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World Cup 78 Argentina champion: the secret history of the final with the Netherlands

44 years after the end of the World Cup 1978in which Argentina was imposed by 3 to 1 to Netherlands y became world champion for the first time, there are still practically unknown stories. A tense and heated discussion caused the Dutch team threaten to leave the field of play. “No final”the footballers shouted.

The 1978 World Cup and the dictatorship

The civic-military-ecclesiastical dictatorship used the 1978 World Cup to whitewash its imageboth locally and internationally, amid the voices that were already beginning to denounce the horror that was lived. The World Autártico Entity 1978 (EAM ´78) was an entity created in July 1976 to carry out the works for the tournament. Behind the assassination of Omar Actisthe president of the entity was Antonio Luis Merlo. But the real power and handling of the box was held by Admiral Charles Lacosteright hand of Emilio Massera and close friend of João Havelangepresident of the FIFA back then and defender of the regime.

The EAM ’78 had unlimited funds. John GermanSecretary of the Treasury of the Minister José Alfredo Martinez de Hoz at that time, he estimated, years later, that Some $700 million was spent on the organization, between seven and eight times more than what had been budgeted. The official in question was the victim of an attack for having complained about the costs: they put a bomb in front of his house. “Massera ordered me to be killed because I had messed with the expenses of the World Cup”declared in 2005.

In this way, the tournament was used by the Military Junta to cover up kidnappings, torture and murders. Given the criticism received, the military denounced a “Anti-Argentine Campaign”a position that the report of the Provincial Commission for Memory.

While the inauguration of the championship was taking place, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo they made the rounds with white handkerchiefs, claiming for their missing children. A few minutes from monument stadium it worked ESMAthe largest clandestine detention center of a dictatorship that left more than 30 thousand disappeared and destroyed the country in many other ways. A few blocks separated happiness and joy from torture and murder.

Van der Kerkhof plaster

In the popular imagination, the name Carlos Salvador Bilardotechnical director of the world champion Argentine soccer team in Mexico 1986is closely related to liveliness, sparkle, mischief. But the “billiards”as those attitudes in which one seeks to take advantage of the rival are known, can be found in teams such as Cesar Luis Menottia coach who in many matters is at the antipodes of the nose.

After the initial greeting, Osvaldo Ardiles approached and commented to Daniel Passarellacaptain of the national team, René van de Kerkhofnumber 10 and figure of Netherlands, had a very hard cast on his right wrist. The former Tottenham realized that this represented a danger for the players of the National Team, although that was not the only reason why they complained.

Immediately Pasarrella ran to recriminate the referee Sergio Gonella that playing with that cast was “illegal”. For its part, Menotti he warned him that he would have to take charge if any of his players were hit. After a few minutes of discussion, Ruud Krol, the Dutch captain, threatened to remove his team from the field before the referee’s refusal to allow van de Kerkhof to play with that cast. In fact, several players did indeed walk off the pitch.

René he suffered a foul in the box in the first match against Iran, breaking a bone in his right wrist. The PSVthe team where he played, formally asked the player to return to the country, but Fritz Kessel, the Dutch team doctor, replied that he could continue playing with that bandage. It’s more, the footballer played the entire World Cup with that cast and no one had claimed anything. That was what the Europeans tried to explain to Gonella, who did not understand English and only spoke Italian.

“I’m sure everything was prepared in advance. The referee entered Passarella’s trap,” Krol said in subsequent statements. Americo the Tolo Gallegocentral midfielder of the national team, recognized in 1997, for the Colombian newspaper Time, what “It was a mischief and that they were stopped for 15 minutes and we kept warming up”.

The funny thing is that Mario Alberto Kempesauthor of two goals in that final, wrote in his book “Matador: my autobiography” that “the referee ordered the bandage to be opened and They all saw that René had nothing. Just then they closed it again and it was played.”

Van de Kerkhof’s new bandage, more transparent in color than plaster.

“We knew that this was going to take them out of the game and that it was going to make them nervous.. Ardiles realizes that it’s a cast, you can’t play with a cast, he hits you and hurts you. Pasarella started talking to the referee and we didn’t stop until they made a different bandage,” he said. Daniel Bertonistarter and scorer of the third goal of the final, in dialogue with Page|12.

This mischief was added to a list of facts that had already generated a lot of discomfort in the rival. The first was the change of referee. The designated one at first was the Israeli Abraham Klein. The AFA complained when considering that this referee had harmed the National Team in the fall 1 to 0 against Italia in the initial phase. FIFA agreed to the request and put the Italian Sergio Gonella in his place.

Later, the Dutch denounced that their bus took a very long way to get to the stadium and that was attacked by a mob. Krol recounted that they were trapped for 20 minutes between a huge mass of people who banged on the windows, which scared some players.

After about 10 minutes of maximum tension, Van der Kerkhof had his cast removed and bandaged. “The bandage they put on him was much softer”says Bertoni, who would later exchange his shirt with Willy van der Kerkhof, brother of René and who also played that final. The initial whistle was already delayed from before, since the National Team came out several minutes later than expected on the field of play.

“People believed that Van der Kerkhof ended up removing the bandage, but in reality their doctor had entered and put a flesh-colored one on him, so it seemed that he had nothing. In any case, they were already nervous.” Passarella himself maintained.

Several of the Dutch admitted that these events made them nervous and affected their performance. René van de Kerkhof, the great protagonist of this story, was a high-class footballer, but that day his level was very poor. Although it was he who threw the center for the transitory tie of Dick Nanningait may have been his only good intervention on an afternoon in which his performance could be summed up in missed passes, poorly taken corners and lost balls after failed dribbles.

The National Team ended up winning 3-1 in extra time, with two goals from Kempes and another from Bertoni, while Nanninga tied temporarily for the Dutch. In a very intense game with a lot of strong legs, Menotti’s team was superior and withstood it much better physically than their rival.

“There are strategies sometimes, to make the public goad and all that. We already knew that we had to argue with Gonella to make them nervous.”admits the international multi-champion striker with Independent. Creole liveliness?

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