Today I'm going back 28 years to 1993 and England's World Cup Qualifier against Holland (or the Netherlands if you insist) in the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam. This game was England's penultimate fixture in a tricky Qualification Group also containing Norway, Poland, Turkey and San Marino out of which the top two teams would go to the USA 1994 World Cup Finals. Going into the game England's fate was in their own hands and a draw in Rotterdam would have been enough for England to qualify above Holland on goal difference.
As fly on the wall documentaries go, "An Impossible Job" the one that accompanied manager Graham Taylor's World Cup Qualifying campaign was a bit of an f-word laden eye opener! England went from Semi-Finalists in 1990 to non-qualifiers in the space of four years and Taylor, one of my favourite football managers and radio pundits, was portrayed as something of an idiot in the documentary. One can only assume that he had no say in the editing process and the documentary left us with a number of memorable lines for all the wrong reasons. In evidence I give you the following: "Can we not knock it?", "Do I not like that" and "The referee's got me the sack. Thank him ever so much for that won't you?". Taylor's assistants, Lawrie McMenemy and Phil Neal were portrayed as characters out of the Muppet Show on the bench beside Taylor with Neal in particular parroting whatever Taylor said back to him and appearing sycophantic with his "yes boss" responses.
We flew over to Rotterdam and had a wonderful pre-match meal in a restaurant a short taxi ride away from the stadium. I remember Joe Royle and friends occupying one of the tables just across from us. The taxi to the stadium dropped us off right outside the home end and, as we got out, I witnessed an England fan getting a pasting right in front of me. Dutch football fans (the non travelling variety) had a reputation for violence and we quickly made our way around the stadium to our entrance being careful not to draw attention to ourselves. Once inside, the Dutch strategy for promoting a calm atmosphere seemed to be to blast us with rock music so loud that it was difficult to hold a conversation. The atmosphere did seem to be a little calmer inside the stadium for sure but that all changed when a firework flew the length of the stadium and landed amongst the England fans. In the crowd of 48,000 it felt like we were under attack. In that moment I vowed that it wasn't much fun watching England abroad and that I wouldn't do it again (I did relent later).
On the field, England's side was relatively inexperienced and captain David Platt, with just 44 caps, was England's most capped player. In the 24th minute full back Tony Dorigo, in for the injured Stuart Pearce. was unlucky with a free kick (awarded for a foul against Ronald Koeman) from just outside the box which he rifled against the post. A minute later Tony Adams had a close effort kicked off the line with England looking the more likely to score. It was a good job that VAR was still a few years away however when, just before halftime, Ajax's Frank Rijkaard had the ball in the net and England were fortunate that it was wrongly ruled out for being offside.
Just before the hour mark the referee awarded England a penalty for a cynical professional foul by Ronald Koeman on David Platt who was clean through on goal. Koeman received a yellow card for his troubles (when it should have been red) and then the referee changed his mind and gave England a free kick on the edge of the penalty area instead. It was the pivotal moment of the game. Four minutes later, you can guess who scored the opening goal for Holland from a free kick can't you? Koeman who shouldn't have been on the field placed the ball in the top corner at the second attempt. Then, with just under half an hour to go it was the turn of Paul Merson to hit the Dutch woodwork from a free kick but the ball just would not go in for the unlucky Taylor. With England pressing, they left the back door open and Inter Milan's Denis Bergkamp scored from distance to make it 2-0 after 67 minutes and, like the Titanic, England's passage to America was sunk by an iceBerg-kamp! (apologies)
England had played well and deserved at least a draw but were now left to regret draws from winning positions against Group winners Norway and Holland themselves at Wembley earlier in the competition. It was Taylor's 37th Match in charge of the national side and he was to manage just one more game in charge: a seven-one away win in San Marino that nevertheless managed to embarrass England still further due to them conceding the fastest ever goal in World Cup history, scored by a San Marinese computer salesman after just 8.3 seconds. Sadly Taylor just had to go and he resigned six days later. The game also saw the final caps awarded to Carlton Palmer (18) and Lee Sharpe (8).
CBR Match No. 859
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