This blogger Artur Yanturin of Russia copied many of my blog teams. Thisblog was one of them. It was my Russia All-Time Team here. His team was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014. His Spartak Moscow All-Time teamentry of was published in October 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2017. His entry of the Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014. He also copied many many of my blog entries.
West Germany played against Netherlands at the round of 16 during the WC Finals in 1990. This game is not an forgotten, great game, but it is not as well-known as Brazil-France(1986), Argentina-England(1986), West Germany-France(1982). Italy-Brazil(1982), etc.
Background -- The German-Dutch rivalry was probably at its peak. Holland was the 1988 European Championship, a title won in West Germany. The match at Euro 1988 was brutal. Ronald Koeman insulted the Germans by pretending to wrap his arse with an exchanged jersey from Olaf Thon. At the WC Qualifiers, Netherlands and West Germany were also grouped together. Netherlands finished ahead of West Germany at the 1990 World Cup Qualifiers. They were among the favourites to win the World Cup. -- Van Bastien, Gullit and Rijkaard played for AC Milan while Klinsmann, Matthaues and Brehme for Inter Milan. It was at the peak of Serie A. Plus, the match was played in San Siro. So we are adding the Milan derby to the equation The stage was a collusion between two heated rivalries at the "home" stadium. The backdrop was there.
-- At the World Cup Finals, Netherlands struggled at Group stage. They only managed three draws, scoring only two goals. They qualified for the second round as a third place team. West Germany destroyed Yugoslavia and UAE on their first two matches before drawing Carlos Valderama's Colombia. They scored 10 goals in 3 matches. The Match -- Then, during the match, the Rijkaard-Voller incident became one of the most controversial incident in the World Cup Finals since Rattin in 1966 and before Zidane in 2006. -- Brehme scored one of the greatest goals of Italia 1990. The World Cup Finals happened to be one of the dullest in history. This game stood among one of the best.
AC Milan of the 1980's was considered one of the greatest side in history. The team consisted of the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard who won the European Championship in 1988 for Holland. They complimented the club's Italian internationals Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, Mauro Tassotti, Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Donadoni. Arrigo Sacchi led them to back-to-back European Cup victories in 1989 and 1990. However, before their team began to dominate, they almost fell at the very first hurdles and emerged as one of the luckiest winner in European football history. After AC Milan won its first won its first Scudetto in nine years in 1988, they marched into their first European Cup campaign in two decades the following season. In the second round, AC Milan faced Red Star Belgrade. The first leg played in San Siro ended with a 1-1 with Red Star's Dragan Stojković scoring an opening goal. Two weeks later, they played the second leg in Belgrade. Things quickly turned bad for AC Milan. Dejan Savicevic scored and Red Star took the lead 2-1 on aggregate. German referee Dieter Pauly sent off Pietro Paolo Virdisand AC Milan was reduced to 10 men. It looked as if Red Star would win the tie. Suddenly, lady luck had found AC Milan. A heavy fog started to build around the stadium. By the 65th minute, the visibility was close to zero.The game was abandoned and both sides agreed to replay the second match the following afternoon. The third match would startwith 0-0(or 1-1 on aggregate) again. Virdis would sit out the match because of the red card from the abandoned match while Ancelotti picked up his second yellow card and of the competition, meaning that he had to sit out a match. Otherwise, Milan was back with 11 men for the mtach. Ruud Guilt who sat out the abandoned match because of injury started the third game on the bench and came in shortly after half-time. The match ended again with a 1-1 draw and went to penalty shootout with AC Milan winning 4-2.
As mentioned, AC Milan would win the European Cup that year and the following year as well. In 1994, they would win their third title in 6 years. Dejan Savicevic who joined Milan in 1992 was the star of the 1994 Final as Milan destroyed Bacelona 4-0. Meanwhile, Dragan Stojković left Red Star Belgrade for Olympique de Marseille in 1990. Coincidentally, he would face his old club in the 1991 European Cup Final where Red Star Belgrade was crowned the champion after beating Marseille in a penalty shootout. He would have his night in 1993 when Marseille won the title by beating AC Milan in the Final.
Please also see myAll-Time World Cup Team Index. South East Asia(ASEAN). On August 31st, 1998, Indonesia and Thailand met at the last match of the Group A of the Tiger Cup. The game was one of the most unsportmenlike games in the history of football. A day earlier, the host Vietnam finished second in the group on goal difference after beating Malaysia by only a single goal. Thus, the winner of Group A must play Vietnam at the semifinal in Hanoi and Singapore the Group B winner was perceived as the easier opponent. Besides, all of Gorup A matches were played in Ho Chi Minh City and both Indonesia and Thailand did not want to move to Hanoi for the semifinal. At the start of the match, Indonesia was leading the Group by 2 points. They would finish first with a draw. The first half was a boring match, with both teams barely making an attempt to score. During the second half both teams scored and the match was 2-2 draw heading toward injury time. Then, during injury time, Indonesian defender Mursyid Effendi deliberately scored an own goal, despite the Thai's attempts to stop him doing so. The Thais immediately tried to score an own goal, but it was too late, Thailand finished as the group winner.
In the semi-finals, Thailand lost to Vietnam, and Indonesia also lost to Singapore. In the final, Singapore surprised the host by winning 1-0. Both Thailand and Indonesia were punished for unsportmenship and Mursyid Effendi was banned from football for life. Please also see myAll-Time World Cup Team Index.
Argentina World Cup 1946 Sweden World Cup 1950 Argentine-born players capped by other national teams What if Argentina sent this team to Sweden 1958 Argentina All-Time Team before 1978, Argentina All-Time Team After Maradona. September 5th 1993 Place: Buenos Aires Argentina 0-5 Colombia The Argentina-Colombia game on September 5th, 1993 went down as one of the biggest surprised results of the 1990's. The game was the last game of the Group A of CONMEBOL's World Cup Qualifiers. On the standing, Colombia led Argentina by a single point. They had already clinched a continental playoff spot against Australia. They had also beaten Argentina 2-1 less than a month ago at home. The match ended Argentina's 33 matches unbeaten run. Meanwhile, Argentina was two points ahead of Paraguay. However, the September 5th match would be played in Buenos Aires. Argentina won the last two Copa Americas. No one thought Colombia could beat Argentina..... not by 5 goals. Diego Maradona who made his return to the national team earlier in the year did not play in the match, but he made a controversial comment on TV before the game. “The Colombians have to know that Argentina is always up here,” his right hand pointing to his head, before plunging downwards to his chest, “and the Colombians down here”. With Maradona sitting in the stand, the home team started well. Gabriel Batistuta was causing a lot of problems for Colombia. Then, on the 41st minute, Carlos Valderama sent a through ball to Freddy Rincon and he beat Goycochea for the first goal. The goal was very similar to the one Freddy Rincon scored against West Germany at the World Cup Finals in 1990. The floodgate had opened. Rincon would add one more goal in the second half, Faustino Asprilla would score two more and Adolf Valencia one more. It was Argentina's darkest day in football.
On the next day, The most important sports magazine of Argentina, El Gráfico, posted a completely black cover on its frontage with the only legend: "Shame". Colombia suddenly became the favourite of the WC Finals in 1994. Perhaps, the result led to false expectations and their WC campaign was disastrous.
