The Tribune

with CHARLIE HARPER

The world’s greatest sporting competition has been played every four years since 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 when the world was consumed by World War II.

This year’s competition, which reaches its scheduled culmination with a climactic match between Spain and Argentina on Sunday afternoon outside New York City, has been arguably the finest ever held.

This is mostly because of the exceptional level of competition on the fields of the USA, Canada and Mexico who jointly hosted the 2026 World Cup. But it is also because of the numerous potentially distracting elements that could have derailed or diminished the magnificence of this year’s World Cup, but did not.

The soccer world’s governing body, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), under the leadership of 56-year-old Swiss administrator Giovanni Infantino for the past ten years, continued this year to pursue a steady course towards wider global profitability in the world’s most popular sport by expanding the field of national teams invited to compete.

48 nations eventually qualified for this year’s World Cup, and many sceptics feared that the level of competition would be diminished by the inclusion of ‘lesser’ teams.

This, emphatically, did not happen. The athletes and the national soccer organisations that supported them and their coaches produced some of the finest, most memorable matches ever seen in international competition.

In the round of 16, half of the survivors were relatively lesser-renowned teams representing the three host nations USA, Canada and Mexico; Morocco and Egypt from Africa; Paraguay, Switzerland and Norway. And three of these upstarts actually won to advance to the next, quarter-final round.

Norway in particular caught the world’s eye. In upsetting Brazil on July 5 in New York, the Viking talisman, Erling Haaland scored twice late in the game and then ebulliently led his teammates in unique, charming post-game celebrations.

Haaland’s good-natured charisma may come to symbolise the passing of the torch of superstar fame from current worldwide soccer leaders like Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Ronaldo to a new generation of heroes.

Meanwhile, the semi-final games this week offered surprises and epic moments. On Tuesday, a Spanish team riding a record-tying 37-game unbeaten streak thoroughly outplayed tourney favourite but surprisingly uninspired France in a 2-0 victory. The Spanish were everywhere on defence and relentlessly opportunistic on offence.

Their victory was decisive, and they will likely be favoured over Argentina in Sunday’s finale.

Spain is an especially well-coached team. They are disciplined, organised and precise. They figure to wear down their opponents Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon in Atlanta, both England and Argentina hit the ground running, but the first half of the match produced relatively little drama. Each side seemed to seek tactical advantage rather than trying to score.

This all changed in the second half. Though England scored first on an acrobatic change of pace move from winger Anthony Gordon only ten minutes after half-time, Argentina began to apply sustained pressure and it seemed only a matter of time before a breakthrough would come. Midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who plays his club football for Chelsea in London, rocketed in a tying goal at 85 minutes, and the English seemed to fade back a bit.

Less than ten minutes later in extra time, Lautaro Martinez headed in a well-placed cross from Messi to trigger a massive celebration and return Argentina to the championship game.

Earlier in the tournament, tiny or obscure nations whom few could pinpoint on a world map dazzled much more famous opponents. Most memorably, West Africa’s tiny Cape Verde will always be remembered for seriously scaring defending champion Argentina on July 3 before finally succumbing to Lionel Messi’s creative greatness on July 3.

Since the US was the main host nation during this semiquincentennial year of its independence, it was probably inevitable that American president Donald Trump would become involved at several points. Infantino smartly involved Trump early on, successfully pursuing a partnership based on public flattery of the president. FIFA awarded Trump a transparently phoney honour in bestowing on him the first ‘annual FIFA peace prize’ last December, to great public ridicule.

But this policy generally worked to the advantage of the competition -- until it didn’t. Trump’s involvement ultimately backfired when the president admitted to having interceded with Infantino to overturn a disqualifying ‘red card’ issued to the leading American goal scorer Folarin Balogun in the later, ‘knockout’ stages of the tourney. The US team unravelled in its next match and its magic run was over.

This year’s World Cup featured intriguing match-ups like Spain vs Portugal, England vs Mexico, Egypt vs Iran, Spain vs France and England vs Norway. But yesterday’s semi-final contest between England and Argentina was the tourney’s most anticipated match.

For over 60 years, this rivalry has simmered, often bursting into flame. England defeated Argentina in a brief war over control of the South Atlantic archipelago Falkland Islands in 1982, but that conflict only accentuated a much longer-running soccer rivalry.

The first World Cup meeting between England and Argentina was a 3-1 win for England in 1962. But when they met again in a quarter-final at London’s venerable Wembley Stadium four years later, the game would go down in infamy.

Numerous accounts recall how England’s manager Alf Ramsay described Argentina's players as ‘animals’ after that 1966 game that Argentine fans would call ‘el robo del siglo’ (‘the theft of the century’) because of its captain Antonio Rattin's disqualification and claims that Geoff Hurst's winning goal was offside. Notwithstanding the controversy, England won 1-0 on the way to its only World Cup title.

Rattin, who coincidentally died last Saturday at the age of 89, was booked twice for fouls on heroic English stars Bobby Charlton and Hurst, but he refused to leave the pitch when ordered to do so by the official. When Rattin eventually left the field escorted by two police officers, he sat in protest on a red carpet reserved for Queen Elizabeth II.

That incident led to FIFA introducing yellow and red cards for decisions and to avoid confusion between officials and players without a common language. Regardless, Rattin's actions and Argentina's perceived rough play led to Ramsay's ‘animals’ comment.

The next highlight in this iconic national rivalry occurred four years after the Falklands War.

It came in the 51st minute of the World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium on June 22, 1986. There has arguably never been a more pivotal or infamous moment in World Cup history.

Diego Maradona, Argentina's captain and the world's greatest player at the time, leapt above England goalkeeper Peter Shilton and (illegally) guided the ball into the net with his hand to put his team 1-0 ahead.

"I knew it was my hand," Maradona said in 2019. "It wasn't my plan, but the action happened so fast that the linesman didn't see me putting my hand in. The referee looked at me and he said: 'Goal.' It was a nice feeling, like some sort of symbolic revenge against the English." Maradona was referring to the national Argentine humiliation in the Falklands War.

Maradona’s goal, long remembered as ‘The Hand of God’, opened the scoring in an eventual 2-0 victory. This year’s defending champs Argentina rode that controversial win to capture their second World Cup in 1986.

But there’s more: In 1998 and 2002, the teams met again in the World Cup. In the first match, Argentina’s Diego Simeone tricked young English superstar David Beckham into an angry response that earned Beckham a red card disqualification, and undermanned England ultimately lost the match. Four years later, Beckham earned his revenge in a 1-0 win.

But England vs Argentina had become a legendary rivalry, perpetually ignited by Argentine resentment of their loss of the Falkland Islands.

Simeone, for many years now the canny, still pugnacious and successful coach of Spain’s Atlético Madrid club team, said that "quite apart from all the political history, the desire of the whole country is to defeat England," he said. "We knew that in 1998 the hearts of the Argentine people were with us."

"Every time we meet, this desire to win is bigger and more heartfelt. This is a classic. And we play it as a classic because we are all conscious of how happy we can make our country by winning."