So yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and thusly the reunification of Germany. To mark the occasion I watched the rather brilliant film Goodbye Lenin! (recommended, if you haven’t seen it), which basically takes place during the fall of the Berlin Wall, from the East German perspective.

Anyway, one of the subplots of the film is the newly reunified Germany’s run in the 1990 World Cup, in Italy, in which they famously beat a brilliant England team thanks to Chris Waddle’s inability to keep his penalty in the stadium (above, at the end of the video)

The penalty is shown, and I absolutely cringed as I watched it, but as the film progressed, I realised that actually, it wasn’t such a bad thing that Germany went all the way.

Alright, so i’m morally obliged not to be happy about the Germans winning, but think about it, 20 years ago, Germany was facing a real identity crisis, as its two sides had to approach living together for the first time in a long time.

Their run in the World Cup bought the Country together, literally, as it gave the two sides, one which had been living in capatilistic excess, and the other which had been living under strict Communist conditions, some immediate common ground.

And really, it provided that unique thing about football – it brings people together. Germany might have been playing – for the final time – under the “West Germany” banner, but the German people as a whole got behind the team, and politics was forgotten, as people from East and West could talk about how bloody good Lothar Matthäus was.

So its actually quite nice that Germany won that World Cup. And we might not have ended our 24 years of hurt, but we did get alot out of that World Cup, Gazzamania, Terry Butcher and Chris Waddle dancing, John Barnes rapping with New Order.

So I don’t hate Germany for 1990 anymore. 1996 though? I’m not forgetting that in a hurry.

The documentary is now infamous for all kinds of reasons. Taylor’s use of the phrase “Do I not like that”. Phil Neal emerging as the ultimate Yes Man. Ronald Koeman escaping a red card and then destroying us with a free kic. San Marino putting one past us after seven seconds. And of course the swearing, which seemed like a big deal in 1994, but now barely registers.

The documentary is available on YouTube in 14 parts, which I’ve embedded sequentially below so you can watch online:

Hard to know what to think fifteen years later. I was young at the time and had fallen in love with football (and the England team) as a result of our performances at Italia ‘90. I couldn’t wait to see England play in a World Cup again, and it seemed to me that Graham Taylor was to blame for that not happening. I remember being very very angry, and this documentary did nothing to change my mind.

But watching now I mostly feel sympathy for Graham Taylor. He made some poor decisions, and had no clue about public relations and how to present himself to the media. But he was also desperately unlucky, dealing with injuries to key players like Alan Shearer, Stuart Pearce and Paul Gascoigne, a fair bit of injustice in the Holland game and a hostile press that couldn’t wait to see him fail.

If I was desperate for England to qualify, then I can’t even begin to imagine how Taylor was feeling.

Still… part of me wonders if maybe the results might have been better if the camera hadn’t been there. Here’s what Taylor told The Guardian in 2006 when asked if he regretted the documentary:

Q: If you had your time again would you take part in that Channel 4 documentary?

Taylor: That was planned in the event of England qualifying for the 1994 World Cup. In effect it was to show what the England manager’s job was other than when internationals were going on. A decision to go ahead was made six months beforehand. I made the decision and then we lost to Norway and Poland, which opened up the possibility we may not qualify and changed the angle of the documentary.

So as with Euro 2008, the failure to qualify seems to have its roots in an arrogant assumption that we definitely would.

Oh, happy days. The is from the Euro ‘96 group game, when England beat a fractured Netherlands team 4-1 at Wembley.

You know things are looking good when Paul Ince pulls something from his probably-not-very-big bag of tricks and wins a penalty. And that Alan Shearer’s strike might be my favourite England goal of all time.

It’s got everything. A quick dribble from Gazza, Sherringham faking to shoot but finding an intelligent pass instead, and the Shearer leathering it into the near upper 90.

All that, plus Kluivert did just enough to stop Scotland joining us in the semis (although I felt bad about that at the time).

Was certainly a lot more enjoyable than the when we played the Dutch in 1993:

I’m going to ignore what happened in the rest of this game, because a) I’ve already covered David Beckham’s petulant streak once this week and b) I don’t have the heart to write about another England penalty defeat.

Instead let’s focus on the above goal.

