The World Is A Ball: A World Cup Timeline
- Thread starter Mildtryth
- Start date
For reference, this is Venetian territory ITTL, and Verona is not part of it:
Sometimes the opposite is true - players that can't find space in the Italian league go to the Roman, Venetian or Sicilian leagues and occasionally wind up getting into their national teams instead.
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Chapter LIII
Chapter LIII - Coffee, Cocoa and Cumbia
For 1970, the hosting duties had fallen to the New World again, and Peru, Louisiana and New Granada posted their bids. Peru withdrew before the voting, and in the end, New Granada won the hosting rights with a considerable advantage.
New Granada has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La Guajira in 1499, and in 1508, Vasco Núñez de Balboa accompanied an expedition to the territory through the region of Gulf of Urabá and they founded the town of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in 1510, the first stable settlement on the continent. Santa Marta was founded in 1525, and Cartagena in 1533. Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led an expedition to the interior in April 1536, and christened the districts through which he passed "New Kingdom of Granada". In August 1538, he provisionally founded its capital near the Muisca cacicazgo of Muyquytá, and named it "Santa Fé". The name soon acquired a suffix and was called Santa Fé de Bogotá. Two other notable journeys by early conquistadors to the interior took place in the same period. Sebastián de Belalcázar, conqueror of Quito, traveled north and founded Cali, in 1536, and Popayán, in 1537; from 1536 to 1539, German conquistador Nikolaus Federmann crossed the Llanos Orientales and went over the Cordillera Oriental in a search for El Dorado, the "city of gold". The legend and the gold would play a pivotal role in luring the Spanish and other Europeans to New Granada during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The conquistadors made frequent alliances with the enemies of different indigenous communities. Indigenous allies were crucial to conquest, as well as to creating and maintaining empire. Indigenous peoples in New Granada experienced a decline in population due to conquest as well as Eurasian diseases, such as smallpox, to which they had no immunity. In 1542, the region of New Granada, along with all other Spanish possessions in South America, became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with its capital in Lima. In 1547, New Granada became a separate captaincy-general within the viceroyalty, with its capital at Santa Fé de Bogotá. In 1549, the Royal Audiencia was created by a royal decree, and New Granada was ruled by the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogotá, which at that time comprised the provinces of Santa Marta, Rio de San Juan, Popayán, Guayana and Cartagena. But important decisions were taken from the colony to Spain by the Council of the Indies.
In the 16th century, European slave traders had begun to bring enslaved Africans to the Americas. Spain was the only European power that did not establish factories in Africa to purchase slaves; the Spanish Empire instead relied on the asiento system, awarding merchants from other European nations the license to trade enslaved peoples to their overseas territories. This system brought Africans to New Granada, although many spoke out against the institution. The indigenous peoples could not be enslaved because they were legally subjects of the Spanish Crown. To protect the indigenous peoples, several forms of land ownership and regulation were established by the Spanish colonial authorities: resguardos, encomiendas and haciendas.
However, secret anti-Spanish discontentment was already brewing for Neogranadines since Spain prohibited direct trade between the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included New Granada, and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which included the Alfonsines, the source of Asian products like silk and porcelain which was in demand in the Americas. Illegal trade between Peruvians, Alfonsinos, and Mexicans continued in secret, as smuggled Asian goods ended up in Córdoba, the Neogranadine distribution center for illegal Asian imports, due to the collusion between these peoples against the authorities in Spain. They settled and traded with each other while disobeying the forced Spanish monopoly.
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was officially established in 1717, then temporarily removed, and then re-established in 1739. Its capital was Santa Fé de Bogotá. This Viceroyalty included some other provinces of northwestern South America that had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalties of New Spain or Peru and correspond mainly to today's Venezuela and Ecuador. Bogotá became one of the principal administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in the New World, along with Lima and Mexico City, though it remained less developed compared to those two cities in several economic and logistical ways.
The 18th-century priest, botanist, and mathematician José Celestino Mutis was delegated by Viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora to conduct an inventory of the nature of New Granada. Started in 1783, this became known as the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada. It classified plants and wildlife, and founded the first astronomical observatory in the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá. In 1810, the viceroyalty was elevated to a crown in union with Castille, although in the proccess, Venezuela was separated from it (Ecuador had already been lost during the Peruvian Revolution) and made into a separate kingdom.
New Granada was one of the largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cocoa. The country also has considerable production of rice, potato and cassava. Although it is not the largest coffee producer in the world (Brazil claims that title), it was sucha major part of Neogranadine economy and exports that the national team became known as the Cafeteros. In any case, the country had been urbanizing rapidly in the decades before 1970. In 1970, the country counted 17 million people, 1.2 million of them living in and around Bogotá.
In regards to football, historically, the nation was a relative latecomer. The first tournaments began only in 1918, and the national team was one of the continent's punching bags in the 30s and 40s. However, In 1948, a professional national league was created, known as División Mayor del Fútbol Neogranadino, formed largely from the efforts of administrator Alfonso Senior Quevedo. Outside the remit of FIFA due to contract problems, the league recruited a number of leading players, such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, José Héctor Rial, Heleno de Freitas and Neil Franklin, and gained the nickname "El Dorado". Although most of the star players had to be released after a agreement with the national federation and FIFA in 1954, the league had served to improve the level of the local players, and a slow improvement in the team's performances began, culminating on the team qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 1962, followed by missing out by only one point in 1966.
The original plan for hosting counted on the Cup having 20 teams, but FIFA's decision to expand the tournament to 24 teams in 1968 necessitated the inclusion of an extra group. New Granada managed to make it work, but had to marshal almost every stadium with a capacity above 15,000 it had in order to do so. While Cúcuta and Bucamaranga had a relatively balanced distribution of matches on their group, in every other group, the capacity disparity was so large that the larger stadia received every match in the group except for one of the final round's matches, that went to the smaller venue.
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Stay tuned for the next part, with the qualifiers.
Chapter LIV
Chapter LIV - Changes (We Go Through)
Europe
Europe
The increase of berths decided in 1968 had its impacts on the organization of the qualifiers. North America, Asia and Africa had their representation expanded to two teams, and Europe got an extra berth to sweeten the deal, bringing up the amount of European groups to 12. In Europe, another change was made in the drawing of the groups. Where as previously the groups were drawn at random with some vague geographical considerations, now the drawing would be based on the standings of the teams in the previous qualifiers, with different pots for the first, second, third and fourth-placed teams.
