Diego Maradona: 2 hands on the trophy, after 1 hand on the ball
Today, the 2018 World Cup gets underway in Russia. The following countries have qualified:
* From UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations: Host nation Russia, defending Champions Germany (also winners in 1954, 1974 and 1990), 2010 winners Spain, 1998 winners France, 1966 winners England, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden and Serbia.
* From CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation: 5-time winners Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002), 1978 and 1986 winners Argentina, 1930 and 1950 winners Uruguay, Peru and Colombia.
* From CAF, the Confederation of African Football: Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt and Nigeria.
* From AFC, the Asian Football Confederatina: Australia, Iran, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
* And from CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.
Notably not qualifying: From Europe, 4-time winners Italy (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006); and the Netherlands. And, from CONCACAF, the United States of America.
America had failed to qualify for every World Cup from 1954 through 1986, but had qualified for every one from 1990 to 2014. This time, due to manager Jurgen Klinsmann's ineptitude, and replacement manager Bruce Arena's inability to bail them out after Klinsmann was fired far too late, we didn't make it.
The last time a World Cup was played without America's participation was in Mexico, from May 31 to June 29, 1986, a tournament that included Canada's only appearance thus far; a quarterfinal in which Argentina got revenge on England for the Falklands War thanks to Diego Maradona's cheating, which he called "The Hand of God"; and a Final in which Argentina beat West Germany, a Final reversed the next time, in Italy, when West Germany, in its final athletic competition before German reunification, beat Argentina.
So the last time a World Cup was played without America was 32 years ago. How long has that been?
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The World Cup has since been played in America. And also in Italy, France, Japan, South Korea, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, and, now, Russia. The Olympic Games have since been held twice each in America, Canada, Russia and South Korea; and once each in France, Spain, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Britain and Brazil.
Germany has been reunited. But Czechoslovakia, Indonesia and Sudan have since been split into 2 countries; Yugoslavia, into 7; and the Soviet Union into 15.
France and Spain have each won their 1st World Cup. The Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal have each won their 1st tournament -- in each case, the UEFA European Championship.
There was no "top flight" in American soccer. The North American Soccer League had folded on March 28, 1985. The Major Indoor Soccer League was still going, but the far smaller size of the field, and its hockey-inspired borders preventing many out-of-bounds plays, made it a very different game, much as Arena Football compares to the NFL.
England's top flight was still "Football League Division One," and the main European tournament was still "The European Cup." For the 1992-93 season, they would, respectively, become "the Premier League" and "the UEFA Champions League," although the European Cup is still the name of the latter's trophy.
Liverpool had just won the Football League and the FA (Football Association) Cup, the only time that venerable team has ever won "The Double." But, because of the Liverpool fans' actions at the previous year's European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, they and all other English teams were banned from European competition for 5 years, with Liverpool getting a 6th year. Steaua Bucuresti became the 1st team from Romania to win the European Cup, and they remain the only one.
Most English soccer stadiums had overcrowded standing sections, and were older than even the oldest of American ballparks (Comiskey Park went up in 1910), and, as had been proven the year before at Bradford City in Yorkshire, they were firetraps. A fatal disaster like what happened at the 1985 European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium was practically inevitable. In 1989, at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, Yorkshire, the inevitable came true.
Ronaldo (the real one) was 9 years old. Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Gianluigi Buffon, Didier Drogba and Carles Puyol were 8. Tim Howard and Andrea Pirlo were 7. Ronaldinho and Steve Gerrard were 6. John Terry and Iker Casillas were 5. Hope Solo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Landon Donovan and Petr Cech were 4. Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey and Franck Ribery were 3. Luis Robles was 2. Wayne Rooney was 1 and a half. Heather O'Reilly, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bradley Wright-Phillips were 1. Megan Rapinoe and Mario Gomez were 11 months. Marta was 4 months. Manuel Neuer was 3 months.
And Olivier Giroud, Jamie Vardy, Luis Suarez, Dax McCarty, Leonardo Bonucci, Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Robert Lewandowski, Diego Costa, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Alex Morgan, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard, Antonie Griezmann, Jack Wilshere, Neymar, Mario Gotze, Paul Pogba, Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Pulisic and Gianluigi Donnaruma hadn't been born yet.
