Caught offside

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2018 (3005 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s been no shortage of memorable moments during the 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia.

It all comes to a glittering climax Sunday when France takes on Croatia for one of the most coveted trophies in sports — the FIFA World Cup Trophy, a golden statuette depicting two human figures holding up the Earth.

The road to the golden trophy has been paved with unforgettable highlights, including the sparkling play of France’s Kylian Mbappé, 19, who has scored three goals so far, more than any teenager since Pelé in 1958, making him the breakout star of the 21st tournament.

But there have been lowlights, too, including the disappointing performance of Brazilian superstar Neymar, who made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons.

Neymar was expected to set the World Cup alight, but instead will be remembered largely for Oscar-worthy play-acting that saw him spend a reported 14 minutes rolling on the pitch in feigned agony trying to draw penalties.

His antics went viral on social media with the #NeymarChallenge, wherein participants posted hilarious videos mocking his theatrics. Neymar rolled over so many times that numerous videos were produced of the Brazilian rolling along the ground in bizarre settings — motorways, pavements, an airport luggage carousel.

Sadly, Neymar’s theatrics put him in infamous company, as we see from today’s heavily penalized list of Five of the Weirdest Moments in World Cup History:

5) The historic lowlight: Suarez makes his mark

The penalty kick: Fans of the Dracula film franchise found a hero in the form of Uruguayan star striker Luis Suarez. Entering the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Suarez already had a bit of a reputation… for biting opponents. Prior to the tournament, Suarez had already been suspended twice for chomping opponents: he was banned seven games by the Netherlands soccer federation in 2010 after biting a rival in a league game and got another 10-game ban after biting a Chelsea player after joining Liverpool in England’s Premier League in 2012. Those two dental debacles explain why Suarez launched a PR campaign heading into the tournament in Brazil, desperately trying to persuade everyone he’d turned over a new leaf, and not with his teeth. “I want to change the bad boy image that has stuck for a bit because I don’t think I am at all how I have been portrayed,” Suárez told Sports Illustrated. “Obviously, it’s not the most attractive image that I can have for myself. But that’s not what I want to be remembered for. I want to do things right. I really, really do.” But Suarez’s antics in 2014 did nothing to improve his image. Late in his team’s 1-0 win over Italy, Suarez, who had already earned the nickname “The Cannibal,” infamously sank his fangs into the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini, who pulled aside his shirt to show the teeth marks, while Suarez sat on the grass holding his sore choppers. “In his previous biting episodes, he’d targeted fleshier areas,” the Irish Times recalled. “Chiellini, a man who looks as if he was chiselled rather than born, would have been altogether tougher.” Suarez was hit with the longest suspension in World Cup history: a four-month ban from all soccer activities. And Spanish club Barcelona included a clause in his five-year contract stating he’d be fined up to five million euros if he can’t keep his teeth to himself.

4) The historic lowlight: A technical knockout

The penalty kick: By all accounts, the first-ever World Cup was something of a wild and woolly affair.

After soccer was dropped from the program for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, FIFA president Jules Rimet organized an international tournament in 1930, and the inaugural World Cup was hosted by Uruguay, largely because they were willing to help pay teams’ travel expenses. Thirteen teams — seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America — competed and the final four came down to Argentina, Uruguay, the U.S. and Yugoslavia.

In the first World Cup final, held July 30, 1930, 93,000 spectators looked on as Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in a rematch of the 1928 Olympic gold medal game. It would be an understatement to say tensions ran high during the final.

Both sides insisted on using their own native ball, a dispute the referee decided by tossing a coin: Argentina used their ball in the first half, while Uruguay used theirs in the second.

Concerned for his safety, the ref in the final, John Langenus, requested a boat be ready at the harbour within one hour of the game in case he needed to beat a hasty retreat. But the most famous — or infamous, if you prefer — story to emerge from the first Cup involved the U.S. side, which lost 6-1 in a rough and tumble semifinal against Argentina.

According to almost every online list of weird and wacky World Cup moments, it was a ferocious match and one especially bad tackle forced U.S. trainer Jack Coll to trot onto the pitch to provide treatment to an injured player.

“As he trotted onto the grass, he dropped his medical bag and, in doing so, broke a container of chloroform,” according to the British newspaper the Independent. “The fumes knocked him out, and as a result it was he, rather than the player he went to treat, that needed carrying off the pitch.”

Sniffs footyfair.com: Some sites suggest the story might be too good to be true, but you’ll even find it repeated on FIFA’s web page. For the record, we believe every word of the chloroform story… because we think it’s a gas.

 

3) The historic lowlight: The Cup runneth away

The penalty kick: It was easily one of the most jaw-dropping moments in World Cup history, even though it happened before the tournament started in 1966.

We’re talking about the notorious theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy, which was named in honour of the former FIFA president and was the first trophy presented to the winners of the World Cup. (It was replaced by the FIFA World Cup Trophy after 1970.)