In Group 1, the dispute began relatively balanced, with Bulgaria and Ruthenia tied in the lead, with four points, at the end of the first three rounds, followed by Livonia, with 3, and Candia, with 1. Bulgaria took the lead for itself in the next round, after being Livonia at Sredets and Ruthenia somehow only tying against Candia at Kiev. Livonia was subsequently eliminated after losing to Ruthenia at Riga in the fifth round, while Bulgaria retained their lead by beating the Candians away. That made the last match between Bulgaria and Ruthenia, at Kiev, as a virtual final, with Bulgaria having the advantage of the tie. And the Bulgarians managed to hold on to a 0x0 that sent them to their second Cup.
Meanwhile, in Group 2. Russia set out to redeem itself from its shameful performance in the qualifiers for the 1968 European championship, but ran intro trouble almost from the start. After the first three rounds, they were in third place with three points, having beaten Turkey at Saint Petersburg, lost to Provence at Marseille and somehow only tied against Albania at Tirana. Provence and Turkey stood above with four points each, and Albania had only the point from the Russian match. Things grew even more tangled in the next round, where Russia only tied against Provence at home, while Albania beat Turkey at home. In the fifth round, Russia beat Turkey away while Provence also won their away match against Albania. That left Provence leading the group with 7 points, with Russia right behind with 6, needing to beat Albania in the final round, hope that Turkey took at least one point of Provence, since the goal difference favoured the Russians in case of a tie. In their match, the Russians tried to work to increase their just in case, but against a motivated Albanian defense, only came out with a 2x0. Which proved to be a moot point, because the Provençals beat Turkey by 3x0 and went on to their debut, while the Russians, by now witnessing the twilight of their great 60s generation, missed out for the first time since 1950.
Group 3 was considered to have come out rather weak, and Poland seemed to be confirming its favouritism in the early rounds, leading with 5 points, followed by Estonia with 3 and Navarra, which had lost both of its home matches up to that point, and Lithuania with 2. However, Navarra began rallying in the following round, beating Lithuania at home while Poland beat Estonia at Kraków and increased its lead. However, in the next round, again playing at home, Poland lost to Navarra and even Lithuania kept its hopes alive after beating Estonia at home. Thus, in the last round, Navarra, Poland and Lithuania all needed to win their matches to qualify, but Poland was the only one that depended only in its own result. However, Poland struggled to tie at Kaunas, and to make it worse, Navarra beat Estonia by 3x0 at Tallinn and qualified by only one goal's difference.
In Group 4, the introduction of Malta didn't add much to the group. The newcomers soon became the group's resident punching bag, and with Wales on a weak moment, the dispute for the berth soon was down to Pomerania and Italy, both invigorated after the 1968 European Cup - Italy for winning, and Pomerania for just having qualified to begin with. Although Pomerania held the Italians to a tie in Königsberg, the Italians guaranteed their berth with a 3x0 win at Milan.
In Group 5, Wallachia shot off to a early lead, winning all its first three matches, followed by Swabia and the Papal States, with 3, and Pskov, with 0. However, Wallachia followed that up with a 3x0 loss to the Papal States at Rome, while Swabia conceded a away tie against Pskov. Wallachia recovered in the next round, by beating Swabia at home and burying its chances, while the tie against Swabia proved to be a fluke for Pskov, for the follow-up was a 6x2 loss to the Romans. Wallachia still had the lead, and only needed to beat Pskov away, which they did with ease, returning to the World Cup after 20 years.
In Group 6, Bohemia also established its own early lead, winning all its first three matches, with Denmark, Ireland and White Ruthenia all tied for second place with 2 points. Bohemia only cemented this lead in the fourth round, after beating Denmark at Copenhagen, while Ireland beat the Beloruthenians at Minsk. However, the Bohemians lost to Ireland at Dublin, while Denmark beat White Ruthenia at home. Thus, Bohemia had to at least tie against White Ruthenia to secure its berth, while Ireland had to beat Denmark by a alrge margin and hope for a Bohemian loss. The first match was a disaster for Bohemia, with the team losing to White Ruthenia by 1x0 at home. However, the berth still came because Ireland couldn't achieve more than a tie against Denmark at home, and Bohemia went to its fifth consecutive Cup.
The goal drought that Burgundy had been undergoing since the European championship continued through the rest of the year, with the team losing by 4x0 to Serbia away and to Venice at home. The first signs of recovery came only in the first match of 1969, against Sicily. Then the team finally broke its spell and smashed Sicily by 6x1. In the moment, Serbia seemed to be the favourite to get the berth, leading with four points and a impressive goal difference, followed by Venice, also with four points, and Burgundy and Sicily tied with 2. However, the Burgundians kept the momentum and beat Serbia by 3x0 in the following round, while Venice beat Sicily by 6x3. While the Sicilians seemed basically helpless away, the team still had some strength at home, and tied against the Serbs in the fifth round. To make things worse for the Serbs, Burgundy beat Venice away and put Serbia in the situation of needing to beat Venice and hope that Burgundy lost to Sicily in the final round. The subsequent tie was good for neither team, and Burgundy ended up going to the Cup after beating Sicily at Naples.
Group 8 turned out rather imbalanced, with Germany, Austria competing against... Iceland and Cyprus. Needless to say, the later two were hardly any competition for Germany and Austria, to the point that besides Germany breaking the biggest win record on qualifiers after beating Cyprus by 12x0 at Essen, the Reichself didn't even concede any goals against the two. And although Austria was a bigger challenge, they kept their perfect record and were the first team to go ever through the qualifiers with 6 clean sheets. The only wins Iceland and Cyprus managed were against each other, although Iceland somehow held Austria to a tie at Reykjavík.
In Group 9, despite an initial defeat to Savoy, Scotland pulled through, winning its remaining three matches and counting with Savoy and Aragon ctumbling over each other to go to its fourth consecutive tournament.
Group 10 turned out a little more balanced than previously expected. Hungary began the procceedings by losing to Bosnia at Vrhbosna[1]. Although Bosnia was for once coming up with a decent generation while France had its weakest team in decades, France still managed to make use of the home factor to beat Bosnia at Paris, and then lost by 2x0 to Hungary at Budapest, in a match that could very well have ended 5x0 if not for some terrible accuracy in part of the Magyar attack. Hungary followed up with a 3x1 victory over Bosnia, and then tied against France at Paris. France still had chancesof qualifying, but a away tie against Bosnia killed their chances, and so Hungary went to the Cup again.
In Group 11, Portugal was by far the favourite for the berth, but after a initial win over Croatia, it lost to Morea by 4x2 and couldn't recover. The rematch against Morea was at home and the team still struggled to come off with a tie, in a result that qualified Morea to the Cup, the Greeks having already gotten three points off Croatia in addition to those won against Portugal. Portugal still won their last match, a desultory 1x0 against Croatia, but it was too late.
