Today I'm going back 31 years to 1st July 1990 and England's World Cup Quarter-Final meeting with Cameroon at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples, Italy. Today the stadium has been rechristened as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to recognise the transformational effect that the little man had on the fortunes of Napoli's football team. Naples almost belonged to Maradona to the point where the Neapolitans didn't know who to support when Italy met Maradona's Argentina in the World Cup Semi-Final only a few days after we were there.
If you're muttering "But that's not a programme!" you are absolutely correct. Italia 90 was yet another one of those tournaments where programmes weren't issued for the individual matches. The Official Tournament programme will be featured on 4th July so in the meantime here's another one of my souvenirs: the FA's official 1990 World Cup preview magazine which had an original cover price of £2.95 and is probably worth no more than about £4 today.
Our trip to the World Cup had involved an overnighter on a campsite near Genoa on the night when Italy had beaten Romania on penalties in the Round of 16 followed by England's game against Belgium in Bologna the next day. Next up for England was their Quarter-Final against Africa's finest: the Cameroon. I have to say that driving in Napoli was an experience which wasn't for the faint hearted. I remember being overtaken at a red light by a car and a moped that simply mounted the pavement and went round the corner on their merry way. Driving required ample use of the horn and was chaotic to say the least! It brought a whole new meaning to the Italian phrase "Vedi Napoli e poi muori" or "See Naples and die"!
I'll always remember the fan camp that we stayed at on the outskirts of Naples. It was free! For a reason. Basically our generous Italian hosts had pitched a series of army tents for us. That was it! No groundsheets and not even a sun lounger to sleep on. The weeds were waist high inside the tents! Luckily we had brought our own tent and bedding with us otherwise it would have been a very uncomfortable night. The camp was being patrolled by members of the Italian police complete with machine guns and they weren't about to let us out of the camp to go looking for food or drink. Having Rita there provided good cover allowing me to claim that I wasn't actually a hooligan and she charmed our way to a pass out for the evening. However the thing I remember most about Naples was the warmth of the ordinary people. Whereas the north of the country was a little more reserved and stuffy, here in the south the people were more passionate and curious. We had a truly amazing pizza in a little family restaurant on the night before the game and were made to feel very welcome which made a nice change in Italy where I felt that the people wanted your money and then for you to sod off as quickly as possible.
If England went into the game thinking that they were a sure thing for the Semi-Final then they were about to have a rude awakening. England's hero from the Round of 16, David Platt, scored the first goal but this was only after Peter Shilton had already had to make an important save from Omam-Biyik. England's one goal lead at half time was overturned shortly after the hour mark as first Kunde (penalty) and then Ekeke wrestled the advantage from the Three Lions. Cameroon's own Indomitable Lions were in front and England were in dead trouble. Shortly afterwards Omam-Biyik wasted a great chance to make it 3-1 and, had he scored, I don't think that England would have recovered. As it was England were left to claw their way back into it with an 83rd minute penalty that was both won and scored by Lineker. Now we had extra time for the second game in succession. Just before the midpoint of the extra 30 minutes we had a carbon copy penalty incident where Lineker was brought down and then stepped up to score the goal which won the match and took England to their first World Cup Semi-Final since 1966. I already had a ticket for that in my pocket and we were on our way to Turin. Arrivederci army camp!
CRB Match No. 666
Comments
Post a Comment