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The Argentina and England national Football teams have shared a fierce rivalry for many years, and matches between the two teams often have a particularly competitive and sometimes bellicose edge. It is unusual in that it is an intercontinental rivalry; typically, footballing rivalries exist between countries that are close to one another, for example France–Italy or Argentina–Brazil . Argentina is regarded in England as one of the fiercest rivals of the English football team, along with such rivals as Scotland and Germany ; the rivalry is also keenly felt in Argentina with the fixture commonly described as a ''clasico''. Although the rivalry originates from a match at the , it was particularly exacerbated by a non-footballing event, the 1982 Falklands War between the two nations, and has been propagated by various controversial or notable incidents in subsequent matches, for instance the infamous " Hand Of God " goal at the . BEFORE 1966 Football was actually introduced to Argentina by the British during the 19th century. The first game ever played in Argentina was between two British teams, the White Caps and the Red Caps, at Buenos Aires Cricket Club on 20 June 1867 . A British schoolteacher, Watson Hutton , founded the first Argentine league in 1891, and all the teams were initially made up of British players, before Argentine players began to join, especially in the early years of the 20th century. The English influence over the Argentine game shows in much of the Argentine footballing terminology, which uses English Language terms such as "corner" and "wing" rather than Spanish translations. The names of several famous teams in Argentina are also English in origin (such as River Plate and Newell's Old Boys ) or influenced by the language (such as Boca Juniors or Quilmes Athletic Club ). The national teams had met before their 1966 clash — Argentina were the first team other than Scotland to play England at , Nat Lofthouse and Tom Finney ; Argentina sticking with the same line-up used in the first match. The game was abandoned after 36 minutes due to torrential rain, with a 0-0 scoreline. Thus Argentina's first victory over England in a full international, recognised as such by both teams, had to wait until 1964 (with a 1-0 scoreline). 1966 WORLD CUP In spite of all of this history, it was not until the , held in England, that the rivalry picked up the fierce edge and sometimes bitterness which it retains to this day. The two teams met in the quarter-finals of the tournament and England won with a combatative 1-0 thanks to a goal from striker Geoff Hurst . However, the game was particularly noted for the sending-off of Argentina captain Antonio Rattín , which many Argentinians considered to be unfair, including Rattín himself who had to be escorted from the pitch by police before he would leave. According to '' The Observer '' newspaper, "with 10 minutes left in the first half, a German referee sent Rattin off for 'violence of the tongue', even though the referee spoke no Spanish ."2 It is also believed that Rattín even sat down on the Queen 's red carpet on his way to the locker rooms, to express his frustration. After the match, England manager Alf Ramsey refused to allow his players to swap shirts with the Argentinians — as is traditional after the conclusion of a football match — and later described the South American s as "animals" in the press. The Argentinian press and public were outraged, and one Argentinian newspaper published a picture of the official World Cup Mascot , ''World Cup Willie'', dressed in Pirate regalia to demonstrate their opinion of the England team. "Many Argentines read this as classic British racism... England has since been the team they most want to beat. One bumper sticker for the in Argentina showed the tournament's mascot, ''Gauchito'', posing with his foot on a British lion. England had not even qualified for the competition." 1986 WORLD CUP The next major game between the two teams occurred at the in Mexico , again at the quarter-final stage. The encounter was made particularly incendiary by the Falklands War which the two countries had fought four years previously, and many in Argentina saw the game as being an opportunity to exact revenge upon England for their loss of that conflict, and incidents during the fighting such as the sinking of the warship '' General Belgrano '' in debatable circumstances. Argentina took the lead through a highly controversial goal from their star player Diego Maradona , who punched the ball into the England net with his hand. The goal was allowed to stand by the referee, much to the fury of the English team and its fans. The goal, dubbed the " Hand Of God Goal " after Maradona's tongue-in-cheek description of how it was scored, has become infamous in England, particularly as England went on to lose the game and were knocked out of the tournament. Maradona scored a second goal, commonly regarded as One Of The Greatest Of All Time , before English striker Gary Lineker pulled one back, but England could not score again and lost 2-1. Despite the skill of his second goal, Maradona wrote in his autobiography that "I sometimes think I preferred the one with my hand... It was a bit like stealing the wallet of the English." He also wrote, in reference to the Falklands conflict, that "it was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team... Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge." The game added hugely to the rivalry between the two teams, and many in England felt that they had been cheated out of the competition by Maradona's hand ball. It is close to inevitable that, whenever the two teams play, the Hand of God goal will be referred to by the sports media in the build up to the game. 1998 WORLD CUP A 1991 Friendly Match at Wembley Stadium ended 2-2 without particular incident, and it was not until the that the two national teams met again in competitive play. This time it was in the second round stage of the World Cup competition, held in France . The game had many noteworthy aspects including a goal that is also considered One Of The Greatest Of All Time by young striker Michael Owen . However, the incident in this game that most exacerbated the rivalry was when David Beckham received a Red Card . Beckham had been fouled by Diego Simeone and the two players were lying on the pitch in close proximity to one another. As Simeone attempted to raise himself from the ground, he placed his hands on Beckham's back; Beckham was seen to wince in pain as Simeone regained his footing. In what Simeone himself described as an instinctive reaction, Beckam, still laying face down on the pitch flicked his leg towards Simeone striking him on the calf. Simeone later admitted to trying to get Beckham sent off by over-reacting to the kick and then, along with other members of his team, waving imaginary red cards at the referee, urging him to send Beckham off.3 Playing with ten men, England held out against the Argentinian attacks and, in the dying moments of the game, during a scramble in the Argentine penalty area, Sol Campbell headed the ball into the back of the Argentine net. As the England players began to celebrate a winning goal the referee blew for a foul on the keeper and disallowed it. The consequent Argentine free kick was taken very quickly, while the England players were still celebrating, and they had to rush back to successfully prevent the Argentinians from scoring themselves. The scores stayed level at 2-2 until the end of extra time. In the ensuing Penalty Shoot-out that decided the game, Argentina won 4-3. There was heavy criticism of Argentina's "theatrics" which many English fans held responsible for stealing the win. When Argentina faced Holland in the quarter-finals, Argentina star Ariel Ortega unsuccessfully sought to draw a penalty which instead earned him a yellow card. When Dutch goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar confronted Ortega on the latter's play-acting, Ortega headbutted him and promptly received a red card {Link without Title} . The English media delighted in the irony of this, especially when Holland's winning goal came shortly after Ortega was sent off. Immediately following the game, Beckham was vilified by the English press for his perceived petulance and naivety on the international stage. The headline in '' The Daily Mirror '' the following day described the England team as "10 heroic lions, one stupid boy". Soon however, the initial reaction was tempered by analysis of the incident and the game is now principally remembered in England for the sense that Simeone had cheated in prompting the Beckham red card and that, again, a victory had been "stolen" by the Argentine team. Argentines, in contrast, still think that Beckham's reaction deserved the red card and Simeone's act was rightly to demand the deserved card, although most admit that it was also partly Gamesmanship . In the end, most people on both sides agreed that Beckham should have kept calm and avoided the incident altogether. 2002 WORLD CUP | ||
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