In Group 12, Sweden won both of its matches against Norway, but could only get one point in the two combined matches against Castille. However, the Castillians wasted their chances by losing to the Norwegians by 2x0 at Oslo and then only winning by 3x1 at Madrid, a result that saw them eliminated by only one goal's difference.
South America
By 1967, interest in the South American championship had been lagging. Ever since the Charcas tournament, the tournaments had been plagued with low attendance numbers in almost all matches save for the host matches and the final round, and the competiton of the Copa América, the new continental club competition, wasn't helping. Things were even worse in off-Cup years, where most of the final round matches were all but meaningless. In the 1967 tournament, hosted in Uruguay, for example, Charcas and Chile had played to a nearly empty Independencia in the last round, and it was felt that some change was needed to improve the situation. The key came in that same tournament, were for the last time, a playoff was needed to define the champion, after Argentina and Uruguay ended tied in points and goal difference.
The solution was to make the 1969 tournament, which would be hosted in New Granada in preparation for the Cup, into something more similar to the World Cup, with two groups of four, and the two first teams going into a knockout stage. However, such a format posed complications for the qualification to the World Cup, which was the main argument of those opposed to the format change. The result was a compromise - the qualification now would be both for the World Cup and the South American Championship. The 12 teams would play in a single round-robin, with all matches being played in each country, with the seven best teams plus the host qualifying to the continental championship and the four best of those seven going to the World Cup. Naturally, that lengthened the qualification period, with the first matches beginning in June 1968 and the last in September 1969. That posed its own problems in regards to off-Cup years, but the solution was to make shorter qualifiers for those, involving only the eliminated teams and those that fell in the group stage.
By the end of 1968, the first four rounds had already been played, and Chile led with 7 points, followed by Argentina and New Granada with 6, Uruguay and Paraguay with 5 (not coincidentally, due to the way the table was structured, all the four best teams had played three times at home so far), Brazil, Charcas and Venezuela with 4, Grão-Pará and Peru with 3, Ecuador with 1 and Araucania with 0. Still trying to find its way after the 1966 fiasco, Brazil wasn't convincing in the matches it had played so far and by March, Aymoré Moreira, who had returned to the helm in 1967, was fired, and one of his most acid critics, journalist João Saldanha, whose only managing experience had been ten years before, on Botafogo, was challenged to take his place, which he did. Saldanha's hiring marked an almost instant turnaround in the team's fortunes. His first match was against New Granada, still unbeaten, at home, and the match ended with a 6x2 win for Brazil.
By the eighth round, Brazil had shot off into first place with four consecutive wins, scoring 19 goals just in the previous four matches. Uruguay also had its less spectacular winning streak, that only came to an end against Grão-Pará and cost them the lead. Peru also had won all its last four matches and gone up to third place. In contrast, Argentina was not doing all that well - they had lost to Uruguay again in the fith round, and despite not being beaten since, still weren't convincing, beating only Grão-Pará and tying against Paraguay and Chile. Chile itself hadn't won in these last four matches and had slipped off the top four, tied with Paraguay and Charcas with nine points. Paraguay's problem so far were the excess ties - five so far, but then again, all these ties were away from home, and in the last three matches, they had the advantage of playing all their remaining matches at home. Charcas relied in its home matches and the altitude to keep their chances, and had two of them left. Meanwhile, tied with six points, were Ecuador, New Granada and Grão-Pará. Ecuador had been recovering in the last few rounds, while the loss to Brazil apparently had shocked the Neogranadines so bad they had gone into a downward spiral only mitigated by the fact their qualification was already guaranteed. Grão-Pará was in a similar situation to Paraguay, but with less success. and in the bottom, Venezuela, with five points, and Araucania, with 1.
New Granada began showing some signs of life in the ninth round, beating Venezuela, Peru had put one foot in the Cup after beating Paraguay at Asunción, Brazil and Uruguay had already secured their berths after beating Araucania and Chile, respectively, Charcas had made the most of its home advantage and beaten Argentina by 3x1, raising the spectrum of elimination in Argentina again. and the fight for the continental tournament remained hot, with only one point separating the ninth place, Grão-Pará, from the sixth, Chile. In the tenth round, Peru and Brazil retained their winning streaks against Araucania and Uruguay, respectively, Argentina remained alive by beating Venezuela, Charcas beat Ecuador at home, Paraguay beat New Granada, while Grão-Pará held Chile to a tie at Belém.
In the last round, Brazil and Peru kept going, beating Grão-Pará and Uruguay respectively, while New Granada beat Araucania, but there was still one berth to be defined. Argentina, needing to win at any cost and hope that Charcas couldn't beat Chile, managed to beat Ecuador at Quito. Said result eliminated Paraguay, that had beaten Venezuela at home but also had to hope Argentina didn't win. Meanwhile Chile, already eliminated from the World Cup, already qualified to the championship in December,and that hadn't won a match the entire year, picked the worst possible time to begin reacting (at least in Charcas' view), beat Charcas by 2x0 and secured Argentina's qualification.
Africa
Fourteen coutries attempted to sign in for the dispute of the qualifiers, but French Guinea and Congo were excluded for submitting their applications after the end of the deadline. Thus, the remaining twelve teams were to dispute a knockout tournament until there were only three left, and these three would play in a double round-robin to define the two qualified teams. However, the rules for breaking ties were left up to the nations in each match to decide. In the first match, Lunda won the first match by 4x2, and Nubia won the return match by 3x1. both teams agreed to play extra time to define the winner, but the extra time ended tied by 1x1. Since nothing else had been agrred upon, they took the case to FIFA, and they decided to award Nubia the victory, for having scored more goals in the second match (???). Meanwhile, Morocco prevailed over Senegal only on a playoff, while Tunisia, Abyssinia, Boa Esperança and Nigeria advanced on their matches.
In the first match of the second round, Nubia, that had dominated the first match despite the tie, had no trouble beating Abyssinia at home to advance, while Nigeria also advanced over Boa Esperança. Meanwhile, Tunisia and Morocco not only tied their two matches, but tied in the replay and even in the extra time of the replay. Therefore, the berth in the final group had to be decided by coin toss. Tunisia won the coin toss, but immediately, the Moroccan officials began disputing the decision, claiming that according to the agreement drawn up with FIFA, the coin toss had to be done in the referee's dressing room, not in the center of the pitch. The referee nulled the throw made in the pitch and threw the coin again in the dressing room, and this time, Morocco advanced.
In the final group, Morocco, winning both home matches and taking one point off Nubia at Soba, qualified in first place, while Nubia advanced in second, beating Nigeria at home and holding the Nigerians to a tie at Lagos.
