1986: The Saltillo Affair
Portugal had finished third in 1966, but their next appearance at the World Cup came 20 years later. It was not a pleasant campaign. Ahead of the World Cup, star player Manuel Fernandes was left out, and António Veloso tested positive for drugs and was replaced by Fernando Bandeirinha at the last moment.
But that was nothing compared to what the squad faced once they arrived in Mexico. In Saltillo, their base, they played practice matches against amateur sides, and were given an underprepared ground for training. The frustrated players insisted on a higher prize money. When that was not met, they went on a strike. There was hardly any conversation between the two parties: the players and the federation negotiated via press releases.
The strike came into motion on May 25, when the players openly refused to play a practice match. In the matches where they took field, they sometimes played without shirts, with their shorts inside out to hide advertisement logos.
Amid all this, they stunned everyone by beating England 1-0. The public, who had been backing the federation until this point, now switched loyalty. But they lost 0-1 to Poland and 1-3 to Morocco, and were eliminated.
1990: Branco and the Holy Water
In spite of their shock defeat against Cameroon in their tournament opener, Argentina recovered well to reach the Round of 16. They met Brazil, who dominated most of the match. Even the genius of Diego Maradona failed to find a way past the Brazilian defenders, especially Branco.
Then, Miguel di Lorenzo, the Argentinian physiotherapist, came on to the field to treat the injured Pedro Troglio. It was a hot day in Turin, and footballers of both sides requested water from Lorenzo. Branco was one of them.
As the match progressed, Branco slowed down, and eventually Maradona won the battle. In the 81st minute, he ran into a long sprint and passed the ball to Claudio Caniggia, who scored the only goal of the match.
Two days later, Branco did mention that he had indeed felt drowsy and ill. There were allegations of Branco’s water being spiked with sedatives, but nothing much came of it. The matter was put to rest.
Then, in 2005, the magazine Veintitres asked Carlos Bilardo, Argentina’s coach for the match, whether Branco had actually been blitzed.
“I’m not saying it didn’t happen,” responded Bilardo, reopening the can of worms.
1990: Losing track of time
Argentina were playing Italy in the semi-final in Naples later in the same World Cup. The match went into extra time after a 1-1 full-time result. The match turned rough, fouls increased, and Michel Vautrot, the French referee, sent Ricardo Giusti of Argentina off.
Amidst the intensity, play continued well past the 15-minute half-time mark. It was not until the 23rd minute that Vautrot blew the whistle. He later admitted to have forgotten to check his watch.
1994: Diana Ross’s bizarre shot
The gala inauguration ceremony of the 1994 World Cup was held at the Soldier Field in Chicago. Oprah Winfrey welcomed the audience, which included Bill Clinton, then president of the United States.
Diane Ross was among the performers. One of her acts involved shooting a penalty kick (and presumably scoring), which would automatically split the prop goalposts.
Ross ran in, microphone in hand, as loud music blared across the arena. The goalkeeper was ready, the ball was in place — but she missed it.
It did not matter. The goalpost split open according to plan, and Ross — the true professional — celebrated anyway.
2002: Ronaldo’s haircut
Ahead of the 2002 World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo had been suffering from a groin injury. This obviously spawned media and fan theories around his fitness and availability for the tournament.
To counter this, Ronaldo came up with a brilliant plan. The idea was — in his own words in a 2017 interview — to come up with a haircut so bizarre that it drew the media attention away from his injury.
He arrived at the World Cup with a triangular patch of hair towards the front of his clean-shaven head. It did the trick.
Brazil won their fifth title, their last till date. Ronaldo won the Golden Ball as well as the Golden Boot.
2006: The shaman of Ecuador
When Ecuador qualified for the 2006 World Cup, they sent Tzamarenda Naychapi, a shaman, to Germany. His role was to "let out a loud scream to chase away evil spirits in the centre of the pitch" at all 12 venues. The idea was to "purify" the venues to bring "positive energy".
Ecuador beat Poland 2-0 and Costa Rica 3-0. They lost 0-3 to Germany, but still made it to the Round of 16, where they went down 0-1 to England.
This remains Ecuador’s best performance in the history of the tournament.
2006: No pants for fans
Orange is as synonymous to the Netherlands football side as blue to the Indian cricket team. Unsurprisingly, about 250,000 Dutch fans bought a pair of orange lederhosen ahead of the 2006 World Cup, in Germany. They also wore them to the Zentralstadion in Leipzig, cheering as their team beat Serbia and Montenegro by a goal.
Their next match was against Ivory Coast, at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart. Here, the fans faced a problem.
Their lederhosen were sponsored by Bavaria, a Dutch beer brand — and, thus, a rival of Budweiser, a sponsor of the World Cup. To avoid ambush marketing, the FIFA officials insisted the fans either left the ground or discard their trousers.
Some, who wore shirts or T-shirts long enough to cover the logo, were fortunate. But over a thousand fans had to take their trousers off outside the venue and take their seats in their underwear.
2010: An unlikely protest
The Nazareth Baptist Church had been founded in South Africa in 1910. They had been using a musical instrument called the izimbomu “for praise and worship” for decades. However, when South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010, several organisations claimed trademark rights to the izimbomu.
This annoyed the church to such an extent that Edward Ximba, the Ekuphakameni spokesperson, told the media that the church’s legal team had been looking into the origins of the instruments, and would fight for the copyrights.
None of this materialised. The instrument attained iconic status during the World Cup — though the rest of the world got to know it as the vuvuzela.
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