Current NYCFC manager Domenec Torrent was playing for Guixols in his native Catalonia, Spain. Todd Bowles of the Jets was a rookie with the Washington Redskins. Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was playing at the University of Richmond. David Quinn of the Rangers was playing at Boston University. Pat Shurmur of the Giants and Doug Weight of the Islanders were both in high school in Michigan. Aaron Boone of the Yankees, David Fizdale of the Knicks, Katie Smith of the Liberty, and Jesse Marsch of the Red Bulls were in junior high school. Mickey Callaway of the Mets and John Hynes of the Devils were 11 years old.
The Boston Celtics won the NBA title during the 1986 World Cup. The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup just before it began. The other defending World Champions in North American major league sports were the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago Bears. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Michael Spinks.
There were 26 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The idea that a person could legally marry someone of the same gender, with all the rights and privileges that couples in a "traditional marriage" would have, was ludicrous -- but so was the idea that corporations were "people," with all the rights and privileges thereof. No Justice who was on the Supreme Court then is still on it now.
The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was Vice President. His son George W. had recently quit drinking (or so he says), but was still a businessman who couldn't find oil in Texas, and had run for office once and lost, having failed at everything he'd ever done to that point. He was about to turn 40.
Bill Clinton, the same age, was about to be elected to his 4th term as Governor of Arkansas. Barack Obama was at Harvard Law School. George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, their wives, and the widows of Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy were all still alive. (Mr. and Mrs. Carter still are.)
The Governor of New York was Mario Cuomo, and his son Andrew was one of his aides; he's the Governor now. The Governor of New Jersey was Tom Kean, while current Governor Phil Murphy was a rising star at financial services company Goldman Sachs. The Mayor of New York, uh, was, uh, Ed Koch. Current Mayor Bill de Blasio was working for the City's Department of Juvenile Justice.
There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Philippine Campaign, the Boer War, and the Russo-Japanese War. There were still survivors of the Iroquois Theatre fire, the General Slocum fire, the Potemkin Mutiny and the Great San Francisco Earthquake.
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War were the holders of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was teaching at a seminary in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Brian Mulroney. The monarch of Great Britain was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed -- and the Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher. There have since been 5 Presidents of the United States, 5 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.
Major novels of 1986 included Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides, Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Supremacy, and Stephen King's It. George R.R. Martin, a Met fan, and a Jet fan -- both of which may explain his penchant for unhappy endings for characters -- published the science fiction novel Tuf Voyaging. J.K. Rowling had just graduated from the University of Exeter, and was now working as a researcher for Amnesty International in London.
Major films released in the Spring of 1986 included Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to School, Short Circuit, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, SpaceCamp, Legal Eagles, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Raw Deal, and Cobra, in which Sylvester Stallone's Detective Vincent Cobretti tells a criminal, "You're a disease. And I'm the cure."
The Fox Network was about to become the 4th major network, and The Oprah Winfrey Show was about to go to national syndication after 2 years as a Chicago-only show. Matlock and Perfect Strangers had recently debuted. Diff'rent Strokes, Benson, The Fall Guy, Hardcastle and McCormick, The Love Boat, T.J. Hooker and The Merv Griffin Show had wrapped up.
Gene Roddenberry was putting the final touches on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. George Lucas was still reaping the benefits of the original Star Wars trilogy. Steven Spielberg had just produced An American Tail, a cartoon about a Jewish immigrant mouse -- not to be confused with Art Spiegelman's Maus, which takes place half a century later, during the Holocaust. Christopher Reeve was still playing Superman, a new Batman film was being prepared, Colin Baker was playing The Doctor, and Timothy Dalton was filming The Living Daylights, his 1st outing as James Bond.
No one had yet heard of Bart Simpson, Robocop, Codename V, John McClane, Zack Morris, Hayden Fox, the Seinfeld Four, Deadpool, Buffy Summers, Alex Cross, Fox Mulder, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Bridget Jones, Xena, Carrie Bradshaw, Jed Bartlet, Tony Soprano, Master Chief, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Rick Grimes, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan, Don Draper, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White or Richard Castle.
When the 1986 World Cup began, the Number 1 song in America was "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston. Before the tournament wrapped up, that song had been replaced at Number 1 by "Live to Tell" by Madonna, and that by "On My Own," a duet by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald.
