Never mind the outcome: who SHOULD'VE won that World Cup?

There’s nothing more final than an unjust football result. No appeals process exists to shake off the unpalatable, unacceptable and unfair.

What can Atletico do about Real’s last-gasp leveller in the 2014 Champions League Final? And Smith Won’t Score, Brighton fans. It’s best just not to dwell on it.

But what if you could go back and rewrite history in the name of Justice? And what if that was then accepted as science fact by all?

World Cup fans should ask, did the right team win? And I say no, not always.

The best Brazil team not to win the World Cup?

Take 1982 for example: Italy won it but Brazil should have. It would have ended a 12 year post-Pele drought.  An era of Zico, Socrates and Falcao made more fabulous by the last vestiges of sepia-coloured TV pictures and excitable commentary on the phone.

Of course, Italy will point to Paolo Rossi's stunning hat-trick against them - but it was a defeat to send Brazil into their shell until they exacted revenge over Italy in the worst ever World Cup Final twelve years later. A Final so bad it made Diana Ross’ Opening Ceremony penalty kick look appropriate.

But one solitary ninety minutes stands above as the game that both launched a mighty nation, while chiming a knell for another.

The 1954 Final between West Germany and Hungary was the ninety which changed football's direction the most.  Their status’ are now so completely in contrast today, it’s hard to imagine it came about as a freak result . West Germany’s so-called Miracle of Bern.

Back then, Germany was demoralised, a literally divided nation. What they wanted was a morale boost just nine years after the disaster of World War II.

No one would begrudge Hungary oneWorld title

Their opponents, the marvellous Magyars were - well, marvellous. Imperious, brilliant - and the mantle of world champions would all but confirm an era of magnificence.

Hungary had already humbled the West Germans 8-3 in the group stages and made it to the Final courtesy of victory over 1950 runners-up, Brazil and champions, Uruguay.

Ferenc Puskas fractured his ankle during the Finals – but it’d be disingenuous to his teammates to blame that for Hungary’s shocker.

Instead, West Germany's 3-2 win launched a dynasty while Hungary disappeared from sight by 1962. Add to that Germany being disallowed from the 1950 tournament – this was their first post-war football foray.

By 1990, West Germany's destiny was built on history, self-belief and structure. Those pillars helped push them past a weak Argentina.

But that was when host nation Italy should've won.

Fuelled by the unexpected six-shooter Salvatore Schillaci, Italy powered their way through the group stages with Toto's firebrand goals.

Toto's pumped up goal celebrations were nuclear-fuelled

They were cruelly denied by a semi-final penalty shoot-out loss to defending champions Argentina – but it would have been a travesty if one-man Team Maradona had retained the Cup. Andreas Brehme's clinical penalty booked West Germany's date with destiny again.

And it's not just about the World Cup, it's a European Championship thing too. And that my friends, is all about England.

England are so unlucky. They could've buried the mantle of Least Successful Big Nation before Spain ditched the unwanted title first with consecutive victories in Euro 2008, 2012 and the World Cup in between.

It’s because Euro 96 and 2004 belonged to the Three Lions.

Baddiel and Skinner’s “thirty years of hurt” seems a reasonable tariff for crimes against preparation nowadays. It’s 50 and counting.

The Queen of England too excited by a German win?

With ten goals, England scored more than any other in Portugal, starring the Golden Generation and fearless 18-year-old Wayne Rooney of Everton.

Just as Germany seemingly strut to victory every generation, England’s defeats are magnified by frustration at the sudden failure of well, usually penalty shoot-outs.

And the less we say about Wembley in 1996, the better.  With the Czechs, 80-1 outsiders at the start waiting in the final, it was a gimme for the host nation at Wembley .

Excuse me, I have to leave the keyboard for a couple of minutes.

And while we’re on host-nations, Holland should’ve been crowned European Champions for a second time in 2000. They succumbed to Italy in the semi-final on penalties – Italy in turn, lost to a French Golden Goal despite leading in the Rotterdam Final.

Greece's Plan A gameplan worked perfectly!

France were already world champions and maybe, the Clairefontaine youth project deserved this outstanding double recognition – but still,the Dutch with Kluivert, Overmars, Davids, Stam and van der Saar deserved to emulate the Gullits and van Bastens of a generation earlier.