Asia
This time, the qualifiers saw the debut of Hejaz and the Joanines, even though Bukhara and Mysore hadn't returned. Because of that, India and Iran got a bye directly into the quarterfinals, while the other eighteen teams played in three-team groups for the other six berths. Syria went through its group with an ease unmatched by the others. Most of the other groups had tight disputes for the berths and Australia and the Alfonsines only advanced thanks to goal difference. In the quarterfinals, the bye proved to be f no help to India, that lost both its matches against Georgia. In the other hand, Iran managed to prevail over the Alfonsines. Australia also went through Burma with a home win and a away tie, but Korea and Syria needed a play-off to decide the last final berth. In the final round, Georgia beat Australia by 1x0 at Tbilisi and held to a 0x0 at Port-de-Paix[2], while Iran beat Syria by 3x0 at home and only managed the result in the last match to qualify.
North America
The preliminaries of the North American zone went on in much the same way as they had been in 1966, but with the entrance of Bermuda. That meant Mexico was relocated into the "southern" groups, which was bad news for Curaçao, that was quickly dispatched once it fell into their group. Guatemala, Cuba and Louisiana had little trouble qualifying, New Scotland went through Bermuda with ease, while New England managed to eliminate Canada. Once the final round got going, Mexico dominated the group entirely, but the dispute between Guatemala, Lousiana and Cuba for the second berth remained heated. The berth was only decided in the last round, when New England beat Louisiana and opened a clear path for Guatemala, that secured its berth by tying with Mexico.
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[1] - OTL Sarajevo.
[2] - OTL Melbourne.
To avoid this update getting too long, I've split this update in two. Stay tuned for the next part, with the 1969 South American Championship proper and the definition of the groups.
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Chapter LV
Chapter LV - The 1969 South American Championship
The new rules stipulated that the groups of the final tournament would be defined according to the final placing of the teams in the qualifiers, the first, fourth, fifth and eighth placers in one group, and the second, third, sixth and seventh in another. That was horrible news for New Granada, who fell into a group with Brazil and Argentina.
Brazil also came into the tournament with its own problems, mainly the fact that Tostão, who had been the top goalscorer in the qualifiers, with 16 goals, wasn't available - during one match of his team, Cruzeiro, against Corinthians, Corinthians defender Ditão tried to kick the ball away from the area and it accidentally hit Tostão full on the left eye. The result was a detached retina that required operation, and the convalescence period was long enough he wouldn't be in conditions of resuming training until February 1970, and so, Saldanha had to call up Flávio Minuano on Tostão's usual place as a centerforward for the continental tournament.
The opening match of the group would pit the hosts against Brazil. The last confrontation between the two had been a utter disaster for New Granada, and this one would be only slightly less so. Brazil played better all though the match, and was only hampered by Flávio being utterly ineffective in the attack. The goals came in the end of the second half, with Edu scoring both goals off Pelé's passes.
The next day, Paraguay and Argentina tied by 0x0 - before the championship, the near-disastrous performance in the qualifiers had cost Adolfo Pedernera his job, and he was replaced by Juan José Pizzuti, who had made a name for himself by leading Racing into a 39-match unbeaten streak in 1966, and following up with victories in the Copa América and the Intercontinental Cup in 1967. However, the new team set up by Pizzuti still was clearly struggling to gel together in that match.
In the second round, the Neogranadine fortunes did not improve, the team only holding together against Argentina for one hour then crumbling afterwards, conceding three goals in only twenty minutes. The next day, it was Brazil and Paraguay's turn to return to the field, and by that time, Saldanha had switched Flávio with Dirceu Lopes on the attack. The goals took longer to come this time, the score only being opened at 70 minutes, but when they came, they came at a quick pace, the match ending in a 3x0. That result was disastrous for Paraguay, that now not only had to win, but also overcome a difference of six goals to qualify. Paraguay didn't come even close, beating New Granada by only 1x0. But things were even worse for New Granada, that despite playing at home, had not only lost all three matches, but also failed to score a single goal, which did not bode well for their chances at the upcoming World Cup.
Meanwhile, Brazil and Argentina decided the first place at Bogotá. Jairzinho opened the score early, but Argentina tied midway through the first half, with Miguel Ángel Brindisi. Although Brazil generally played better, they wasted many good chances and couldn't decide the match until near the end, when Pelé scored the winning goal.
Meanwhile, in Group 2, the group started with Chile facing Peru at Medellín. Chile turned out to be the better team all through the match, although it took almost one hour to open the score, when Adolfo Olivares headed in a cross from Fouillioux. Peru tied almost immediately on a defensive blunder as Chilean keeper Olivares dropped the ball after a save and the rest of the defense stood watching as Perico León rushed in to score. However, Peru wouldn't be able to create any more chances after that, and eventually, Chile scored the winning goal with Francisco Valdés and put a end to Peru's winning streak.
Meanwhile, Uruguay faced Charcas at Barranquilla. The match started rather balanced in the first half, and Charcas even had the most dangerous chances, but Uruguay's defense remained solid and kept them at bay. Eventually, Uruguay opened the score shortly after the half-hour mark with Rubén Bareño heading in a cross from Pedro Rocha, and about half an hour after that, Oscar Zubía headed in a corner to score the second.
Three days later, Charcas returned to the field against Chile. Although Charcas remained on the defensive all through the match, they were helped by a weak performance by the Chilean forwards, and scored the match's only goal in a counter-attack, on a crossed ball from Ramiro Blacut that was palmed away by Olivares, but fell right on José Farías' feet. The next day, Uruguay secured its qualification with another 2x0 win, this time over Peru, Luis Cubilla scoring both goals.
So, Peru now had the task of needing to win by a sufficiently large margin and hope that Uruguay beat Chile. Peru did their part well enough - with the Peruvians for once playing on the same level it had displayed during the qualifiers, Charcas was no match and lost by 3x0. That should have been enough to qualify on goal difference, but Uruguay didn't do theirs - the team seemed perfectly content with the tie, and while Chile would have preferred to win to avoid Brazil's path in the semifinals, the Uruguayan defense fought off the Chilean incursions well enough, and the 0x0 remained until the end.
The first match of the semifinals pit Brazil against Chile. Chile had a slight predomiance in the first minutes, and even opened the score with a free kick by Osvaldo Castro, but at 32 minutes, after a attack foul by Jairzinho on Olivares, a large scuffle started, and the referee sent off Jairzinho and Piazza on the Brazilian side, and Arturo Laube and Moisés Silva on the Chilean side. The distribution of the Chilean defense after that eased the advances of Carlos Alberto on the right wing, and he equalized shortly before the break, after a pass from Pelé. After half-time, Chile substituted Caszely for Berly and got some defensive cohesiveness again, and around 60 minutes, Edu was substituted by Rivellino after a weak performance from Edu, and Rivellino scored the winning goal within five minutes, with a strong shot from outside the area.