Albums released that Spring included A Kind of Magic by Queen, So by Peter Gabriel, Invisible Touch by his former band Genesis, Back in the High Life by Steve Winwood, True Blue by the aforementioned Madonna, Love Zone by Billy Ocean, Mistrial by Lou Reed, Home of the Brave by his eventual wife Laurie Anderson, Like a Rock by Bob Seger, The Final Countdown by Europe, Evol by Sonic Youth, The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths, former Go-Go's singer Belinda Carlisle's solo debut Belinda, and and the self-titled debut albums by Crowded House and New Kids On the Block.
Michael Jackson was recording his album Bad. Paul McCartney had a hit with the theme from the Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd film Spies Like Us. Bob Dylan was about to release his album Knocked Out Loaded. Frank Sinatra had recently collapsed onstage in Atlantic City, and was diagnosed with diverticulitis.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $2.30 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 22 cents, and a New York Subway ride $1.00. The average price of a gallon of gas was 93 cents, a cup of coffee $1.25, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $2.85, a movie ticket $3.77, a new car $13,016, and a new house $112,000. On Friday, June 27, 1986, 2 days before the World Cup Final, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 1,892.72.
The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower in Chicago. The leading home video game system was the Atari 5200 SuperSystem. There were home computers and desktop computers, but they were still pretty bulky. The idea of a computer fitting on your lap, let alone in your pocket, was ridiculous.
Eric Thomas developed LISTSERV, the 1st email list management software. But hardly anybody had heard of the Internet, and there was no World Wide Web, to say anything of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia, Pinterest or Vine. And portable phones were still of the large "brick" variety. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra.
In the Spring of 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant melted down in Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident ever. It is believed to have killed over 4,000 people. Libyan terrorists killed 3 people with a bomb at a West Berlin dance club, a known hangout for American soldiers. President Reagan followed this with an air raid on Libya. A bomb killed 4 people on a TWA flight from Rome to Athens. A civil war began in Somalia. A ferry sank in Bangladesh, killing over 600 people.
Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome, the 1st time in modern history that a Pope had visited a synagogue. A World's Fair, Expo 86, opened in Vancouver. Hands Across America, an anti-homelessness rally, was held.
Brad Daugherty, a center from the University North Carolina, was the 1st pick in the NBA Draft, taken by the Philadelphia 76ers. But they stupidly traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Roy Hinson; and Moses Malone and Terry Catledge to the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) for Jeff Ruland and Clifford T. Robinson. On the same day.
Despite being newly-crowned Champions, the Boston Celtics had the 2nd pick, having traded up, and took University of Maryland forward Len Bias. The next day, Bias died of a cocaine overdose. Just 8 days after that, showing even worse timing, Cleveland Browns safety Don Rogers died of a cocaine overdose the day before he was supposed to get married.
And East Brunswick High School in Central Jersey, in its 25th season of varsity baseball, won its 1st Middlesex County Championship. I was then a student manager, responsible for keeping score and calling the results and pertinent statistics in to the local newspapers.
Benny Goodman, and Kate Smith, and Wallace Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, died. So did legendary songwriters Harold Arlen and Alan Jay Lerner. And Frances Scott Fitzgerald, the only child of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. And Fritz Pollard, NFL pioneer and the 1st black head coach in North American major league sports, died.
Jenna Coleman, and Lena Dunham, and Robert Pattinson were born. So were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. So were Richard Madden and Oona Chaplin (daughter of Geraldine, granddaughter of Charlie, and great-granddaughter of Eugene O'Neill), who went on to play star-crossed lovers on Game of Thrones. So were baseball pitchers Phil Hughes and Felix Hernandez, and basketball player Candace Parker, and soccer stars Vincent Kompany, Mario Mandzukic, Igor Akinfeev, Charles N'Zogbia, Cheick Tiote, and Maurice Edu, one of the players who helped to rebuild American soccer.
June 29, 1986: Argentina defeats West Germany 3-2 in the World Cup Final at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. So ended a World Cup for which America did not qualify.
After 7 straight World Cups, America did not qualify for the World Cup that begins today.
Maybe next time. Qatar 2022.
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