A midsummer night’s dream: Pages from World Cup ’98

England captain Alan Shearer celebrates with team mates David Beckham and Michael Owen after scoring from the penalty spot

It was the last day of June, 1998, and the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard at Saint-Étienne, France was packed to the brim. The World Cup of 1998 was nearing its climax as the last match of the round of 16 was being played. On one side was England, and on the other side was Argentina. While the “Three Lions” had taken the field in all-whites, the “La Albiceleste” were in dark blue, their second colours.

The group stage was behind them now and even a single mistake could send either team packing ot of the Cup. But apart from the setting, it was the match-up between the two bitter cross-Atlantic rivals that made the fans and media go gaga over this match. England and Argentina had met thrice in the World Cup till date and with a 2-1 record, the scales were clearly in favour of England.

And barring their match in the 1962 Chile World Cup where the Argentines were clearly outclassed by the English, their other two matches, viz. the 1966 World Cup match in England and the famous 1986 World Cup match in Mexico, were anything but a smooth ride. While the 1966 quarter-final win for England was termed by the Argentine media as el robo del siglo i.e. “The Theft of the Century”, the 1986 quarter-final win for Argentina was marred by all the brouhaha over Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal. The Falklands War of 1982 hadn’t helped either, and these two teams were playing now for national pride as much as for footballing glory.

Both England and Argentina seemed to be evenly matched in the run-up to the game and they even went with a similar 3-5-2 formation. While the English attack was being led by the Newcastle great Alan Shearer and the 18-year old prodigy Michael Owen, the Argentine pair of Gabriel Batistuta and Claudio López offered stiff competition with Hernán Crespo waiting in the dug-out to pounce any moment as a substitute.

The England mid-field was led by the in-form trio of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Paul Ince while Argentina had the dangerous Ariel Ortega and the wily Juan Sebastián Verón leading the mid-field attack. The only significant difference between the teams seemed to be their defence. Argentina had been shuffling their defenders in all the group matches so far, with only Roberto Ayala making it to the playing 11 consistently; on the contrary, England had displayed full faith in their defence triad of Sol Campbell, Gary Neville and Tony Adams.

So on the night of June 30th , the two teams took the field and from the moment the opening whistle was blown, it was clear that it was going to be a gruelling match as none of the teams seemed to be in any mood to make life easier for the other. The match had all but started when David Seaman, the famous (or infamous, as you may please) pony-tailed English goalkeeper brought Batistuta down and the referee awarded a penalty to Argentina. Having already scored four goals in the tournament so far, Batistuta coolly converted the 6^th minute penalty as well. The score line now read 1-0 in favour of Argentina.

But the jubilation of the Argentine camp was all but short-lived as Ayala brought down Owen inside the box at the 10 minute mark and the referee awarded a controversial penalty to England which Shearer successfully converted to make the score 1-1. The much hyped match seemed to be living up to its promise after all. Nothing much happened for the next couple of minutes until Owen collected a long pass from Beckham deep inside the Argentine half and darted off with the ball. He outran the Argentine defender Chamot with a speed that would put Christiano Ronaldo to shame and evaded Ayala at top speed to shoot past the hapless Carlos Roa who could only watch bewildered as the English huddled around Owen to celebrate. The English went up 2-1 and Owen’s goal entered the history books as one of the most spectacular goals ever scored in World Cup history. Memory of Maradona’s equally stupendous second goal in their 1986 quarter-final encounter must have flashed in the minds of the players.

After much attacking football from both sides, finally at the stroke of half-time, Argentina won a free-kick just outside England’s penalty area and the free-kick wizard Verón proceeded to take the shot. The English apparently expected him to shoot for goal but in a sheer display of genius, he passed the ball to Zanetti who was hiding behind the English defensive wall and seemed to emerge from nowhere and turned around to shoot past a diving Seaman. The score board now read: England-2, Argentina-2.

Referee Kim Milton Nielsen sends off England’s David Beckham for kicking out at Diego Simeone

The teams took the field again after a riveting 1^st half but just two minutes into the second half and an incident occurred which is remembered by English fans with disdain up to this very day, and which is thought to have practically sealed the fate of England in that match. The Argentine captain Diego Simeone pushed Beckham to the ground in a clear foul and in a match where tempers were already high, Beckham felt provoked and kicked out at Simeone. Although, it had hardly scratched Simeone, he apparently decided to take a shot at the Oscars and lay on the ground as if in unbearable pain. The referee showed him the yellow card no doubt, but he gave Beckham a straight red and the entire English supporters gave out a gasp. The anchor of their midfield was gone, and it was but a matter of time now before the Argentine attack took the English defence for a ride.

But in a great display of defensive skills, the English defence prevented the Argentina forwards to come anywhere near the goal. So impenetrable did the English defence look that the Argentine coach substituted both his forwards in the 68^th minute but even the two fresh pair of legs couldn’t seem to do much damage. In the dying moments of the match, Sol Campbell headed the ball home past Roa and the English supporters went up in raptures. But the theatrics had not yet ended for the day as the referee disallowed the goal stating that the English captain, Shearer had fouled Roa prior to the goal. Thus, there was no change in the score line and it read 2-2 at full time. The match now proceeded to extra time.

This was the first World Cup where the golden goal rule had been introduced and just a single goal from either side in extra-time, and the other team would have to say goodbye to the cup. But both the teams took a defensive strategy, and the match went into the much dreaded penalty shootout where luck and nerve mattered as much as wit and dexterity.

While Berti, Crespo, Verón, Gallardo and Ayala came forward to take the kicks from the Argentine side, Shearer, Ince, Merson, Owen and Batty took the penalty kicks for England, in that order. England gained the upper hand when Crespo’s shot was saved by Seaman but the very next minute, Ince’s shot was saved by Roa. The remaining spot kicks were converted by Argentina and finally the score read 4-3 with one shot remaining for England.

Could the English finally put their shootout failures of the 1990 World Cup and the 1996 Euro Cup behind them? This was the question in every body’s mind as Batty got ready to take the kick. But his feeble shot was easily saved by Roa and England were knocked out of the World Cup, again. As it turned out, the penalty shootout jinx has followed England ever since then right up to last year’s Euro Cup where they were knocked out by Italy in the quarter finals.

Thus once again, England’s pursuit for cup glory had ended in a glorious failure. As it turned out, even Argentina’s good run came to an end in the quarter-finals as they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Dutch, thanks to a last minute winner by Dennis Bergkamp. Curiously, both England and Beckham got a shot at revenge when these two teams met again at the group stage of the subsequent edition of the cup in Germany, 2002 which England won 1-0 owing to Beckham’s 44th minute penalty. But let’s save that story for another day.

Three more World Cups have been played since that thrilling summer night of ’98 and still World Cup glory has eluded both these Titans. “El Ángel Gabriel” Batistuta is a legend of the past now as the world chants Lionel “Leo” Messi’s name. Owen and Beckham have already bid adieu to the beautiful game, and England is yet to find players who could fill their large shoes. Frank Lampard is in the twilight of his career, and Wayne Rooney hasn’t done much in Cup games to brag about either.

So, as the 2014 World Cup carnival in Brazil draws near, one can’t help looking back at the summers long gone by, the legends that have come and gone, and the matches that have been lost and won, and make surmises about “what if?”. Amongst all the World Cup memories, the England-Argentina rivalry will always stand out as having produced some of the most scintillating moments in Cup history. And hopefully, there’s plenty more to come and both these teams will one day regain their lost glory. So three cheers to the “Three Lions” and three cheers to “La Albiceleste” because no matter what people say, the best ain’t over yet.