[Arcane Astral Aeons]

Held in Spain between 13th June/11th July

This World Cup Had Drama The Quickest (Then) Goal Scored
An Outrageous Assault  A Team Being Taken Off The Field Due To A "Phantom Whistle"
And The First Ever World Cup Penalty Shoot-Out
Honduras,New Zealand,Cameroon And Kuwait all made their World Cup debuts
And Kuwait Certainly Made Their Mark(more of that later)
The usual suspects were there...Argentina(get to them shortly)Brazil Italy and of course West Germany
This world cup also welcomed back England for the first time since 1970
also present for the third world cup in a row were Scotland
also representing the home nations were Northern Ireland

Groups
1-Poland-Italy-Cameroon-Peru
2-West Germany-Austria-Algeria-Chile
3-Belgium-Argentina-Hungary-El Salvador
4-England-France-Czechoslovakia-Kuwait
5-Northern Ireland-Spain-Yugoslavia-Honduras
6-Brazil-Soviet Union-Scotland-New Zealand

we all like to sit down in front of the telly to watch the opening game,however the opening game was not shown live on t.v(remember folks we only had 3 channels then)due to the Falklands conflict that was happening at the time
only story printed about the game was a 1-0 win for Belgium
only other notable result in this group was a rather close game between Hungary/El Salvador  so close it finished  10-1 to Hungary

England`s first game was against the much fancied French
kick off....ball down the line..England throw in...into the box and hooked in by Bryan Robson  27 seconds apparently
France equalised midway through the first half ... but another Bryan Robson Effort and a goal by(wait for it) Paul Mariner(bet you all forgot about him)
a comfortable 2-0 over the Czechs and a hard fought thumping of Kuwait(i jest)1-0 saw England Progress
then came France/Kuwait  a game that decended into a farce...France leading 3-1 made it 4-1 at this point Prince Fahid the Head honcho of the Kuwaiti F.A signalled to the side to leave the pitch due to the fact of a "Phantom Whistle" from the crowd that caused his players to stop playing
after many minutes the referee disallowed the goal.....didnt really matter  France eventually won 4-1

i will leave Scotland to last
now onto Northern Ireland who were not expected to get out of the group
after a dire 0-0 with Yugoslavia and a 1-1 with Honduras.....they knew a win against the hosts Spain would not only mean an extended stay but also finish as group winners
24/6/1982---t.v on excited(as you know im irish)then the unthinkable happens........Gerry Armstrong  boom 1-0
and despite finishing the game with 10 men we actually won the group(thats were it ended)

What do we say about the Scots?
after a thumping 5-2 win against New Zealand,they then got their kilts well and truly lifted and had their arse spanked by Brazil,this despite having the audacity to actually take the lead
but all was not lost a win against The Soviet Union and they would be in the second phase....could they do it?.....err no
despite Joe Jordan putting the kilt men in front Chivadze levelled  Shengelia made it 2-1 and despite a late Souness goal  the Scots were yet again heading home

Other Notable Moments
The swindle of Gijon
Algeria had beaten Germany 2-1-lost to Austria 2-0 then beat Chile 3-2(4 points only 2 for a win then)
Austria going into their final group had also had 4 points but had conceded fewer goals
West Germany into their final group game had 3 points
what followed was one of the worst games ever....West Germany Score,Austria knew a draw or defeat would mean they qualified for the second phase Hrubesch scores after 10 minutes and the following 80 is played without a tackle from either side......shocking

Second Phase
the second phase was a set of 4 groups comprising 3 teams

Group A-Poland-Soviet Union-Belgium
Group B-West Germany-England-Spain
Group C-Italy-Brazil-Argentina
Group D-France-Austria-Northern Ireland

Poland edged out the Soviet Union in group A
West Germany edged out England and Spain(England v Spain....Keegan almost on the line and directs his header wide  told you that perm was terrible) in fact England didnt score a single goal in the second phase

Now to group C
Italy had beaten Argentina 2-1
Brazil also beat Argentina 3-1 a game that saw Madonna(sorry Maradona sent of)
this set up a game between Brazil/Italy  and this turned into one of the best game in World Cup History

Paulo Rossi puts Italy ahead after only 5 minutes
back come Brazil 7 minutes later  Socrates Levels
only for Rossi to put Italy back in from 13 minutes later
back the Brazilians 68 minutes Falcao 2-2
only for Rossi to complete a hat-trick on 74 mins

Group D
this belonged to the French
Beating Austria 1-0 and handing out a hiding to the Irish 4-1

Semi Finals
France - West Germany
Poland - Italy

not going to say much about Poland/Italy  suffice to say Italy won 2-0
France/West Germany......were do you begin to describe this?
after a dodgy start losing 3-1 to England the French suddenly started to look like they may win the whole thing
then came this game
this has gone down in world cup folklore
went like this:
17" Littbarski  gives the Germans the lead
26" Platini slots in a penalty   1-1

Battiston was then fouled.....actually assaulted by the german keep Schumacher
Battiston suffered 2 missing teeth,3 cracked ribs damaged vertebrae left the field wearing an oxygen mask
despite all this no free kick was given
The French the went 2-1 in extra time
the 3-1 game over?
not a chance
back came the germans to level it a 3-3 and force the world cups first ever penalty shoot out

Kaltz-Breitner-Littbarski-Rummenigge-Hrubesch scored for the german Stielike was the only one to miss
Giresse-Amoros-Rochetaeu-Platini Scored for the French-Six-Bossis missed for France
so the Germans won it 5-4 to set up a final with Italy

The Final
the game itself wasnt one that will live in the memory
niggly and spoilt by blatent gamesmanship by the germans
its only famous for that goal celebration my Marco Tardelli  after putting Italy 2-0 up

thanks for reading(if you did)
Quiz Time  anyone know what the 1982 mascot was called?

i may have missed things out but its only a bit of fun
cheers everyone