally strong and knew how to survive in international football. 22 yellow and 3 red cards gave them many suspensions, but they always found a way to get by much thanks to an unlikely hero; goalkeeper Sergio Goycoechea who came on only because first choice keeper Pumpido broke his leg early in the tournament.

Goycoechea was the hero in consecutive penalty shoot-outs. First against Yugoslavia and then in the semifinal against Italy where he saved efforts from Donadoni and Serena. Italy had until midway through the second half of that semifinal not conceded a single goal in the tournament before Caniggia headed past Walter Zenga who was out of position. Unbeaten for 517 minutes is a World Cup record.

Another record was West Germany's three consecutive appearances in the Final of a World Cup. Lothar Matthäus and Pierre Littbarski were members of the two previous silvermedal teams, but in Italy it was glory at third attempt for them. Matthäus was the best player of the tournament. A great spielführer who worked all over the pitch and contributed with four goals. The team had two strong forwards in Völler and Klinsmann, plus a very good left-back in Brehme and as always with German teams - a well organized defence. They did lack creative forces in midfield other than Matthäus' running and relied heavily on set pieces to win games in the latter stages. Only three goals scored from the quarterfinal onwards with two of them coming from penalties is a rather poor record for a World Cup winning team although they did impress with a 4-1 win over powerful Yugoslavia in the preliminary round.

Another team who definitely had a poor record was the Netherlands who arrived in Italy as hot favourites to win the cup, but fell flat and didn't win a single match in the tournament. Van Basten failed to score and Gullit had just come back from injury and was out of shape. The Netherlands did give West Germany a good match in the second round, which might also have been the best performance by the eventual winners, but the World Cup missed the Dutch flair and style of Euro 88 as the tournament went into its final rounds.

That match in Milan was marred by the expulsions of Rijkaard for spitting and Völler for pushing and alledged abusive racial comments. Sixteen players were sent off at Italia '90. More than at Mexico '86 and España '82 combined. Fans are stuck with lots of other negative impressions from this World Cup. Pedro Monzon of Argentina became the first man to be sent off in a Final and Dezotti followed shortly after as Argentina finished with nine men. Italia '90 was also the lowest scoring tournament ever. Ireland got to the quarterfinal without winning a single match and scored only two goals in total. The Soviets were title challengers before the tournament, but never showed signs of being capable of winning and ended dead last in their group with a bunch of ageing has-beens. Not even Brazil impressed in attack and coach Lazaroni used five out-and-out defenders in his starting line-up. Most teams played to avoid losing rather than to win. This was especially evident in the knock-out stage when half the matches went to extra-time and/or penalties.

On the bright side we had Cameroon as pointed out earlier and also Costa Rica who put Sweden and Scotland behind them and advanced through to the second round. With Mexico banned for illegal use of overaged players in a FIFA youth tournament and the US only in Italy to learn, most people predicted a poor showing by Concacaf in this tournament, but Costa Rica gave their confederation some fine moments when it needed it the most.

1990 was definitely a year for unlikely heroes. Milla and Goycoechea are already mentioned and so should Salvatore Schillaci be. He who took over the role Gianluca Vialli was supposed to have as hero for the host nation. Schillaci scored six goals and became topscorer. He scored in six different matches and opened his account as a substitute against Austria and closed it with a goal against England that secured bronzemedals for Italy. He never found this form again and faded quickly after the World Cup.

 

[Hammoudi]

The cup started with a bang, one of the biggest upsets ever, Omam-Biyik scores the winner against Cup holders Argentina

The cup had alot of great players, here is Columbian legend Valderrama

Van Basten is marked by 5 Egyptians, he choked along with Holland

One of the most talented Jackasses in Soccer history, Paul Gascoigne

Uruguyan and Inter great Ruben Sousa in his beginnings, didn't have a great tournament

Brazilian great Careca, probably played with the worse Brazilian team ever, and that took alot away from him

A very famous play, Cameroon great Miller scores against flamboyant Columian GK Hiquita, Hiquita used to be like an extra-defender, always away from his goal! Tried to dribble past Miller and got burned

Probably, the biggest one-hit wonder of them all, Schillaci! Came with a bang out of no where overtaking Vialli's place, went to Inter, and ....

