"It's up for grabs now... Thomas!"
May 26, 1989, 30 years ago: It is the most talked-about single game in the history of English soccer. It's not quite fair to call it their version of the Bobby Thomson Game, because the teams involved were not in the same city. But the goal that just about ended it is the equivalent of the Bobby Thomson home run.
The best way to explain this story to people who, like me until 2008, had never heard it before, is as follows:
* Think of Liverpool Football Club as the 2001 New York Yankees: A storied past, a great present, but going into the finale having had an unbearable tragedy that still haunts the city to this day. They have won something -- in the Yankees' case, the American League Pennant; in Liverpool's case, the FA Cup -- and there's one more thing to play for. And, for once, lots of people who wouldn't ordinarily root for them are doing so.
* And think of Arsenal Football Club as the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, looking for that elusive championship, and it looks like it's finally going to happen, and then the collapse.
* Now imagine that Bobby Thomson plays for the Dodgers, and you've got Michael Thomas.
Liverpool FC got good in the 1960s, under manager Bill Shankly. The "Mersey Reds" won the Football League Division One in 1964 and 1966, and the national tournament, the FA Cup, in 1965, electrifying the Merseyside region -- or, at least, those people in it who didn't root for the blue team in Liverpool, Everton Football Club.
After a transition period, bringing in some new players to replace aging ones, they won the League again in 1973, and the Cup again in 1974. They also won the UEFA Cup, the secondary European tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League, in 1973.
Shankly handed the manager's reins to his assistant, Bob Paisley, and they became not merely Champions, but dominant. Under his leadership, they won the League in 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 and 1983.
They also won the Football League Cup in 1981, 1982 and 1983; the UEFA Cup in 1976; and won the big one, the European Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League, in 1977, 1978 and 1980.
Paisley retired in 1983, and longtime assistant Joe Fagan became manager, winning the League, the League Cup, and the Champions League in 1984. For the 1985-86 season, their greatest playing legend, Kenny Dalglish, became manager. That season, he led them to both the Football League and the FA Cup -- "The Double." At that point, it had only been done 5 times: By Lancashire team Preston North End in 1889, Birmingham team Aston Villa in 1897, and by the 2 North London teams, Tottenham Hotspur in 1961 and Arsenal in 1971. (More about that in a moment.)
Liverpool won the League again under Dalglish in 1988, but lost the FA Cup Final. They were expected to challenge for both again in the 1988-89 season, and did.
*
Arsenal FC, one of the aforementioned North London teams, were as dominant in the 1930s as Liverpool were in the 1970s and '80s: While there were, as yet, no European tournaments in which they could play, they won 5 League titles and 2 FA Cups. After World War II, they remained one of the better teams, winning the League in 1948 (dethroning Liverpool as Champions) and 1953, and beating Liverpool in the FA Cup Final in 1950.
But manager Tom Whittaker died in office in 1956, and their great players got old. Replacing them proved difficult. Bertie Mee was named manager in 1966. In 1970, the rebuilt "Gunners" won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. (It became the UEFA Cup for the 1971-72 season, and the Europa League in 2010-11.)
In 1971, Arsenal won The Double, clinching the League in the last game, defeating Tottenham away (no mean feat, as they won the League Cup that year and 1973, and the UEFA Cup in 1972), and then defeating Liverpool in the FA Cup Final 5 days later, on an extra time goal drilled into the net by Charlie George. Until the game I'm about to talk about, George's goal, which he celebrated by lying on his back on the Wembley Stadium pitch, was the most legendary of Arsenal goals, and the 1970-71 edition was the most celebrated of Arsenal teams.
Liverpool edged Arsenal for the title in 1973, despite Arsenal winning at Liverpool's stadium, Anfield, in February. In 1974, Arsenal won away to Liverpool again -- but, going into the 1988-89 season, hadn't done so since. They reached 4 cup finals in 3 seasons from 1978 to 1980, but won only 1, the 1979 FA Cup.
George Graham, a player on that 1971 Double team, was named manager for the 1986-87 season, which culminated in beating Liverpool in the League Cup Final. Famously, Liverpool had never lost a game in which Ian Rush had scored for them. But after Rush gave them a 1-0 lead, 2 goals by Charlie Nicholas won the game for Arsenal.
Graham was a good player, but was considered a bit lazy. His nickname was "Stroller," because he didn't seem to be running much, particularly in comparison to more athletic teammates like Charlie George, Ray Kennedy and George Armstrong. As a manager, he was so discipline-oriented that, like Herb Brooks of the 1980 Gold Medal-winning U.S. Olympic hockey team, his players nicknamed him "The Ayatollah." He freely admitted, "The player I was could never have played for the manager I am."
Arsenal were also expected to contend for the 1989 League title. Sure enough, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1988, Arsenal beat Aston Villa to take 1st place, while Liverpool lost to Manchester United on New Year's Day, leaving them 9 points adrift.
Arsenal remained on top at the end of January. At the end of February, Arsenal were still top, with Liverpool in 8th, 19 points back -- but with 4 games in hand, meaning, if they won all 4, they'd be only 7 points back. They did go on a tear: At the end of March, they were only 5 points behind League-leading Arsenal, with a game in hand.
Arsenal were still top on April 15, beating Newcastle United 1-0 in a League match, while the FA Cup Semifinals were scheduled for neutral sites. Both Merseyside teams had gotten that far. Everton beat Norfolk team Norwich City 1-0 at Aston Villa's Villa Park. And Liverpool were set to play East Midlands team Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Yorkshire, home of Sheffield Wednesday.
But just 6 minutes in, the game was abandoned, as fans came onto the field. This was not a hooligans' invasion: It was a disaster. A combination of too many fans let into the wrong section by the police, and perimeter fencing, designed to prevent a pitch invasion, led to people being crushed. At least 766 people were hospitalized, and 94 died that day. Another, 14-year-old Lee Nichol, died 3 days later. Another, Tony Bland, 22, was in a coma for 4 years before finally passing away, bringing the death toll to the sad and now-familiar 96.
These were the starting lineups. For Liverpool:
1 GK Bruce Grobbelaar
2 CB Gary Ablett
3 LB Steve Staunton
4 RB Steve Nicol
5 CM Ronnie Whelan (Captain)
6 CB Alan Hansen
7 RM Ray Houghton
8 CF John Aldridge
9 CF Ian Rush
10 LM John Barnes
11 CM Steve McMahon
Rush would leave the game due to injury in the 32nd minute, and was replaced by Number 14, Peter Beardsley. Manager Kenny Dalglish, one of the many great Liverpool players who wore Number 7, could have included himself in his own selections, but chose not to. He played 1 more game the next season, and retired.
For Arsenal, George Graham went with the opposite of what one would expect: His theory was that, if they could keep a clean sheet in the 1st half, their confidence would be boosted, and they could get the 2 goals they needed. So he went with a 5-4-1 formation: 5 defenders, 4 midfielders and just 1 forward. This included a centreback wearing the traditional "playmaker" number of 10, something that wouldn't happen at Arsenal again until the acquisition of William Gallas in 2006.
