Dramatic soccer wins in extra time

Press, 29 September 1988, Page 45

Dramatic soccer wins in extra time

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Brazil and the Soviet Union clawed their way back from the brink of defeat to squeeze through to the Olympic soccer final with dramatic extra time victories. Brazil trailed West Germany, 1-0, with 11 minutes to go at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium late ■Tuesday evening. But an equaliser from its prolific striker, Romario, sent it into a goalless extra period and a penalty shootout which it won 3-2.

The Soviet team lived almost as dangerously against Italy in the first semi-final staged in the southern port of Pusan. It grabbed a goal 12 minutes from the end of normal play to level the score at 1-1. It went on to win 3-2 in extra time. Brazil’s hero was the 22-year-old keeper, Claudio Taffarel, who saved three spot kicks, including two in the penalty shootout. Taffarel, a descendant of German immigrants,

kept the Brazilians in the match , with nine minutes left when he stopped a Wolfgang Funkel penalty. He added to West Germany’s misery by saving from Olaf Janssen and Wolfram Wuttke in the shootout. The West German footballer of the year, Juergen Klinsmann, also missed from the spot when he blasted his kick against the foot of the post. Taffarel’s reflexes and DnmoriA'c Civth CHAI Of

the tournament took Brazil into its second successive Olympic final. It was beaten, 2-0, by France in Los Angeles four years agb. The Soviet .inspiration once again was the big blond midfielder, Alexei Mikhailichenko, who also proved to be the executioner. He scored his team’s third goal 12 minutes from the end of extra time when Italy was reduced to 10 men after the zipfpndpr Firn Ferrara

had been sent off for a foul. Arminas Narbekovas had put the Soviet Union into the lead three minutes into the extra period and though Italy got one back through the substitute, Andrea Carnevale, a minute from time, it was too late. Italy took the lead in normal time through the veteran striker, Antonio Virdis, in the fiftieth minute, but Igor Dobrolovski made it 1-1 in the seventv-eiehth.