One of the best games ever. Rivals Germany and Holland meeting, with Germany winning 3-2. This is the infamous Rijkaard vs Voller shot. Rijkaard spat at Voller, and got sent-off, after the latter went hard into the Holland GK. Voller said some racial stuff, and get sent off himself.

Steuart Pierce (current ManCity manager) misses the final PK in the shoot-out against Germany, and England go home

Gascoigne crying after the game

Argentinan GK Goyco saves a PK against Italy, he had one of the best performances by a GK in a WC. Came out of nowhere, and sadly went back to nowhere after the cup.

England great GK Shilton in his last international game ever. Sadly, it was a sour note as he got embarassed by Roberto Baggio to score the winner against England in the Bronze game.

Inter legend Brehme scores the winning goal from a controversial PK against Argentina

Maradona doing what he did best in the last game, argue..

The winning team after the game

German fans

 

[BlueBacchus]

Hey Hamed, my old neighbor from Germany was there for the final match.
Lucky bastard. LOL
Great job on the WC1990.
Props to you mate

 

[Hammoudi]

Thanks, that German team was so damn well-structured and well-coached. They didn't score alot of goals, and alot of the goals came from dead-ball situations.

Still, they proved with discipline, great coach, great players (Inter duo: Matthaus and Brehme) you can go far.

 

[catanha]

Perhaps thats the problem with Germany now, that they aren't truly united. Some of their critics have said that in the past.
Same goes for Italy, my mate said that Italy truly haven't been united since 82, Sicilians, Calabrese etc
Best example has to be Spain, though, never been united. But that's another issue.

90 was the best WC because, to have good matches you gotta play somewhere the players have played before and is the centre of of football, Italy is a football giant..if this sentence makes any sense, my point is that WC's in places like Korea/Japan (I understand it's a WC, and they have to give these continents a chance, I'm in favour of that) well in those places, the players aren't too used to it, and takes them a while to get into.
Thats why I hope Germany will be as good as France 98, Italia 90 etc

I'm not a England fan, but I remember Gascoigne crying...still brings a tear to the eye..same goes for the Cameroon keeper when they got knocked out..heartbreaking.

 

[Hammoudi]

Good point. I know that soccer is a global game, but holding it in remote locations may be a factor why it wasn't good. I mean WC02 was horrendous, and the quality of soccer was poor. Long seasons have an effect as well, but playing in a totally different climate and environment is a factor.

WC90 was emotional as well, so many great moments. It goes to show that goals aren't everything in soccer, that world cup was low scoring, but it was very entertaining.

 

[Miki]

Probably, the biggest one-hit wonder of them all, Schillaci! Came with a bang out of no where overtaking Vialli's place, went to Inter, and ....

You have to check out this gol guys. Schillaci scores against Uruguary in the 1990 World Cup. Excellent gol! :star:

Ciao,
Tim

 

[Hammoudi]

That was wonderful to see :star: :star: :star:

However, the best goal I've seen in that tournament was Baggio's against Czechslovakia, too bad I don't have it anymore :depress:

 

[catanha]

What a goal!
I gotta a few games of the WC 90 on tape, but I want more of them.
Reckon ebay might have some?

 

[Hammoudi]

What a goal!
I gotta a few games of the WC 90 on tape, but I want more of them.
Reckon ebay might have some?

Yes!!!

WC90

 

[catanha]

Farking nice!!

I'll probably get two, because I've been meaning to get that Baggio DVD.



Found this also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42854&item=6413043482&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

[Hammoudi]

That looks damn awesome, one century of emotions! And it included the game that made me love Inter, the 3-1 Madrid game.

 

[catanha]

That looks damn awesome, one century of emotions! And it included the game that made me love Inter, the 3-1 Madrid game.

