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New Zealand draw with Italy in another World Cup shock
New Zealand could not quite pull off a win over Italy in their second Group F game on Sunday but a 1-1 draw still represented an extraordinary achievement.
New Zealand are at number 78 in the FIFA rankings and began the tournament as 1,000-1 outsiders while Italy are the World champions yet you would never have known it from the game in Nelspruit.
Here, my colleague Mike Collett picks out the 10 greatest upsets in World Cup history. Let us know if you agree in the comments:
1. North Korea 1 Italy 0, Middlesbrough, England, July 19 1966:
North Korea, playing in the World Cup for the first time, were given no hope of beating an Italian team containing greats such as Giacinto Facchetti, Sandro Mazzola and Gianni Rivera. But Pak Doo-ik consigned them to the greatest World Cup shock defeat of all time with a 42nd minute goal and Italy never recovered, were eliminated and pelted by rotten fruit when they arrived back home.
North Korea led Portugal 3-0 in the quarter-final before Eusebio put an end to their romantic tale, scoring four times in a 5-3 win.
2. United States 1 England 0, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, June 29 1950: England, who gave soccer to the world in the 19th century, did not take part in the World Cup until it was held for the fourth time in Brazil in 1950. England had won their opening match against Chile and were expected to crush the United States and advance to the Final Pool. However, a team containing future World Cup-winning coach Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen lost to a 38th minute goal from Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens. England were then beaten by Spain in their next match and eliminated.
Time to take minnows off the international menu
Now that the dust has settled on the Ronaldo story (at least until he actually signs) I wanted to go back to something that bothered me about last week’s on-field action.
Former England striker Jimmy Greaves summed it up quite well at half-time during England’s 6-0 thrashing of Andorra in a World Cup qualifier.
“Have you ever seen a team this bad at Wembley?” Greaves, one of several members of the 1996 World Cup squad to be given belated winners medals after missing the final, said when interviewed by ITV.
Greaves went on to question the sanity of the near 60,000 fans who bought tickets to watch England beat a side that would struggle to survive in the fourth tier of English club football.
It wasn’t quite what ITV wanted to hear after desperately trying to stoke interest in the miss-match but the outspoken Greaves made a very good point before we were returned hurriedly to the studio.
The likes of Andorra and San Marino may belong to the FIFA family but they offer absolutely nothing to football at this level.
There sole objective is to avoid a double-figure thrashing which they usually achieve by positioning 11 players behind the ball and never venturing over the halfway line.
The England vs Andorra motch last week went beyond being a mismatch. The writer is correct, it should never have happened. The stadium they held the match in – Wembley, obviously! – can hold more than the entire population of Andorra. Surely this is ridiculous? My home town has more people living in it than Andorra can draw upon. These games are a waste of everybody’s time. http://www.loserscomesecond.com/
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