IF Russia 2018 hasn’t been the best World Cup we’ve ever experienced then it’s certainly among the top three. Your Diary would love to say that 1970, featuring Brazil’s greatest-ever team, was the best but our
six-year-old selves have only a hazy recollection of the final when Brazil beat Italy 4-1 and otherwise spent most of the tournament wondering why Scotland weren’t playing.
WATCH: Your official National World Cup poem: An Ode Tae Le 2018 Coup Du Monde
Spain 82 was also brilliant, although we were heartbroken that the second-greatest-ever Brazil team were beaten 3-2 by the eventual winners, Italy, in what was effectively the semi-final. This summer in Russia, though, has probably been unsurpassed in terms of great goals, cliff-edge finales, genuine upsets and a commitment by most of the top teams to attacking football.
The VAR system was also a qualified success meaning that only a few games turned on a bad decision. Unfortunately, one of those was the final itself. The decisive penalty awarded to France to put them 2-1 ahead against Croatia was a reminder that VAR is still always ultimately subject to a bad referee’s judgment.
We wouldn’t begrudge France their second World Cup triumph, not least because in Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba they possessed three of the tournament’s best players.
Yet, the feeling persists that this was the first World Cup final, with the possible exception of West Germany v Holland in 1974, where the better team lost.
Those who saw Pele in 1958 and 1970 and Diego Maradona in 1986 knew that these were the greatest players of their eras.
This is perhaps why, despite being unfailingly brilliant for a decade or more, players such as Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will all remain in their shadow. None of them quite stamped their genius on an entire World Cup tournament as Pele and Maradona did. As we watched the 19-year-old Mbappe perform over these last few weeks we hoped that we’d be spared to see this divinely-appointed player reach his maturity as a footballer.
You were never jealous that Pele and Maradona were not born Scottish, only grateful that you got to see them in their pomp. In Russia in 2018 we encountered that feeling once more. For this alone, this year’s World Cup was memorable but these was so much else besides.
Spasibo, Rossiya, i Bog blagoslovit.
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TOP CHIB MERCHANTS #2 AND #1
HERE are our top two selections celebrating the ugliest incidents in the Beautiful Game. The Diary would like to thank assorted Facebook chinas, drinking companions, taxi drivers and random punters we’ve encountered in pubs while waiting for our drinking companions for their help in compiling the list.
#2 The Battle of Berne
This was undoubtedly the biggest and most glorious mass brawl in the history of the World Cup and will never be repeated on such a scale ever again. That it took place in persistently peacenik Switzerland and featured two of the most gifted teams on the planet simply added to its lustre. Hungary won this quarter-final 4-2 but long before the end players on both sides simply decided to forget the football and kick the bejesus out of each other. Officials, journalists (yes journalists) and fans invaded the pitch and, after the final whistle the battle continued in the Hungarian dressing-room.
The Hungary manager, Gustav Sbese had four stitches inserted in a face wound. He said afterwards: “This was a battle; a brutal match. Brazilian photographers and fans flooded on to the pitch. Players clashed in the tunnel and a small war broke out in the corridor to the dressing rooms – everyone was having a go; fans, players and officials.”
#1 Harald Schumacher
Watching this incident during the 1982 World Cup semi-final between West Germany and France we were appalled. France were magnificent that night and were hammering the Germans. Then goalkeeper Harald Schumacher, he of the German porn star looks (so we’re told) and rank bad attitude, decided to intervene. He brutally cut down the French midfielder Patrick Battiston with a manoeuvre that seemed to encompass a karate kick and an extreme wrestling arm thrust. Poor Battiston had to leave the field and the French never quite recovered their composure. That the Germans won on penalties thanks in no small measure to the heroics of mad, bad Harry only added to the injustice.
The passing of time, though, has allowed us to appreciate more the balletic artistry of Schumacher’s wicked leap and the knowledge that he couldn’t possibly have meant it.
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