World Cup — Team of the tournament (Part 1) — ‘90–02
This year is a World Cup year, Qatar 2022 is only months away and so I decided to take a trip down memory lane and remember the FIFA World Cups of the past.
My first memory of a World Cup was the “Hand of God”. It broke my heart, as an 8 year old England fan I was devistated. But with the timezone difference between England and Mexico I didn’t get to see many matches so I don’t remember enough about the whole tournament to give a fair judgement on who would make my team of the tournament. So our journey down memory lane begins with Italia ‘90.
Italy — 1990
By Italia ’90 I was 12 years old. I had my Panini Sticker Album and was only a couple away from completion when the tournament started. After the World Cup for Christmas I got given the “Italy 90 World Cup — The Great Moments” book and would often draw pictures of the players from the book. This was definitely the biggest World Cup for me ever.
The tournament was action packed straight from the first game. Who would have expected Omam-Biyik scoring the winner for Cameroon against Argentina. No-one… but after Maradona’s handball from four years early who cheered that goal — the whole of England.
My Team: 4–4–2 Diamond
The first name on my team sheet was Roberto Baggio, he was just amazing to watch. Then came the other winger Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne — lightning displays. Although Brazil didn’t progress pass the round of 16, Dunga still did enough in the group stage to show how a true holding midfielder should play — poise and discipline. Rounding out the midfield is Gheorge Hagi — the Romanian maestro. His selection is purely down to one game: Romania vs Argentina. Knowing they needed a draw to qualify, he controlled the pace of the game completely and when Argentina took the lead he stepped up a gear and played an audacious back-heel in the build up for the equaliser (especially as he given the ball away a minute earlier from another back-heel).
Now to defence. Firstly and most importantly Andre Brehme. He was class for the whole tournament, and he deserved to be the one that scored the winner in the Final. On the other side — Franco Baresi, he controlled the Italian backline. Now to centre backs, Des Walker had a great partnership with both Butcher and Wright which led England to the Semi-finals (and penalty heartache). Joining him is Ronald Koeman — although the Dutch didn’t perform the best he was a rock in defence. Keeping the defence true and honest is Walter Zenga, the best keeper at the tournament.
Upfront — Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci and Diego Maradona. Before the tournament everyone was talking about Maradona and no one was talking about Schillaci. Schillaci came from nowhere — one cap before the tournament and coming in as the fifth choice striker for Italy, he was destine to be a bench warmer. But after Mancini and Aldo came into the tournament with knocks and Carnevale misfiring in the opening two games, Schillaci had his chance and he took it — scoring as a substitute against Austria and then being a menace as a sub against the United States. He was given his start against Czechslovakia and he didn’t look back, ending the tournament as the Golden Boot. Lucky in someways to make it out of the Group Stage Argentina somehow made it to the final, and it was down to three men: Sergio Goycochea, Claudio Caniggia and Diego Maradona. Goycochea makes it to the bench, Caniggia is unlucky not to make it to the squad and Maradona is the finalists only representative.
The bench: Probably the unluckiest not to make the final team is Lothar Matthaus, only missing out by whisker to Dunga. The rest of the bench comprises of Paul McGrath, who played as either an awesome holding midfielder or as centre back for the Republic of Ireland, Gullit who besides Koeman were the only two that really showed up for the Netherlands and finally the wild hair of Carlos Valderama. (Honourable mentions to Cameroon’s Emmanuel Kunde and Roger Milla, Germany’s Guido Buchwald and Jurgen Klinsmann, and Yugoslavia’s Dragan Stojkovic and Robert Prosinecki)
Memorable moments
Two automatically spring to mind. The terrible spitting of Frank Rijkaard (Rudi Voller was unlucky to get a red!) and the iconic image of Gary Lineker looking over to Bobby Robson and pointing to his eye to let him know he needs to keep an eye on Gazza after he received the yellow card that meant he would have missed the final if England had made it.
USA — 1994
The first tournament to be hosted outside the football playing Americas and Europe. Soccer hit its way to the USA, and boy did it deliver. One of the best things to happen to the USA by being granted the World Cup was that a stipulation of it being awarded the tournament was that they had to re-establish a professional league, and so the MLS was born.
With England failing to qualify, I decided to put my support behind Cameron, but sadly they didn’t make it out of the group stage.
