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'98 Cup full of surprises
Upstarts Chile, Mexico, Croatia win new respect
Posted: Thursday July 09, 1998 11:25 PM
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Luis Hernandez and Mexico advanced out of Group E only to fall to the Germans (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- Denmark and Paraguay! Chile and Mexico! And who
really considered Croatia a
threat? These weren't darkhorses, they were exercise horses,
thrown in to round out the World Cup field, and then had more than their
opponents scrambling. Called "El Tritanic" by its own media in
advance stories to the World Cup as a mocking reference to their usual
nickname of El Tricolor, Mexico's qualification for the second round after
a tie with the semifinalist Dutch opened many eyes. Especially
after two-goal, second-half rallies against both the Belgians and the Netherlands
to earn 2-2 draws. Against the Germans, the Mexicans led 1-0
until a pair of goals in the final 15 minutes stalled the Aztec engine in a
2-1 defeat and elimination. "This proves we're not the pudding
we were made out to be," said Mexican coach Manuel Lapuente, who was
harshly criticized in the month before the start of the tournament.
But the flicker from the Mexicans was dim compared with the explosion of
semifinalist Croatia. With seven of its starting 11 playing in
first division in major Western European leagues, the 66-1 outsider clearly
had the talent. Yet it had to beat Ukraine in the two-leg playoff to get to
the World Cup and many disregarded it as a serious threat. With
names such as AC Milan's Zvonimir Boban, Real Madrid's Davor Suker and Real
Betis' Robert Jarni, the Croats scored unspectacular but covincing
victories over Jamaica and Japan and a 1-0
loss to Argentina to
reach the last 16. Croatia, a nation of scant more than 5
million, only came into being as a country in 1991. It wasn't able to put a
qualifying effort together for the 1994 World Cup in the United
States and then in its first major competition made it to the
quarterfinals of the 1996 European Championship in England.
It was beaten by the Germans 2-1 in that game, a loss it avenged in
the World Cup quarters with a 3-0 victory over the three-time champions,
one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. Despite the
Croats loss in the semifinals to host France, it's
unlikely they will be treated as a heavy underdog again. Neither
will Chile. The last of five South American teams, it only got
to France thanks to goal difference over Peru. It's advancement
to the second round on a trio of draws, one of which could have been a 2-1
victory over Italy save for a
disputed penalty in the 84th minute, was even more triumphant considering
it was returning from a cheating scandal during qualifying in 1989. It was
expelled from the 1990 qualifying tournament and barred from trying to
qualify in 1994. It's "reward" for reaching the second round was
a meeting with four-time champion Brazil, which
won handily 4-1 and, in some respects, tarnished Chile's achievement.
While Chile came with Salas and his even more highly regarded
striking partner Ivan Zamorano, Paraguay came with only one widely known
player, and he played in the back -- goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert.
But it mustered enough offense for a 3-1 victory over Nigeria in the
Group D finale, reached the second round and even drew the attention of
FIFA president Sepp Blatter. "Maybe the surprise is Paraguay,"
Blatter said after the first round. "Although not if you look at the way
they played in qualifying." It, too, had an unlucky second-round
draw -- host France. And after appearing to play for penalty kicks, finally
succumbed 1-0 in the first "Golden Goal" in World Cup history.
Not the least of the head-turners was Denmark, who have a knack of
surprising the soccer world. The Danes more than caused a stir
when, in 1992, it was called in less than two weeks before the start of the
European Championship to replace Yugoslvia, banned by United Nations
sanctions, and promptly won the title. But it didn't even
qualify for the 1994 World Cup. So when it reached France as the
top team from an admittedly weak qualifying group, then scraped into the
second round over teams like South
Africa and Saudi
Arabia, not much was expected. A 4-1 second-round victory
over a much more highly regarded Nigerian squad raised the bar, and a 3-2
loss to Brazil in the quarters -- after taking the lead only two minutes
into the game -- won some converts to the "Danish Dynamite". "It
was great propaganda for Danish football," midfielder Michael Laudrup said.
"We played Brazilian-style football."
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