In 1966, the gold-plated silver trophy was on display in an exhibition at the Westminster Central Hall prior to that year’s tournament, hosted and won by England. “On the day of the exhibition, security was extremely tight and the trophy room was monitored around the clock by guards and other plainclothes officers,” listverse.com recalls. “However, at some point around midday, the trophy was left unguarded for only a short period during a change in the guard. When the new guards went to their posts, they found the trophy was gone.”

Thieves had quietly forced open the rear doors of the building, broken into the display case and snatched the Cup. “The day after the theft, a phone call was made to the chairman of the Football Association, demanding a ransom of 15,000 pounds,” listverse notes.

A sting operation led to the arrest of Edward Betchley, a petty thief and used-car dealer who claimed to be just the middleman. A week after the heist, a man named David Corbett was walking his dog, Pickles, in southeast London when Pickles began sniffing at a mysterious package under a hedge. It was the trophy. In the end, Pickles became a hero, appearing in TV ads and movies, while Betchley was sentenced to two years in prison.

This year, after a 10-month investigation, the Daily Mirror newspaper revealed the trophy was stolen by London gangster Sidney Cugullere and his brother Reg simply for the thrill of it. As the manhunt closed in, they dumped it under the hedge. In 1983, it was again stolen (gasp!) from a display. It has never been recovered. Where’s Pickles when you need him?

 

2) The historic lowlight: Now that’s what we call relaxing

The penalty kick: For years, former English superstar footballer (yes, that means he was a soccer player, kids) Gary Lineker was followed around by an embarrassing rumour. As the story went, the man who holds England’s record for World Cup goals (he had 10) was playing against the Republic of Ireland in the opening group game of the 1990 World Cup in Italy when — OK, how can we phrase this for a family newspaper — he accidentally soiled himself on the pitch.

In 2010, in an interview with the BBC to mark his 50th birthday, the former star striker, who is now a sportscaster and the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent, decided to — again, how can we put this? — come clean, if you catch our none-too-subtle drift.

“Unless you know (what happened), you wouldn’t know,” Lineker said in what was likely a nod to the fact that TV footage of the incident is, fortunately, in extremely low definition. “But when you know, you do know. I was not very well, I was poorly at halftime, but I carried on. The ball went down the left-hand side, I did try to tackle someone, I stretched and then I ‘relaxed myself.’ I was very fortunate it rained that night and I could do something about it. It was messy, it just came out, it happened. How much detail do you want?”

The beloved and classy TV presenter blamed the unfortunate on-field incident on the fact he had been stricken by a poorly timed stomach bug. “It was the opening game of the 1990 World Cup against the Republic of Ireland,” he recalled. “You can see myself rubbing the ground like a dog trying to clean it. It was the most horrendous experience of my life,” he said. T

here was, however, one advantage. “But I tell you I never found so much space in a game than I did that night after that happened.” In the end, he scored four goals to help England finish fourth, and there’s nothing crappy about that.

 

1) The historic lowlight: The dog that saved the Cup

The penalty kick: Pickles, the British mutt who sniffed out the location of the stolen trophy in 1966, isn’t the only hound to come trotting to the rescue of this coveted Cup. The most memorable canine intervention occurred at the 1962 Cup in Chile when the pitch was invaded by a furry intruder during England’s quarter-final match against powerhouse Brazil.

“A few minutes into the match, a stray dog came onto the field and proved even harder to tackle than Pele,” the Independent newspaper recalled. “After escaping the advances of Brazilian goalkeeper Gilmar and then (Brazil’s star striker) Garrincha, Jimmy Greaves stepped in. The England striker got down on all fours before wrestling the dog to the ground and handing it over to the officials.”

But corralling the elusive stray pup had a significant — and fragrant — impact on the game. “The referee had stopped the game and no one could get hold of this dog,” Greaves, England’s fourth-highest international goal-scorer, told the Evening Standard a few years back.

“I got down on my hands and knees, being a dog lover anyway, and called it over. It got a massive cheer and I picked the dog up and cuddled him. But as I cuddled him, he peed all down my shirt! You never had changed strips in those days, you just had the one shirt, so I had to play on with it. I smelt so bad, it was awful. But at least it meant the Brazilian defenders stayed clear of me!”

Sadly, it didn’t help England a great deal, as Garrincha, considered by many to be the greatest dribbler to ever play the sport, scored twice in a 3-1 victory for Brazil, which went on to win its second Cup.

“Following the tournament, the dog was brought to Brazil and raffled among the Brazilian squad. Garrincha won the raffle and named the dog Bi, short for bicampeonato (two-time championship) in homage to Brazil’s second World Cup triumph,” the soccer blog the18.com reports.

“The dog returned with Garrincha to his hometown of Pau Grande, Rio de Janeiro. Bi had effectively won the World Cup.”

But the last word goes to Greaves, who later mused: “I’m known in Brazil as Garrincha’s dog-catcher.” And that title has hounded him for decades.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca