USSR had great players like Blokhin, Belanov,Dassayev.But needed to beat hungary by a margin of 6 goals to progress to QFs.They did that by winning 6-0. :dubious:
Is the statement in bold correct ?
The 6-0 win over Hungary,was it ever a disputed one ? Both being communist countries.Or am I imagining things ?
No, it’s not correct. the 6-0 game against Hungary (that part is correct) was the first game the Russians played in Group C (the other group members were Canada and France). In the end the Russians finished first (ahead of France due to a better goal difference) but even if they had only tied Hungary, they still would have gone on to the next round.
In addition Russia didn’t even advance to the quarterfinals. They lost to Belgium (3:4 after extended time) in the round of 16.
O.K .
Thanks .
A far more interesting story happened for the qualifiaction of EURO 1984 (european championships) where Spain needed to beat Malta with 11 goals difference to qualify instead of the Netherlands. At half time it was 3-1, final score 12-1… Let’s just say some eyebrows were raised.
Aren’t final games in round robin pool play now scheduled for the same day and time to avoid situations like this? – That is, for the 1984 scenario to’ve been possible, the Netherlands game must’ve been already over by the time Spain and Malta took the field, yes?
Spain’s destruction of Malta occurred in the qualifying rounds of Euro '84 rather than the finals.
The fixture list had determined that Malta were to play in the final two matches of Qualifying Group 7. These were (1)away to the Netherlands on 17 December 1983, and (2) away to Spain four days later. According to Wikipedia:
My emphasis, but note that this cannot be correct. For example, the qualifying competition for Euro 2004 comprised ten groups of five teams each, therefore one team in each group necessarily completed its quota of fixtures in advance of the other four. See Qualifying Group 2 as an example, in which Romania did not play in the final round of games. The same scenario occurred in the Euro 2008 qualifying competition, which featured six groups of 7 teams and one of 8 teams, and probably in other European Championship qualifying rounds since 1984 as well.
However, in the European Championship and World Cup final stages, the groups always comprise four teams, so all of them can play their final games at the exact same time and date. In the World Cup, this system was implemented in 1986 following a disgraceful contest between West Germany and Austria in the 1982 tournament, described hereunder:
I remember watching that game live on TV (I was in school and our teachers decided to watch the game instead of holding classes). After half an hour we were begging them to turn off the TV and hold class instead. It really was an embarrasing display of kicking the ball sideways as much as possible.
Another example of suspected collusion was the infamous Argentina - Peru game in the second round of the 1978 World Cup Finals, which were held in, let’s see, oh yes, Argentina. The home team needed to beat Peru, a pretty decent team that year, by four clear goals. They actually won 6-0 with quite remarkable ease.
The whole '78 World Cup was a mess. The military Junta used the World Cup for propaganda much like Hitler used the '36 Olympics. The Dutch were intimidated before the final and Argentina only made it to the final because Peru let them win 6-0. The whole final started with some horrible gamesmanship from the Argentinians and the referee was horrible, so the whole match turned into a brutal game. I still wonder if the Dutch team would have made it back to the Netherlands alive if Rensenbrink had actually scored in extra time instead of hitting the post.
At least Menotti (the Argentinian coach) refused to shake the president’s hand after the final.
When is the world going to recognize our genious? Its either this or the “hand of god”.
I agree with everything you said about the World Cup. It was a mess.
But its never been proven that we bribed the peruvians and we actually won the match against the dutch. I will also add that the dutch tam would have made it back alive had they won.
I know. I was exaggerating. I think the Uruguyans in 1950 were in much more danger. I would not want to face over 200.000 angry and disappointed Brazilians.
It also seems that Argentinian-Dutch relations have gotten better ever since “Prins Pils” got married to Maxima Zorreguieta.
I almost wish I could remember the 78 World Cup now. Unfortunately, as I was born in mid 74 the first World Cup I remember is Spain 82.
Was it '74 or '78 where they had that bizarre practice of referees interrupting play at random points for a minute’s silence for some slightly unsavoury world leader who had just died? Can’t remember who the statesman or -woman in question was, but it made you wonder who was influencing FIFA in those days. And the way the players, officials and crowd just obediently went along with it!
I actually agree that Argentina were a very good team that year, and I have no idea if bribery was really involved against Peru.
Getting back to the OP, it should be noted that, even now in qualifying groups for Finals tournaments, they don’t hold the matches at the same time. In European qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, some of the groups included teams from all across Europe, and it would be very difficult to run the games simultaneously and still maximize profit. So they all played on the same day, but they didn’t play at the same time.
Why were the fans upset? It sounds like a typical soccer game to me.
:rolleyes:
Or to put it another way, if it was so bad that the SOCCER fans thought that’s what they were doing, it must have been godawful!!! 
Well, if you could win something without the usual controversy, then I think the world might well recognize your genius. But let’s see it first. 