Search: 'World Cup 1982'

Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger explains why Rudi Völler's battlers were different from their predecessors, and how they made him care about the national side again

Sometime around a quarter to three on Friday, June 21, I caught myself slowly and silently rocking back and forth. Even my son, a nervous chatterbox less than two hours earlier, was very quiet. He is only 12, and at that age it’s not only normal to support your national team but perhaps even, well, healthy. So I kept my mouth shut because there was nothing positive to say and I didn’t want to foster a cynical image by saying something negative. All the more so since there were plenty of other people already doing that.

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Huw Richards gives us an update on  life as a Swans fan

Are Swansea fans in favour of a move to a new stadium or would some prefer to stay put?
The Vetch is a dump, but it is a much loved, highly at­­mospheric dump in which a 4,000 crowd can sound like a packed Colosseum on a bad day for Christians. We all recognise the possible econ­omic benefits of a move to the Morfa Stadium, but can’t help worrying about the possibility of rattling ar­ound in an atmosphere-less 20,000-seater tin­ can.

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David Wangerin looks not too far back and remembers when Tony Barton's Villa were the the Kings of Europe. If only they had built upon that success

Twenty years on, it still makes for a hell of a story. Eng­lish underdogs face German superstars in the final. They see their injured goalkeeper come off with the match barely under way. His substitute, with one first-team appearance to his name, proceeds to keep Rum­menigge and Co at bay for 81 minutes, thanks to a combination of deft goalkeeping and a four-leafed clo­ver he must have tucked into a sock. With 23 minutes to go, a team-mate shins in a goal, and Aston Villa hang on for dear life to lift the 1982 European Cup.

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There's a World Cup coming up, apparently, so we invited three well-travelled journalists to make some rash predictions about what will happen. As a Swede based in London Marcus Christenson has ties to two of the countries in Group F. Gabriele Marcotti has lived in Japan and how tries to explain English football to Italians and vice-versa. Alan Duncan reports regularly on Nigeria and Cameroon, who face England and Ireland respectively, as well as the three other African qualifiers

Are playing styles and tactics are becoming more homogeneous throughout the world, because most of the top players are playing in the same leagues? If so, does that make the World Cup less interesting?
Gabriele Marcotti There’s a greater uniformity. Not just in the way teams play, but also in how they train. If you look at the size of the Italian or Spanish players, they are now as big as the northern Europeans are expected to be. Everybody’s an athlete. Some of the English play­ers still get drunk and irresponsible but the impression I get with players like Beckham and Owen is that they train seriously and take care of their diet. In some ways it has become more uniform, but in a positive way – the level of fitness has definitely increased everywhere.

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Major League Soccer just can't get noticed, but it's not for a certain wealthy man's want of trying, reports Mike Woitalla

The world’s 54th richest man spends his cash in various ways. He helped fund a senator who advocated hanging criminals in the street. He donated to a campaign against allowing the use of marijuana by people suffering from AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis. He sup­ported a Colorado referendum designed to prevent civil rights protection for gays. His name is Philip F Anschutz. He spends very much money on Major League Soccer.

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