ACTUALITE |
12.06.2002
Card blitz puts Germany-Cameroon in World Cup`s record book of shame
SEOUL
The yellow card blitz in Cameroon and Germany`s Group E clash on Tuesday has put the showdown into the record books as the dirtiest match in World Cup history.
"It is a World Cup record," said FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper. "Although not a very enviable one. Sixteen yellow cards far surpasses the previous record of 12 cautions set earlier in the tournament in the match between Senegal and Uruguay."
The previous highest number of bookings was 10, handed out when Mexico and Bulgaria clashed in the 1994 World Cup on the United States
Spanish referee Antonio Lopez Nieto, in charge of Cameroon and Germany, was in action after only eight minutes when he booked Cameroon`s Marc-Vivien Foe.
Only a minute later Germany`s Carsten Jancker when down in the referee`s book. There were seven more bookings by half-time and Germany`s Carsten Ramelow was sent off five minutes before the interval for pulling down Samuel Eto`o only two minutes after receiving a first yellow card. Cameroon`s Patrick Suffo got his marching orders in the 77th minute when he got his second yellow.
But despite the record busting number of cautions, the Cameroon-Germany match fell well short of the infamous `Battle of Berne` in 1954.
The `54 match had all the makings of a classic: the free-flowing football revolutionaries of Hungary against the flamboyant artistes from Brazil.
Yet 90 minutes, three sendings off and several mass brawls later, and the 1954 World Cup quarter-final between the two sides was jostling for top spot in the tournament`s hall of shame.
Now known simply as the `Battle of Berne`, the encounter is regarded as one of the most shameful encounter in World Cup history, a day when Brazil opted for brutality instead of beauty and when Hungary were only too happy to join in.
The result, a 4-2 victory for Hungary, has become a barely remembered postscript.
"This was a battle; a brutal, savage match," recalled Hungary`s coach Gustav Sebes, who himself ended up with four stitches in a facial wound after being struck by a broken bottle in the aftermath.
"At the end we had won 4-2 but it wasn`t over yet. Brazilian photographers and fans flooded on to the pitch and police were called to clear it.
"Players clashed in the tunnel and a small war broke out in the corridor to the dressing rooms - everyone was having a go; fans, players and officials," the coach added.
But even the `Battle of Berne` could not match the violence of the Chile - Italy clash in 1962.
The Italians were provoked by the Chilean players who began the match by spitting in their opponents faces.
The match produced two expulsions, a broken nose caused by a perfect left hook delivered by Leonel Sanchez and a flurry of violence that reduced referee Ken Aston of England declaring the match was `uncontrollable`.
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