Out of the Shadows by Gary Jordan

Author:Gary Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2017-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Back Door Qualification

IN a room in Zurich, not long after the qualifying draw was made, the top brass from each of the five nations in UEFA Group 4 got together to arrange the fixtures for the next 18 months that would see two of the teams go to Spain for the World Cup finals. Sometimes this can be a simple negotiation. Other times it can be long and tedious. Unfortunately for the English party this one fell into the long and tedious category. With each nation trying to force their own agenda it’s a case of bend and compromise. It wasn’t ideal that England ended up with three away trips in a row, albeit the last one after a summer break, but that was the hand they had to play. Tor Fossen was friendly in his approach and it had at that time seemed like a decent bargain for Ron Greenwood.

‘You’ve asked to play us first at Wembley and that’s all right with us, but we’ll only settle for that if England come to Oslo in September. This will be our biggest game, we’ll get our biggest crowd and we’re also at our strongest then,’ he said. After weighing up the pros (weakest team in the group, therefore the most attractive tie for September), against the cons (start of the season, players not up to full speed), the deal was done.

Hindsight is such a great thing. The clock could not be turned back.

A fortnight after the loss in Oslo, England fans could only look on and see what was already a sizeable mountain of a task, become one the scale of Everest. When the result came through in the early evening that Romania had been held to a goalless draw by Hungary the situation got more desperate for Ron Greenwood’s men.

Romania had peppered their visitors’ goal throughout the game, but try as they did there was no way through, and the Hungarians raised their hands in the air when the final whistle blew as if in victory. It was a point that could prove decisive as they have two home games to wrap up the four points needed to see them over the line first in this ever-confusing twist of events. Should they beat Switzerland and Norway at home they will have booked their ticket before they flew to London for what England hoped would still be a live rubber in the group.

‘It’s the one result we didn’t want. It puts Hungary in a very strong position and the situation for us now is very bleak,’ was Greenwood’s summary. He had done the maths and knew that Romania just needed to pick up three points from their two games against the Swiss, as well as the Hungarians gaining maximum points before they met at Wembley. That sequence of events would see England sitting at home the next summer. ‘We have nobody to blame but ourselves. I have a few daggers in my back but at least I can still smile.

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