Obscure football tournaments from the past

The Taca das Nacoes (“Nations' Cup” in Portuguese) was held in 1964 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Brazilian Football Confederation. To my surprise, the hosts and World Cup holders didn’t have everything their own way.

Argentina, Portugal and England joined Brazil for a series of matches held in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in late May and early June.

The tournament was played on a league basis, which meant Argentina had wrapped things up before Brazil played their last game.

Here are the results and scorers:

30th May 1964

Brazil 5 (Rinaldo 2, Pele, Julinho, Roberto Dias) England 1 (Jimmy Greaves)

31st May 1964

Argentina 2 (Alfredo Rojas, Alberto Rendo) Portugal 0

3rd June 1964

Brazil 0 Argentina 3 (Roberto Telch 2, Ermindo Onega)

4th June 1964

England 1 (Roger Hunt) Portugal 1 (Fernando Peres)

6th June 1964

Argentina 1 (Alfredo Rojas) England 0

7th June 1964

Brazil 4 (Jairzinho 2, Pele, Gerson) Portugal 1 (Mario Coluna)

So Argentina won each of their three games, didn’t concede a goal, and overcame a Brazilian side boasting the likes of Pele, Gerson and Jairzinho in its ranks. No mean feat.

What interested me most were the reports from the England games available at http://www.englandfootballonline.com/.

They’ve done an amazing job in bringing together summaries from hundreds of England games and I was captivated by reports of matches at the Taca das Nacoes.

Pele produced a masterclass to drive Brazil on to the 5-1 victory. He set up the first goal, earned two free kicks “while dancing through the England defence juggling the ball like a circus performer”, scored with a long range effort after nutmegging Bobby Moore, and then set a team mate up for the fifth goal.

Roger Hunt scored and both Jimmy Greaves and Johnny Byrne hit the woodwork in an ill-tempered match against Portugal. Each side also had a goal disallowed, with Portuguese protests ending in striker Torres being sent off for taking a swing at the ref.

England’s final game saw the Argentineans, led by skipper Antonio Rattin, play “strolling possession football to frustrate England and to clinch victory in the ‘Little World Cup’ tournament”. According to the report, England returned home believing Argentina would be the toughest team to beat at the 1966 World Cup.

The best World Cup semi-final?

As we all look forward to this year’s World Cup there is a natural tendency to glance backwards at the same time to admire the history of the tournament. With the exception of the final itself, the semis are amongst the most eagerly awaited matches. Let’s look at some classic World Cup semi-finals and see if we can choose the best.

Final World Cup 2010 qualifiers

So France, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Uruguay have all now qualified for next year’s World Cup Finals. Let the caterwauling begin...

“After a thrilling performance that promised for so long to deliver Irish soccer its most famous ever result, the chilly Parisian air was filled with rancour late last night after a disputed French goal cruelly ended Ireland’s hopes of playing in next year’s World Cup in South Africa.” Thus begins Ruadhan Mac Cormaic’s report for the Irish Times on a night when Thierry Henry’s self-confessed double handball was witnessed by millions watching on TV but inexplicably missed by the Swedish officials.

In fact Henry went one better than admitting he was at fault. According to one report the French striker gave the equivalent of the play to the whistle argument. He knew what had happened and didn’t care because the officials awarded his team the crucial goal.

Let’s leave the final word to manager Giovanni Trapattoni. The Italian had just watched his side take the game to the French and still lose. Understandably bitter, Trapattoni eventually accepted the result was fated to be. I’m not sure I would be quite so charitable, nor would I let the Irish forwards off the hook. In all the bluster this morning, hardly anyone mentions the second half chances missed by Keane and Duff. Had either put away their chances the Irish would now be heading for South Africa.

Elsewhere, the biggest shock was Slovenia putting Russia out. Portugal won away in Bosnia to wrap up a 2 – 0 aggregate win. And Greece held on for a 1 – 0 away victory in the Ukraine, the result taking them through by the same aggregate score line. Find out more here.

So now we know who the 32 teams are. Bring on the World Cup Bafana Bafana draw pots predictor!

