Historical success! Argentina won its first gold medals at the 1978 World Cup, albeit with considerable help from Peru. The 1978 World Cup in Argentina was however another tournament that Czechoslovakia did not participate in. Holland did not reach the top in this championship either, Brazil managed to get bronze.
Buenos Aires, Mar der Plata, Córdoba, Mendoza, Rosario: these five cities hosted the 1978 World Cup hosted by Argentina. And this in the period from June 1 to June 25.
At that time, 107 teams qualified for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, and 16 of them traditionally participated in the final tournament. As in the previous case, neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia took part in the tournament, on the contrary, the first departures in the world went to the representatives of Iran and Tunisia.
Qualifiers
Also, as was the custom in those days, the tournament consisted mainly of teams from Europe and America. The countries mentioned above, namely Iran and Tunisia, were representatives of Asia and Africa respectively. However, the rest belonged to teams from the American and European continents.
So which teams did the fans see at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina? The national selections for Europe were Holland, Austria, France, Poland, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Hungary and Germany. For the American continent – Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina.
Controversial samples?
The Argentines became world champions in 1978, albeit not entirely cleanly. They topped the basic bracket by losing one game. The Argentina national team won its debut match against Hungary 2:1, and also got the full score in the next match against France. And once again the result was 2:1.
However, in the last match of the group stage, Argentici lost against the Italians 0:1 and thus advanced to the next part of the tournament from second place. And since the 1978 World Cup in Argentina had the same game format as the previous championships, this representation advanced to the semi-final group with Brazil, Peru and Poland.
In their first game against Poland, Argentina won 2-0, but then drew 0-0 with Brazil and had to beat Peru by at least four goals to finish first in this semi-final group and advance to the final.
This was done and the Argentinian native won 6:0. But as it turned out later, the match was influenced or arranged in favor of Argentina. Either way, you can learn more about this in our Worlds special above.
The final duel between Argentina and the Netherlands then went into extra time, in which the hosts were more successful. Mario Kempes scored two goals in this game, Ricardo Daniel Bertoni scored one. Argentina won the final 3:1 and could celebrate gold.
The Dutch are silver again
Similar to on World Cup 1974 in Germany the Dutch ended their journey in the final, just below the top step. In the final, the Netherlands only managed to go through once, when Dick Nanninga scored in the 82nd minute.
In the previous championship she failed to reach the final with NSR, losing 1:2. And the Dutch had a very strong team, with stars like Johan Cruijff or Johnny Rep. So they failed to win gold for the second time in a row, even though they managed the semifinal group almost perfectly (5 points, score 9: 4).
Brazil bronze, Italy no medal
The Brazilian national team exited the group stage four points adrift of second place after drawing 1-1 with Sweden, 0-0 with Spain and beating Austria 1-0.
This, however, advanced further from first place, albeit also with four points. In the semifinal round, the Brazilians finished second behind the aforementioned Argentine.
In it, they beat Peru 3:0, drew 0:0 with Argentina and beat Poland 3:1. The consolation could be the fight for third place and the 2-1 victory over Italy, thus conquering the bronze medals. You can learn more about not only Brazil’s performance, but also the entire 1978 World Cup in Argentina in our special attachment above.
The Italians were thus left without a medal, but given the distribution of strengths of the top teams, we’re not looking for a big surprise in that. Although yes, Italy had players in their squad who can be described as the stars of European football, led by Paolo Rossi.
Top scorer, stars of the tournament
The top scorer of the tournament was Argentinean Kempes, who scored six goals: two in the final and four more in the semi-final round. In the basic group, this star was silent on goals and, in addition to Bertoni, Daniel Alberto Passarella and Leopoldo Jacindo Luque took care of the goals.
Among the greatest protagonists of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, in addition to Kempes, we can include the aforementioned Italian Rossi or the Brazilian Dirce. Rossi scored three times for his team, Dirce also three times for Brazil.
Michel Platini (France), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Dieter Müller (both from Germany) and the 1974 World Cup top scorer Grzegorz Lato (Poland) were also big names in this championship.
Disappointing France, Germany and Poland also without success
The French still had a team led by, for example, the star Platini, so they could not even advance from the basic group. On the other hand, they had a really tough group together with Argentina and Italy, leaving only toothless Hungary behind. However, the resulting balance in the form of two points and a 5:5 rating probably speaks for itself.
The Germans, as previous winners, were also disappointed after the tournament. As a result, they failed to manage the semi-final group and finished behind the Netherlands and Italy, even though they also had several big stars in their squad.
Poland, who won bronze at the 1974 World Cup, also finished in exactly the same way. This time, however, they failed to advance from the semi-final round.
Great tournament, many curiosities and political aspects
We talk about it at the end of almost every piece of ours, including our article on our FIFA World Cup special. However, the 1978 World Cup in Argentina can also be classified as one of the successful sporting ones, albeit with some curiosities and political contaminations (e.g. the military coup in Argentina – ed).
So, if you are interested, you can watch our part about this tournament in the attached video above. Know that there you will find a whole range of interesting things that would otherwise be very difficult to find in historical chronicles.
Resources: FIFA, ESPN