On the other hand, England's bad luck aside, no one can argue with Greece winning Euro 2004; Otto Rehhagel’s procession of one-nil wins was a masterclass of gameplan – nor with Denmark’s romp to Euro 92 glory when UEFA pulled them in from summer holiday deckchairs to replace war-torn Yugoslavia.

As for England,’66 made up for the World Cups they carelessly didn't bother with in the thirties.

Our common memories make the thin-line between success and failure an open wound. What a pity there’s no revisionism in football.

England busking it all the way to Euro 2012

 Robben's strike: our statues get a great view of it.

England fans will breathe a collective sigh of relief as caretaker boss Stuart Pearce has declared, "I'm short term" after masterminding England's latest gulf in class.

Because a 3-2 friendly defeat to Holland leaves us nowhere in particular ahead of a big date in the diary.

With Euro 2012 three months away, Pearce mooted he was Plan B before kick-off. He explained he was there if Harry Redknapp (or anyone else) wasn't going to succeed Fabio Capello permanently.

Now he's incentivising the FA powerbrokers to get a replacement in as soon as possible. The Under-21 boss is committing to the senior job for however long it takes, so let's hope that's not too long.

Because at Wembley, England were busking it. After the Capello years, there was new thinking at the helm but with little commitment to it. We've just chucked an eye-watering £24m at Fabio's four-year plan: our reward for it? we're fifth favourites going into a major tournament.

Scott Parker was captain instead of stand-out Stevie and there was no room for Theo Walcott and Ashley Cole who's experience might've been regarded more highly considering the quality of the opposition.

Arjen Robben's opening goal showed the huge lack of experience we had against the truly world-class. His darting dribble and run cut a slice through our defence with almost no resistance, and as Robben's second goal confirmed deep into injury time, he posed a potent threat throughout.

Now this'll never happen. Nice pic though!

Then again there were some positives: no one was afraid to play, Daniel Sturridge, Adam Johnson and Danny Welbeck all dribbled there way into creating chances and Parker wore the armband with aplomb and responsibilty.

But after the England fight back, the Dutch deserved their winner. The composure of the Orange was greater - as was their sheer ability.

So a 3-2 defeat with the order of the goals falling in exactly the same way as England's darkest night at New Wembley - that defeat to Croatia which snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to deny us a Euro 2008 place.

Pearce is not cut out for the England job and doesn't rouse his troops as a boss. That's a strange thing to say about a man who inspired such passion and leadership among fans and teammates alike as a player.

Roll on Redknapp's arrival. He may not be the master tactician a la Mourinho, but as Tottenham's Roman Pavlyuchenko will testify, he will get his charges to "run around a bit" in pursuit of glory.

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United Spain are worthy world champions

Worthy winner

Spain swept through the World Cup Final with skill, drill and at the death, thrill. Starting the tournament as favourites and European champions, they've now become the sport's eighth world champion.

But there's a new generation of Dutch bridesmaids too. Think of Cruyff, Neeskens and Krol. Of Gullit, Rijkaard and van Basten. Of Bergkamp, Overmars and Stam.

Now add Robben, Sneijder and van Bommel to that list. For all the pomp and brilliance of Holland's previous generations, the class of 2010 couldn't exorcise the ghosts of '74 and '78. Instead they helped bestow upon Spain the greatest of honour of all with tough, uncompromising, frequently ugly play.

 

Holland Kong Phooey

The nineteenth World Cup Final blazed goalless through nearly two hours to reach resolution. Then Andres Iniesta brought down a pass from Cesc Fabregas to fire past Maarten Stekelenberg in the Dutch goal. Holland argued that the game might've been held up with a foul on Eljero Elia. Their protests fell on deaf ears.

Eight Dutchmen were scribbled into referee Howard Webb's book; the Total Football of Ajax and Holland it certainly wasn't. Johnny Heitinga saw red and thirteen others were booked. The man in the middle's never been so busy in a World Cup Final.

But for Spain, it's Total Victory. They're only the third nation to be world and European champions at the same time.

At opposing ends, both Robben and David Villa will be haunted by failure to convert golden chances. Both were denied by last-gasp interventions by the keeper. Sergio Ramos will wake up in the middle of the night too. He blazed a free header over the bar twelve minutes from normal time. Luckily for him, they won.

The second half was open and end-to-end, it was a surprise we needed thirty extra minutes to decide the destination of the prize.