Pot 1 (Hosts and seeds)

South Africa
Argentina
Brazil
England
France
Germany
Italy
Spain

Pot 2 (Rest of UEFA)

Denmark
Greece
Portugal
Slovenia
Serbia
Slovakia
Switzerland
The Netherlands

Pot 3 (AFC + Concacaf)

Australia
Ghana
Honduras
Japan
Mexico
New Zealand
South Korea
USA

Pot 4 (CAF + rest of Conmebol)

Cameroon
Chile
Uruguay
Algeria
Ivory Coast
North Korea
Nigeria
Paraguay


None of the European teams in Pot 2 are mugs. Pot 3 and 4 teams will be up for the challenge and ready to ambush anyone who doesn’t take them seriously, especially the African sides. This could be the most competitive World Cup finals ever.

England win World Cup tie on penalties shock

That’s right, some England players do know how to take a penalty... at the Homeless World Cup in Italy.

People who are homeless and socially excluded are enjoying a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever.

This annual international football tournament was first held in Graz in 2003. 18 national teams took part. Just six years later and 48 nations have come together for Milan 2009.

The event now supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations and works with over 25,000 homeless and socially excluded people throughout the year.

Teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are squaring up against the likes of Argentina, Germany, South Africa and Spain.

They play Street Soccer on courts 22m long by 16m wide. The maximum number of players on a team at any one time is four (three outfield and one goalkeeper). Halves last 14 minutes and winning teams receive three points. Drawn matches are decided by a sudden-death penalty shoot out.

In this year’s tournament England advanced through the Preliminary stage after winning four games and scoring 37 goals in Group D.

Yesterday the Secondary group stage saw England draw 3 – 3 with Rumania before winning a thrilling penalty shoot out. Earlier in the day the team had lost 4 – 2 against Portugal. Matches against Hungary and the Ukraine take place today.

After the Secondary stage, the teams are split into six groups of eight according to their results. England will be hoping to become one of the top eight ranking sides to play for the official Homeless World Cup trophy.

Let’s hope the players involved in a penalty shoot in South Africa can cope just as well.

For more on the Homeless World Cup visit http://www.homelessworldcup.org/

Looking ahead to World Cup qualifiers in September – Part 1

For the next twelve days World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010 takes an occasionally wry look at World Cup qualifying fixtures in early September. Well, I say “wry”; on Day 9 I might just have a belly laugh at the expense of our Scottish neighbours if the mood takes me.

Europe: Group One

Albania and Malta only have one game each left to play, so we can forget about them. Substitute nine for one in that sentence and you’d sum up how most pundits felt about the chances of either qualifying – ever.

This group is of course a four-horse race between Denmark, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden. All that could change when the next set of games take place on September 5th.

With 16 points now, the unbeaten Danes take on Portugal in Copenhagen knowing a win will leave Ronaldo’s mob ten points behind.

If Hungary beat Sweden on the same night they will go to 16 points, with the Swedes staying on nine. Portugal will probably then have to beat Hungary twice and hope the Magyars also lose against Denmark. Sweden, on the other hand, face the whipping boys in two of their remaining three games. Beat Hungary in Budapest and they might be in with a chance.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

Denmark - Portugal

Hungary - Sweden

September 9th

Malta - Sweden

Albania - Denmark

Hungary - Portugal

Early qualifiers for next year Pt 2

North Korea

The weird Stalinist one-party one-family state even bastions of democracy and free speech such as China worry about is back. We can only hope the team’s success on the football field postpones their Great Leader’s plans for nuclear suicide to beyond 2010.

Of course the competition went ballistic the last time they put in an appearance. Italy took an early flight home after losing to a Pak Doo Ik bombshell goal at Ayresome Park, Portugal needed Eusebio’s guided missile boots to rescue them in the quarters, Charlton rocketed in a long-range winner during a tense semi, and Geoff Hurst’s tactical strikes saw off West Germany.

Chances of winning? Zero. Chances of sending millions of South Korean and Japanese citizens to underground bunkers. Quite high.