Graham would later say, "You take these chances as a manager, and if it works, if it comes off, you're a hero. And if it doesn't, you're a villain":
1 GK John Lukic
2 RB Lee Dixon
3 LB Nigel Winterburn
4 CM Michael Thomas
5 SW David O'Leary
6 CB Tony Adams (Captain)
7 RW David Rocastle
8 LW Kevin Richardson
9 CF Alan Smith
10 CB Steve Bould
11 CM Paul Merson
British TV had the same idea with soccer that American TV had once had with baseball: Why give the product away? So few games were broadcast live. Instead, they would be filmed, and later videotaped, on the Saturday afternoon, and then shown in a package on Sunday afternoon, on the BBC's Match of the Day and ITV's The Big Match.
Only the biggest of matches -- such as the FA Cup Final, or the European Cup Final, whether an English team was in it or not -- was shown live. Well, this was the biggest of matches: At the time, the 2 biggest teams in the country, going at it for the League title. ITV broadcast it, live in prime time.
A crowd of 41,783 people, most of them paying £7.00 (about £17.85 in today's money, or $22.68 with the current U.K.-to-U.S. exchange rate), shoehorned themselves into Anfield. Judging by how many Arsenal fans have said they were there, one could sarcastically infer that the attendance may have been 10 times that. This is another comparison to that 1951 New York baseball playoff, except bad weather held that crowd to 2/3rds full.
On a warm late Spring night -- the start of Memorial Day weekend to Americans -- Liverpool wore their traditional home red. This meant that Arsenal couldn't wear their traditional red shirts with white sleeves, and used their "change strip" of the time, yellow with black trim. They came onto the pitch holding bouquets of flowers, and walked over to the stands and handed them out. An announcement was made that Arsenal would also donate to the Hillsborough victims' fund.
Emotions ran incredibly high. Easy to understand: In spite of the worst thing that had ever happened to British soccer fans, their team had won the FA Cup, and all they needed to do now was hold the opposition, which hadn't won in that building in 15 years, to a 1-goal win, and they would win the League, and thus The Double. It could be the greatest night of their lives.
They sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the top of their lungs, chorus after chorus. The 5,000 or so Arsenal fans who traveled the 212 miles from Highbury to Anfield could have been excused for feeling intimidated -- although Liverpool fans were not known for their violence, no matter what Italian fans or Manchester United fans might say.
Contrary to what was shown in the film Fever Pitch, which suggested that it was still daylight at the end of the game, it was already dark when referee David Hutchinson blew his whistle to start the game at 8:15 PM -- 3:15 in the afternoon New York time -- about 10 minutes later than intended, due to traffic issues preventing some people from getting into the stadium.
Arsenal kicked off, and, within minutes, Graham's 3-centreback (officially, O'Leary was a sweeper) setup very nearly paid dividends when Bould headed a cross toward the net, but Nicol cleared it over the crossbar. That was the closest anybody came to scoring in the 1st half, and Graham, an attacking midfielder as a player but very defensive-minded as a manager, had gotten exactly what he wanted to that point.
That's not to say it's what Arsenal fans wanted. Now, instead of needing 2 goals in 90 minutes, they needed 2 goals in 45 minutes -- in each case, plus stoppage time, which would prove to be important.
In the film Fever Pitch, Paul Ashworth (played by Colin Firth) and his best friend Steve (last name never mentioned, played by Mark Strong) are watching the game at Paul's apartment, down the block from Highbury. Steve is still optimistic, but Paul is convinced that it's hopeless:
Steve: "We're doing okay."
Paul: "Well, what's the use of 'okay'? We might as well be losing 8-0!"
Steve: "I don't think that's really true, Paul, It seems to me, that if you want to win a game 2-0, you've got a much better chance if it's 0-0 at halftime than if you're 8 goals down. You see where I'm coming from?"
Paul: "You're living in cloud cuckoo land! Join the real world!"
Steve: "In the real world, it's 0-0 at halftime!"
Paul: "Might as well be 8-0."
Steve: "Jesus, Paul, you need medical help! You've got some kind of disease that turns people into miserable bastards!
With the 2nd half underway, Arsenal, in yellow, were moving to the TV viewer's left; Liverpool, in red, to the viewer's right. In the 53rd minute, Whelan committed a foul just outside the penalty area, narrowly avoiding a major gaffe. It's a lot harder to score from a free kick, which is what Hutchinson correctly awarded Arsenal, than from a penalty.
Arsenal remained on top at the end of January. At the end of February, Arsenal were still top, with Liverpool in 8th, 19 points back -- but with 4 games in hand, meaning, if they won all 4, they'd be only 7 points back. They did go on a tear: At the end of March, they were only 5 points behind League-leading Arsenal, with a game in hand.
Arsenal were still top on April 15, beating Newcastle United 1-0 in a League match, while the FA Cup Semifinals were scheduled for neutral sites. Both Merseyside teams had gotten that far. Everton beat Norfolk team Norwich City 1-0 at Aston Villa's Villa Park. And Liverpool were set to play East Midlands team Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Yorkshire, home of Sheffield Wednesday.
But just 6 minutes in, the game was abandoned, as fans came onto the field. This was not a hooligans' invasion: It was a disaster. A combination of too many fans let into the wrong section by the police, and perimeter fencing, designed to prevent a pitch invasion, led to people being crushed. At least 766 people were hospitalized, and 94 died that day. Another, 14-year-old Lee Nichol, died 3 days later. Another, Tony Bland, 22, was in a coma for 4 years before finally passing away, bringing the death toll to the sad and now-familiar 96.
(Due to the 4-year gap between the event and Bland's death, some early sources list the death toll as 95. Today, of course, any soccer fan knows the number, due to the outrages perpetrated by the English media, because the slogan has become "Justice for the 96," or #JFT96.)
(UPDATE: On July 29, 2021, Andrew Devine died in Liverpool at age 55. The coroner ruled that his death was due to the long-term effects of the injuries he suffered in the Hillsborough Disaster. With his death, the slogan "Justice for the 96" and the hashtag #JFT96 became "Justice for the 97" and #JFT97.)
Games were postponed for the next 2 weeks, including Arsenal's visit to Anfield, which was set for the following Saturday. Games were resumed on May 1, a Bank Holiday Monday. Wins that day, at home at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, to Norwich, and on the following Saturday, away to Middlesbrough, meant that Arsenal only had to win their 2 remaining home games, and they would be League Champions no matter what Liverpool did.
Those 2 home games would be against East Midlands team Derby County in the originally-intended League finale on May 13, and against South London team Wimbledon in a rescheduled game on May 17 (a Wednesday, not a Tuesday like they said in Fever Pitch). Win those, and they would have won the League, regardless of what happened at Anfield on May 26.
But Arsenal didn't win either game: Derby beat them 2-1; and Wimbledon, winners of the previous year's FA Cup in a stunning Final upset of Liverpool, forged a 2-2 draw.