Meanwhile, Uruguay and Argentina faced at Medellín. Argentina started the match on the offensive, but Uruguay opened the score on the first counter-attack it pulled, after Ildo Maneiro received a pass from Cubilla. The match grew a little more balanced after that, but eventually Argentina equalized, when Conigliaro headed in a cross from Brindisi. By the second half, Uruguay came back with a more offensive posture, and created more chances, but the victory would go to Argentina, with a goal from Oscar Más after a counter-attack.
The third-place playoff was scheduled to be the preliminary to the final and had Chile and Uruguay facing yet again. Uruguay opened the score at 33 minutes with Julio César Cortés, off a pass from Maneiro, but Chile came back better from half-time and tied after only three minutes - Reinoso tried to shoot towards the goal, Otero tried to kick it away, but the ball fell on Fouillioux, who shot from near the penaly spot to equalize. Ten minutes later, Olivares shot in Fouillioux's cross to give Chile the victory.
In the final, with Jairzinho and Piazza suspended, their places in the team were taken by Paulo Borges and Clodoaldo, respectively, for the final, while Argentina repeated the same team that had beaten Uruguay, except for Raimondo, who was replaced by Pastoriza. But from the outset, things were not going Brazil's way. The central defenders were clearly indecisive and had to resort to consecutive fouls to stop the Argentine forwards, Clodoaldo and Gérson were nulled on the midfield, while the forward line had few elaborate plays, attacks almost always coming off individual plays that hardly imperiled Cejas' goal, with Paulo Borges clearly not up to the task of replacing Jairzinho and Edu still on the same low level of the Chile match.
As the match wore on, Brazil began trying to step up their attacks, but left the defense too exposed in the process, and at the 68th minute, Más beat Djalma Dias and Carlos Alberto to open the score for Argentina. Four minutes later, Ado palmed away a free kick by Madurga and Conigliaro caught the rebound to double Argentina's lead. Only two minutes later, Edu set off on a dangerous rush through the left side and was only stopped by a reckless tackle from Malbernat, which resulted in his expulsion, just centimeters from the area. Both teams took the opportunity to do their own substitutions, Albrecht coming in to reconstitute the defense, while Edu and Paulo Borges were replaced by Rivellino and Paulo César Caju. The resulting free kick was saved by Cejas, and although Brazil improved offensively in these final 15 minutes, The Argentinian defense held together and secured its 13th title.
And then, the month after that, the groups of the World Cup were drawn:
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Let me know your predictions and stay tuned for Part 56!
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Chapter LVI
New
Chapter LVI - 70 Millions in Action
Group 1
Group 1
For New Granada, the South American Championship had been a disaster, and had cost Francisco Zuluaga his job as the national team manager. He was replaced by the Paraguayan César López Fretes, who introduced a more defensive style - the team seemed to improve a bit, but the last pre-Cup friendly had been a 4x0 defeat to England. Thus, the Neogranadines came into the field for their debut on a even more defensive footing than usual, while their Hungarian opponents seemed intimidated by the altitude and the crowd and did the same thing. With so many precautions, the 0x0 remained until the end, although it featured Vladimír Hagara receiving the first yellow card, for a foul on Orlando Mesa, and the first substitution, when Alejandro Brand was replaced by Hermenegildo Segrera at half-time.
Two days later, Burgundy debuted against Iran. The match began well enough for the Burgundians, but then, at the 23rd minute, Homayoun Behzadi scored on a Iranian counter-attack, which seemed to throw the Burgundians off-balance. throughout the match, the Burgundians created more chances, but lost goals upon goals until they finally managed to equalize, with Wilfried Puis. The team gained momentum after that and managed to scored the winning goal, with Wilfried Van Moer, only six minutes later.
Thre days later, New Granada faced Iran. New Granada had a plan for the group stage now - the name of the game was to beat Iran, and then, run the same game of the first match against Burgundy, which would leave them with four points, just enough to qualify. So, New Granada began the match on the attack, and things looked like they were going well when Jorge Gallego opened the score at only four minutes. But Iran quickly shut itself in the defense and kept the scoreline at 1x0. In the second half, the Iranians began ever more daring counter-attacks, and equalized at seven minutes with Ali Jabbari. Conversely, New Granada began opening spaces and creating more chances, but Nasser Hejazi pulled a number of saves in these circumstances. It would be Iran who scored next, on a free kick by Hossein Kalani. The goal seemed to throw the Cafeteros into a panic, with the team rushing into the attack even more in the final minutes, not getting closer to equalizing, but almost conceding the third, on a shot by Asghar Sharafi that had to be saved by Quintana, and Iran celebrated its first World Cup win.
The next day, it was time for Burgundy and Hungary to play, and Hungary seemd to come off better after the previous match, and opened the score at only 9 minutes, when Bene hit the crossbar and Jokl headed in the rebound. However, the match grew more balanced from there, although the scoreline remained the same for almost one hour. At half-time, the Burgundian manager, Raymond Goethals, switched Devrindt, who had been producing little so far, for Cruyff, and the latter scored the equalizer on a free kick after only 21 minutes, but otherwise, neither team came close to scoring again after that.
Three days later, New Granada took the field again, this time needing to beat Burgundy by two goals' difference to advance. They did count with some help by the referee for that - 14 minutes in, Van Moer mistimed a clearance, Wim Jansen kicked it away, and Tamayo fell over his leg. Despite the Burgundian complaints, the penalty was still given, and Alfredo Arango converted it. However, New Granada would find it hard to do much more. Burgundy began attacking trying to equalize, but New Granada could do little when it tried counter-attacking in turn, and the match ended with the 1x0 still on the scorecard. Although New Granada had gotten its first World Cup win, that was not enough, and they became the first host to fall in the group stage.
Meanwhile, at Ibagué, Iran faced Hungary, and set out to play for a tie, since if both ended up tied, Iran had more goals scored, but after two largely unconvicing performances, Hungary finally seemed to bloom and got an early goal, when László Fazekas ran into the area and then cut back for Kuna to score. Hungary continued creating chances in the first half, the closest being when Bene's strong shot to the empty goal was cleared on the line by Monajati. In the second half, Hungary kept the same pace, and Lajos Kocsis scored the second within eight minutes, catching a rebound from another Bene shot. Hungary mostly managed the result through the next half-hour, but it had the time to scored the third four minutes from the end, with Kocsis scoring again after trading passes with Albert.
