Today I'm going back 27 years to 5th July 1994 and the Italy versus Nigeria World Cup Round of 16 game at the Foxboro Stadium near Boston, Massachusetts. The town of Foxborough is actually about 28 miles from Boston and is closer to Providence, Rhode Island, at 20 miles but the World Cup had come to Boston so we were told. The Foxboro Stadium no longer exists. It was demolished in 2002 to make way for the brand new Gillette Stadium, which sits adjacent to the site of the original stadium. and is home to the New England Patriots NFL side and the New England Revolution MLS soccer team I can recall thinking that the stadium was very basic even by 1990's standards. It could accommodate a little over 54,000 but most of the seats were just metal benches without seat backs and facilities were sparse.
The programme shown was one of four issued for the Finals. There was an Official Commemorative Program (their spelling!), an Official Gameday Program, the pictured Official Gameday Program for the Elimination Rounds and an Official Championship Program issued for the Final itself. All four set me back $28 at the time but would cost at least £100 from a dealer nowadays..
This game represented the final leg of the East Coast segment of our World Cup tour, having already seen games in East Rutherford (New York / New Jersey) and Washington DC. We bowled into Boston and headed for the bar. Well not just any bar. We wanted the one "Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came". I was heartened when I walked in and a number of patrons glanced up and hailed me with a shout of "Craig!". Well okay not really. But we did find the entrance to Cheers of American TV sitcom fame. There was a bar there but sadly the interior bore no resemblance to the TV studio set and there was no sign of Woody or Diane.
Cheers was where we learned that we were nowhere near the Stadium. It would be like advertising a game in York and playing it in Leeds. Anyway, 28 miles later we found Foxboro. Nigeria's road to the Round of 16 had been as winners of Group D, a Group containing seeds Argentina, Bulgaria and Greece. The Group's top three sides all won two games and lost one but, perhaps surprisingly, Nigeria finished top thanks to goal difference. Italy, on the other hand, only just made it out of Group E. They had also been seeds but contrived to lose their opening game against Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland before beating Norway and drawing with Mexico. All four sides in the Group finished with four points and an identical goal difference of zero with Norway being the one to be eliminated on goals scored.
Despite Italy's poor performance in the Group stage they were favourites to overcome Nigeria in the Round of 16. It was therefore something of a surprise when Nigeria took the lead through Amunike after 25 minutes. It was a lead that they were to hold onto for almost the entire match until just two minutes from time. For much of the intervening period the Italians employed the full range of dives and simulations aimed at securing free kicks, cautions and penalties. It was all pretty distasteful and indeed substitute Gianfranco Zola, a player usually held in high regard in England, received a red card for his antics. When the Italians played a bit of football rather than looking for penalties they finally grabbed their equaliser courtesy of Roberto Baggio. We were now into extra time and, of course, Italy were awarded the penalty that they so desired. It was scored, once again by Roberto Baggio to secure a 2-1 victory. The Italians had squeaked out of their Group and now, on the verge of being eliminated, they had squeaked into the Quarter-Finals. Talk about starting slow!
CRB Match No. 901
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