Meanwhile, Liverpool kept winning, with the city rallying around the team and the survivors of the victims. They went to Glasgow for a fundraiser for the victims on April 30, and beat Celtic 4-0. Both teams had adopted the Liverpool-based band Gerry & the Pacemakers' 1963 recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the 1945 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, as a theme song. In the wake of the Hillsborough Disaster, it came to mean more than ever.
They played the rescheduled Semifinal against Forest on May 7, and won 3-1. They beat Wimbledon on May 13, avenging their Cup Final defeat of the year before. And on May 16, they beat West London team Queens Park Rangers. This, combined with the points Arsenal dropped the next night against Wimbledon and the Saturday before against Derby, moved Liverpool top of the League.
And, on May 20, Liverpool beat Everton 3-2 in extra time, in an All-Merseyside FA Cup Final. Liverpool's season of tragedy included a major trophy. On May 23, they beat East London team West Ham United.
With only the Arsenal match 3 days later to play, Liverpool led the League by 3 points, and had the 1st tiebreaker, superior goal difference. So even if Arsenal, who once led them by 19 points, beat them at Anfield, something that hadn't happened in 15 years, it might not be enough: A 1-goal win by Arsenal would give Liverpool the title, and The Double. Arsenal had to win by 2. There seemed to be nobody who thought they could do it.
*
This is what the world was like on May 26, 1989, 30 years ago today:
Two days earlier, AC Milan of Italy had won the European Cup Final, demolishing Steaua Bucuresti of Romania 4-0. Argentina had won the most recent World Cup, and the Netherlands the previous year's European Championship.
In North American major league sports, the defending World Champions in baseball were the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco 49ers had won the last Super Bowl, the defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers were about to be dethroned by the Detroit Pistons, and, the night before, the Calgary Flames had beaten the Montreal Canadiens, interrupting the Edmonton Oilers' Stanley Cup dynasty.
Of the 20 teams then in the Football League Division One, 11 are still playing in the same stadiums, though all of them were significantly renovated, due to both advancing age and the post-Hillsborough Taylor Report: Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers, Charlton Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town. Manchester City, Chelsea and Leicester City, winners of the last 6 Premier League titles, and 10 of the last 16, weren't even in Division One at the time.
Because of the actions of Liverpool fans at the 1985 European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, at which 39 fans of the opposing team, Juventus of Turin, Italy, were killed, English teams were in the 4th season of a 5-year ban from playing in any European competition. Liverpool would get a 6th year. Thus, the League Champions, regardless of who they turned out to be, would not get to play in the 1989-90 European Cup.
Ronaldo de Lima was 12 years old. Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Gianluigi Buffon, Didier Drogba and Carles Puyol were 11. Tim Howard and Andrea Pirlo were 10. Ronaldinho was 9. Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Iker Casillas were 8. Hope Solo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Landon Donovan were 7. Carli Loyd, Clint Dempsey and Franck Ribery were 6.
Luis Robles was 5. Wayne Rooney, Heather O'Reilly, Cristiano Ronadlo and Bradley Wright-Phillips were 4. Megan Rapinoe, Mario Gomez, Marta and Manuel Neuer were 3. Olivier Giroud, Jamie Vardy, Luis Suarez, Dax McCarty and Leonardo Bonucci were 2. Lionel Messi was nearly 2. Sergio Aguero was nearly 1. Robert Lewandowski was 9 months. Diego Costa and Mesut Ozil were 7 months. Alexis Sanchez was 5 months. Alex Morgan, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard, Antoine Griezmann, Jack Wilshere, Neymar, Mario Gotze and Paul Pogba would all be born within the next 4 years.
Current Arsenal manager Unai Emery and New York Red Bulls manager Chris Armas were in high school. Current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was playing for SV Glatten in his native Germany. Domenec Torrent of New York City FC was playing at Guixols in Spain.
Pat Shurmur of the Giants was an assistant coach at Michigan State University. Barry Trotz of the Islanders was a scout for the Washington Capitals. David Quinn of the Rangers was out of hockey due to a long-term illness. Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was at the University of Richmond. Aaron Boone of the Yankees, David Fizdale of the Knicks and Katie Smith of the Liberty were in high school. Mickey Callaway of the Mets and John Hynes of the Devils were in junior high. Adam Gase of the Jets was 11 years old.
The idea that the Iron Curtain would fall was no longer a ridiculous one. Ideas still considered ridiculous included the idea that a President of the United States would collaborate with the Russians, a black man could be President, that people of the same gender could marry each other, and that corporations were "people" and entitled to the rights thereof.
The President of the United States was George H.W. Bush. Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter. Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, their wives, and the widows of Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy were still alive.
Bill Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas. George W. Bush had just bought baseball's Texas Rangers. Barack Obama was working at a law firm in Chicago, and was about to meet Michelle Robinson, who would become his wife. Donald Trump was a racist slumlord, cheating on his 1st wife with his 2nd. Outside New York City, he was mainly known as the guy who killed the United States Football League.
The Governor of the State of New York was Mario Cuomo, whose son, Andrew, the current Governor, was running a foundation designed to help poor people obtain low-cost housing. The Mayor of the City of New York was Ed Koch. Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins was running to defeat him, and the current Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was one of his aides. (Dinkins won.) The Governor of the State of New Jersey was Tom Kean. The current Governor, Phil Murphy, was working at Goldman Sachs.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Brian Mulroney, and of Britain Margaret Thatcher. The head of state of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, was in graduate school at Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany. There have since been 6 Presidents of the United States, 6 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.
There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American, Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars. There were still living survivors of the Johnstown Flood, the Galveston Hurricane, the Iroquois Theatre Fire, the General Slocum fire, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, and the sinking of the Titanic.
Major novels of 1989 included Total Recall by Piers Anthony, Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy, Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, A Time to Kill by John Grisham, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark and Daddy by Danielle Steel.
All were made into major motion pictures, except the last two: Clark's and Steele's novels tend to get adapted for television, and these were, as well. Daddy starred Patrick Duffy and Lynda Carter. The sight of Bobby Ewing and Wonder Woman making out was shocking, even when I remembered that, when Lynda was playing Wonder Woman, Patrick was playing another superhuman, starring in the Aquaman ripoff The Man From Atlantis.
Also published that year was Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. As yet, it has not been filmed. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth became a TV miniseries. John Irving's 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, itself an American rewrite of Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum, was seriously reworked for the film Simon Birch.
Stephen King published The Dark Half. George R.R. Martin published The Skin Trade. J.K. Rowling was working as a researcher for Amnesty International.
Gene Roddenberry was putting Star Trek V: The Final Frontier together. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had just released Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- which, of course, turned out not to be Indy's last "crusade." Christopher Reeve was the most recent live-action Superman. Michael Keaton was about to begin playing Batman. The original run of Doctor Who was about to be canceled, with Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor. Timothy Dalton was playing James Bond for the 2nd and last time, in Licence to Kill.
