Expelled After Playing
They May Break But They Won’t Stop
PREFACE
On October 26, 2013, soccer, the most popular and exciting sport in the world, celebrated 150 years. It was on that day in 1863 when a group of visionaries met in a London pub called Freemason’s to create The Football Association and write the first “official” regulation for a new game, thereby setting it on its prestigious path. Since then, the ball has rolled along a vast and profuse road—and through stadiums—all over the world, and in millions of professional and amateur matches.
In popular memory, the great champions, the stars, and the gigantic feats are remembered. But these moments are not the focus of Most Incredible Soccer Matches. To write this book, I’ve dug into the sands of time in search of the most unusual matches, not the most transcendental ones. This book does not intend to recreate facts that have an important place in the history of soccer, but rather to recollect spectacular events that also deserve a place—though modest perhaps—for their unforgettable and unique characteristics. Many great clubs and players will be mentioned, as well as anonymous soccer players or unknown teams, because unexpected, curious, funny, and memorable episodes happened to them.
I’ll give you a few examples: a soccer player who scored all four goals of a game that ended 2-2. One referee who stopped the game to find the false teeth he had lost, another who sent off a coach when he learned that he was a “friend” of his wife, and a third who was about to be run over by the car of a player furious by the punishment he received. A goal scored by a dog and another by a seagull. A team thrashed after using a one-armed goalkeeper and another because their players had arrived having imbibed several more drinks than they should have during a player’s marriage ceremony. A midfielder who ate the referee’s red card and a defender who was suspended for a match even though, at the time of the ruling, he had been dead for more than a week. A match that had to be canceled due to the appearance of an iceberg and one striker who was sent off twice…in the same game!
These are just some of the extraordinary stories found in Most Incredible Soccer Matches. One note: In this book you will find very few references to the World Cups, the Champions League, or the Olympic Games, since these competitions have their privileged space in my other books. Some circumstances that occurred in those contests were cited to serve as a context for other curiosities; however, it’s not the renown of the tournaments that make up the soul of this book, but the magical rebounds of the ball, regardless of field, rivalry, or country. I invite you to continue reading and enter an amazing but real world. Welcome to the most incredible soccer matches!
–Luciano Wernicke
THE WEDDING
The return leg against AFC Comprest GIM meant a double commitment for the players of CS Viitorul Chirnogi. On the one hand, they had a sporting commitment to face the second division of Romania in the second match of the promotion league after a shameful 0-10 in their first match. On the other hand, they had the human commitment: One of the starting players was getting married the night before the defining match. Another player proposed to assume both responsibilities, so they all approved, even knowing that a wedding was not the best place to concentrate before the match. On the morning of June 20, 1993, all of Viitorul Chirnogi’s players showed up for the match drunk after so many toasts to the health of the new couple. Their performance, funnily, provoked a “double” result, much like their blurred vision: 21 to 0 for the fresh and sober athletes of Comprest. And it was only 21 because the referee ended the match in the 70th minute when only six of the drunken players were still standing.
GOLDEN GOAL
When a match is
