The worst World Cup, Euro and UCL matches in history.

Discussion in 'Soccer History' started by Krokko, Nov 2, 2012.

  1. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    It would be fun to remember not only the big Classics of the game, but also the Stinkers: the kind of matches that made you wonder if there was something wrong with your TV set. I don't mean the fixes here (like West Germany-Austria in 1982 or Italy-Uruguay in 1970), but the matches where both teams just failed in almost every intention the may have had.

    Among the matches I cannot forget for this reason are England-Ireland in the 1990 World Cup, Sweden-Turkey in the Euro 2000 and Sweden-Greece in the Euro 2008, orgies in misplaced passes, mis-controling and wide shooting.
     
  2. Pipiolo

    Pipiolo Member+

    Jul 19, 2008
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    The aberrations have increased in correlation with the number of participants at the WC. I assume you're asking matches in which both teams were garbage, so it rules out such lopsided ones as Germany vs Saudi Arabia (WC02), Argentina vs Serbia (WC06), or Portugal vs North Korea (WC10).

    A few I unfortunately remember: Germany vs England (WC82), Netherlands vs Belgium (WC98), Ukraine vs Switzerland (WC06).
     
  3. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    What I meant by stinker is a match with low quality that is also painful to watch. In Argentina-Serbia we got that incredible goal by Mascherano after 25-30 passes

    And Messi's WC debut, of course.
     
  4. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Paraguay - Japan 2010
     
  5. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    That one wasn't a bad or dull match.
     
  6. Pipiolo

    Pipiolo Member+

    Jul 19, 2008
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    The goal was by Cambiasso, but I didn't count that match as a bad one since at least one team played well.

    It was dull. All I remember was Kluivert's send off and thinking why would the Belgiums naturalize such a useless striker as Oliveira.
     
  7. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord


    If I think at a dull game with few chances created that is printed in my mind it is Netherlands-Sweden of euro2004.
     
  8. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    I was at that game. Not a classic, but Zlatan did score an incredible goal. At least one thing that most fans could go away remembering.

    I was sat next to Phillip Cocu as well and behind Emilio Butragueno, but that's another story.
     
  9. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    Thanx comme... at least one Sweden game less among the all time stinkers? :)
     
  10. dor02

    dor02 Member

    Aug 9, 2004
    Melbourne
    Club:
    UC Sampdoria
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    How was that fixed? That would be like Italian fans telling you that Sweden v Denmark from Euro 2004 was a fix and if you really must know, I don't think that Sweden v Denmark was fixed. Trap's side shot themselves in the foot during the Sweden game by sitting on a 1-0 lead. Do you have any evidence of a fix in 1970?

    Back to topic, I thought Italy's first half in the Italy v Slovakia match at WC 2010 was atrocious. The Azzurri barely put one pass together! It was only until Pirlo came on that the Azzurri 'magically' got their passes together.
     
  11. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    It had all the ingredients of a fix: for both teams a draw was a perfect result (Italy having beaten Sweden and Uruguay Israel in the first round) and from the very first minute there was not one attempt to score a goal or even create a chance to do so. The fans started jeering early on and when it was over most spectators had already left the stadium.

    The match Sweden-Denmark was called a fix here in Italy, but elsewhere it wasn't. I give you a few examples:

    The Guardian:
    "Italy will wonder whether this was a fix but few here will believe for a second that there was anything pre-arranged about a result that sees both teams through to the quarter-final. Even if Thomas Sorensen spilled a cross to present an 89th-minute equaliser to Sweden's Mattias Jonson, no one except the greatest cynics or conspiracy theorists will believe there was anything untoward at work here last night."

    The Independent:
    "Yet this draw was no fix or stitch-up, even though the Danish goalkeeper, Thomas Sorensen, will be pilloried by Italian conspiracy theorists for parrying Christian Wilhelmsson's cross for Mattias Jonson to volley the fourth goal of an enthralling match with 90 seconds remaining."