Group 2
The first match of the group pit Italy against Sweden. Overall, the defenses nulled the attacks all through the match, and the only goal was a lucky one - Domenghini pushed a corner on the left to Facchetti, took the return, and shot from outside the area. Hellström, going down at his near post, tried to cup the ball to his chest but let it in under his body.
The next day, Nubia debuted against Uruguay. Despite coming in with their usual defensive scheme, they had no trouble taking out the Nubians, even though their most talented player, Pedro Rocha, injured himself only 13 minutes in - First, Mujica overlapped on the left and put in a basic cross which bounced in front of a hesitant Faranebgoiel for Maneiro to dart in and head home. Then, in the second half, Mujica scored the second himself, driving in the rebound when Faranebgoiel saved from Maneiro, and then, Espárrago caught the rebound of a shot by Cubilla that had gone against the bar.
Three days later, Italy faced Nubia. Nobody really expected the Nubians to put up much of a challenge, and the first half only seemed to confirm this impression as Italy dominated the match entirely, and were already up by 3x0 at half-time, all from Riva. First, with a shot from outside the area, then off a pass from Mazzola, then on a header from a cross by Boninsegna. Italy spent most of the second half mostly managing the lead and even scored the fourth after Furino intercepted a pass and fed Boninsegna, who cut inside Firr and Wijingar and scored with a screaming left-footed drive. But in the final minutes, Italy began slacking off and Nubia took advantage of that, first when Abianos Zakaringar headed in from a dinked cross by Joel Eskemariam, and then scored again in the last minute when Zakaringar hit a post and Hana Bashob caught the rebound.
The next day, Uruguay faced Sweden. Without Rocha and Cubilla, Uruguay came in even more defensive than usual and gave up the attack entirely about 60 minutes in, when Dagoberto Fontes came in for Espárrago. Unsurprisingly, Sweden had more chances, with Leif Eriksson hitting the post two minutes in, and Mazurkiewicz saving Kindvall's shot late in the first half, but the goal only came in the last minute, when Kindvall headed in Persson's cross.
Three days later, Uruguay and Italy played, with Uruguay needing to win to not to depend on Sweden's result. Meanwhile, after facing criticism from the press for refusing to put Rivera and Mazzola on the same team, the Italian manager did just that, and almost as if proving him right, both got mixed up on the left and produced very little, while Riva couldn't find spaces in the Uruguayan defense. But time passed and no goals came, and around the 70th minute, Uruguay had to bring Zubía in for Castillo to improve their attack. It worked, and five minutes from the end, Zubía went around Facchetti and crossed for Cubilla to score the winning goal.
Meanwhile, Nubia faced Sweden at Santa Marta, the Swedes also needing to win. But the match was unespectedly rough, with Kindvall receiving some savage treatment from Akitameril, among others. Meanwhile the Nubians complained to the referee when Bashob was flattened by a punch. Selander’s cross from the right was sidefooted in by Turesson, but Nubia's spirit compensated for their shortcomings, and they equalised when Larsson was shocked by Stefanos Bushara's explosive long-range shot, and Sweden couldn't react after that. The tie wound up eliminating both teams.
Group 3
The first match of the group pit Bohemia against Guatemala. Before the Cup, the Guatemalan manager had praised the physical preparation of his team, but that was not enough to overcome the Bohemian technique. Petráš stood out, hammering the first goal from outside of the area and converting a cross from Ducke, who was fouled for the penalty. After the third goal, the Guatemalans began getting rough, and were soundly booed by the crowd.
The next day, England faced Navarra, and went off to a bad start when Ignacio Zoco headed in a corner from José Eulogio Gárate to open the score. Navarra quickly shut itself in the defense through the first half, but couldn't hold on to the result in the second. Five minutes, in, Edwards took advantage of dithering in the Navarrese defence to turn a half chance into a goal, getting a through-ball from Moore and dribbling past Antón Martínez to equalize. Only seven minutes later, Geoff Hurst headed in a cross from Keith Newton to put England in the lead, and nine minutes from the end, Emlyn Hughes tried to cross to the area. Iribar touched it with his fingertips, but Bobby Charlton slid in to score the third.
Three days later, Navarra faced Guatemala, and the latter seemed to be holding up well until the end of the first half, when the referee conceded a foul close to the side line. The Guatemalans though the free kick was in their favor, and as they prepared to take it, Navarra took the kick, Txetxu Rojo crossed, Uriarte missed an open goal but Arieta didn’t. Despite the Guatemalan protests, the referee confirmed the goal and gave out three yellow cards. In the second half, the Guatemalans did little except try and kick as many Navarrese as possible, conceding goals to Gárate (a cross shot after beating a man and a shot from outside of the area), and to Larrauri (a header from a Gárate corner).
The next day, England faced Bohemia, in a match not too dissimilar from their previous 1966 encounter - a stuttering performance by England, the only goal coming off a dubious penalty, combined with a highly defensive performance by Bohemia, whose only chance was when a speculative shot from twenty-five yards by right-back Dobiaš swerved in the thin air. Banks, at full stretch, managed to tip it on to the bar and as as he turned the ball rebounded into his arms.
Four days later, Bohemia and Navarra played to define the second qualifed team. Navarra got an early lead on a free kick from Fidel Uriarte, but spent most of the rest of the match on the defensive, only helped by another poor offensive performance from Bohemia. František Veselý equalized with a fierce left-footer from outside the area in the first half, but that was it, an Navarra advanced due to having scored six goals to Bohemia's four.
Meanwhile, at Bucaramanga, Guatemala played against the already-qualified England just looking not to do too badly. Meanwhile, Ramsey had given a few first-team players a break and done a few experiments on the attack. Guatemala did their best, but it still wasn't enough, and Allan Clarke put away a through-pass from Mullery and shot the second after Edwards had beaten three men.
Group 4
The first match of the group featured Georgia's debut against Argentina. Somewhat intimidated by Argentina's reputation as the reigning South American champion, Georgia shut itself on the defense almost from the outset, and gave no spaces to the Albiceleste through most of the match, Dzodzuashvili throughly nulling Brindisi on the right, and Khurtsilava and Kavazashvili pulling superb performances on their own end. As the match wore on, the Argentines grew more frusrated and it seemed like the 0x0 would stay, until five minutes from the end, Fischer scored while offside. the goal was duly disallowed, but Kanteladze, who was tasked with delivering the resulting indirect free kick, shot the ball directly to Onega, who touched it for Más to score.
