Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: World Cup 2010 Blog: “World Cup Moments: Andrés Escobar’s Own Goal vs USA” plus 1 more

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

World Cup 2010 Blog: “World Cup Moments: Andrés Escobar’s Own Goal vs USA” plus 1 more

World Cup Moments: Andrés Escobar’s Own Goal vs USA

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 04:10 PM PST

escobar Sometimes own goals are funny. Sometimes they are not. Colombia defender Andrés Escobar’s own goal vs USA at the 1994 World Cup definitely was not.

Colombia entered USA ‘94 as many people’s “dark horses” to win the whole thing. Which is never a good sign. But with a squad featuring Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla, Freddy Rincón, Óscar Córdoba, Adolfo Valencia and more, and having topped their CONMEBOL qualification group with a 5-0 away win over Argentina, they were at least expected to make the second round.

Despite playing some good football in their World Cup 1994 Group A opening game vs Romania, they left that match with a 3-1 defeat, in part thanks to the precision of Gheorghe Hagi’s left foot. Which made getting a result in the second game against hosts USA imperative. In the 35th minute, USA midfielder John Harkes crossed the ball into the Colombia box, and the 27 year old defender Andrés Escobar strecthed to intercept. Unfortunately, Escobar could only divert the ball past Óscar Córdoba to give the USA a 1-0 lead:

If you look closely, it’s pretty clear that without Escobar’s interception, Harkes’ cross would very likely have found Earnie Stewart at the far post, where the USA players would have had a pretty straightforward tap-in. Escobar had no choice but to stretch for the ball.

USA went on to win the game 2-1, all but eliminating Colombia from the 1994 World Cup. Colombia beat Switzerland 2-0 in their final Group A game, but still finished bottom of Group A and went home as underachievers. That should have been that.

However, on July 2nd, 1994, just 10 days after Colombia’s defeat to the USA, Andrés Escobar was murdered outside a bar in a suburb of Medellín, Colombia, with the killer apparently firing 12 bullets at his victim. It was widely reported at the time, and still widely believed today, that Escobar’s murder was punishment for his own goal vs the USA. Various reports state that either Escobar’s girlfriend or the police claim the killer shouted “Gol!” each time he fired. Humberto Muñoz Castro was the man convicted of Escobar’s murder in 1995, but he was released in 2006 having served only 11 years of a 43 year sentence.

It’s not clear whether Escobar was murdered by a betting syndicate that had wagered on Colombia making the second round, some other representative of organized crime, or simply a deranged fan. In some ways it doesn’t matter. What’s clear is that someone somewhere took the events of one World Cup game far too seriously, and Escobar paid the ultimate price.

The story of Andrés Escobar’s murder may suggest that all Colombian football fans turned on him following his own goal. But that was absolutely not the case. A reported 120,000 people turned out to pay their respects at Escobar’s funeral, and football fans apparenlty still bring photos and flags of him to games and regularly visit his grave.

- For more World Cup Moments click here.

World Cup Legends: Teófilo Cubillas (Peru)

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 08:54 AM PST

1975_himno As part of our World Cup features series, we’re going to be profiling a few World Cup legends. Men who made their mark on football’s big stage.

You may not have heard of Teófilo Cubillas, also known as “El Nene” or “The Kid”. I was only vaguely aware of him until reading up a little (and watching a lot of YouTube) this weekend. But Teófilo Cubillas is arguably the greatest player in Peru’s history, and a player who more than made his mark at two World Cups – Mexico 1970, and Argentina 1978 – with a mix of dribbling, playmaking and long range shooting.

It’s difficult to think of Peru as a World Cup team right now, as they finished dead last in CONMEBOL qualification for World Cup 2010. But in both 1970 and 1978, with Cubillas leading the charge, la Blanquirroja made it to the last eight.

At the 1970 World Cup, a 20 year old Cubillas played and scored in all of Peru’s games, including this 73rd minute one-two dribble and shoot to give Peru a 3-2 win over Bulgaria in Cubillas’ first ever World Cup appearance:

Peru made it out of the group but eventually lost 4-2 to Brazil in the 1970 World Cup quarterfinal, a game Cubillas also scored in:

That was Cubillas fifth of the tournament. The 20 year old won the FIFA World Cup Young Player Award, the Bronze Ball for third best player at the tournament, and was also named in the Best XI of arguably the best ever World Cup tournament. Not a bad debut.

Cubillas and Peru didn’t make it the 1974 World Cup (though they did win the 1975 Copa America, which isn’t a bad consolation) but both returned for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The now 28 year old Cubillas wasted no time in the opening game vs Scotland, with not one but two long range strikes into the near post upper 90. One from open play…

… (love that celebration) … and one from a free kick, with the outside of his foot:

Thanks to a Cubillas hat-trick vs Iran (two of which were penalties) Peru again made the Second Round, but finished bottom of the second round group, scoring no goals. A 32 year old Cubillas returned to play for Peru in the 1982 World Cup, but neither he nor the team made much impact, and Cubillas retired from the national team soon after.

Cubillas’ tally of 10 World Cup goals places him an impressive joint seventh on the all time World Cup goalscorer charts at time of writing, an absolutely incredible achievement for a player who a) wasn’t a striker and b) played for one of the traditionally weaker teams. Maximum respect to Teófilo Cubillas.