Games were postponed for the next 2 weeks, including Arsenal's visit to Anfield, which was set for the following Saturday. Games were resumed on May 1, a Bank Holiday Monday. Wins that day, at home at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, to Norwich, and on the following Saturday, away to Middlesbrough, meant that Arsenal only had to win their 2 remaining home games, and they would be League Champions no matter what Liverpool did.
Those 2 home games would be against East Midlands team Derby County in the originally-intended League finale on May 13, and against South London team Wimbledon in a rescheduled game on May 17 (a Wednesday, not a Tuesday like they said in Fever Pitch). Win those, and they would have won the League, regardless of what happened at Anfield on May 26.
But Arsenal didn't win either game: Derby beat them 2-1; and Wimbledon, winners of the previous year's FA Cup in a stunning Final upset of Liverpool, forged a 2-2 draw.
Meanwhile, Liverpool kept winning, with the city rallying around the team and the survivors of the victims. They went to Glasgow for a fundraiser for the victims on April 30, and beat Celtic 4-0. Both teams had adopted the Liverpool-based band Gerry & the Pacemakers' 1963 recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the 1945 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, as a theme song. In the wake of the Hillsborough Disaster, it came to mean more than ever.
They played the rescheduled Semifinal against Forest on May 7, and won 3-1. They beat Wimbledon on May 13, avenging their Cup Final defeat of the year before. And on May 16, they beat West London team Queens Park Rangers. This, combined with the points Arsenal dropped the next night against Wimbledon and the Saturday before against Derby, moved Liverpool top of the League.
And, on May 20, Liverpool beat Everton 3-2 in extra time, in an All-Merseyside FA Cup Final. Liverpool's season of tragedy included a major trophy. On May 23, they beat East London team West Ham United.
With only the Arsenal match 3 days later to play, Liverpool led the League by 3 points, and had the 1st tiebreaker, superior goal difference. So even if Arsenal, who once led them by 19 points, beat them at Anfield, something that hadn't happened in 15 years, it might not be enough: A 1-goal win by Arsenal would give Liverpool the title, and The Double. Arsenal had to win by 2. There seemed to be nobody who thought they could do it.
*
This is what the world was like on May 26, 1989, 30 years ago today:
Two days earlier, AC Milan of Italy had won the European Cup Final, demolishing Steaua Bucuresti of Romania 4-0. Argentina had won the most recent World Cup, and the Netherlands the previous year's European Championship.
In North American major league sports, the defending World Champions in baseball were the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco 49ers had won the last Super Bowl, the defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers were about to be dethroned by the Detroit Pistons, and, the night before, the Calgary Flames had beaten the Montreal Canadiens, interrupting the Edmonton Oilers' Stanley Cup dynasty.
Of the 20 teams then in the Football League Division One, 11 are still playing in the same stadiums, though all of them were significantly renovated, due to both advancing age and the post-Hillsborough Taylor Report: Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Queens Park Rangers, Charlton Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town. Manchester City, Chelsea and Leicester City, winners of the last 6 Premier League titles, and 10 of the last 16, weren't even in Division One at the time.
Because of the actions of Liverpool fans at the 1985 European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, at which 39 fans of the opposing team, Juventus of Turin, Italy, were killed, English teams were in the 4th season of a 5-year ban from playing in any European competition. Liverpool would get a 6th year. Thus, the League Champions, regardless of who they turned out to be, would not get to play in the 1989-90 European Cup.
Ronaldo de Lima was 12 years old. Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Gianluigi Buffon, Didier Drogba and Carles Puyol were 11. Tim Howard and Andrea Pirlo were 10. Ronaldinho was 9. Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Iker Casillas were 8. Hope Solo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Landon Donovan were 7. Carli Loyd, Clint Dempsey and Franck Ribery were 6.
Luis Robles was 5. Wayne Rooney, Heather O'Reilly, Cristiano Ronadlo and Bradley Wright-Phillips were 4. Megan Rapinoe, Mario Gomez, Marta and Manuel Neuer were 3. Olivier Giroud, Jamie Vardy, Luis Suarez, Dax McCarty and Leonardo Bonucci were 2. Lionel Messi was nearly 2. Sergio Aguero was nearly 1. Robert Lewandowski was 9 months. Diego Costa and Mesut Ozil were 7 months. Alexis Sanchez was 5 months. Alex Morgan, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard, Antoine Griezmann, Jack Wilshere, Neymar, Mario Gotze and Paul Pogba would all be born within the next 4 years.
Current Arsenal manager Unai Emery and New York Red Bulls manager Chris Armas were in high school. Current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was playing for SV Glatten in his native Germany. Domenec Torrent of New York City FC was playing at Guixols in Spain.
Pat Shurmur of the Giants was an assistant coach at Michigan State University. Barry Trotz of the Islanders was a scout for the Washington Capitals. David Quinn of the Rangers was out of hockey due to a long-term illness. Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was at the University of Richmond. Aaron Boone of the Yankees, David Fizdale of the Knicks and Katie Smith of the Liberty were in high school. Mickey Callaway of the Mets and John Hynes of the Devils were in junior high. Adam Gase of the Jets was 11 years old.
The idea that the Iron Curtain would fall was no longer a ridiculous one. Ideas still considered ridiculous included the idea that a President of the United States would collaborate with the Russians, a black man could be President, that people of the same gender could marry each other, and that corporations were "people" and entitled to the rights thereof.
The President of the United States was George H.W. Bush. Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter. Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, their wives, and the widows of Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy were still alive.
Bill Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas. George W. Bush had just bought baseball's Texas Rangers. Barack Obama was working at a law firm in Chicago, and was about to meet Michelle Robinson, who would become his wife. Donald Trump was a racist slumlord, cheating on his 1st wife with his 2nd. Outside New York City, he was mainly known as the guy who killed the United States Football League.
The Governor of the State of New York was Mario Cuomo, whose son, Andrew, the current Governor, was running a foundation designed to help poor people obtain low-cost housing. The Mayor of the City of New York was Ed Koch. Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins was running to defeat him, and the current Mayor, Bill de Blasio, was one of his aides. (Dinkins won.) The Governor of the State of New Jersey was Tom Kean. The current Governor, Phil Murphy, was working at Goldman Sachs.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Brian Mulroney, and of Britain Margaret Thatcher. The head of state of both nations was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, was in graduate school at Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany. There have since been 6 Presidents of the United States, 6 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.
There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American, Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars. There were still living survivors of the Johnstown Flood, the Galveston Hurricane, the Iroquois Theatre Fire, the General Slocum fire, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, and the sinking of the Titanic.
Major novels of 1989 included Total Recall by Piers Anthony, Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy, Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, A Time to Kill by John Grisham, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark and Daddy by Danielle Steel.
All were made into major motion pictures, except the last two: Clark's and Steele's novels tend to get adapted for television, and these were, as well. Daddy starred Patrick Duffy and Lynda Carter. The sight of Bobby Ewing and Wonder Woman making out was shocking, even when I remembered that, when Lynda was playing Wonder Woman, Patrick was playing another superhuman, starring in the Aquaman ripoff The Man From Atlantis.
