by it. I wish John [Aldridge] and his people good luck, and all the best against Fulham.” Tranmere continued their run and in the next round beat Fulham FC, also in the first division, 2 to 1. Unfortunately in the next match, they fell 3 to 2 against the powerful Newcastle United FC.
An almost identical situation had happened before, only it ended a bit differently. On January 10, 1937, during the Copa America held in Argentina, the host team defeated Peru 1-0 in the San Lorenzo de Almagro CA. During the game, despite the field goal by the Estudiantes CA de La Plata striker Alberto Zozaya, the team wasn’t doing very well. The visiting team attacked on all fronts in pursuit of the equalizer. At the 84th minute, the Uruguayan referee Aníbal Tejada ejected defender Antonio Sastre from the match. According to the media, this ejection was unjustified, but, despite the ruling, Argentina continued playing the game with eleven men.
Remember that until 1968, the yellow and red cards did not exist, and the referees reported their decisions “by word,” with a hand gesture that wasn’t always easy to notice from a distance. As Sastre approached the sideline, the Argentine coach Manuel Seoane, in a quick and skillful maneuver, made Hector Blotto enter as a “sub” for the expelled teammate. Tejada did not see the stratagem, and his assistant referees and the Peruvian bench naively assumed that it was a conventional replacement (at that time, substitutions in league championships were not allowed, but the regulation of the South American Football Confederation did authorize them for this tournament) and didn’t report the incident to the referee. All things being equal, the Argentina squad resisted the Peruvian attack and ended the encounter victorious. This result was key for the hosts, which ended the round robin play with Brazil in first place with eight points. If Peru had equalized, the trophy would have traveled directly to Rio de Janeiro in the hands of the men managed by Adhemar Pimenta. But, when the draw was registered, a playoff final was scheduled for February 1, again at the San Lorenzo stadium. And, there, Argentina beat Brazil 2-0 and lifted the Copa América for the fifth time.
IN WOMEN’S CLOTHING
Bolivian Club Deportivo Jorge Wilstermann fans were infuriated at Paraguayan club Olimpia’s 1-0 lead. The two teams were playing in a crowded Félix Capriles stadium in the city of Cochabamba that night, March 29, 1979, for the Copa Libertadores. Hugo Talavera’s goal at 15 minutes practically eliminated the “aviator” team, although only two matches had been disputed. At that time, only one team per zone advanced to the semifinals. In need of a draw and technically overcome by their rival, the Bolivians began to use force. The game became very violent, and soon the match resembled more a massive boxing melee than a soccer game.
At eleven minutes into the second half, with the score still 0-1, the Bolivians became embroiled in a pitched battle that could only be contained with police force. When peace returned, Brazilian referee José Roberto Wright took the red card out of his pocket to expel a single Olimpia player, forward Enrique Atanasio Villalba, and four Wilstermann men: the defenders Carlos Arias, Miguel Bengolea, and Raúl Navarro and the attacker Juan Sánchez. According to the report, one of the expelled players from Wilstermann had launched “a flying kick, looking for the body of the rival.” The unequal justice rendered by Wright for an “everyone against everyone” fight angered the spectators even more, but the real disaster occurred a few minutes later when, favored by the numerical inferiority of their opponent, Evaristo Isasi scored Olimpia’s second goal.
To avoid a blow out, the coach for the Bolivian team, Roberto Pavisic, ordered one of his men to “get injured,” leaving the team with only six players. Since there were no more substitutions for the decimated Wilstermann, Wright was forced to whistle the end of the match twenty minutes prior to time because the Bolivian club did not have a minimum of seven players required by regulation. The story, however, did not end there.
Hundreds of disgruntled fans invaded the field and ran after the Olimpia players and, mainly, the referee, to gratify their need for revenge for what they considered a tremendous injustice. The police could do little to contain the anger of so many people. Several of Olimpia’s players received unmitigated punching and kicking. Assisted by a handful of policemen, the Paraguayans managed to escape the mob and lock themselves in their dressing room. Wright and his assistants, meanwhile, had to remain in their dressing room for several hours because the stadium had been surrounded by hundreds of outraged spectators. As revealed by Wilstermann midfielder Johnny Villarroel many years later during an interview, the only way Wright would leave the stadium was disguised as a woman. The Brazilian and his collaborators were taken to the city of Oruro more than 125 miles from Cochabamba, because they were told that a crowd of fans was waiting for the referee at the Cochabamba airport.
Because of this incident, CONMEBOL suspended the Felix Capriles stadium for a long time and ejected the five players. Club Jorge Wilstermann played the two remaining games at home in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz. They lost them, too. Olimpia, meanwhile, went to the next round: they won the group, then the semifinal, and, in the final, lifted the Copa Libertadores after dethroning the Argentine champion, Boca Juniors. Wright, meanwhile, would experience another very dark night in this continental tournament two years later, but that story is still to come.
INOPPORTUNE
What kind of record can a goalkeeper of the Botswana national team have? A very unique one, as it turns out. Goalkeeper Modiri Marumo, who was also the captain of “the zebras,” was the only player ever to receive a red card during a penalty shootout. Crazy, yes, but real. During the Castle Cup played in South Africa in 2003, the Botswana versus Malawi match ended in a 1-1 draw. Referee Mateus Infante from Mozambique called for the game to be decided from the twelve yards. The singular incident occurred after Malawian Philip Nyasulu scored the third goal of the series for his team. Nyasulu approached the defeated Marumo and gave him a pat on the shoulder, which Marumo answered with a blow to Nyasulu’s face. Infante, of course, showed the red card to the goalkeeper for his improper reaction. “I reacted badly; I am committed to make sure this does not happen again. I behaved inappropriately which embarrasses me. I hope my apologies will be accepted, and I will be able to serve my nation again,” Marumo said to the press. How did the series of penalties continue? Botswana missed the next shot, and Malawian Ganizani Malunga sealed the victory for his country by beating Michael Mogaladi, a defender who had to guard the goal in place of the expelled goalkeeper.
LIVE
Soccer and radio maintain a powerful and almost centennial romance. So deeply rooted are the games’ transmissions that many fans turn down the volume on their television and turn up the volume their radios to follow the images on the screen with the narration of their favorite play-by-play radio announcer. Others go to the stadium with their headphones on to hear someone describe what they are watching. But nothing is as unusual as a soccer player following the circumstances of a game on the radio…while he’s playing!
On October 11, 1992, at La Bombonera, CA Boca Juniors (who hadn’t won an Argentine championship for eleven years) received their bitter “superclásico” rival, CA River Plate. The xeneize squad was at the top of the standings with 14 points, followed closely by its biggest enemy with 13. At 65 minutes, Boca was up 1-0 thanks to a goal from Uruguayan Sergio Martinez. Then, referee Juan Carlos Lousteau called a foul; one of the well-known “divers,” millionaire Ariel Ortega, master of the art of falling down, was sandwiched between defenders, Carlos MacAllister and Alejandro Giuntini from the host team. A Boca supporter, enraged by the referee’s decision, threw his small yellow radio at the rival goalkeeper, Ángel Comizzo. The device fell within three feet of the goalie, who had the smart idea of taking it, putting on the headphones, and following the call of the radio announcers to hear Hernán Díaz’s shot from twelve yards, with his back to the play and in front of the opposing fans. But the