Total Football reputation destroyed in one night.

But perhaps the lack of resolution in 90 minutes is a fitting end to this World Cup. A tournament mostly dictated by well-drilled, evenly matched teams who gave little away, many of whom ground out their results through fear of losing.

Despite wielding cards like confetti, Howard Webb, the first Englishman to referee a World Cup Final since Jack Taylor in 1974 had a solid game and showed great leniency (and humanity) when deciding not to send off Robben as the winger deliberately kicked the ball into the net after the whistle had blown. It would've been his second bookable offence.

Paul McGrath's dad and someone else waving.

Iker Casillas, still only 29, is a world champion in his 111th appearance for his country. Even Nelson Mandela made an appearance at Soccer City. Apparently, FIFA put him under some pressure to show up. He dropped out of the Opening Ceremony last month after the tragic loss of a great grand daughter in a car crash.

But it's Spain who become champions for the first time making sense of their great heritage at last, and all is right in the footballing world.

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Burley confidence trick does Scotland no favours

By KEVIN HATCHARD. My colleague from Sportsmedia. A superb radio and text journalist. Kev explains why George Burley should've walked as Scotland boss.

The superb illusionist Derren Brown has set tongues wagging this month with his prediction of the National Lottery numbers, but I would argue there’s been an even slicker piece of misdirection recently.

Somehow George Burley has hypnotised the Scottish Football Association, and convinced them he’s the man to spearhead Scotland’s bid to qualify for Euro 2012. He’s conjured images of pride, passion, and a narrow failure to make the World Cup qualification playoffs.

Time to shatter some illusions. This failure was not as agonisingly heroic as Burley would have everyone believe. Even if Scotland had won their final qualifier against Holland, there’s no guarantee it would have been enough to make the playoffs. Indeed, Norway finished second with a meagre return of ten points, and look set to miss out on the playoffs as the runner-up with the worst record.

Scotland’s results in arguably the weakest qualification group were frankly pitiful. The campaign started with defeat in Skopje to a pedestrian Macedonia side ranked more than twenty places below them, and it says a lot that the laboured 2-0 win over the same opponents at Hampden was seen as one of Scotland’s best performances of the campaign. James McFadden’s superb solo goal was the tasty icing on a somewhat bland, crumbling cake.

Burley’s men took just one point from two games against a Norway side that are outside the world’s top forty and haven’t qualified for a major tournament since Euro 2000. The furore surrounding Chris Iwelumo’s astonishing close-range miss in the home match diverted attention away from a dire performance, a game in which keeper Craig Gordon rescued his country on several occasions.

Burley’s team selection for the 4-0 defeat in Oslo baffled most observers, and the subsequent performance was alarmingly poor. The sending off of defender Gary Caldwell was unfortunate, but the resultant collapse was inexcusable.

The two victories over Iceland were the least that could be expected against a team that finished bottom of the group with just one win.

Despite a litany of errors and tactical misjudgements, Scotland could still have given themselves a chance with victory at home to the Dutch. It seems appropriately depressing that a misdirected header from David Weir, parachuted back into the international set-up by Burley at the age of 39, should lead to the late Dutch goal that ended Scotland’s World Cup dream. Another Burley gamble had backfired, and the qualification campaign lay in ruins.

Burley was quick to praise his defeated troops, using words like pride and passion. I would have thought that pride in playing for your country and passion for the game are surely the minimum requirements, not qualities to be given high praise.

The SFA used the same language of losers when justifying the decision to retain Burley’s services. They too spoke of passion and commitment, describing Burley as a man who deeply cares about his country. No mention of tactical nous, no reference to levels of performance. There is talk of heading in the right direction, but no evidence to back that up.

Normally I would be the first to advocate managerial stability, but in this case I would make an exception. I fear the SFA and Burley are using sleight of hand to sell the loyal Tartan Army a qualification dream that cannot come true, and the rabbit’s set to stay rooted to the bottom of the Euro 2012 hat.

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McClaren goes native in Holland - if that's Dutch, he's an Englishman!

"Ooh, thish ish shushpect!" shaysh Jonny! Confirming what all England fans knew already, Steve McClaren speaks Double Dutch! Here's the original interview when Twente Enschede's new coach revealed he's acquired a mystery Dutch accent. However many times you see this, it'll always raise a laugh. Lekker!



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