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. 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.
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.
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.
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 View Full Bio Follow Keith on Twitter @keith16024542
1 Comment
Anshul Bhamra
13/5/2014 04:02:37 am
Good article.. Was not aware that Kerry Dixon started out with us..waiting eagerly for next part on Italia 90
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