The hand of Jack, 1966: Leeds at the World Cup
It might have drifted across the goal, it might have drifted into the goal, it might have dropped to one of the forwards rushing in, and Big Jack Charlton had only a split second to decide. He reached up, and punched the ball away from the goalmouth.
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When are tournament stakes at their highest, in the final, or the semi-final? Is there more risk while playing for the trophy, or playing for the chance of it? Does the tension somehow lessen when it's eleven against eleven for the cup, after the nervousness of imagining not making it?
Finals are simple and that helps. All there is left to think about is winning. The World Cup semi-final in July 1966, between England and Portugal at Wembley, was more complicated than that. Lose and there'd be no final, and that would feel tragic. England hadn't shown their best form yet, and didn't want to hear their critics' opinions of a knockout at home. They hadn't proven themselves by reaching the final four. Being one of a final two would be saying something.
The ill-manner of the quarter-final win over Argentina was repercussive, too. That match was held up by a chaotic interlude while West German referee Rudolf Kreitlein was ordering Argentina captain Antonio Rattín from the field for 'violence of the tongue'. Rattín argued that the ref couldn't have understood his Spanish, but Kreitlein felt the meaning had been clear, and it was the final straw anyway of a first half marked for Rattín and his teammates' foul play. At one point, during the almost ten minutes it took to get Rattín off the field, it looked like all his teammates were going to walk off with him. Instead they stayed to continue a battle in which four other Argentina players and brothers Jack and Bobby Charlton all had their names taken, and football was dragged into disrepute in its own home.
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