Читать книгу Now You Know Big Book of Sports онлайн

91 страница из 137

Quickies

Did you know …

that Hector Castro, who scored Uruguay’s winning goal in the 1930 World Cup final, had only one hand?

By what unusual method did Chile qualify for the 1973 World Cup finals in a match against the USSR?

Quite simply, by kicking the ball into an undefended net. Earlier in the year, after a coup d’état by General Augusto Pinochet, thousands of supporters of Marxist Chilean President Allende had been executed in the National Stadium in Santiago. Out of protest, the USSR refused to play in the stadium and the match was held without Soviet players present. The Chilean players kicked off the game and scored into the empty Soviet net. Then the game was abandoned and awarded to Chile. As a result, Chile automatically qualified for the 1974 finals but were eliminated in the first round.

Why was Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas banned for life by FIFA?

On September 3, 1989, Brazil was leading 1–0 with 23 minutes left in a decisive World Cup qualifier against Chile at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro. In an attempt to disqualify the match, the Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas pretended to have been hit and seriously injured by a flare thrown from the Brazilian crowd. The whole Chilean team walked off in protest, and the match was abandoned. Investigations by the Chilean Soccer Federation and FIFA concluded that he had faked the injury. FIFA awarded Brazil a 2–0 victory, banned Rojas from international play for life and banned Chile from the 1994 World Cup.