Was the match played west of the Iron Curtain?

I didn't mention the war, and if I did, I think I got away with it.

B. Fawlty, Esq.

Was this west of Vienna?

Was this game hosted in the home team's country, not a neutral venue?

Have either of the participants been World Cup winners?

Was the match played in one of the BeNeLux contries?

In Reply To

Yes, the match was played in one of the Benelux Countries.

The event/occurence as part of this match was well publicised at the time but does not appear to be that well publicised on the web, maybe because it is not recent. If you can find the 2 teams who played in that game, you should be able to find some web links that will help. This may be answered correctly by someone who may remember reading about it rather then trawling through loads of weblinks but the info is out there to be found.

There were some similarities to the event/occurrence from that match that were played out in another well known publicised match last year.

In Reply To

Just to clarify for someone whose brain is not yet fully adjusted to being in year 2010, by last year do you then mean 2009?

Was this game in the Netherlands?

Q: Did this event occur before 1960?

I'll have a pop at the Netherlands v Belgium qualifying game played on 18th November 1973 in Amsterdam. The decisive qualifier for the 1974 World Cup with The Netherland and Belgium even on points but The Netherlands having the better goal difference (first time goal difference was used as a tie-breaker in WC qualifying I believe). The event: In the 89th minute Belgium had what looked like a perfectly OK goal following a freekick ruled out for offside.

In Reply To

Congratulations you are correct - we have a winner !!!!!! Well done Mip !

Your answer is close enough as you have described the event/occurrence and the immediate aftermath was that The Netherlands qualified for the 1974 world cup and not Belgium.

The event that I chose was the World cup qualifying match played in 1973 between the Netherlands and Belgium and the controversial disallowed goal which would have meant that Belgium and not the Netherlands would have qualified for the 1974 world cup finals in West Germany

I chose this event because of the obvious similarities between that game and the recent world cup playoff game between France and Ireland with the Thierry Henry handball incident which meant that Ireland would also not be going to the world cup finals

In that 1974 world cup qualifying campaign, Belgium were incredibly unlucky not to qualify ahead of the dutch in that world cup qualifying group. In that last group game against The Netherlands they had to win in Amsterdam to go through due to the Netherlands superior goal difference. The match was 0-0 up until the last minute when Belgium were given a free kick. Belgium’s captain Paul van Himst took the free kick and Jan Verheyan beat the offside trap and was denied what looked like a certain goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cWwulNygvs

If you freeze the clip at approx 1.19 at the time van Himst strikes the ball apparently at least 3 of the dutch defenders are playing Verheyan onside.
Also there are contradictory reports on the web as to who the Belgian scorer was with the majority stating it was Jan Verheyan and a few others stating it was Leon Semmeling, so I was not concerned about identifying the Belgian goalscorer. I don’t speak dutch but I am hoping the commentary confirms Verheyan as the goalscorer. Belgium must be the only country to have been knocked out of a world cup qualifying campaign without conceding a goal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...tory-holland-belgium

Another interesting observation if the Belgians had gone through is that the phrase Total Football given to the dutch side in that period would not have existed and would have denied Johann Cruyff of appearing in the finals of a world cup.
So perhaps a good thing for many football fans that it was The Netherlands that appeared in the 1974 world cup and not Belgium.

So it’s over to you Michael.

.
.

Good choice Chris!
It is interesting to think how different things could have been, not only in this case but in lots of other cases too.
This is something I often think is overlooked, not only in football but in other cases too.

I remember Italy getting eliminated vs South Korea, after having goals disallowed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pm4jD5kU4U Considering Italy's usual habit of getting better and better thoughout tournaments, how far would they have went if they had won?

How about if Maradona's hand ball vs England? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o (I hope I don't get banned for posting this. ) Maradona went on the be the king of the world cup, leading Argentina to the gold medal

There are so many examples, and not only in football.

What if Kenneth Andersson hadn't scored that late goal vs Rumania in the 1994 World Cup, and we hadn't won the following penalty shootout? Well, we probably would have come home a bit disappointed, instead of eventually winning bronze medal and see the players come home as heroes.
What if Anders Svensson had scored vs Senegal in the 2002 World Cup 1/8-final, instead of hitting the goal post? Well, it would have been a golden goal, putting us through to the 1/4-finals, instead of seing Senegal later on scoring a somewhat lucky goal to eliminate us.
What if England had won the penalties vs... well for example Holland?

You are right about the football world having been denied of Holland and Cruyff. It also probably would have meant Holland would get a tougher qualifying for the next European Championship and World Cup, and so on...
However... Holland might have equalized later, if the Belgian goal had been allowed.
Just like France might have won anyway vs Ireland.

I sort of knew this was the correct answer, but felt obligated to letting mip getting the opportunity to win, he he he.