2 hours ago
Key events
Preamble
Sam Lewis
Hello and invited to nan past crippled of an action-packed last time of nan World Cup group stage, which sees Algeria return connected Austria. Kick-off for today’s lucifer astatine Kansas City Stadium will beryllium 9:00pm section clip (10pm EDT/3am BST/12pm AEST).
Ever since nan World Cup tie was conducted past December, fans of niche shot history circled today’s conflict betwixt Algeria and Austria.
Why? Because 44 years ago, a World Cup crippled betwixt these 2 nations resulted successful a norm that would fundamentally style nan early of nan sport, including 1 that affects this very match.
In 1982, astatine nan World Cup successful Spain, Algeria won their opening crippled against West Germany 2-1. They mislaid nan adjacent crippled to Austria, but hit Chile successful their last group clash.
Crucially, that crippled was played earlier West Germany played Austria, which gave some European nations an accusation advantage: they knew that West Germany needed to triumph by 1 aliases 2 goals successful bid for some of them to progress.
And so, it came to pass. West Germany scored successful nan 10th minute, and for nan 80+ minutes that followed, some teams simply passed nan shot astir without really trying to do thing further. As Maher Mezahi writes successful this fantabulous re-telling of that fateful game:
double quotation markThe pretense of honorable title dissolved almost entirely. At 1 point, Uli Stielike stopped nan shot and surveyed nan transportation 5 times earlier settling connected a five-yard pass. Paul Breitner spent 20 unhurried seconds stepping laterally pinch nan shot successful his ain half. The Austria midfielder Reinhold Hintermaier feigned ambition and his theatrical effort sailed 20 yards over, deceiving nary one.
The people stood, West Germany and Austria went done to nan adjacent round, and Algeria was knocked out.
This crippled is now famously known arsenic nan “Disgrace of Gijon”, and while Fifa didn’t perceive to Algeria’s general complaints astatine nan time, they did instrumentality a caller norm requiring that last group-stage matches beryllium played simultaneously to debar nan accusation advantage that West Germany and Austria benefited from.
Hence why today’s lucifer kicks disconnected astatine nan aforesaid clip arsenic Group J’s different conflict betwixt Jordan and Argentina.
It’s besides fixed immoderate further intergenerational herb to a crippled betwixt 2 nations vying for knock-out shot erstwhile again. In an unthinkable coincidence, a tie coming could spot some teams spell done - but whether they’ll want that is simply a different mobility entirely.
While we hold for nan squad sheets, springiness Mezahi’s yarn a read. It sets nan humanities segment perfectly for what could beryllium a genuinely memorable 90 minutes of football.
