Shifting focus away from Italia 1990 and onto the incredible World Cup hosted by the USA in 1994. England didn’t qualify so this literally is my favorite World Cup of all time. I simply got to relax and watch the drama unfold before my eyes and there were no tears of joy or defeat. Perfect.

Nigeria reached their first World Cup final in 1994 with what turned out to be one hell of a talented team. Little did we know until they turned on the heat and devastated eventual Semi-Finalists Bulgaria 3-0 to open their tournament. This provided one of my all time favorite moments in the World Cup. Rashidi Yekini scored Nigeria’s first ever goal in the World Cup, a tap in from maybe four yards and followed the ball into the net. Once there he grabbed the net in his big hands and literally emptied his soul into the heavens screaming with pure unfettered joy.

It was the iconic picture of the World Cup for me, the one moment that lives on more than any other. The day after the game still shots of Rashidi Yekini lived on sports pages the world over. Sadly 16 years later you can barely find them … you can catch the moment about a minute into the video.

Nigeria went on to win their group, they lost their second game to Argentina 2-1 and then beat Greece 2-0. They played Italy in the first round of the knockout stage of the tournament looking to reach the World Cup Quarter final. They took the lead, and held it until the final seconds of the game when Roberto Baggio scored the equalizer and the subsequent winner in extra time. They would have been worthy Semi-Finalists.

There are two countries that define English misery at the World stage.  Argentina we have already seen, but in the 1990 World Cup the power house and ultimate winner was West Germany.  They had one of the strongest lineups you could imagine, with the likes of Völler, Klinsmann, Matthäus, Brehme, Kohler and coached by the legendary Franz Beckenbauer they had everything.  Power, pace, fantastic finishing, dominant defense.  They were the complete team, without weakness and great at every area of the game.

England were out matched, but in with a shot but things started to look bad early on when a free kick deflected off the back of Paul Parker and wound up ballooning over the stranded Peter Shilton in the England goal.  Lineker equalized for England and the stalemate set in.  Paul Gascoigne already on a yellow card was booked in the 71st minute guaranteeing that no matter what happened who would miss the World Cup final and be shed open tears on field during the game.  It was the image that summed up the World Cup for England in 1990.

Extra Time. Penalties. Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle miss …. England suffer the ignominy of having to play Italy for third place. Sorry about the music over the video ….

The feeling in England after the game was that if we had gotten through the Germany game was that we would have beaten Argentina in the final. IF …. If ….. if ……

The final between Argentina and West Germany was a dour affair decided by a solitary penalty kick. West Germany had won, and we could do was sit and wonder.

I had some spare time this morning and wanted to get out of the house for a bit so I went for a quick drive out to Legends to see the stadium construction for myself.  The web cams are okay but to really get an idea it pays to walk the perimeter of the site.  I took pictures from all sides today – these should be fun to look back on in a while when the stadium is complete.  Either way fantastic progress – the site is never idle it seems.  These are just a few of the fifty or so shots I took today, the remainder you can find on the kcwfans.com Facebook page.  You do not need to be a member of Facebook to view them.  Let me know what you think — during the dog days of summer my motivation to do laps of a construction site might fade a bit so knowing there are folk that actually want to see this would be nice.

Outside the main Gates – almost immediately outside Arthur Bryants.

Village West Parkway

Would be nice to see some really big billboards around the site, somebody outside Nebraska Furniture Mart asked what was being built.  They thought it was a Casino.

Outside the main gates again – this time a little closer.

State Avenue: Seeing in the the guts of the stadium.

State Avenue

State Avenue

State Avenue

State Avenue

State Avenue

This is from France Family Drive.

Irishman David O’Leary spent almost his entire career at Arsenal. A classy defender in an era of big bruisers – he clocked an immense 558 games for Arsenal, scoring a whopping 11 goals in 18 years. Yes, less than one goal a season on average.

In 1990, Ireland qualified for the World Cup under the guidance of England legend Jack Charlton, and unfortunately found themselves in a group with England, Holland and Egypt. Nobody gave them much chance, but they managed a draw with England despite England dominating, a draw with Egypt and finally a draw with Holland, they somehow scraped through the group stages and faced Romania looking to book a place in the World Cup Quarter Finals.

By this stage Ireland’s sheer unwillingness to lose games – even if they were not winning them – earned them a following throughout the British Isles and across much of Europe. The fans had a party no matter where they went, in stark contrast to English, Dutch and German fans who seemed hell bent on rioting no matter where they played. And if Cameroon were the Cinderella team, Ireland were the sweethearts.

