Flying Down to Rio, Flight Eighteen

The 1986 World Cup will be remembered for two goals, both from Maradona in the Quarter Final with England. His first the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal, where he jumped and punched the ball past Shilton in the England goal, somehow none of the officials saw this. The second a few minutes later while England were still recovering, this time a splendid goal to win the game. The contrasting sides of his nature led France's L'Equipe newspaper to describe him as "half-angel, half-devil".  You decide at the clip below.

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The 13th World Cup was awarded to Columbia who had to withdraw in 1983 due to their financial problems. The competition was moved to Mexico, who became the first country to host the competition twice, having done so in 1970. Then a major earthquake hit Mexico several months before the Finals and thousands were killed.

England had three Spurs players in their squad, Glenn Hoddle who played in all five matches, Chris Waddle (played in four, two as a substitute) and Gary Stevens (two  games as a substitute). As well as future Tottenham players Gary Lineker (Everton) would join us in 1989,Terry Fenwick (QPR) in 1987 and Steven Hodge of Nottingham Forrest who would join Tottenham the following December. England also had Kerry Dixon who had been an apprentice at Tottenham but we released him, he was spotted playing non-league football and would play for Chelsea. 

Once again FIFA changed the format, after the opening groups the competition now changed to a knockout competition. With the top two teams from six groups and four best placed third placed teams.

To meet the needs of a global TV audience the games started at 4pm in the heat of the sun and at high altitude.

1.The hand of God.

England started the competition badly losing to Portugal. This was followed by a 0-0 draw with Morocco, who would win the group, before beating Poland 3-0 with a Lineker hat trick. In the Round of 16 Lineker scored twice more as they beat Paraguay.

2. Steve Hodge

Then came the fore mentioned quarter final with Argentina. Lineker did pull one back from a Gary Stevens cross and England had a clear penalty denied them at the end, which the officials also did not see, but Argentina would progress.

Lineker did win the Golden Boot and was chosen for the FIFA all-star team.

Morocco as group winners put out Portugal (their first finals since 1966) and Poland before losing to West Germany in the Round of 16. They were the first African team to progress past the opening round.

Steve Archibald was in the Scottish Squad which finished bottom of their group, Archibald playing in one game. Alongside him was Graeme Souness (1) and Richard Gough. Richard would join Spurs in the August in time for the following season.

Northern Ireland also came bottom of their group with Former players Gerry Armstrong (1) and Pat Jennings in the squad. Pat played in the group game with Brazil on his 41st birthday.

The Belgium team contained Nico Classen of Standard Liege who would join Tottenham the following October.
He came on as substitute in the opener V Mexico and started Belgium‘s other six games. He scored a penalty V Iraq and picked up a booking. He then scored the decisive goal in extra time V the Soviet Union and scored again in a penalty shoot out with Spain.

3. Graeme Souness and Michael Laudrup

Belguim then lost to Argentina. In the third place game Nico scored a late goal V France which took the match to extra time where they lost.

In the Belgium V the Soviet Union match Igor Belanov, who would be voted European player of the year struck a hat trick and became the third man to record a hat trick for a losing team in the history of the competition.

Denmark playing in their first Finals beat Scotland 1-0, Uruguay 6-1 and West Germany 2-0. Before losing to Spain in the knock-out stages. The Danes led by Michael Laudrup were described in the press as 'Danish Dynamite.' The Danish team included future Tottenham Director of Football, Frank Arnesen who played in three games and was sent off in the game with West Germany. The Final was watched by more than 114,000 as Argentina beat West Germany 3-2. It was Argentina’s second victory after their home win in 1978.

Meanwhile in N17 - Peter Shreeves was completing his second season in charge, from the third place last year we slid to 10th in 1986 and would be replaced by David Pleat for the coming season.

Notes - 1- Flying Down to Rio, Flight Seventeen.
Top Image - Gary Lineker V Paraguay. 
Images - Top - ESPN,  1- The Guardian  2- Sporting Heroes,  Thanks also -  FIFA, England on Line, FA, Planet World Cup, BBC,  ESPN,

About the author:
Keith Harrison,
Nilgiris, TN
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