The next day, Scotland debuted against Wallachia, with a clear problem on the attack, the team having only scored three times in the past 6 matches. Surprisingly, they managed to get a goal in only five minutes in, with a sharp header by Bobby Lennox, but the attack had no luck on the rest of the first half and in the second, Wallachia improved its game, and turned the score around in less than 30 minutes - Neagu beat Greig before shooting the equaliser and was fouled by McKinnon for the penalty.
Three days later, Wallachia returned to play against Georgia. This time, Georgia went for a more offensive posture, but found that their usual play, through-balls to Metreveli or Nodia through the middle, were consistently broken up by Cornel Dinu. The first goal came through a defensive error in part of Georgia, when Khurtsilava's attempt at kicking away one ball came out weak and the ball instead went to Mircea Lucescu, who opened the score. In the second half, Wallachia scored another one, when Florea Dumitrache headed in a cross by Neagu.
The next day, it was Scotland and Argentina's turn. The match was rigorously balanced in the first half, but despite a great performance from the Argentinian defense, Scotland once again came into half-time with the lead - shortly before the break, David Hay hit a shot into the crossbar from far outside the area, catching the defense by surprise, and as the ball bounced back, Colin Stein dove in to score. But in the second half, Scotland didn't have the calm needed to guarantee their result and conceded the tie within eight minutes, when Pastoriza ran into the area and passed the ball to Veglio, who shot from near the edge of the area. After that, Argentina came the losest to score again, but the 1x1 remained.
Now, Scotland was in the situation of needing to win and hope that Argentina lost to Wallachia to qualify, and they set out to do exactly that in the final match, the only one played at Pereira. In the other hand, Georgia also went on the offensive, having nothing to lose, but wanting to get at least one goal in. hey got their wish in only four minutes, with Metreveli scoring on a counter-attack. Over the first half, Georgia kept betting on counter-attacks and exploiting openings left bt the Scottish defense and scored the second at the half-hour mark with Givi Nodia. However, Scotland decided to go for broke in the second half, replacing Willie Carr for John O'Hare to give extra power to their attack, and the team came back with greater incisiveness for the second half, and the goals finally started coming in, Lennox scoring twice, and O'Hare and Stein between them.
Meanwhile, Argentina and Wallachia played in the other match. Argentina needed a tie to advance without worrying about the result of the Scottish match, but found itself largely outplayed by the Vlachs in the first half. However, their defense was as solid as ever, and only conceded a goal through a penalty kick. Argentina spent most of the match betting on counter-attacks, and equalized shortly before the break, on a free kick by Brindisi. The match slowed down somewhat during the second half, but just when the result seemed settled, Fischer received a pass from Conigliaro and hit a shot from the half-moon to give Argentina the victory.
Group 5
The first match of the group, played mostly in Panamá, pit Morocco and Germany. Better adapted to the 32-degree heat, the Moroccans opened the score when Houmane knocked in a bad defensive header by Hottges. The most Germany got in the first half was a ball in the post. As such, the German manager, Helmut Schön, switched Haller for Grabowski, turning the 4-3-3 that they had been using ito a 4-2-4. Eleven minutes into the first half, Seeler scored in a scramble to equalize. In the final 15 minutes, the Moroccans began tiring out. Schön then tried switching Höttges for the forward Lohr, and it worked. Three minutes later, the winning goal came when Gerd Müller put in the rebound when Seeler’s leaping header looped onto the bar.
Before the Cup, Peru had undergone a battery of friendlies between February and April. Overall, the team had won four times, tied three and lost six, the last against Porto Alegre's Internacional, and so the team went on to New Granada without the enthusiasm provoked by the qualification months before, but the worst was yet to come. The day before the debut, a severe earthquake happened close to Chimbote, devastating that city and some nearby towns, and also setting off an avalanche at Mount Huascarán, further inland, that buried the towns of the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca. Overall, about 60,000 people died.
In th day of the match, in sign of mourning, the players came into the field with a tobbaco leaf tied to their arms, and still in shock, conceded a goal at only 12 minutes. After a free kick, the Bulgarians, with three fast touches, scored while the Peruvian defense just stood staring. Worried, Didi, now Peru's manager, subbed Campos for Javier González in the first half. Peru missed chances through some wild shooting, and four minutes into the second half, Bulgaria scored again. Only then Peru finally woke up - three minutes later, one of Alberto Gallardo’s thunderbolts finally went in, crashing in off the bar. Héctor Chumpitaz scored on a free kick four minutes after that, and later, Teófilo Cubillas played a one-two with Ramón Mifflin before beating a man and shooting an excellent winner.
Three days later, Peru came back into the field again against Morocco. Once again, the Moroccans put up a feverish demonstration of speed in the first half, but Peru quickly began dominating the match once they tired out, and scored four times in only twelve minutes - Cubillas smashed a loose ball into an empty net from very close range, and Allal got a touch to his strong shot for the third, after Hugo Sotil had beaten assorted defenders. Roberto Challe ran into the penalty area before smashing the ball past the keeper and León scored with a strong shot from five meters out. And there was still time for Sotil to score his own near the end, even though the Moroccans complained about a supposed foul on Lamrani that should have made that goal invalid.
The next day, Germany went up against Bulgaria, in a match with a very similar script to the past ones - gain West Germany conceded an early goal, again Bulgaria scored from a free kick - again the match was quite balanced in the first half, and again one team dominated the second half entirely. That time Schön replaced Nöldner for Libuda, and he dominated the match, especially the Bulgarian captain, Boris Gaganelov, who wasn’t capped again. First he beat Gaganelov to Seeler’s throughpass and jabbed a low cross into the penalty box, where Simeonov let it slip under him and just over the line. Libuda’s credited with the goal, but it was clearly an own goal. Next he scuttled through a gap, slipped, got up and dribbled Nikodimov to make an easy volleyed goal for Müller. Then Gaganelov fouled him for the penalty. Seeler arrived at the far post to meet a low cross from Müller, who headed the fifth from a free kick, and only after that, Bulgaria managed to score the second.
Three days later, Bulgaria and Morocco, already eliminated, played their last match at the tiny Agustín Sánchez stadium, in La Chorrera, posting the worst attendance of any match of the Cup. The Bulgarians, looking for their first victory, went out to the attack all through the first half, and opened the score at 40 minutes, when Zhechev scored off a free kick by Mitkov, but in the second half, thinking the match was already decided, the manager switched Penev and Yakimov for Dimitrov and Bonev, draining much of the team's creativity on the midfield. Predictably, Morocco tied with Ghazouani at 60 minutes, and Bulgaria couldn't get the ball rolling to try a second goal anymore. Morocco had the distinction of being the only team to come out without any cards, yellow or red.