    Kicker:
    "Eine schnelle und jederzeit spannende Partie endete am Ende mit einem für die Schweden etwas glücklichen Remis, das letzlich beide Teams ins Viertelfinale einziehen lässt."

    O Jogo (Portugal):
    "Se qualquer uma destas selecções fosse afastada seria uma injustiça para o futebol, porque este duelo entre nórdicos, em campo neutro, foi um espectáculo digno de se ver. O ambiente nas bancadas esteve tão forte como nos melhores dérbis da cidade do Porto e a festa ganhou mais força, com o apuramento das duas equipas para os quartos-de-final."

    Marca:
    "Si el partido respondió a un pacto de no agresión, el guión creado por daneses y suecos se merece cuanto menos un Oscar a la mejor interpretación por la emoción que ambos equipos pusieron sobre el terreno de juego."
    --->Om den har matchen var resultatet av en icke-aggressionspakt sa fortjanar det manus danskar och svenskar reciterade atminstone en Oscar for den spanning de bada lagen skapade.

    Bild:
    "Doch bei diesem Ergebnis wird es weiter den Betrugs-Vorwurf geben. Egal, wie beide Teams fighteten. Egal, wie sie die vorzeitige Entscheidung suchten."

    The only one that didn't excluse a fix was Argentinian Olé:
    "¿Escándalo? En el fútbol siempre pasaron cosas como éstas y, seguramente, seguirán pasando. ¿Acaso en Italia se olvidan de que el empate 1-1 entre la Azzurra y Camerún, en el Mundial 82, le permitió clasificarse al equipo de Bearzot para la segunda fase y también le dio lugar a Camerún, en su debut mundialista, a terminar invicto? Cuando dos periodistas de la revista Epoca escribieron una nota levantando sospechas, casi todo el mundo del Calcio se los comía. "No se puede tocar a la Nazionale, ¿cómo se permiten ensuciar al mayor éxito futbolista italiano de la posguerra?", les decían."
     
  12. dor02

    dor02 Member

    Aug 9, 2004
    Melbourne
    Club:
    UC Sampdoria
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    I wasn't asking about foreign media outlets writing about Italians claiming a fix at Euro 2004. I wanted to know if any officials, coaches or players from Italy or Uruguay spoke to each other before the match in regards to fixing the result in 1970. You haven't shown any evidence of an actual fix. West Germany v Austria in 1982 has been talked about much more. Why would both team want to do a deal just for the sake of eliminating Sweden anyway? :confused: Italy and Uruguay had defensive mentalities anyway and it was only the second phase of group matches, not the final match day in the group stage. A 0-0 draw shouldn't have been surprising.

    Regardless if there was a fix or not, do you seriously think Sweden had a good enough team to reach the quarter-finals? I don't think so. Aside from Bo Larsson, Nordqvist and Kindvall, Sweden didn't have many good players. If Sweden was good enough, the Swedes should have defeated Israel and beaten Uruguay by a bigger margin.
     
  13. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    Sweden lacked creativity and was pitiful vs Israel. We had only three int'l class players back then, Bo Larsson, Ove Kindvall and Roger Magnusson, the great dribbler of Olympique Marseille. Unfortunately Ohème didn't allow Magnusson to participate in Mexico, and without him on the right wing, Sweden lacked flair and quality.

    Having said that, one thing has to be remembered: Sweden had an incredible defensive organisation, perhaps even better than the Italian one. Between 1970 and 1974, we kept seven clean sheets in 12 WC matches and conceded two goals in six WC matches. One of them was Domenghini's goal, where Ronnie Hellström made a terrible blunder.

    Unremarkable, defensive-minded teams have made results in knock-out tournaments before, and who knows what Sweden would have done if they had survived the 1st stage. Remember Italy scored one single goal (tho one mentioned above) in the 1st stage and still made it to the final.