Is that the one where Baggio r@ped them?

Or is that later on.

 

[nugran78]

Anyone remember Nicola Berti in 1990? I do for some reason, can't seem to figure out why. I remember him from '94, but I was an Internazionale fan then, so that's only natural.

 

[Miki]

That looks damn awesome, one century of emotions! And it included the game that made me love Inter, the 3-1 Madrid game.

Is that the one where Baggio r@ped them?

Or is that later on.

Yeah Inter 3-1 Real Madrid was the game that Baggio scored 2 gols late on to crush them. Personally, it's one of the best games in Inter history for me. I actually somersaulted like Martins when Baggio scored his gol.

Ciao,
Tim

 

[primo-inter]

I loved that Inter 3-1 Real Madrid game. I remember Baggio's beautiful goal where he just walked around the keeper and scored.

Also I remember Simeone had a shot which was going in, but then it amazingly swerved wide of the post.

If anyone has highlights of that game I'd be so grateful. It was awesome.

 

[Ziyad]

WC 90 was definately my favorite and as an Inter fan i was Germany all the way...

Matthaues was fantastic in that tournament and the game against Holland was great for the rivalry between the two teams as well as the rivalry between the players of the city of Milan.Add to that that Holland went through Germnay to win the Euro 88....Tensions all over :star:

I remmember that tournament better than any other amazingly.The Holland game with Germany and the England game as well were two of the best.Since then there were games like that in other WC like the France-Croatia game in 98 or the brazil - Holland game in 94 along with the England -Argentina...All nice games

By the way Hamed Germany scored quite a few in that WC compared to others...I mean they scored 4-1/5-1/1-1 in the first stage if i am not mistaken...Not bad 10 goals in 3 games.Then there was the Hollan and England games followed by the Final.

ALSO a fact about that tournament is that Matthaues was supposed to take every penalty for Germany,but Goycochea (Argentina's sub keeper who became starter) was soo good in that tournament in saving penalties that he made Matthaues panick,but the great leader that he is he put his ego a side whispered into brehme's ear you take this one..He did and he scored. :star: that guy was just a great leader,his runs and goals against UAE and Yugoslavia were just fantastic.

 

[Hammoudi]

True Ziyad, I was talking more about the play-offs and after, they were relying heavily on set-pieces at that stage of the tournament. But I know about 4-1 on Yougslavia and 5-1 over UAE (I used to taunt some Emaratis about that, but not after 8-0 :depress: )

I really didn't know about the Brehme PK story! That's really interesting, Matthaus was a damn good leader, the best captain ever in my eyes :star:

 

[BlueBacchus]

WC 90 was definately my favorite and as an Inter fan i was Germany all the way...

Matthaues was fantastic in that tournament and the game against Holland was great for the rivalry between the two teams as well as the rivalry between the players of the city of Milan.Add to that that Holland went through Germnay to win the Euro 88....Tensions all over :star:

I remmember that tournament better than any other amazingly.The Holland game with Germany and the England game as well were two of the best.Since then there were games like that in other WC like the France-Croatia game in 98 or the brazil - Holland game in 94 along with the England -Argentina...All nice games

By the way Hamed Germany scored quite a few in that WC compared to others...I mean they scored 4-1/5-1/1-1 in the first stage if i am not mistaken...Not bad 10 goals in 3 games.Then there was the Hollan and England games followed by the Final.

ALSO a fact about that tournament is that Matthaues was supposed to take every penalty for Germany,but Goycochea (Argentina's sub keeper who became starter) was soo good in that tournament in saving penalties that he made Matthaues panick,but the great leader that he is he put his ego a side whispered into brehme's ear you take this one..He did and he scored. :star: that guy was just a great leader,his runs and goals against UAE and Yugoslavia were just fantastic.

I miss players like him. :depress:
I remember the last years he played at Bayern. Still at his age, he performed as he was young. We used to call him the Grey Wolf, because of his leadership and experience.