All Time World Cup!
Scarone 14, Francescoli 39
PASADENA - Rose Bowl
Uruguay set about stamping their authority on this game early on. In particular, stamping, tugging, tripping and pulling on Stojkovic, Savicevic and co. It has long been the Uruguayan way to do whatever it takes to win the ball, but then to look to do something beautiful with it.
This split personality to the national game has at times held them back, and at other times got them out of sticky situations. At the 1986 World Cup they were memorably reduced to ten men in the very first minute after a brutal foul on Scotland’s danger man Strachan, but for the next 89 minutes they resorted to every method of gamesmanship known to man, and got the point they needed.
Coach Lopez was widely credited with inventing (or at least popularising) the 4-3-3 formation during the shock 1950 World Cup triumph, and that has by and large remained the formation in Uruguayan football ever since.
There was a danger of being outnumbered in midfield, but Lopez knew he could rely on two of the finest defensive midfielders of all time in Jose Leandro Andrade and Obdulio Varela. Here, they flew into challenges but had the skill and positional sense not to be rough unless absolutely necessary.
It was Varela who set up the first goal, playing in Milan legend Juan Schiaffino who squared for Hector Scarone to slot home just before the quarter-hour.
This was always going to be a tough fixture for Yugoslavia. Their skilful dribblers and classy playmakers were never well suited to battling in the trenches against hardened warrior-teams like Uruguay.
Humiliating thrashings at the 1984 and 2000 European Championships were evidence of a tendency for heads to drop when things were not going well. It was vital therefore, that they scored the next goal.
Svonimir Boban began putting his foot in in midfield and Dragan Stojkovic began pushing further forward. Top scorer Bobek was well-marshalled by Real Madrid star Santamaria however, and Savicevic was overwhelmed by Jose Nasazzi.
That all-important next goal came Uruguay’s way, shortly before half time. The slender-framed Schiaffino jinked past Zajec and Mihajlovic at the edge of the box and pulled the ball across to Enzo Francescoli on the left.
The Marseille and Torino star, Uruguay’s answer to Maradona in the 1980s, was, like the Argentinean, all left foot, but still hard to stop when in the mood. He beat Katalinski and Buljan with twinkle-toed skill and lifted the ball over the advancing Beara.
The second half was a turgid affair. The South Americans were content to sit on their lead, and the Yugoslavs did not have the heart to force their ay back in to the game. There were no further goals, and one of the tournament’s toughest defences had comprehensively smothered one of the more exciting attacks.
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