Also published that year was Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. As yet, it has not been filmed. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth became a TV miniseries. John Irving's 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, itself an American rewrite of Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum, was seriously reworked for the film Simon Birch.
Stephen King published The Dark Half. George R.R. Martin published The Skin Trade. J.K. Rowling was working as a researcher for Amnesty International.
Gene Roddenberry was putting Star Trek V: The Final Frontier together. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had just released Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- which, of course, turned out not to be Indy's last "crusade." Christopher Reeve was the most recent live-action Superman. Michael Keaton was about to begin playing Batman. The original run of Doctor Who was about to be canceled, with Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor. Timothy Dalton was playing James Bond for the 2nd and last time, in Licence to Kill.
Major films released in the Spring of 1989 included the baseball-themed Major League and Field of Dreams, Say Anything... , Scandal, Earth Girls Are Easy, Road House and Dead Poets Society.
The Arsenio Hall Show, Coach and Quantum Leap had recently premiered. The 1st episode of Seinfeld was 40 days away. The British children's show Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends had just premiered on American TV, under the title Shining Time Station. In Britain itself, the most popular TV shows were the game shows Mastermind and Blind Date, and the situation comedies Only Fools and Horses and A Very Peculiar Practice, and the puppet-guided comedy show Spitting Image.
No one had yet heard of Deadpool, the Seinfeld Four, Buffy Summers, Alex Cross, Fox Mulder & Dana Scully, Andy Sipowicz, Jay & Silent Bob, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Doug Ross, Alan Partridge, Bridget Jones, Xena, Ash Ketchum, Austin Powers, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Robert Langdon, Master Chief, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Rick Grimes, Wynonna Earp, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Bluth, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan, Michael Scott, Don Draper, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White, Jax Teller, Richard Castle, Leslie Knope, Sarah Manning, Jane "Eleven" Hopper or Maggie Bell.
Kris Jenner was still married to Robert Kardashian Sr. I don't know if she had yet met the person then known as Bruce Jenner.
The Number 1 song in America was "Forever Your Girl" by Paula Abdul. In Britain, it was a cover of "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey," the 1965 hit by the aforementioned Gerry & the Pacemakers, as a fundraiser for the Hillsborough victims. The performers on the record included original lead singer Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood lead singer Holly Johnson, all Liverpool natives.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 would buy then, $2.06 would buy now -- or, more to the point of the country in question, what £1.00 would buy then, £2.55 would buy now. A postage stamp cost 25 cents in the U.S., and 20 pence in the U.K. A single ride on the New York Subway cost $1.00, and on the London Underground £1.30.
In America, the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.06, a cup of coffee $1.41, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $5.28, a movie ticket $3.96, a new car $14,372, and a new house $144,300. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 2,493.77.
The Arsenio Hall Show, Coach and Quantum Leap had recently premiered. The 1st episode of Seinfeld was 40 days away. The British children's show Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends had just premiered on American TV, under the title Shining Time Station. In Britain itself, the most popular TV shows were the game shows Mastermind and Blind Date, and the situation comedies Only Fools and Horses and A Very Peculiar Practice, and the puppet-guided comedy show Spitting Image.
No one had yet heard of Deadpool, the Seinfeld Four, Buffy Summers, Alex Cross, Fox Mulder & Dana Scully, Andy Sipowicz, Jay & Silent Bob, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Doug Ross, Alan Partridge, Bridget Jones, Xena, Ash Ketchum, Austin Powers, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Robert Langdon, Master Chief, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Rick Grimes, Wynonna Earp, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Bluth, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan, Michael Scott, Don Draper, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White, Jax Teller, Richard Castle, Leslie Knope, Sarah Manning, Jane "Eleven" Hopper or Maggie Bell.
Kris Jenner was still married to Robert Kardashian Sr. I don't know if she had yet met the person then known as Bruce Jenner.
The Number 1 song in America was "Forever Your Girl" by Paula Abdul. In Britain, it was a cover of "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey," the 1965 hit by the aforementioned Gerry & the Pacemakers, as a fundraiser for the Hillsborough victims. The performers on the record included original lead singer Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood lead singer Holly Johnson, all Liverpool natives.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 would buy then, $2.06 would buy now -- or, more to the point of the country in question, what £1.00 would buy then, £2.55 would buy now. A postage stamp cost 25 cents in the U.S., and 20 pence in the U.K. A single ride on the New York Subway cost $1.00, and on the London Underground £1.30.
In America, the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.06, a cup of coffee $1.41, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $5.28, a movie ticket $3.96, a new car $14,372, and a new house $144,300. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 2,493.77.
The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower in Chicago. The Atari 5200 SuperSystem was the leading home video game system. Mobile telephones were still big and bulky, too much so to fit in your pocket. Personal computers were now in a majority of homes, but the Internet as we know it had not yet been developed. There was no World Wide Web, no Netscape, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no Pinterest, no Skype.
In the Spring of 1989, Prime Minster Thatcher introduced a local government tax, which resulted in angry demonstrations throughout Britain. Border wars were fought between South Africa and Namibia, and between Senegal and Mauritania. There were food riots in Argentina. Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita of Japan resigned in a stock-trading scandal.
The first cracks in the Iron Curtain came, as Hungary dismantled barbed wire fencing along its border with Austria. Poland had its first free elections since before World War II. But Red Army soldiers killed 20 people in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Fighting broke out in Uzbekistan between Uzbeks and their Turkish minority. A natural gas explosion killed 645 people on trains near the Russian city of Ufa. And over 2,000 pro-democracy demonstrators were killed in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
In America, the Savings & Loan Scandal broke. A gun turret exploded on the battleship USS Iowa, killing 47 crewmembers. And a controversy erupted over a museum exhibit of explicit photographs taken by the late Robert Mapplethorpe.
Lucille Ball, and Abbie Hoffman, and Gilda Radner died. So did the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, religious dictator of Iran, whose funeral led to chaos. So did Christine Jorgensen, the 1st person to undergo what was then called a "sex change," but would now be called "gender reassignment surgery."
So did boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson. So did George Robledo, the Chilean whose goal for Newcastle United beat Arsenal in the 1952 FA Cup Final. And, on the very morning of the Arsenal-Liverpool final, so did legendary Leeds United manager Don Revie, of what the British would call motor neurone disease, and what the Americans would call Lou Gehrig's disease.
Chris Brown, and Behati Prinsloo, and Imogen Poots were born. So were American football stars Cam Newton and Rob Gronkowski, and hockey star James van Riemsdyk, and golfer Rory McIlroy. From soccer/football, so were German twins Lars and Sven Bender, Mexican Giovani dos Santos, Welshman Hal Robson-Kanu, Dutchman Bas Dost, and American Freddy Adu.
