Peru 'gave away’ vital match, say Brazilians

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 24

Peru 'gave away’ vital match, say Brazilians

NZPA Mendoza, Argentina Brazilian soccer officials yesterday denounced the Peruvian team as “a traitor to football and sport” for its humiliating, 0-6, loss to Argentina that robbed Brazil of a place in the World Cup final.

“The Peruvian selection I today lost more than a foot- 1 ball game,” declared Mr ’ Carlos Alberto Cavalheiro, a leader of Brazil’s delegation, i “It lost its credibility and honour.” i The Brazilian coach, Mr i Claudio Coutinho, said he < wis shocked by the outcome I of the Argentina-Peru match, which catapulated the Argentinians into the final on i the strength of a better goal I record.

“They didn’t try and they gave away the match,” Mr Coutinho complained. “Some Peruvian players have no respect for the honour of football.”

Messrs Coutinho and Cavalheiro looked bitter and disheartened when they summoned reporters to the press centre for a news conference after the Argentina-Peru match ended in Rosario. The Brazilian .coach said he “wasn’t making any claims bu. stating a fact. Everybody who saw the game on television knows what happened.” “Argentina went into the match needing to win by four or more goals to beat Brazil to the final. It played before a fanatical crowd of 41.000 people. “We thought Peru could lose by 2-1, by 3-1 or even 3-0,” Mr Coutinho said. “The games between Peru and Argentina have traditionally been ferocious, so we never imagined that they would lose by 6-0.” “The Brazilian team feels totally frustrated.” Mr Coutinho added. "After our victory against Polant this afternoon, we thought we had the best chances of being finalists.” Mr Cavalheiro said all the Peruvian players had shown a lack of desire to win. Pressed by reporters, he refused to make exceptions. “The whole team let down its guard,” he said. “We didn’t see in the Peruvian players the same persistence and pride that Austria showed today,” Mr Cavalheiro added. "Austria

had nothing to win. What happened to them today would not matter, but they gave their best effort and set a moral example.” Austria upset the defending champion, West Germany, 3-2 and knocked the Germans out of the final four. Mr Coutinho said Brazil ‘‘woulo come out fighting” against Italy in Sunday’s battle for third place. “We

want to return to our country with an unbeaten team and peace of mind,” he said.

Results yesterday were.— Group A: Austria 3, West Germany 2: Netherlands 2, Italy 1. Group B: Brazil 3, Poland 1; Argentina 6, Peru 0. The Netherlands yesterday appeared to have lost their chance when they went a goal down to Italy and had their goal-keeper carried off on a stretcher. But the dashing Dutchmen had shocks in store for the confident Italians, scoring twice in the second half as they took the game by the scruff of the It looked bad for the Netherlands when Ernie Brandts, their 22-year-old all-purpose player, prodded the ball into his own net in the nineteenth minute as he tried to stop the Italian striker. Roberto Bettega, from scoring.

To make matters worse, th? unfortunate Brandts accidentally kicked his goal-

keeper, Piet Schrijvers, who had to be carried off. Jan Jongbloed, who at 37 had every reason to think that his 'World Cup career was at an end when he lost his place after letting in three goals against Scotland, suddenly found himself back in the spotlight. Italy’s game lost its fluency and the Netherlands began to take command. One of the key factors in the Dutch trahsfornatio»- was the decision of the Dutch manager, Mr Ernst Happel, to move up up Johan Neeskens, who had been marking the striker, Paolo Rossi. Brandts atone'" for his earlier blunder by shotting the Netherlands level early in the second hal' bef re Arie Haan produced one of the hottest shots in the tournament to power the Dutch to victory. Haan’s blockbuster from 40m was hit with such tremendous power that even a goal-keeper of Dino Zoff’s class was left without a hope of saving it. i At the same time, West Germany’s slender hopes were finally extinguished by Austria, whose earlier bright performances entitled it to some belated glory. Hans Krankl, confirming his place among tl world’s ton strikers, second twice, including his team’s eighty-eighth-minute winner. Austria’s other goal was an own goal by the German captain, Berti Vogts, and West Germany’s goals came from Karl-Heinz Rumn enigge and Bernd Holzenbein. With the Netherlands through and West Germany and Italy out of the way, attention switched to Mendoza, the town in the shadow of the Andes mountains, 1100 km west of Buenos Aires. It was the scene of Brazil’s last chance for glory

and it took it in a style of which its illustrious prede-i cessors would have been proud. Shrugging off the severe; setback of losing the forward, Zico, through injury after only 5 min, Brazil charged into the lead with one of those cannonball free! kicks in which it specialises.! This time Nelinh. was the! scorer.

Poland, past its best but still dangerous, equalised just before half-time through Gregorz Lato, but a purple! patch early in the second half saw Brazil cannon shots off both posts before “Dynamite” Roberto scored twice to put Brazil in with a good chance of reaching the final. Understandably nervous in the opening few minutes. Argentina almost found itself a goal down as the Peruvians went through the motions of trying to win the match. But once Mario Kempes had put Argentina ahead in the twentieth minute, the team settled down to “play as they knew :hey could” in the words of Cesar Menotti. The defender, Alberto j Tarantini, headed in the crucial second goal just before half-time and two goals in a minute r>on after the break, c e from Kempes and the other from Leopoldo Luque, gave Argentina the 4-0 lead it needed. Rene Houseman added a fifth a minute after coming on as substitute and Luque, still sporting the black eye he suffered in the game against Brazil, scored the sixth. Standings:—

GROUP A W D L F A Pts Neth. .. 2 1 0 9 4 5 Italy .. 1 1 1 2 2 3 W. Germany 0 2 1 4 5 2 Austria 1 0 2 4 8 2

GROUP B W D L F A Pts Argentina .. 2 1 0 8 0 5 Brazil .. 2 1 0 6 1 5 Poland .. 1 0 2 2 5 2 Peru .. 0 0 3 0 10 0