My Team: 4–2–3–1
Let’s start with the attacking midfielders. Three surprising teams lit up the ‘94 World Cup and all three were powered by attacking midfielders: Hristo Stoichkov for Bulgaria (My player of the tournament), Gheorge Hagi again controlling the Romanian side and Thomas Brolin creating chances galore for Sweden. It was just a shame the Romanians and Swedes met in the quarters, they all deserved a semi final spot.
Helping the trio up front you can’t look pass Romario, the Brazilian magician, who ended the tournament as top scorer and ended Sweden’s dream by scoring the only goal in the semi-finals.
In order to allow the attackers to shine you need some balance in the rest of the midfield. Here step in two quality holding midfielders who both don’t switch off for the entire 90 minutes. Diego Simeone (Argentina) and Fernando Hierro (Spain). If Hierro hadn’t picked up the knock against Switzerland and had started against Italy in the quarters I feel Spain would have progressed.
The back four starts with Dan Petrescu whose displays at the World Cup earned him a transfer to the Premier League with Sheffield Wednesday, and then on to Chelsea. Next is Alexi Lalas, who was definitely the homegrown hero of the torunament. Partnering Lalas is the dependable Marcio Santos for Brazil (although he did miss a penalty in the final… so maybe not that dependable). Rounding out the back four is Paolo Maldini. This tournament saw the Italian captain’s honour pass from the great Franco Baresi to the great Paolo Maldini.
For my goalkeeper I couldn’t go pass Hugo Santos. I can’t remember if he dazzled me more with his displays or his kit.
Probably the toughest decision was at goalkeeper and Michel Preud’homme’s display for Belguim against locals rivals the Netherlands nearly pushed him into the starting 11, but for now he’s on the bench. He’s joined by finalists Roberto Baggio and Gianfranco Zola for Italy and Mr Reliable Dennis Irwin for Republic of Ireland (one of my favourite all time players). The final spot on the bench goes to Enzo Scifo who showed some displays of utter brillance. (Honourable mentions to Dunga and Bebeto from Brazil, Cobi Jones from the USA, Krasimir Balakov of Bulgaria and Marc Overmars from the Netherlands)
Memorable moments
Firstly who can forget Ray Houghton’s winner against Italy in the group stage. Robert Baggio’s display against Spain and Bulgaria in the knock out stages were awesome — shame he was so quiet in the group stage.
France — 1998
This time round the tournament moved to France, and after not reaching the finals last time the French had something to prove — which they did!!
Plus it was now up to 32 teams instead of 24! More football!!!
My Team: 4–4–2
This tournament had four quality teams who were clearly the right four to reach the semi-finals. Let’s start with the winners…
France. The central midfield of Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane are probably one of the best World Cup pairings ever. Couple with the defensive spine of Marcel Desailly and Fabian Barthez and you have four of my team already. Plus Lillian Thuram on the bench and honourable mentions for Emmanuel Petit and Franc LeBoeuf. This France squad peaked on home soil like no other.
Brazil. Out played in the final, but rightfully there. Brazil get two spots in my starting 11 and one on the bench. Robert Carlos loves playing in France — who can forget his free kick in the Tournoi de France (a warm-up tournament the year before the World Cup). There was a lot pressure on Ronaldo coming into the tournament, especially with Romario missing out on the tournament due to injury. Ronaldo took the pressure on his shoulders admirably for a 21yr old and managed to bag 4 goals and causing defences chaos. Helping out Ronaldo was Rivaldo who managed 3 goals and a place on my bench.
Netherlands. Narrowly beaten on penalties in the semi finals by Brazil, the Dutch also provide two spots in my starting 11 and one on the bench. Frank De Boer was a rock at the back, so seems only right to pair him with “The Rock” Marcel Desailly. Edgar Davids caused so much trouble dribbling at nervous defenders through out the tournament, and his main target Dennis Bergkamp makes my bench.
Croatia. In there first offical tournament (since the separation of Yugoslavia) Croatia delivered. Both Davor Suker, winner of the Golden Boot, and Zvonmir Boban make my starting 11. Plus there is an honourable mention for Slavan Bilic.
The last place on my starting 11 goes to Paolo Maldini who again cemented his name as one of the best and versatile defenders on the world stage.