The game against Romania was as tense affair as could be. A haunting 0-0 draw captivated fans and as the game ground on through 90 minutes and then extra time, penalties looked to be more and more likely. Finally this was the only option that remained. All penalties were scored by both sides until finally Romanian Daniel Timofte stepped forward, took a low shot to his left which was smartly saved by Packie Bonner. This was heart-in-mouth stuff, and Ireland were now one kick of the ball away from the Quarter Finals. One kick.

I turned to my sister (a fellow Arsenal mad person) and said “So long as Spider does not take it …” (Spider was O’Leary) … and then he stepped forward. My sister yelled, almost laughing “… Oh no .. it is David O’Leary!” and all of a sudden the knot in my stomach grew to about the size of a large watermelon. I loved this man, but he was no goal scorer and watching Ireland crash out was bad enough, watching David O’Leary miss this one would be akin to watching your father getting his ass beaten.

I stood in front of the TV, hands over my face, barely daring to watch as he strode forward and confidently stroked the ball into the back of the net. He knelt down after scoring for a second before bouncing back onto his feet. The backdrop featured Irish fans in delirium and within a second the foreground was filled with Irish players running towards O’Leary to celebrate. I have seldom jumped around like a maniac when Ireland have won … but I did. Amazing moment, and one of my favorites in the game ever.

The video is weird, but there is almost nothing on this goal out there. Still the they replay the scenes after Ireland score and it pretty well sums it up. Ireland went out in the Quarter finals going down 1-0 to Italy but went home to a half million people lining the streets. They were heroes, and that moment will live in my mind, and the hearts of Irish fans forever.

The Kansas City Wizards have not won a game since the second week of the season when they overcame the Colorado Rapids 1-0 at Community America Ballpark.  Since then the Wizards have lost to Seattle, Houston, and inexplicably DC United picking up two meager points with a worthy draw against the LA Galaxy and a somewhat lucky draw last weekend against the Chicago Fire.  The lack of goals coupled with some genuine defensive frailty has the Wizards looking more like Curt Onafo’s early season 2009 team than the new improved 2010 version we saw on display for the first three or four weeks of the season.  The net result has been a slide down the standings and the stark reality is that the New England Revolution, the Philadelphia Union and DC United are the only teams with equal or worse records and they suuuuuuck.

Somebody is going to retort that we have played two games less than most teams.  I’m not counting points we have not won – especially with a team that is struggling.  Meanwhile Columbus Crew have played the same number of games that we have, and are flying with 17 points and the second best overall record in MLS.  This is unfortunate for the Wizards who desperately need to start notching a few wins. It is hard to see us walking away with a win from this game however the fact remains that we need to as we have two back to back road games following this as the Wizards travel to Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC.

Did anybody seriously think we would be winning a Support Shield this season?  I still think the Wizards can make the playoffs and I still think we will improve as the season moves forward but success for the Wizards in 2010 is merely to improve upon the poor 2009 product.  How do we stack up?  I think the squad is better in 2010 but the results?  Not so much.

Comparing against the past two years after seven games …..

Wizards 2008 Record: 3-3-1  Points: 10  Scored: 8  Conceded: 9
Wizards 2009 Record: 3-3-1  Points: 10   Scored: 9  Conceded: 8
Wizards 2010 Record: 2-3-2  Points: 8  Scored: 8  Conceded: 8

Eerily similar isn’t it.

What I hope to see

• I hope to see the central defensive paring of Conrad and Besler.  Pablo Escobar is hurting us with mistakes at this time and while Besler had a nightmare against Houston I think it is fair to say that he is the better center back at this time.

• I would hope to see an end to the 4-3-3 formation we are using.  One of our greatest strengths should be our midfield and by seeding a pair of legs their to a forward we are simply giving that battle away.  Columbus have looked a little weak at the heart of their midfield but we can’t win within the soldiers on the field.

Silver Lining Time:

• Columbus have five wins in 7 games.  The two draws they had were on the road against the increasingly unimpressive Seattle Sounders and the mundane FC Dallas.

• Columbus played the New York Red Bulls on Thursday night, which might leave them a little leg weary.

• Columbus won in New York, but their defense looked a little fragile at times and the woodwork saved them more than once.

• The way the Wizards responded to going down 2-0 at home to the Fire to fight back and level the game gave me heart.  Ryan Smith stepped up more and more as the game went on and we were able to pile pressure onto the Fire in a way I have not seen since the opening day of the season.  Hopefully they can keep that tempo and intensity.