Where Did It Go Wrong - Part one
Throughout the tournament, or more probably when I can be arsed, I'll be looking back at England's World Cup progress during the past forty years and commenting on where it went wrong. I'm not a professional journalist or a professional footballer, just somebody who has played, refereed, coached and watched the game over the last forty odd years. Where I have used the 'cut and paste' technique I will acknowledge the sources, other than that it's all my own work.
So, as Julie Andrews once said, "let's start at the very beginning, that's a very good place to start."
1974 Qualifying Campaign
England were drawn in a group of three teams for the qualifying matches for the last time the World Cup Finals were played in Germany. The two other teams in UEFA Group 5 as it was officially known were Poland and Wales. It has to be remembered that this was pre the break-up of the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia etc and UEFA had only thirty-three member countries. The arrangement of the groups was somewhat bizarre, due to Europe being awarded nine places up for grabs, UEFA came up with 5 groups of 4 and 4 groups of 3.
Qualifying began well with England winning 1-0 in Wales, they then suffered the embarrassment of drawing 1-1 with Wales at Wembley - these matches took place before either country faced Poland. Wales beat Poland 2-0 at home in March 1973 which meant that when England went to the Polish mining town of Chorzow in June 1973 Wales and England both had three points whilst the Poles were bottom with no points from one game.
Interestingly, although this was England's 476th International, it was only the third time they had met Poland. The previous two times had both been in 1966 when they had drawn against them 1-1 at Goodison Park in January, England's goal was scored by Bobby Moore, one of only two he scored in 108 games for England and beaten them 1-0 in Chorzow in the final warm-up game four days before they met Uruguay in the first match of the 1966 World Cup Finals in England.
The line-up on 6 June 1973 was: Shilton: Madeley, McFarland, Moore, Hughes: Ball, Bell, Storey: Chivers, Clarke, Peters.
The match which finished in a 2-0 for Poland is notable for two things, firstly it was Bobby Moore's 105th match and following his mistake for Poland's first goal it meant he was only to play three further times for his country, secondly it was the match when Alan Ball became only the second English international ever to be sent off whilst representing his country.
In his autobiography 'Playing Extra Time' Ball recalls the incident "I was out of order in Poland when I reacted as one of their players tried to put his boot into Martin Peter's face. The old red mists came over me and I leapt at him and put both hands around his throat and tried to wrestle him to the ground. I was off. There was no arguing. Sir Alf gave me a thorough roasting after that and all I could do was apologise to him and the rest of the lads."
Defeat in that match, combined with Poland's 3-0 against Wales in September, meant that come the return match at Wembley on 17 October 1973 England (3pts) needed to beat Poland (4pts)to qualify for the World Cup Finals. I can remember the day leading up to the match quite clearly, everybody was excited talking about how many goals were going to score and how we could beat Poland easily at home.
Sir Alf Ramsey had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal for the game, and one look at the line-up shows that he had gone for eight attacking minded players plus Norman Hunter, Paul Madeley and Peter Shilton, ironically given the manner of defeat in Poland both Bobby Moore and Alan Ball missed the game at Wembley through injury.
For the return game Norman Hunter replaced Bobby Moore, Tony Currie came in for Alan Ball and Mick Channon replaced Peter Storey. There were 100,000 inside Wembley that night and whilst that was the capacity for the old ground it was only filled 13 times during its 77 year history - and the 1966 World Cup Final wasn't one of the other twelve. England threw everything they had at their disposal at the Poles that night but unfortunately they came up against a goalkeeper whom Brian Clough famously described as a clown - some clown!
The FA website recalls the key moments of the match as follows:
The first goal came after 55 minutes. England had been attacking fiercely when, after a quick break from defence, Hunter missed his tackle and allowed Lato to speed along the left flank with England's defence left exposed.Lato slipped the ball across to the right flank where the unmarked Domarski moved to shoot the ball under Shilton's dive.The penalty-kick which levelled the scores came when Martin Peters was fouled on the edge of the area as he was about to break through. Clarke made no mistake from the spot as he slotted home under extreme pressure.The substitution of Chivers for Hector came too late and a very dispirited England team and crowd left Wembley having failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals.