It’s really all about pace. Nice ball from Beckham, great first touch from Owen, and a confident finish. But everything Michael Owen does between receiving the ball and striking the ball at goal is all about running fast. Really really fast. He makes the poor Argentina defenders look like they’re wearing concrete football boots.

After World Cup ‘98 I genuinely felt like the pace pf “this 18 year old” would see England tear various international opposition to shreds. I found it very hard to imagine a future where England did not win Euro 2000. We didn’t of course. We didn’t even get out of the group.

Owen had his moments after ‘98. The hat-trick in the 5-1 win over Germany for example. And a couple of goals at World Cup 2002. But World Cup 2006 ended with him crawling off the pitch with damaged cruciate ligaments, and in hindsight the 1998 goal vs Argentina is still his most memorable moment in an England shirt. So far anyway.

John Barnes made his England debut in May 1983. A year later (June 1984) he scored the above goal in a friendly vs Brazil at the Maracanã, dribbling through half the Brazilian team and then around the keeper before tapping home.

Fascinating to hear Barnes’ retelling of the goal:

“The Brazilians were just shocked and I suppose that’s why they didn’t tackle me, because they thought ‘there’s no way an Englishman is going to do this so.. we’ll let him try and do whatever he wants’.”

I think that says a lot about the inferiority complex England players had – and still have – when facing Brazil. We just don’t think we’re as good with the ball as they are. Mostly because we’re not. But for that one brilliant moment, an England player beat Brazil at their own game (their own game being achingly beautiful moments of football genius).

John Barnes England career is widely regarded as a disappointment thereafter, especially when compared to his from in a Liveropool shirt.

I personally think that’s harsh, because it’s unfair to compare a left winger’s performances for an all-conquering Liverpool team with his performances in a decent but not quite so all-conquering England team.

Attacking players always look better in teams that do a lot of attacking, and Barnes had to a lot more defensive work on England’s left wing than he ever did for that ridiculously good Liverpool team.

I don’t think we really appreciated how important Barnes was to England until after he’d gone. His last game for England was in 1995, and fourteen years later we still haven’t found a proper left footed left winger to replace him.

Imagine if Clough was around today? An Englishman who wins trophies? The FA would be tripping over their expensive shoes to get him in an England blazer. But not in 1977.

Clough’s nemesis Don Revie resigned from the England job in ‘77 having failed to qualify for Euro ‘76 and all but failed to qualify for World Cup ‘78. Revie walked out on his disastrous reign and into a nice payday managing the United Arab Emirates. It seemed the perfect time for Clough to take over.

This video (taken from ITV’s recent “Clough” documentary) tells the story. Go to the 10:00 mark and watch from there.

(That’s part three of four. You can see the whole documentary via these links at Football Filter – definitely worth a watch…)

Ron Greenwood got the job instead, and didn’t do too badly. He nearly rescued the ‘78 World Cup qualification campaign (beating Italy and just missing out on goal difference) and the qualifying for Euro ‘80 and World Cup ‘82.

But for me the job should have been Clough’s when Greenwood stepped down in 1982. In the intervening years Clough had won back to back European Cups with Nottingham Forest (79′ and ‘80) and was arguably in the prime of his career.

Bobby Robson got the job instead, but after failing to qualify for Euro ‘84 Robson apparently offered to resign so Clough could take over. The FA said no. Robson lead us to a decent World Cup Mexico ‘86, a horrible Euro ‘88 and a brilliant World Cup Italia ‘90. But I can’t help thinking how much better that England team (the one of Robson, Lineker, Barnes etc) would have performed under Old Big ‘Ed.

Why didn’t he get the job? It’s not really a big mystery, and Clough himself probably said it best:

“I’m sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, then I would want to run the show.

“They were shrewd because that is exactly what I would have done.”

It was the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, and holders England faced soon-to-be-champions Brazil, in a group game in Guadalajara. Brazil won the game 1-0 with a great goal by Jairzinho (set up by Pelé) but England fans remember it for two moments of defensive excellence:

Gordon Banks’ save from Pelé’s header, and Bobby Moore’s legendary tackle on Jairzinho.

