Five goals in 50 Minutes: There are strong indications that Argentina ergaunerte the title at the 1978 World Cup. The scandal tournament was overshadowed by bad decisions, torture dictatorship of the host – and the ignorance of the German

It did not look good for the men in blue and white . Since a quarter of an hour the Argentine national team ran in the local stadium ” Gigante de Arroyito ” by Rosario against their opponents from Peru to . In vain : the surprise team of the World Cup offered in this June 21, 1978 the hosts bravely stand up . At least four own goals Argentines needed in the remaining 75 minutes of this game with zero goals against in order to be recovered in the final – would be an impossibility. Actually .

A little later it was 6-0 for Argentina.
For the Peruvians off in this last game of the then still existing intermediate round suddenly three courses down : No slide tackles and sprints more than compressed game only listless passes. To hit the Argentine striker Mario Kempes after 21 minutes the score to 1-0 , and about 50 minutes of game time later the Peruvians had already conceded five more goals . Argentina reached the final of the soccer World Cup . But the fact that they owed that alone playful superiority , seemed more than doubtful .

The tournament of 1978 has gone down as mysterious scandal World Cup in football history. While outside the stadium in the Argentine military dictatorship Tens of thousands of people were tortured and murdered , the host -bought apparently the way to the final game . So the tournament for the Argentine Ezequiel Fernández Moores journalists deemed to be ” the most obvious political manipulation in the sport since the 1936 Olympics .”

The suspicion that the competition could be manipulated , came up already during the tournament. In the game between Brazil and Sweden referee Clive Thomas blew off about while the ball is rushing later following a corner or through the air and into the goal net seconds . In the final against the Netherlands , finally, the Argentine captain

Daniel Passarella reached directly before kickoff that the opposing striker René van de Kerkhof had to wrap his arm plastered with soft fabric – even though he had already competed in five World Cup games with unpacked plaster. “He was deliberately trying to get us out of our concentration,” the Dutchman said later Passarella . And the Argentine team of legendary coach César Luis Menotti was this evening with a 3-1 win world champion.

But was noticeable especially the duel between Argentina and Peru, and indeed already in the initial position : The decisive games made ​​tournament organizer Argentina not just in their own group – as usual – at the same time deliver , but in succession . Thus, the host knew after a 3-1 victory against the arch-rivals Brazil Poland that a victory against Peru by four goals difference was needed. While the biggest success of Argentines had been an unspectacular 2-0 win over Poland until then , the underdogs had confidently won their preliminary round group from Peru and the Dutch vice- world champions wrested a goalless draw .

So how do these Peruvians could have capitulated against Argentina with 0:6 ?

Speak in favor of the theory of multiple -won victory clues : How was Peru’s goalkeeper Ramón Quiroga , who had six pass the ball , born in Argentina – which seems at least strange in view of its performance. In addition, the Argentine player to have been drugged during the game , such as , among others, the authors Jimmy Burns and David Yallop claim. The Peruvian ex -National player Jaime Duarte said in 1998 : ” You had to see them only in the eyes Large, wide- open eyes . . ”

In addition, the  reported shortly after the Peruvian 0:6 debacle over referee Robert Wurtz : ” What looked somehow under Argentine corner , which he also whistled In duels he decided almost always for the locals at the fourth gate he overlooked the fact that the penalty spot. . was offside . ” In the preliminary round had two red cards helped the Argentines during strenuous 2-1 win against Hungary , when narrow 2-1 against France, it was a questionable penalty .

Argentina’s Scandalous Triumph:Dictators visit to the cabin

The hardest but weighs the accusation that the Argentine military junta dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was the “Miracle of Rosario ” simply bought : $ 50 million and 35,000 tons of grain. Have handled this deal World Cup organizing chief Jorge Lacoste, wrote in 2001 the British Investigativautor David Yallop in his book “How They Stole the game” . Thus, given three Peruvian player per $ 20,000 in order to guarantee the Argentine goal – dance. Peru’s goalkeeper Ramón Quiroga self- declared decades later , he was sure ” that some people have taken something .” Under Suspicion fell loudly ” Süddeutsche Zeitung ” especially defender Rodolfo Manzo , who left after the tournament to Argentina and nicknamed ” El Vendido ” got : the Sold .

But that was apparently not all: In the documentary ” We were world champions” by Ricardo Gotta reported Peruvian players call their leaders , as well as a visit of dictator Videla and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the cabin. “There was pressure exerted ” defender Jose Velazquez said later. Two years ago, before even the Peruvian ex- Senator Genaro Ledesma confirmed illegal collusion between dictator Videla and his Peruvian counterpart, Francisco Morales Bermúdez , ” Videla had to win the World Cup in order to burnish Argentina’s poor reputation in the world,” Ledesma said.

In fact, the Argentine military junta took their role specifically as tournament organizer . During a PR agency revamped from the U.S. for $ 1.1 million , the image of the regime , fell shortly before the tournament starts World Cup chief organizer Omar Actis assassinated – probably because he publicly about the rapidly rising costs of the tournament in the economically ground lying land had spoken. It should not be the only murder during the games.

Argentina’s Scandalous Triumph:A Nazi officer in the German National Team training camp

Already since 1976, tortured Argentina’s President Videla , who had coup after years of struggle to power, the country: shot his henchmen , drowned and tortured in 340 concentration camps, 30,000 suspects and dissidents to death – the leaders in football world governing body Fifa did not mind . As Videla with raised voice declared the World Cup for opened on 1 July 1978 , waving flags , thousands of Argentineans , on which the word ” Somos derechos humanos y ” could be read : We are righteous and humane.

So the murders did not play a role as a world champion Germany in their opening match against Poland handed in a lean 0-0 and a little later after the ” shame of Córdoba ” retired with an embarrassing 2:3 defeat against Austria . Even morally the Germans showed a poor performance : No sooner had the team taken up quarters in zentralargentinischen Asochinga , DFB president Hermann Neuberger received there from the Argentine exile who fled World War II veteran and admirer of Adolf Hitler Hans- Ulrich Rudel . ” Why should not I meet him ? ” Said Germany coach Helmut Schön on journalists critical questions , ” he has outstanding performance during the war. ”

Similarly disastrous it was to the wrongdoing of the German delegation with respect to their host country. ” Straining does not me that is torture. I have other problems,” said about national player Manfred Kaltz , and his team captain Berti Vogts raved about the ” country in which there is order. I have not seen a single political prisoner ” . DFB chief press officer Wilfried Gerhardt finally declared : ” We do not feel competent to assess as a sports federation political systems. ”

But that sport and politics can not easily be separated forever from each other , looked after the scandal World Cup finally even the hosts a , ” With my knowledge of today I can not say that I on our victory would be proud ,” said the former striker Leopoldo Luque many years after the tournament. ” In retrospect, we should have this World Cup should never unsubscribe . ”

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