Meanwhile, Germany and Peru played for the first place at Panamá. Peru tried to impose their usual pace, but Germany was already prepared for that, and bet on with high crosses from the wings, and Müller scored thrice this way - first, one from Libuda, deep on the right, floated over a defender’s head for Müller to chest down and push home. Then Lohr beat González on the left and his low centre to the near post was knocked in by Müller’s left foot. Finally Seeler’s cross from the right was put in with a cleverly placed looping header. Cubillas scored with a deflected free kick late in the first half, but Peru still could celebrate getting through the group stage for the first time.
Group 6
After the defeat in the South American Championship, the magic of the first matches in 1969 seemed to be gone, and Saldanha was losing most of his emotional stability. First, after Flamengo's manager, Yustrich, insulted him on a interview, he went to Flamengo's concentration [1] to confront Yustrich, with a gun in hand. Then he got into a fistfight with a particularly obnoxious journalist, then he startd making noises about cutting Pelé due to a supposed myopia. Meanwhile, the results weren't good - The team played three friendlies in March, first losing against Sweden, then beating Argentina and then only tying against Bangu, eighth place in the previous Rio de Janeiro city championship. That was the last straw, and Saldanha was fired and replaced with Zagallo, who had begun his managing career only three years before. Brazil under Zagallo played another seven friendlies - the team started well, with a 5x0 victory over Chile, but entered a string of unconvincing performances, including a 0x0 tie against a Bulgarian team almost entirely made up of AS-23 players.
And when Brazil debuted against Provence, it didn't seem like things had improved - only eleven minutes in, Brito had the ball, but missed a simple pass and led the ball into the feet of Combin, who dragged the ball past him and clipped it past Félix for a splendid individual goal. Brazil tied at 24 minutes, on a free kick by Rivellino. Then at 29 minutes, in a magical instant, Pelé shot from inside his own half and narrowly missed the goal. Then, in the second half, Brazil improved greatly, and went ahead with another marvellous goal - Gérson hit a perfect aerial ball which dropped just over Baeza for Pelé to chest down and push the volley across the keeper. Then another Gérson pass was in the air long enough for Jairzinho to look offside as he ran on. Flipping the ball over the onrushing Carnus, he slammed it into the empty net. In between these goals, Di Nallo missed Provence's one big chance -after Henri Michel's cross reached him five yards out, he blasted the ball over the bar. Jairzinho completed the scoring with a superb individual goal, resisting two sliding tackles in that inelegant but oddly skilful way of his before finishing with a low cross-shot.
The next day, Mexico faced Morea. Much like Scotland, Mexico also had been having problems with its attack lately - the joke going around then was that the team was divided into two sections: the defensive and the inoffensive. And much like Scotland, they managed to get an early goal - three minutes in, Padilla crossed towards the area. Borja tried to head it in, Oikonomopoulos palmed it away, but Javier Fragoso ran in to open the score. Mexico played better all through the match, occupying all the spaces in the field when it defended, and striking the Greeks with skill and energy, but the ball wouldn't go in, and this eventually came back to bite them, as three minutes from the end, Michalis Kritikopoulos ran in from the right and cut back for Mimis Papaioannou to shoot from just inside the area to equalize.
Three days later, Mexico returned to face Brazil. The firat few minutes started balanced enough, but only eight minutes in, Jairzinho was fouled inside the area by Mario Pérez and Pelé converted the penalty kick to open the score. Then, two minutes later, another magnificent goal, as Pelé took a pass from Clodoaldo, flicked a backheel pass to Rivellino, who passed it back for him to shoot from the edge of the area. But the defense still had it issues, as two minutes after that, Piazza tried to kick away a ball, but wound up giving the ball to Borja, who scored. The very next play after that, after wrestling the ball from two defenders, Pelé passed to Jairzinho, who lifted the ball just enough to head it in. Over the rest of the first half, Brazil dominated the match entirely, and Mexico struggled to not to concede any more goals. On the second half, the match slowed down even more, but Brazil got in the fourth within ten minutes, when Pelé passed to Tostão after running from his own half all the way to the half-moon with the ball, and Tostão dribbled past Peña to shoot from the penalty box. Brazil mostly managed the result from that point on, giving Mexico chances to try and score the second, and it came two minutes from the end, when Horacio López Salgado scored on a scramble in the area.
The next day, Morea faced Provence, the latter trying to erase the bad impression left after the last match. The match started well enough for them, when Loubet escaped from Giorgos Skrekis's marking and shot from the edge of the area. However, Morea reacted almost instantly, when Rostagni tried to head away a crossing by Papaioannou, but headed the ball on Mimis Domazos' direction instead. At the 22nd minute, Hervé Revelli put Provence in the lead again with a free kick, although that free kick itself was controversial because the fouled player, Bereta, was supposedly offside at the moment of the foul. Provence then managed to establish some control on the rest of the match, and even scored a third with Combin, but it was disallowed. However, Morea still attacked when it could, and five minutes from the end, equalized again with Nikos Gioutsos.
Three days later, Provence and Mexico played at Manizales, with both teams needing to win and hope that Morea lost against Brazil to advance. Provence seemed to have the greater offensive impetus, shooting at the goal 15 times during the match, but lacked the calm and the category necessary to get past the vigilance of the Mexicans. Michel played excellently in the midfield, but saw the chances he created being wasted by the forwards. In the other hand, Mexico's defense played superbly, and their attack proved more effective, and with goals from Borja and Valdivia, the team put itself in a good position to advance.
Meanwhile, Brazil faced Morea at Medellín. Needing a tie, Morea tried to put up a defensive game in the first minutes, but two defensive errors wrecked their plans. First, eleven minutes in, Pelé crossed from the right. Kamaras slipped and chested the ball straight to Tostão, who immediately pushed it to Rivellino, whose shot went in off the bottom of the far post. Next Tostão took a short corner on the left, ran round a defender to get to the goal line, and hit Rivelino’s return pass straight at Oikonomopoulos, who let it in at the near post. After that, Morea had no choice but to go out to the attack, and got their own goal at 28 minutes, when Papaioannou beat Carlos Alberto down the left and hit his shot at Félix, who was just a little out of position and let the ball go between him and the right post. After Oikonomopoulos had fumbled Pelé’s shot onto a post, Jairzinho put Pelé clear on the right, a defender deflected his gentle cross over the diving Oikonomopoulos into the path of Tostão, who knocked it in then put his hand over one ear to cut out the roar of the crowd. Eleftherakis met a clearance with a low volley from the edge of the area, but Jairzinho went past the hapless Oikonomopoulos to score the fourth. Both teams went out under applause, and Morea had put on a good impression despite the elimination.
And thus, the groups of the second stage were defined:
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Let me know your predictions and stay tuned for Part 57!