Video of The Gordon Banks Save was pretty easy to come by:

I’ll let the two men themselves describe it, as quoted on the FA’s website in 2005:

Gordon Banks:

“When I saw Jairzinho arc around, I knew the cross was coming.

“I moved off my line and as I turned my head I saw Pelé. He met the ball with the meat of his head. Textbook stuff. I heard him shout, ‘Golo!’ I found myself at a 40-degree angle with my right hand stretching out towards the post, my eyes trained on the ball.

“I knew if I made contact, I’d have to get it up in the air. The ball hit the deck two yards in front of me. I made contact with one finger and rolled my hand, using the third and fourth fingers as leverage.

“I landed crumpled against the netting and my first reaction was to look at Pelé. He’d ground to a halt. I knew all I needed to know.”

Pelé:

“He came from nowhere.

“I headed it perfectly towards one corner of the net while Banks was at the other corner.

“I was already shouting GOOOL!!! when Banks, like a salmon leaping up a falls, threw himself in the air and managed to tip the ball so it slid over the crossbar. It was an impossible play.

And apparently, this little exchange took place after the save:

Pelé: “I thought that was a goal.”
Banks: “You and me both.”
Bobby Moore: “You’re getting old, Banksy. You used to hold on to them.”
Banks (to himself): “Like hell I did.”

Hard to say whether it’s really the greatest save of all time. There were plenty before and there’ve been plenty since. But – in England at least – this one’s still the most talked about.

The Bobby Moore Tackle maybe doesn’t get discussed quite as often, and isn’t as easy to find on YouTube. And I think some people (myself included for a while there) mistakenly believe it to be Pelé on the receiving end. It wasn’t, it was Jairzinho. But that actually makes it more impressive, as Jairzinho was more of a dribbler.

You have no idea how long it took to find this on YouTube. For a while it seemed that the only footage available was as part of the Baddiel & Skinner/Lightning Seeds “Three Lions” video, but having it inter-spliced with a recreation featuring a slightly tubby Baddiel as Jairzinho(!) sort of ruined it. For me at least.

Finally I found this footage of the complete game split into ten parts. Go to about the 5:20 mark to see the whole thing in real time:

Basically Moore waits and waits as Jairzinho dribbles into the area, and then times his block tackle to perfection (it’s not quite a slide tackle, because it’s too perfect, too deliberate to be called that) and then calmly distributes the ball afterward, as if he hasn’t just made the finest tackle in all of history.

And if you keep watching, you’ll see that it could and should have led to England equalizing. If only Jeff Astle had hit the target, footage of that tackle would be a lot easier to find in 2009.

Not just the glorious moments, but the heartbreak too (of which there is plenty). But to kick us off, we’ll start with one of my favourites: Terry Butcher donating blood for England’s successful 1990 World Cup qualification campaign.

It was September 6th, 1989 in Stockholm, Sweden. We needed a point to qualify for Italia ‘90, which is exactly what we got with a 0-0 draw, in no small part thanks to Terry Butcher in central defence.

Butcher suffered a head wound early in the game, which was hastily stitched up and bandaged by the physios. But Butcher kept on heading the ball away, which reopened the wound.

Here’s what Butcher looked like by the end of the game:

It’s not just the fact that he’s covered in blood, it’s the wild look in his eye – exaggerated by the flash from the cameras – that makes this such an iconic moment.

Was it clever? Probably not. And there’s no way a ref would let him keep playing in the 21st century. And the white shirt maybe makes it look a bit more dramatic than it really was.

But you can’t argue with the fact that Butcher knew he had an open head wound but kept heading away Swedish attacks regardless. I get the feeling he’d head away a brick if it dared enter the English penalty area.

We actually finished second in the group, a point behind Sweden. But – incredibly – we went through the entire qualification group without conceding a goal, which had a lot to do with Terry Butcher as captain and centre-half.

Butcher’s heroics are already part of football folklore. Have a look at these Sydney FC fans who wore bloodies England shirts and bandages in tribute to their then manager in 2007:

And got to love this Subutteo version I found on Flickr:

Paul Ince even staged his own Butcher homage during the ‘98 World Cup qualifier vs Italy in 1997:

But as an archetype of brave English centre backs who’ll give anything for the England cause, nothing beats Terry Bucher covered head to toe in his own blood.