In the Heat of the Midday Sun

Steven Scragg

Description

In the Heat of the Midday Sun is a love letter to the 1986 World Cup. A tournament viewed via the shimmering satellite images of an age before the dawn of high-definition coverage - which was introduced four years later, at Italia '90 - it was the last World Cup where the commentaries sounded like they were broadcast from the surface of the moon. Mexico took on the tournament after Colombia failed to deliver on their host candidature, relinquishing the rights in 1983. With a devastating Mexico City earthquake just eight months before the big kick-off, it was a miracle that the Estadio Azteca was still able to be the venue of Diego Maradona's greatest and most infamous hours. As well as Argentina's most gifted son, Mexico '86 was blessed by the presence of Socrates, Platini, Francescoli, Butragueno, Belanov and Elkjaer to name but a few of the icons on display. This is the story of an evocative World Cup that seemed to be held together by Sellotape.

Sujets

• World Cup

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 09 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801502634
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Steven Scragg, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801500975
eBook ISBN 9781801502634
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Colombia 86
2. Paco s Panini Album
3. The Hand of God
4. A, B, C, as Easy as 1, 2, 3
5. Eastenders
6. DEF Jam
7. Northern Lights
8. The Tragedy of Big Jock and the Unluckiness of the Draw
9. We ve Got the Whole World at Our Feet
10. Sweet Last Sixteen?
11. The Self-Preservation Society
12. The Game that Refreshes the Parts Other Football Can t Reach
13. Los Caballos Oscuros
14. One Last Tango
15. Totally Mexico
16. The Ambassador is Spoiling Us
17. Revenge is a Dish Best Served Uneaten
18. And in the End
Afterword
Photos
For Sam, the biggest little man in the world, who suffers with a semi-uncomfortable sense of pride when his teachers buy my books.
Acknowledgements
THIS BOOK wouldn t have been possible without the support of my wife, Beverley, and our wondrous children, Sam, Elsie and Florence, who have all knowingly or unknowingly saved an increasingly frazzled mind, body and soul at one point or another. I would also like to thank Jane at Pitch Publishing for their continued support and trust in what I produce, with a big nod to the excellent Duncan Olner for producing the book cover, which totally smacks of the 1986 World Cup.
Added to this, I can t express how much gratitude I have for my These Football Times brethren, Stuart Horsfield, Gary Thacker, Aidan Williams, Paul McParlan, Will Sharp and Chris Weir, who tend to be the ones goading me into these projects, but more than all others to Omar Saleem, whose support always goes above and beyond. You re a gentleman, and a true friend.
Honourable mentions must also go out to the people who took time out to chat about all things Mexico 86. Ric George, Ian Stewart, Hamish Tindall, Clive Toye, Barry Davies, Mart Perarnau. I also need to thank the beautiful soul who is Hayley Coleman. She always has my back and a handy bumper bar of chocolate dropping through my letterbox. Plus my brother and sister, David and Alison, who think this is all surreal/cool, as do their fabulous children.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who took the plunge to purchase this book, and any of the three that preceded it. Whether you re a new customer or one of the regulars who have been along for the ride from the start, your support is never taken for granted.
Introduction
I M A great believer in how the finest of lines can often make a monumental difference. I m convinced that the merest of deflections in certain circumstances can change the complexion of how events pan out, to the most dramatic of effects.
Half an inch here, a few extra seconds there, a glance in the opposite direction at a pivotal moment. They can all make a landscape-altering difference. For instance, how would the 1960s have evolved culturally had Paul McCartney and John Lennon not crossed paths at a garden fete in Woolton, Liverpool on Saturday, 6 July 1957?
Some things are meant to be and some things aren t. Football works by the same rule of thumb. Take the 1974 World Cup finals as a case in point. So often it s lamented that the totaalvoetbal of the Netherlands, Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff fell agonisingly short of fulfilling their widely expected destiny. The Netherlands the 1974 World Cup winners in all but actual outcome? You can argue that it s a whimsical thought. You can argue that it insults just how good the 1974 West Germany were. After all, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd M ller, Paul Breitner, Sepp Maier and Uli Hoene , on home soil, as the reigning European champions, were always going to have something to say about the final outcome at the Olympiastadion in Munich against the Oranje .
A sliding doors effect is in operation. Somewhere, in a parallel universe, the Netherlands won the 1974 World Cup Final. Conversely, in a further parallel universe, the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup at all.