So, as Julie Andrews once said, "let's start at the very beginning, that's a very good place to start."
1974 Qualifying Campaign
England were drawn in a group of three teams for the qualifying matches for the last time the World Cup Finals were played in Germany. The two other teams in UEFA Group 5 as it was officially known were Poland and Wales. It has to be remembered that this was pre the break-up of the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia etc and UEFA had only thirty-three member countries. The arrangement of the groups was somewhat bizarre, due to Europe being awarded nine places up for grabs, UEFA came up with 5 groups of 4 and 4 groups of 3.
Qualifying began well with England winning 1-0 in Wales, they then suffered the embarrassment of drawing 1-1 with Wales at Wembley - these matches took place before either country faced Poland. Wales beat Poland 2-0 at home in March 1973 which meant that when England went to the Polish mining town of Chorzow in June 1973 Wales and England both had three points whilst the Poles were bottom with no points from one game.
Interestingly, although this was England's 476th International, it was only the third time they had met Poland. The previous two times had both been in 1966 when they had drawn against them 1-1 at Goodison Park in January, England's goal was scored by Bobby Moore, one of only two he scored in 108 games for England and beaten them 1-0 in Chorzow in the final warm-up game four days before they met Uruguay in the first match of the 1966 World Cup Finals in England.
The line-up on 6 June 1973 was: Shilton: Madeley, McFarland, Moore, Hughes: Ball, Bell, Storey: Chivers, Clarke, Peters.
The match which finished in a 2-0 for Poland is notable for two things, firstly it was Bobby Moore's 105th match and following his mistake for Poland's first goal it meant he was only to play three further times for his country, secondly it was the match when Alan Ball became only the second English international ever to be sent off whilst representing his country.
In his autobiography 'Playing Extra Time' Ball recalls the incident "I was out of order in Poland when I reacted as one of their players tried to put his boot into Martin Peter's face. The old red mists came over me and I leapt at him and put both hands around his throat and tried to wrestle him to the ground. I was off. There was no arguing. Sir Alf gave me a thorough roasting after that and all I could do was apologise to him and the rest of the lads."
Defeat in that match, combined with Poland's 3-0 against Wales in September, meant that come the return match at Wembley on 17 October 1973 England (3pts) needed to beat Poland (4pts)to qualify for the World Cup Finals. I can remember the day leading up to the match quite clearly, everybody was excited talking about how many goals were going to score and how we could beat Poland easily at home.
Sir Alf Ramsey had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal for the game, and one look at the line-up shows that he had gone for eight attacking minded players plus Norman Hunter, Paul Madeley and Peter Shilton, ironically given the manner of defeat in Poland both Bobby Moore and Alan Ball missed the game at Wembley through injury.
For the return game Norman Hunter replaced Bobby Moore, Tony Currie came in for Alan Ball and Mick Channon replaced Peter Storey. There were 100,000 inside Wembley that night and whilst that was the capacity for the old ground it was only filled 13 times during its 77 year history - and the 1966 World Cup Final wasn't one of the other twelve. England threw everything they had at their disposal at the Poles that night but unfortunately they came up against a goalkeeper whom Brian Clough famously described as a clown - some clown!
The FA website recalls the key moments of the match as follows:
The first goal came after 55 minutes. England had been attacking fiercely when, after a quick break from defence, Hunter missed his tackle and allowed Lato to speed along the left flank with England's defence left exposed.Lato slipped the ball across to the right flank where the unmarked Domarski moved to shoot the ball under Shilton's dive.The penalty-kick which levelled the scores came when Martin Peters was fouled on the edge of the area as he was about to break through. Clarke made no mistake from the spot as he slotted home under extreme pressure.The substitution of Chivers for Hector came too late and a very dispirited England team and crowd left Wembley having failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals.
posted by Paul at
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