Today I'm going back 27 years to 16th July 1994 and another USA94 World Cup game. This time it's the Third & Fourth Place Play-Off game between Sweden and Bulgaria played at the Rose Bowl, officially described as being in Los Angeles but actually in the nearby suburb of Pasadena (it's ten miles from downtown LA).
According to wikipedia the Rose Bowl is the sixteenth largest stadium in the world and the eleventh largest in the USA. My Futbology app on the other hand shows the Rose Bowl at number twelve in the world's largest stadia. I'm not sure it actually matters much if you're not the recognised number one. It certainly seems to be something of a preoccupation with Americans to claim that something or other is the biggest one in the world. I tend to doubt such claims which are often made in splendid ignorance of the world beyond the borders of the USA.
This game was actually my second at the Rose Bowl that week and I was destined to see another the following day (see tomorrow's blog). My previous game had been on the preceding Wednesday when Brazil had beaten Sweden 1-0 in the Semi-Final thereby consigning Sweden to the Third Place Play-Off.
Certainly in this country, there's a good deal of sneering at Third Place Play-Off games. It is invariably claimed that nobody is interested. Apparently none of the players want another match when they have just missed out on the Final. In other sports however, and particularly at the Olympics, third place is important and is worthy of a coveted bronze medal. The bronze medal, whilst admittedly not being the sought after gold medal, is something to show for years of effort and dedication and is surely better than nothing. I can't imagine an Olympics without the third position on the podium and yet the football community seem to despise Third Place matches. In fact, even second place is now no longer good enough for the football community if the sight of England removing their runners-up medals on Sunday after the Euro2020 Final is anything to go by. I have to say that I found the whole charade of the players immediately removing their runners up medal from around their necks to be disrespectful and lacking in class. Yes we know that everyone wanted to be a winner but is second place really worthless?
Sweden were something of a surprise package in reaching the last four of the 1994 World Cup but if they were a surprise then Bulgaria were a much bigger dark horse. Sweden and Bulgaria had qualified for the World Cup Finals out of the same European Qualification Group and, at the Finals, Bulgaria had advanced out of a Group comprising Nigeria, Argentina and Greece to face Mexico in the Round of 16. That game finished 1-1 after extra time and Bulgaria won the resultant penalty shootout 3-1. The real shock occurred in their next game, the Quarter-Final where they came from behind to beat favourites Germany 2-1. Bulgaria's prize was a Semi-final against Italy but that proved to be a game too far as the Italians triumphed 2-1.
In the Third Place game, Sweden took the lead after only 8 minutes via a header from Tomas Brolin. There were to be three further goals in the first half but, sadly for Bulgaria, they were all in their own net and, with the score line reading Sweden 4 Bulgaria 0 the game was effectively over by half-time. Hakan Mild got the Swede's second goal on the half hour mark and a young Henrik Larsson scored their third before Kennet Andersson made it four two minutes later. It was tough on Bulgaria but the game was open and attacking and I enjoyed it. It also gave me the opportunity to see Bulgarian players such as goalkeeper Borislav (Bobby) Mihailov, Hristo Stoichkov and Iordan Letchkov. Famous for his "syrup" (wig), Mihailov spent some time playing for Reading after the World Cup and went on to become President of the Bulgarian FA until being asked by his Prime Minister to resign for ignoring racist behaviour at Bulgaria games in 2019. It's not reported whether he told his Prime Minister to "keep yer 'air on"...
CRB Match No. 904
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