Victory to England
against Sweden was deservingly gained and loss of home Country Russia against Croatia is a big blow to
them. But none can do anything about it
to undo this loss to Russia. It was very
sad view to see the thousands of vociferous Russian spectators supporting their
home team to win this match. The
decider acquired thru the Penalties looked to be very unfortunate even though
both the teams fought well to gain the supremacy of this clash.
The first clash between
the two European teams Sweden and
England though not so rich in terms of display of the play yet England had an
upper hand throughout where skipper Kane played in a heroic role the “captan’s
inning” extremely well. He also as on
now is the leading goal scorer with the
tally reaching to 6 goals. Will he succeed in creating a new record by scoring
more goals in one tournament than all his predecessors? Or he will go for “Match Fixing” phenomenon
which is very much common in Cricket?
In their first time
ever participation in the World Cup tournament held in England in 1966,
Portugal was one of the most powerful teams among all the 16 participating
teams since this was the maximum number of contestants permitted then. The increase came later on by 8 teams first
and finally by another 8 reaching to the current 32. Portugal had a very
powerful team comprising the world best front liner, a Mocambiqan born Eusebio along with his compatriot and
the captain of their team Coluna who like a Wall of Gibraltar stood firm to
guard his team’s citadel. Among the others who were of world class standard
were the forwards Torres and Jose Augusto.
With this powerful team in the qualifying round itself, Portugal
defeated Pele’s Brazil and sent Brazil back home.
Pele was astonished to
see in another Portuguese speaking country, Portugal, there appeared in the Constellation
of most shining Star in Eusebio whose goals
made Brazil as cockroach in front of Portuguese Lions. After the match Pele
came to Eusebio hugged him tightly and gifted his Jersey to Eusebio by saying “
Take my Jersey for you because now YOU ARE PELE”. The real Pele is no more the king of foot-ball,
now you are the King of Foot-ball”. Then
the world Press and commentators flashed this news to all over the globe. Immediately then Eusebio scripted his
Autobiography titled “MY NAME IS EUSEBIO” which was an English translation,
original being in Portuguese the language Eusebio spoke. Additonally this book was translated into 3 –
4 more languages. In this Autobiography, Eusebio by paying rich tributes to Pele
says “Pele is really a great player and do not compare me to him, he has his
own uniqueness and greatness as I have mine too. Hence, do not call me Pele but
call me Eusebio because MY NAME IS EUSEBIO”. Before his departure back to Lisboa from
England after Portugal lost in the semi-final against the home country England,
Eusebio was invited by the then British Premier Wilson and when the British
premier got up to welcome Eusebio, in the words of Eusebio himself, “Purely in
a Portuguese style I shook hand with the British premier’.
In that book, Eusebio
says that when Portugal was qualified to participate in that World Cup
tournament in England he was sure to win the award for highest number of
individual goals in a particular tournament.
Yet still he decided to have a pact between him and Jose Augusto whose
job will be to supply more and more Balls to Eusebio so that Eusebio scores more
goals. And precisely because Jose
Augusto did his job well, Eusebio implemented his plan successfully, finally Eusebio
became the highest individual scorer of that tournament. Portugal that time was so sure to win the Cup
but in the semi-final in a last minute change in the venue, the encounter was
shifted to Wembley Stadium which was more advantageous to England. Then for the
Third Place spot, Portugal clashed with the Soviet Russia whose goal posts were
manned by the mighty Keeper Lev Yaschin who was considered as the greatest
Goalkeeper this planet has ever produced.
In the second goal Eusebio scored from the Penalty, Eusebio pointed his
finger to Yaschin indicating his intention to Yachin that he is shooting the
ball to his right corner and he did it but yet Yaschin failed to dive to the
direction Eusebio indicated.
After that encounter, a
mediaman asked Eusebio why you hit the Penalty so hard? Replied Eusebio “Penalty means 100% goal and
to ensure that it becomes a goal, if by chance the opponent’s goalkeeper puts his hand to the ball to prevent it from going
into the net, the power of the shot should break the hand of the goal-keeper
and the ball must enter into the net.
Will we ever get to see
another Eusebio?
A.Veronica Fernandes.