The first cracks in the Iron Curtain came, as Hungary dismantled barbed wire fencing along its border with Austria. Poland had its first free elections since before World War II. But Red Army soldiers killed 20 people in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Fighting broke out in Uzbekistan between Uzbeks and their Turkish minority. A natural gas explosion killed 645 people on trains near the Russian city of Ufa. And over 2,000 pro-democracy demonstrators were killed in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
In America, the Savings & Loan Scandal broke. A gun turret exploded on the battleship USS Iowa, killing 47 crewmembers. And a controversy erupted over a museum exhibit of explicit photographs taken by the late Robert Mapplethorpe.
Lucille Ball, and Abbie Hoffman, and Gilda Radner died. So did the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, religious dictator of Iran, whose funeral led to chaos. So did Christine Jorgensen, the 1st person to undergo what was then called a "sex change," but would now be called "gender reassignment surgery."
So did boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson. So did George Robledo, the Chilean whose goal for Newcastle United beat Arsenal in the 1952 FA Cup Final. And, on the very morning of the Arsenal-Liverpool final, so did legendary Leeds United manager Don Revie, of what the British would call motor neurone disease, and what the Americans would call Lou Gehrig's disease.
Chris Brown, and Behati Prinsloo, and Imogen Poots were born. So were American football stars Cam Newton and Rob Gronkowski, and hockey star James van Riemsdyk, and golfer Rory McIlroy. From soccer/football, so were German twins Lars and Sven Bender, Mexican Giovani dos Santos, Welshman Hal Robson-Kanu, Dutchman Bas Dost, and American Freddy Adu.
That's what the world was like on May 26, 1989.
*
*
These were the starting lineups. For Liverpool:
1 GK Bruce Grobbelaar
2 CB Gary Ablett
3 LB Steve Staunton
4 RB Steve Nicol
5 CM Ronnie Whelan (Captain)
6 CB Alan Hansen
7 RM Ray Houghton
8 CF John Aldridge
9 CF Ian Rush
10 LM John Barnes
11 CM Steve McMahon
Rush would leave the game due to injury in the 32nd minute, and was replaced by Number 14, Peter Beardsley. Manager Kenny Dalglish, one of the many great Liverpool players who wore Number 7, could have included himself in his own selections, but chose not to. He played 1 more game the next season, and retired.
For Arsenal, George Graham went with the opposite of what one would expect: His theory was that, if they could keep a clean sheet in the 1st half, their confidence would be boosted, and they could get the 2 goals they needed. So he went with a 5-4-1 formation: 5 defenders, 4 midfielders and just 1 forward. This included a centreback wearing the traditional "playmaker" number of 10, something that wouldn't happen at Arsenal again until the acquisition of William Gallas in 2006.
Graham would later say, "You take these chances as a manager, and if it works, if it comes off, you're a hero. And if it doesn't, you're a villain":
1 GK John Lukic
2 RB Lee Dixon
3 LB Nigel Winterburn
4 CM Michael Thomas
5 SW David O'Leary
6 CB Tony Adams (Captain)
7 RW David Rocastle
8 LW Kevin Richardson
9 CF Alan Smith
10 CB Steve Bould
11 CM Paul Merson
British TV had the same idea with soccer that American TV had once had with baseball: Why give the product away? So few games were broadcast live. Instead, they would be filmed, and later videotaped, on the Saturday afternoon, and then shown in a package on Sunday afternoon, on the BBC's Match of the Day and ITV's The Big Match.
Only the biggest of matches -- such as the FA Cup Final, or the European Cup Final, whether an English team was in it or not -- was shown live. Well, this was the biggest of matches: At the time, the 2 biggest teams in the country, going at it for the League title. ITV broadcast it, live in prime time.
A crowd of 41,783 people, most of them paying £7.00 (about £17.85 in today's money, or $22.68 with the current U.K.-to-U.S. exchange rate), shoehorned themselves into Anfield. Judging by how many Arsenal fans have said they were there, one could sarcastically infer that the attendance may have been 10 times that. This is another comparison to that 1951 New York baseball playoff, except bad weather held that crowd to 2/3rds full.
Anfield, during the 1989 FA Cup parade
On a warm late Spring night -- the start of Memorial Day weekend to Americans -- Liverpool wore their traditional home red. This meant that Arsenal couldn't wear their traditional red shirts with white sleeves, and used their "change strip" of the time, yellow with black trim. They came onto the pitch holding bouquets of flowers, and walked over to the stands and handed them out. An announcement was made that Arsenal would also donate to the Hillsborough victims' fund.
Emotions ran incredibly high. Easy to understand: In spite of the worst thing that had ever happened to British soccer fans, their team had won the FA Cup, and all they needed to do now was hold the opposition, which hadn't won in that building in 15 years, to a 1-goal win, and they would win the League, and thus The Double. It could be the greatest night of their lives.
They sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the top of their lungs, chorus after chorus. The 5,000 or so Arsenal fans who traveled the 212 miles from Highbury to Anfield could have been excused for feeling intimidated -- although Liverpool fans were not known for their violence, no matter what Italian fans or Manchester United fans might say.
Contrary to what was shown in the film Fever Pitch, which suggested that it was still daylight at the end of the game, it was already dark when referee David Hutchinson blew his whistle to start the game at 8:15 PM -- 3:15 in the afternoon New York time -- about 10 minutes later than intended, due to traffic issues preventing some people from getting into the stadium.
Arsenal kicked off, and, within minutes, Graham's 3-centreback (officially, O'Leary was a sweeper) setup very nearly paid dividends when Bould headed a cross toward the net, but Nicol cleared it over the crossbar. That was the closest anybody came to scoring in the 1st half, and Graham, an attacking midfielder as a player but very defensive-minded as a manager, had gotten exactly what he wanted to that point.
That's not to say it's what Arsenal fans wanted. Now, instead of needing 2 goals in 90 minutes, they needed 2 goals in 45 minutes -- in each case, plus stoppage time, which would prove to be important.
In the film Fever Pitch, Paul Ashworth (played by Colin Firth) and his best friend Steve (last name never mentioned, played by Mark Strong) are watching the game at Paul's apartment, down the block from Highbury. Steve is still optimistic, but Paul is convinced that it's hopeless:
Steve: "We're doing okay."
Paul: "Well, what's the use of 'okay'? We might as well be losing 8-0!"
Steve: "I don't think that's really true, Paul, It seems to me, that if you want to win a game 2-0, you've got a much better chance if it's 0-0 at halftime than if you're 8 goals down. You see where I'm coming from?"
Paul: "You're living in cloud cuckoo land! Join the real world!"
Steve: "In the real world, it's 0-0 at halftime!"
Paul: "Might as well be 8-0."
Steve: "Jesus, Paul, you need medical help! You've got some kind of disease that turns people into miserable bastards!
Firth, left, and Strong
With the 2nd half underway, Arsenal, in yellow, were moving to the TV viewer's left; Liverpool, in red, to the viewer's right. In the 53rd minute, Whelan committed a foul just outside the penalty area, narrowly avoiding a major gaffe. It's a lot harder to score from a free kick, which is what Hutchinson correctly awarded Arsenal, than from a penalty.