    The Uruguay-Italy match was one of the strangest ones in WC history. If it wasn't the result of a fix, there is truly a mystery to be resolved.
     
    dor02 repped this.
  14. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    I talked with PDG about this one recently and this match qualifies too for a bad game although it looks better in the highlights
     
  15. Krokko

    Krokko Member

    Nov 16, 2011
    Club:
    AIK Solna
    Nat'l Team:
    Sweden
    I read some pages of Sandro Mazzola's book Ho scelto di stare davanti alla porta, and he confirms what I said: Before the match Uruguay's captain Julio Montero Castillo (the father of Paolo) approached Mazzola saying: "Hombre, aquí hoy empatamos y pasamos los dos". During the match almost nothing happened, but at a certain point Bertini made a solo effort and actually shot (not on target though). Montero went bananas and started insulting Mazzola with "italianos ladrones" etc.
     
  16. dor02

    dor02 Member

    Aug 9, 2004
    Melbourne
    Club:
    UC Sampdoria
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    It's enough to develop speculation but it doesn't necessary mean that a deal was done unless it was just a verbal agreement.
     
  17. dusbal

    dusbal New Member

    Jan 28, 2013
    Club:
    AC Mineros de Guayana
  18. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    #19 PuckVanHeel, Jan 30, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2014
    Because of the stage and exposure, the 1990 World Cup final ranks among the worst matches at the World Cup level.

    For a change the Guardian made an accurate list - noting and writing down how it was seen at that time - rather than the usual revisionist claptrap.

    http://www.theguardian.com/sport/fo...8/memory-legal-backpasses-jones-souness-dixon

    The final was the epilogue to a journey full of dives, biased referees (Helmut Kohl, what's in a name) and serial fouling - by both sides.

    Unfortunately, the propaganda army (PR-firms?) is very strong in pimping up the overall performance and demeanor at hindsight, and doing so successfully.

    http://bundesligafanatic.com/is-germanys-midfield-of-the-early-1990s-one-of-the-best-of-all-time/
     
  19. 621380

    621380 Member

    Feb 21, 2004
    germany

    this is a good one..... egxypt deserved a win against netherland..unfortunately this game has ended only 1:1 for this Team..
     
  20. JamesBH11

    JamesBH11 Member+

    Sep 17, 2004
    Very well spot on ... JohnK'

    Besides the fact many regarding WC90 as the worst event ever, you also spot on few "worst games" of such event :thumbsup:
     
  21. giles varley

    giles varley Member+

    Oct 8, 2013
    nottingham uk
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Take your pick from many italia 90 games.. But west germany vs Austria 1982 takes some beating..
     
  22. Stuart McCall

    Stuart McCall New Member

    Apr 28, 2014
    Club:
    Everton FC
    I thought Italia 90 was a good tournament. But it was a **** final. Off the top of my head, I wasn't impressed with the 2000, 01, 08, 11 CL finals. 06 WC final.
     
  23. giles varley

    giles varley Member+

    Oct 8, 2013
    nottingham uk
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I can remember italia 90 being fairly short of entertaining football as a whole.. Obviously there were some epic games and the cameroon team caught the publics imagination.. But when you compared it with the 2 previous world cups of 82 and 86 it seemed quite dull.... Holland were expected to put on a show as european champions with van basten and gullit but it never happened.. Brazil were also a big big let down with their sweeper system and lack of flair... Maradona was injured and struggling and argentina fluked it to the
    final with negative football.. It was a negative tournament in my opinion with a few great games
     
    JamesBH11 repped this.
  24. JamesBH11

    JamesBH11 Member+

    Sep 17, 2004
    like Giles said, and also it was well written in WC history: WC90 was the worse event as most teams went out with NEGATIVE approach and wait for a TIE to so Penalty shoot out! Most teams playing back passes from DF?DM to GK back and forth for like 3,4 mins each time LOL

    FIFA went on changing the RULE no more backpassing , and GK had to use his FEET in such case
     

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