Today I'm going back 32 years to 1990 and England's Friendly International against Czechoslovakia at the old Wembley Stadium. Czechoslovakia is a country that no longer exists with the Czechs and the Slovaks having gone their separate ways in 1993 following the so called Velvet Revolution in 1989. The game marked England's record 23rd game unbeaten at Wembley.
England's 654th ever game formed part of Bobby Robson's build up to the World Cup Finals in Italy and Robson was in the process of finalising his World Cup squad before FIFA's submission deadline. This was the game where Paul Gascoigne made it impossible for Robson to leave him out. He had a hand in all four of England's goals, scoring the final one himself. He was a precocious talent and remains the finest footballer that I have ever seen live on a regular basis. Gascoigne was, as they so often are, a flawed genius however and Robson would often be quoted as saying of him "The lad is a brilliant footballer but is daft as a brush". There is a must watch program on Gazza on the BBC i-Player at the moment which I thoroughly recommend for those that would like to see his football genius in action one more time but also carries a number of thought provoking comments from those who knew Gascoigne well. My conclusion is that Gazza was desperate to be liked and making people laugh was his route to being liked. Sadly though, everyone wanted a piece of him and that turned his life into an almost never ending madhouse which ended up with Gazza having cocaine and alcohol problems and a rather unpredictable character. Perhaps his most astonishing act was his attempt to befriend the suicidal on-the-run cop killer Raoul Moat in 2010. The deluded Gacoigne believed that he was "the best therapist in the world" but, in my view, it was indicative of a man who needed professional help himself.
The featured game marked Lee Dixon's debut for England (the 1021st player to do so). Like Gascoigne, Steve Bull, a star for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the third tier also booked his plane ticket to Italy with two goals in the game. It's impossible to imagine a League One player being selected for England these days but it actually happened in 1990! Including this game, Bull had scored three goals for England in four appearances! Perhaps surprisingly, given my comments, it was Czechoslovakia who took the lead in the 10th minute thanks to a simple goal headed past Peter Shilton by Thomas Skuhravy. England were behind for only seven minutes however when Gascoigne played a superb through ball to Bull with the outside of his right foot and Bull rifled the ball into the top corner. A further four minutes had elapsed when a 28 year-old Stuart Pearce scored his first ever goal for England from a corner. Ten minutes after half time and England had a third courtesy of another wonderful run and cross by Gascoigne putting the ball on a plate for Steve Bull to finish with an absolute bullet of a header. With ten minutes remaining the Czechs showed that they weren't quite out of things with a goal from a free kick by Kubic that flew past substitute keeper David Seaman. In his commentary, Barry Davies seemed to think that QPR goalkeeper Seaman was at fault for the goal and, with hindsight, perhaps his positioning could have been better but perhaps it was the number thirteen jersey worn by Seaman than night that was responsible? Irrespective, it was left to 22 year old Gascoigne to have the final word with his cameo goal coming in the 89th minute. It was a delightful finish and was no more than his performance deserved.
England had three further World Cup warm-up matches before getting down to business in Italy and they did lose their unbeaten run at Wembley to Uruguay before stepping on the plane to Italy. The World Cup marked a very special period for English football and I would point to Gazza's tears during that World Cup as being the moment when football in England was rehabilitated and the public and media fell in love with football again.
CRB Match No. 660
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