Winterburn took it. Adams looked like he was trying to head it in -- ITV announcer Brian Moore said, "Adams has made a darting little run in there" -- but stumbled. But Smith was right behind him, and headed it into the net. As the later song would say, "One-nil to The Arsenal."
In a tactic as old as the sport itself, the Liverpool players surrounded the referee, demanding that the goal be disallowed. Hutchinson saw no foul on the play. He called the linesman over. He later said that he asked the linesman if the goal was offside. The answer was, "No." He asked if Smith had actually touched the ball with his head -- meaning, if the answer was, "No," then it would have to be disallowed. The answer was, "Yes." He asked if O'Leary had pushed a Liverpool player, thus creating interference. The linesman said, "No." With all his questions answered, Hutchinson awarded the goal.
This delay would prove to be significant. If the Liverpool players had just let the goal stand, without arguing, who knows...
In the 73rd minute, Graham made a substitution, putting in Number 14, Martin Hayes, for Merson. He made another substitution 3 minutes later, knowing that he needed that 2nd goal, and removing the defender Bould for Number 12, midfielder Perry Groves. This put Arsenal back in the traditional English 4-4-2 formation.
In between these substitutions, Thomas was one-on-one with Grobbelaar, but shot right at him, seemingly ruining the greatest chance at glory he would ever have. Little did anyone know.
Liverpool knew that if they scored at all, it was essentially game over. Houghton had a good chance, but shot wide. Aldridge took a pass from Barnes, and put it in the net, but it was correctly disallowed for offside.
As the clock ticked up to the 90th minute, the TV camera focused on McMahon, holding up one finger, as if to say there's only 1 minute of stoppage time coming. At this point, in the movie, Paul said, "This is awful! It's like the end of the world, or something!" David Pleat, manager of Tottenham, was color commentator for Moore, and told him that it was poetic justice that Arsenal got the result, but not the one they wanted. And Steve said, "Oh, shut up, Pleat!"
But between the Liverpool protest of the Smith goal, the Arsenal substitutions in the 73rd and 76th minute, and a pause to tend to an injured Richardson, during which McMahon held up the finger, there would be more than a 91st minute. There would, fairly, be a 92nd minute.
Richardson had enough left in his tank to deny a drive by Barnes, and to get the ball to goalkeeper Lukic, who threw the ball halfway up his own half, to Dixon. Dixon sent a long through ball to Smith. Smith found Thomas, who was followed by Nicol. Suddenly, it was Thomas vs. Grobbelaar again.
Smith would tell an interviewer that he yelled at Thomas, "Mickey, you've got to shoot! You've got to shoot!" It did seem like Thomas was taking his own sweet time. Finally, at 91 minutes and 23 seconds of the match, with Nicol practically stepping on his heels, Thomas shot. It wasn't the most artistic of efforts: It seemed to go off the last 2 toes on his right foot, off to the right. But Grobbelaar couldn't stop it. Moore had the call:
Arsenal come streaming forward now, in what will surely be their last attack. A good ball by Dixon, finding Smith, to Thomas, charging through the midfield! Thomas! It's up for grabs now! Thomas!
Right at the end! An unbelievable climax to the League season! Well into injury time!
The Liverpool players are down, absolutely abject! Aldridge is down, Barnes is down, Dalglish just stands there, Nicol's on his knees, McMahon's on his knees!
It wasn't quite Russ Hodges' 1951 "The Giants win the Pennant!" Because it wasn't over yet. The celebration meant that there would be a 93rd minute. And Liverpool did make one last go at it, but couldn't get close.
Moore saw Graham, 45 years old, in his dark suit, and Dalglish, 38 and not yet officially retired, in his Adidas jacket, and mentioned that they would both like to get out there and see if they can make a difference.
Finally, at 92 minutes and 49 seconds, Hutchinson blew his whistle. Arsenal were the Champions.
David Dein, one of Arsenal's directors, was sitting next to team chairman Peter Hill-Wood, and said Hill-Wood took his nervously-chewed cigar out of his mouth, and said, "Never in any doubt."
Which reminds me of the end of Fever Pitch. Paul said, "I knew they'd win it!" Steve said, "Oh yeah? You're a lying bastard!" Nobody knew that they would win it. Believed? Maybe. Knew? Not a chance.
As Arsenal fan Dermot O'Leary (no relation to David) put it, hosting the video Arsenal: 501 Goals, "For many Arsenal fans, the greatest night of their lives. And if you have to ask why, you're either too young, or you've bought the wrong tape."
*
In 2012, history would repeat itself, in a way. With the Premier League having replaced the old Football League Division One for the 1992-93 season, Manchester United thought they had clinched the League title. Their fans were already celebrating at their stadium, Old Trafford. But the game between their arch-rivals, Manchester City, and Queens Park Rangers was not yet over across town at the Etihad Stadium. Sergio Agüero scored in the 94th minute, giving City the 3 points they needed to win the title.
City fans -- and, really anyone who hates Arsenal -- will tell you that this is the greatest goal ever scored in English football. They are wrong. Agüero scored his goal at home against a side that avoided relegation by just 1 point. Michael Thomas scored his goal away to the team that his team was playing for the title. And Agüero really is a great player, while Thomas was a journeyman. Thomas' goal was a much bigger surprise. Was Agüero's goal a great moment? Of course it was. Was it a greater moment than Thomas' goal? Don't make me laugh.
*
Thomas' goal remains the signature moment for that generation of Arsenal players and fans. It replaced the Charlie George goal that won the 1971 FA Cup Final as the most celebrated moment in the team's history. Even after Arsenal went through the 2003-04 season unbeaten in League play, perhaps the greatest achievement of any English soccer team, there was no one goal that stood out, and thus the Thomas Anfield '89 goal remains the moment.
Arsenal would win the League again in 1991 -- and then Graham would sell Thomas, to Liverpool, of all teams. Liverpool fans did not hold his goal against them against him: They cheered him on, and saw him help them win the 1992 FA Cup and the 1995 League Cup.
David Rocastle died of lymphoma in 2001. Brian Moore died of heart trouble later that same year. David Pleat, referee David Hutchinson, both managers, and all the other players from this game are still alive.
Michael Thomas, a native of Lambeth in South London, is 51 years old, runs a private security service, and lives in... Liverpool. As far as I know, he never met Bobby Thomson (who died in 2010), nor has he ever met Bill Mazeroski, Chris Chambliss or Joe Carter. Or even Sergio Agüero.
This week, both teams involved in this game will play a European final. On Wednesday, Arsenal will seek qualification for next season's UEFA Champions League when they play West Londoners Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League Final at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan -- a neutral site selected well ahead of time, and not a good choice, for more than one reason.
On Saturday, Liverpool will seek their 6th European Cup when they play the Champions League Final against the other North London team, Tottenham Hotspur, at the Metropolitano Stadium, the new home of Atletico Madrid. It will be a rare occasion when Arsenal fans support Liverpool.
Liverpool fans still sing, "You'll Never Walk Alone" at their games. But the 1989 Arsenal players could invoke the slogan from one of the signature hockey teams of my lifetime, the 1974 Stanley Cup Champion Philadelphia Flyers: "We will win together now, and we will walk together forever."
