World Cup 1986

I plan to post an account of all the five football World Cups that I have seen, starting from 1986. Would be essentially giving an overview from my personal perspective, not an event summary as such.  

So in this first edition I look into the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. 

I was a nine year old boy, used to play fooball regularly in the evenings with friends, the event was in the midst of my summer vacation in Calcutta. I was staying with my relatives then in a joint family, most of them were football fans,  and there were constant football discussions in the household. Some stayed up late in the nights to watch the games. I was also excited by this possibility, and used to go to sleep early and requested my "dadas"(elder cousins) and "meshos"(mother's sisters husbands) to wake me up during the matches.

The matches invariably were in the dead of the night. But Doordarshan was faithful in its broadcast albeit with its occasional "Rukawat ke liye khed hain" ("sorry for the interruption"), we were also able to get transmission from Bangladesh Television.

Alessandro Altobelli scored the first goal of this world cup, making it an unique record as he had scored the last goal of the previous WC also .
Two really surprising results were; one a drubbing of Uruguay by debutants Denmark 6-1
incidentally the Danes had the best group stage record as they also beat Germany and Scotland in their matches. Then the Danes got a taste of their own medicine as they got a thrashing of 5-1 vs Spain in 2nd round. With Butrageuno scoring four goals.

Another interesting highlight for me was the Brazilian Josimar scoring from near the halfline with a piledriver, the sheer speed and power beat the GK, it was not the sort of cheeky shot that with which Ronaldinho conned Seaman in the last WC. Josimar's shot had fascinated me as I thought it was impossible to score from that range, and when we used to play in the evenings, I used to try and use all the strength that my 9 year old legs could muster, to aim at the opposing goal from the middle of the pitch.

2nd round:

The highlight was Belgium vs USSR with Belgium winning 4-3, it was a rollercoaster of a match, lead kept changing alternately, finally Belguim triumphed in the extra time, I remember the players were exhausted and literally dropping off in the searing heat of Mexico, but the passion was there to be seen. The Russian Belanov scoring a hatrick in the losing cause.
West Germany labored win over Morocco 1-0 was one of the most boring matches ever.

Quarters 

The QFs had two memorable matches Brazil vs France, and England vs Argentina. Bra- Fra, was the best match of this WC, two highly talented and entertaining teams. The Brazilians stamped their superiority in this match, it was a joy watching the ballet like moves of Socrates, Zico and Careca. But the French GK Joel Bats was amazing, made spectacular saves, France also had some good counterattacks courtesy the inimitable Platini and Jean Tigana. Brazil's loss in the tie-breaker was a catastrophe for Calcuttans, suddenly I could sense that the zest for the WC reduced in the household and the neighbourhood.  

Eng vs Arg, was a fast paced match, one could feel the intensity in the proceedings, it was a rough match also (years later I came to know about the Falklands tension). Diego's  world famous goals, though for opposite reasons, would ensure immortality for this game. 

As usual the most drab match involved Germany and Mexico, won in the tie-breaker by Germans. I don’t know why I support the Germans, because their style is not that eyecatching, call it efficient and well-oiled at best, but maybe because of their perseverance, and “can do” attitude, they always believe in themselves. Another reason for which I liked the Germans, was that in 86 one of their club teams called Bochum had come for the Super Soccer series, I watched one of their games with my father in the Nehru stadium in Delhi, and I was hooked to football and Germany. After that I proclaimed myself as a German fan.

In the semis a flat and emotionally drained performance by France resulted in them getting clinically beaten by Germans. While Maradona single handedly demolished the Belgians, and scored a spectacular goal similar to his goal of the century, leaving half-a dozen befuddled Belgians in his wake.

I awaited the Final match  keenly, I was supporting Germany ardently. Rest of family were all behind Argentina. This match I saw in Delhi, as summer vacations had ended by then. I still remember the setting, I was so excited that I was standing behind the sofa for the entire duration, jumping up and down, with my parents and sister sitting in front. When Germany pulled back to 2-2 in the second half, I was ecstatic. The last goal which was set up by a beautiful through ball by Maradona, left me distraught.  

Overall perspective about the 1986 WC was that it was an average sort of WC, normal distribution curve of some good and bad matches and most average. Quality was affected by the high altitude and also the heat due to the day matches( to make it prime time in Europe), crowd support was at a peak. Teams mostly favoured the defensive approach and it reaped benefits; the ill effects of which could be seen more prominently in the next edition i.e. Italia 90.