Flying Down to Rio, Flight Seventeen

The World Cup moved on to Spain in 1982. Tottenham had an interest in ten of the players, either former, current or future taking part.

How many can you name?

Having discussed the proposal since 1970 the competition saw the expansion to 24 teams. The format became six groups of four teams. This was followed by four groups of three. The winners of these moving forward to the semi-finals stage.

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Three of the British nations qualified. Tottenham had Ray Clemence and Glenn Hoddle in the England team. Steve Perryman and Garth Crooks were both named in the provisional 40 man squad but failed to make the final cut. The Scottish team again included Joe Jordan and Grahame Souness (1) as well as Spurs striker Steve Archibald. There was also Alan Brazil, then of Ipswich who would join Tottenham the following year. Archibald played in all three games, one as a substitute and scored V New Zealand.  

The Northern Ireland team had Pat Jennings, (who by then had moved to Arsenal), Gerry Armstrong who had been at Spurs from 1975 to 1980 before joining Watford and former Spur Noel Brotherston of Blackburn Rovers. Wales nearly made in four British teams failing to qualify on goal difference. Their Manager was Tottenham legend Mike England. 

Reflecting the games move to international players Ossie Adriles who had signed for Tottenham after the previous competition was again in the Argentina side that set out to defend their title. Argentina again decided to number their squad alphabetically and Ardiles was now number 1.
Holders Argentina lost in the opening game 1-0 to Belgium, both teams progressed to the second stage. However Argentina lost both games in the second phase and were out. 

1. Michel Platini, now head of UEFA.

Finishing both of those games with ten men. Ardiles played in all five of his teams games.

In that first group stage round Hungary beat EL Salvador 10-1. With Laszlo Kiss scoring a hat trick in seven minutes. The first of four hat tricks in these finals. Algeria would beat West Germany 2-1. In their final match Algeria beat Chile  3-2. The following day West Germany beat Austria 1-0. All three teams finished on four points and the African side lost out on goal difference. German's took the lead early on and both teams stopped playing as the result meant both went forward. This following on from the Argentina / Peru scandal in 1978(1) forced FIFA to act and since then both last games in the group stages have kicked off simultaneously.

The hosts Spain, failed to perform. They drew the first game with Honduras. They beat Yugoslavia and then lost to Northern Ireland in their last game to a Gerry Armstrong goal. Spain scraped through to the next stage. This was a wonderful achievement for the Irish whose team were mostly made up of players from the lower English divisions. Pat Jennings has said they did not expect to beat Spain, in fact most of the Irish team had packed their bags before the match for the journey home.

2. The victorious Italians.

However as in 1958 (2) the luck of the Irish ran out and in the second stage they finished bottom of their group. Armstrong finished on three goals and top scored for the three British sides. His other goals coming V France and Honduras. This however mean he became the top scoring Tottenham player at the World Cup Finals.

Scotland beat New Zealand, lost to Brazil and drew with the Soviet Union and once again fell in the group stage. England in their first finals for 12 years got off to a good start beating the French 3-1 including a goal in 27 seconds. At the time the fastest goal in the Finals, (see top image). They then beat Czechoslovakia 2-0 and Kuwait 1-0.  England struggled to score throughout the competition and in the second stage they drew 0-0 with both West Germany and Spain.

3. Pat Jennings

In the France  / Kuwait game in England’s group a  bizarre incident occurred when the Kuwaiti’s walked off the pitch in their game against France over a row over whether the referee had blown his whistle to stop play when the French continued and scored. Prince Fahid  had to order his team to return to the pitch.

Hoddle played in two games, one as a substitute. Clemence should of played in the final group game. Manager Ron Greenwood intended to play him for match fitness, having seen England go out in 1970 when Banks dropped out at the last minute.

When Peter Shilton heard this he went to Greenwood and demanded to play saying he had to keep sharp and if he didn’t play he couldn’t be expected to play at this best in the next game Greenwood relented and Clemence never played in the World Cup (3).  One of the neutrals favourite teams was Brazil, who some compared to the great 1970 team, containing players such as Zico, Falcao, Socrates and Eder. They were to fall to a Rossi hat trick in the second stage. The semi-final between France and Germany will long live in the memory if only for the German goalkeepers assault on Patrick Battiston . Battiston was chasing a through ball when the goalie knocked him unconscious and escaped punishment. Battiston was carried from the field with a damaged spine and missing teeth. This game was the first to be settled by penalties and the Germans went through. Italy would beat them in the Final winning the trophy for the third time. Paolo Rossi was their hero and Golden Boot winner. He had only just returned from a two year ban following a match-fixing scandal.
 

Notes - 1 - Flying Down to Rio, Flight Fifteen.
2 - Flights Five & Six.
3- Several years ago I was at an awards dinner and Shilton was the speaker. He admitted that was what happened, although he described it in a slightly different light.

Thanks - FIFA, BBC, Englandonline, WorldCup History, ESPN, Planet World Cup,

About the author:
Keith Harrison,
Nilgiris, TN
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