UPDATE: Arsenal lost their Final. Liverpool won theirs.
In a tactic as old as the sport itself, the Liverpool players surrounded the referee, demanding that the goal be disallowed. Hutchinson saw no foul on the play. He called the linesman over. He later said that he asked the linesman if the goal was offside. The answer was, "No." He asked if Smith had actually touched the ball with his head -- meaning, if the answer was, "No," then it would have to be disallowed. The answer was, "Yes." He asked if O'Leary had pushed a Liverpool player, thus creating interference. The linesman said, "No." With all his questions answered, Hutchinson awarded the goal.
This delay would prove to be significant. If the Liverpool players had just let the goal stand, without arguing, who knows...
In the 73rd minute, Graham made a substitution, putting in Number 14, Martin Hayes, for Merson. He made another substitution 3 minutes later, knowing that he needed that 2nd goal, and removing the defender Bould for Number 12, midfielder Perry Groves. This put Arsenal back in the traditional English 4-4-2 formation.
In between these substitutions, Thomas was one-on-one with Grobbelaar, but shot right at him, seemingly ruining the greatest chance at glory he would ever have. Little did anyone know.
Liverpool knew that if they scored at all, it was essentially game over. Houghton had a good chance, but shot wide. Aldridge took a pass from Barnes, and put it in the net, but it was correctly disallowed for offside.
As the clock ticked up to the 90th minute, the TV camera focused on McMahon, holding up one finger, as if to say there's only 1 minute of stoppage time coming. At this point, in the movie, Paul said, "This is awful! It's like the end of the world, or something!" David Pleat, manager of Tottenham, was color commentator for Moore, and told him that it was poetic justice that Arsenal got the result, but not the one they wanted. And Steve said, "Oh, shut up, Pleat!"
But between the Liverpool protest of the Smith goal, the Arsenal substitutions in the 73rd and 76th minute, and a pause to tend to an injured Richardson, during which McMahon held up the finger, there would be more than a 91st minute. There would, fairly, be a 92nd minute.
Richardson had enough left in his tank to deny a drive by Barnes, and to get the ball to goalkeeper Lukic, who threw the ball halfway up his own half, to Dixon. Dixon sent a long through ball to Smith. Smith found Thomas, who was followed by Nicol. Suddenly, it was Thomas vs. Grobbelaar again.
Smith would tell an interviewer that he yelled at Thomas, "Mickey, you've got to shoot! You've got to shoot!" It did seem like Thomas was taking his own sweet time. Finally, at 91 minutes and 23 seconds of the match, with Nicol practically stepping on his heels, Thomas shot. It wasn't the most artistic of efforts: It seemed to go off the last 2 toes on his right foot, off to the right. But Grobbelaar couldn't stop it. Moore had the call:
Arsenal come streaming forward now, in what will surely be their last attack. A good ball by Dixon, finding Smith, to Thomas, charging through the midfield! Thomas! It's up for grabs now! Thomas!
Right at the end! An unbelievable climax to the League season! Well into injury time!
The Liverpool players are down, absolutely abject! Aldridge is down, Barnes is down, Dalglish just stands there, Nicol's on his knees, McMahon's on his knees!
It wasn't quite Russ Hodges' 1951 "The Giants win the Pennant!" Because it wasn't over yet. The celebration meant that there would be a 93rd minute. And Liverpool did make one last go at it, but couldn't get close.
Moore saw Graham, 45 years old, in his dark suit, and Dalglish, 38 and not yet officially retired, in his Adidas jacket, and mentioned that they would both like to get out there and see if they can make a difference.
Finally, at 92 minutes and 49 seconds, Hutchinson blew his whistle. Arsenal were the Champions.
Adams, Bould and O'Leary with the League title trophy
David Dein, one of Arsenal's directors, was sitting next to team chairman Peter Hill-Wood, and said Hill-Wood took his nervously-chewed cigar out of his mouth, and said, "Never in any doubt."
Which reminds me of the end of Fever Pitch. Paul said, "I knew they'd win it!" Steve said, "Oh yeah? You're a lying bastard!" Nobody knew that they would win it. Believed? Maybe. Knew? Not a chance.
As Arsenal fan Dermot O'Leary (no relation to David) put it, hosting the video Arsenal: 501 Goals, "For many Arsenal fans, the greatest night of their lives. And if you have to ask why, you're either too young, or you've bought the wrong tape."
*
In 2012, history would repeat itself, in a way. With the Premier League having replaced the old Football League Division One for the 1992-93 season, Manchester United thought they had clinched the League title. Their fans were already celebrating at their stadium, Old Trafford. But the game between their arch-rivals, Manchester City, and Queens Park Rangers was not yet over across town at the Etihad Stadium. Sergio Agüero scored in the 94th minute, giving City the 3 points they needed to win the title.
City fans -- and, really anyone who hates Arsenal -- will tell you that this is the greatest goal ever scored in English football. They are wrong. Agüero scored his goal at home against a side that avoided relegation by just 1 point. Michael Thomas scored his goal away to the team that his team was playing for the title. And Agüero really is a great player, while Thomas was a journeyman. Thomas' goal was a much bigger surprise. Was Agüero's goal a great moment? Of course it was. Was it a greater moment than Thomas' goal? Don't make me laugh.
*
Thomas' goal remains the signature moment for that generation of Arsenal players and fans. It replaced the Charlie George goal that won the 1971 FA Cup Final as the most celebrated moment in the team's history. Even after Arsenal went through the 2003-04 season unbeaten in League play, perhaps the greatest achievement of any English soccer team, there was no one goal that stood out, and thus the Thomas Anfield '89 goal remains the moment.
Arsenal would win the League again in 1991 -- and then Graham would sell Thomas, to Liverpool, of all teams. Liverpool fans did not hold his goal against them against him: They cheered him on, and saw him help them win the 1992 FA Cup and the 1995 League Cup.
David Rocastle died of lymphoma in 2001. Brian Moore died of heart trouble later that same year. David Pleat, referee David Hutchinson, both managers, and all the other players from this game are still alive.
Michael Thomas, a native of Lambeth in South London, is 51 years old, runs a private security service, and lives in... Liverpool. As far as I know, he never met Bobby Thomson (who died in 2010), nor has he ever met Bill Mazeroski, Chris Chambliss or Joe Carter. Or even Sergio Agüero.
On Saturday, Liverpool will seek their 6th European Cup when they play the Champions League Final against the other North London team, Tottenham Hotspur, at the Metropolitano Stadium, the new home of Atletico Madrid. It will be a rare occasion when Arsenal fans support Liverpool.
Liverpool fans still sing, "You'll Never Walk Alone" at their games. But the 1989 Arsenal players could invoke the slogan from one of the signature hockey teams of my lifetime, the 1974 Stanley Cup Champion Philadelphia Flyers: "We will win together now, and we will walk together forever."
UPDATE: Arsenal lost their Final. Liverpool won theirs.