Famously, England failed to qualify for those finals by the narrowest of margins. Goal-line clearances and the outrageously brilliant goalkeeping of Jan Tomaszewski kept Sir Alf Ramsey s team at bay on a legendary night of football at Wembley Stadium in October 1973, when Poland qualified instead.
Largely forgotten, one month later Belgium s Jan Verheyen scored what appeared to be a perfectly good winning goal at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam against the Netherlands. Played onside by three orange-shirted individuals, Verheyen s goal would have been enough to take Belgium to the World Cup finals, and in the process broken the hearts of their near neighbours and great rivals. Verheyen s goal was erroneously disallowed, however. The goalless scoreline instead sent the Netherlands through, while Belgium, who hadn t conceded a goal throughout the entire qualification campaign, became one of the biggest hard-luck stories the World Cup has ever known.
Just think about that for a moment. The Netherlands and Poland, second and third-placed nations at the 1974 World Cup, were only in attendance at all by the skin of their teeth.
The Cruyff turn. The tectonic de facto semi-final between the Netherlands and Brazil in Dortmund. Johan Neeskens s first-minute penalty in the final, before anyone in a West German shirt could touch the ball. Poland sending Italy home early. The goals of the tournament s top scorer, Grzegorz Lato. None of those images might have been there at all had it been for half an inch here, a few seconds there, or a glance in the right direction at a pivotal moment.
Imagine a 1974 World Cup shorn of the Netherlands and Poland, and instead inhabited by Belgium and England. It almost came to pass. It could have looked so very differently in West Germany.
Every World Cup qualification campaign has its hard-luck stories, the closest of near-misses. Twelve years on from Verheyen s moment of infamy, in November 1985, the Netherlands and Belgium were fighting it out over World Cup qualification once again. This time the match took place in Rotterdam, and De Kuip was the venue. Once more there was another late goal for Belgium, this time a goal that was given. The Netherlands had come to within five minutes of qualifying for Mexico 86. Instead, it was Belgium who won the day this time, and it was Belgium who would go on to reach the semi-finals of the 1986 World Cup. Belgium, a nation who were only there by the skin of their teeth.
It s the concept of how a landscape that sits evocatively within your mind s eye could so easily have been markedly altered, had it not been for the finest of lines.
Which is your favourite World Cup? Mine is 1982. Which of course means it was an obtuse decision to write a book about 1986 instead.
But 1982 was my first fully conscious World Cup. The sights, the sounds, the hazy shimmer seeping from the television, the commentaries of John Motson, Barry Davies, Martin Tyler and Gerald Sinstadt, which felt as if broadcast from the surface of the moon, or at the very least through a yoghurt pot and a length of string. That Brazilian team, which boasted the sensory overload of S crates, Zico, der, Falc o and Cerezo. My version of the Netherlands being denied in 1974 was the denial of Brazil in 1982.
It wasn t only Brazil either. There was also the wonderful French team of Michel Platini, Alain Giresse, Dominique Rocheteau, Bernard Genghini and Jean Tigana, with their heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat to West Germany in the semi-final in Seville, after the near maiming of Patrick Battiston by Toni Schumacher. Machiavellian deeds at their worst; a campaign made more intriguing thanks to the brooding resentment between Platini and his one-time friend - and Saint- tienne team-mate - Jean-Fran ois Larios, after the latter was rumoured to have had an affair with the wife of the former.
Added to Brazil and France, we had the slow start yet sudden blossoming of Enzo Bearzot s Italy. Paolo Rossi s burst of goals and Marco Tardelli s exuberant, legendary celebration of his goal in the final itself; great beauty that was protected by the glorious brutality of Claudio Gentile and the commanding goalkeeping of Dino Zoff.
Good and bad, everything about 1982 hit the spot for me. Cameroon going home unbeaten, the cruelty of Algeria s exit, the joy and pain of Honduras, El Salvador conceding ten against Hungary, Northern Ireland in Valencia against the hosts. Zbigniew Boniek, the fallibility and the genius of Diego Maradona, Scotland going home in what was an equally hypnotic and shambolic style, and then you had Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking belatedly arriving to the party for England, against Spain, only for their World Cup to end almost as soon as it had begun for them.
I have a theory that you re chemically hardwired to your first World Cups. The first couple set the tone for what you demand from all other subsequent tournaments. Once that happens, then you re primed only for disappointment. The football doesn t seem quite so magi