The final two places on the bench are taken by Danes. Peter Schmeichel as my reserve keeper and Michael Laudrap to cover midfield. (Other honourable mentions go to Michael Owen for England, plus Theodore Whitmore and Ian Goodison for Jamaica, and Javier Zanetti for Argentina)
Memorable moments
Both of my memorable moments come from the same game. Firstly, Michael Owens goal against Argentina, his first touch put the ball directly in front of him, so he could get his body across his marker making sure the defender couldn’t risk a sending off by taking him down. Then, after the heartbreak of losing at penalties to Germany at Italia 90 and Euro 96, it was heartbreak again for England.
South Korea / Japan — 2002
This was a World Cup of firsts. First time hosted in Asian, First dual hosts, First time three countries qualified automatically. South Korea being the first team to qualify for the semi -finals who aren’t in the Americas or Europe. First reigning champions not to score a goal.
Although the time difference didn’t help with working life I still managed to watch a lot of games in this World Cup. Mainly and Thankfully due to the fact the company I worked for at the time were more than happy for everyone to start late and finish late to accomodate games — or even skip out part fo the day to watch the later games. It was made especially easy, as the conference centre next door had set up a large screen for every game. It meant as soon as a game finished it was only a one minute walk to work.
My Team: 4–4–2
Let’s start up front this time with the winner of the Golden Boot — Ronaldo. The Brazilian again proved why he is one of the best scorers ever. The next pick might seem a strange one for someone who only got three goals and whose team lost in the last 16. But for me Henrik Larsson was awesome, his movement off the ball created spaces and chances that sadly his Swedish team mates didn’t make the most of.
Let’s jump to goalkeeper now as after Ronaldo, Oliver Kahn was my second name on the team list. He kept 5 clean sheets though the tournament — awesome!
Now let’s look at the back line. The full back pairing of Roberto Carlos and Cafu are formidable. Especially if you have the right central midfielders that have the discipline to drop back while they go on their dangerous gallivanting sideline runs. The captain of his side Hong Myung-Bo powered South Korea to fourth place and showed immense composure (Especially with his winning penalty in the shootout against Spain). His centre back partner making his second appearance in my team his Fernando Hierro. By now in his career Hierro had established himself as a world class centre back after spending part of his career in defensive midfield.
My midfield quartet is made up of two hard working Germans running the centre with Brazilian and Turkish flair on the wings. The two German workhorses Michael Ballack and Dietmar Hamann became a complementary pairing for Germany and in this World Cup they showed us what they can do. It was just a shame Ballack was suspended for the final. Ronaldinho was a constant menace on the wing for Brazil and Hasan Sas made a name for himself on the world stage for the first time, his distribution was superb.
The bench comprises of Jose Luis Chilavert who nearly got Paraguay to extra time against Germany with some great saves in their last 16 game. Defensive cover from Papa Malick Diop of Senegal, midfield cover from David Beckham of England and forward cover from Miroslav Klose of Germany and Rivaldo of Brazil. (Honourable mentions go to Sol Campbell of England, Rustu Recber and Tugay Kerimoglu of Turkey, Claudio Reyna of the USA and Jon Dahl Tomasson of Denmark)
Memorable moments
The first memorable moment nearly lost Rivaldo his place on the bench. His flop against Turkey when the ball hit him in the mid-drift yet he fell like a pack of cards clutching at his face. Disgraceful!
The second memorable moment was in the “Group of death”. After England’s penalty shoot out loss to Argentina in the last World Cup it was time for revenge. The game was on mid-morning and a group of us had all gone to Birmingham to watch the game at a sports bar. We some how got the front row in front of one of the big screens, which meant almost lying down on the ground with your pint.
England got their revenge thanks to a Beckham penalty. Yesssss!!!!
After the game everyone came out onto the street to celebrate. There was a bus just out the pub at a stop and a group of people had climbed onto the bus to celebrate and chant down the street. The Police came over and kindly ask everyone to get down, as the people were getting down I spied two ladies on the top of the bus who were being helped down by two very drunk males. The first lady half jumped off the bus and the two males caught her … badly… only supporting her middle — she started to fall backwards out of their arms… head first. Luckily I was quick enough to react and dove onto the ground and caught her head just before it would have smashed against the concrete. Phew!!! there was my good deed for the day — saving someone’s life. Less than thirty seconds later her friend half jumped of the bus, the drunken males caught the second lady just as badly as they caught the first. My Peter “the cat” Bonetti reactions came to the rescue again and in an almost identical fashion to the first I save another head from hitting the concrete.
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Hope you enjoyed the first part of my Teams of the Tournament post — part 2 (World Cups: ‘06-’18) is available here