World Cup 1982 - Day Two

DAY TWO

Monday 14^th June 1982

GROUP ONE, Estadio Balaidos, Vigo. (17:15)

ITALY   (0)   0

POLAND   (0)   0

Italy: Zoff; Gentile, Scirea, Collovati, Cabrini; Conti, Marini, Tardelli, Antognoni; Rossi, Graziani

Poland: Mlynarczyk; Zmuda, Janas, Majewski; Jalocha, Matysik, Boniek, Buncol; Lato, Iwan (Kusto), Smolarek

After the surprise of yesterday’s defeat for the holders, this match was a huge anti-climax.  Italian football had been rocked by a bribery scandal which resulted in their star striker, Paolo Rossi being suspended for three years, reduced to two on appeal.  Rossi had only just been allowed to play again, and his lack of match-practice showed as he was awful.  The game was utterly forgettable, and only remembered as it was 40-year old Dino Zoff’s 100^th international.  The only real chance of the game came on 80 minutes when Antognoni’s header was cleared off the line by Lato, and Tardelli drove the rebound against the bar.  There had been concerns the game would not go ahead because of a dispute over who should be paying for additional power circuits required at the refurbished stadium.

GROUP SIX, Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan, Seville. (21:00)

BRAZIL   (0)   2   (Socrates 75, Eder 88)

USSR   (1)   1   (Bal 33)

Brazil: Waldir; Leandro, Oscar, Luizinho, Junior; Socrates, Zico, Falcao, Dirceu (Paulo Isidoro), Eder; Serginho

USSR: Dasaev; Sulakvelidze, Baltacha, Demianenko, Chivadze; Bessonov, Gavrilov (Susloparov), Bal, Daraselia; Shengelia (Andreyev), Blokhin

The entrance of the Brazilians to a World Cup was always something to look forward to, and this tournament had the benefit of seeing them take the stage on the first full day.  They were up against USSR who had put out Wales in qualifying.  Brazil had several good chances, but found Dasaev, another of Europe’s fine young goalkeepers, in good form.  Then Shengelia appeared to be held back by Luizinho in the area, but the referee was having none of it.  In the 33^rd minute, Bal hit a speculative shot from about 30 yards which bounced in front of Valdir Peres, who didn’t get his body behind the ball, through his hands and into the net.  In the second half, Brazil pressed relentlessly for the equaliser. 

Eder went close with several long range efforts, then in the 75^th minute the Soviets struggled to clear a corner and the ball fell to Socrates, about 30 yards out.  He jinked to his right to beat one challenge, then again to beat another, before firing a wonderful shot into the top corner to level things at 1-1.  Zico should’ve won it for Brazil when Serginho’s knock-down found him ahead of the defence, but he stabbed his shot wide.  But the winning goal was one to match Socrates earlier.  With just a couple of minute to go, Junior swept a ball out wide to the right to Paolo Isidoro.  He layed it square where Falcao dummied to allow Eder to flick the ball up and then volley it past Dasaev.  It was a stunning goal and Brazil had worked hard to beat a stubborn Soviet side, but the two goals were worthy of any World Cup.