1974 | Zaire, Mobutu, The Threat, Brazil and The Free Kick!

Different stories from the World Cup!

“THEY CLOSE THE HOTEL TO ALL THE JOURNALISTS AND SAID IF WE LOSE 0-4 AGAINST BRAZIL, NONE OF US CAN GET BACK HOME”!!!

What we will tell you below is the adventure of the Zaire representative team in the 1974 edition of the World Cup as well as the dark side of that free kick in the match against Brazil.

African football has come a long way and left its mark in recent decades. Now, African players have a visible influence in all the major leagues of the world. Such as Mo Salah, Yaya Touré, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sadio Mané are well-known names.

Few football fans can also deny the impact that players such as goalkeeper Thomas N`Kono, Roger Milla and Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba or George Weah had made in their time. It is not only in club football that Africa makes its presence felt.

Every four years, the World Cup highlight reel usually features some pretty special moments from countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana.

Highlights include that of Senegal against world champions France in the opening game in 2002, Roger Milla’s flamboyant celebration near the corner flag in Italia ’90 and South Africa’s goal against Mexico as they hosted the Cup the first of the World in Africa in 2010.

But let’s come concretely to the event for which we are taking the trouble to write this article.

June 14, 1974. The ‘Leopards’ of Zaire, (today called the Republic of Congo) led by their Yugoslav (Macedonian to be exact) coach Blagoje Vidinić took part in their first World Cup match. But why did this country decide to be called Zaire and not Congo, from 1971 to 1997? It was then dictator President Mobutu Sese Seko who decided to call it that to give the country what he thought was a more authentic African name. “Zaire” is a variant of a term meaning “big river” in local African languages;

Like the current name of the country, it referred to the Congo River, which flows into a large basin that lies mainly in the republic of this country. The match played at the “Westfalenstadion” in Dortmund, it quickly became apparent that their opponents, a Scottish side boasting the likes of Denis Law, Billy Bremner and Kenny Dalglish, had seriously underestimated them (the Congolese international).

Zaire broke out and quickly began to excite all those who watched with a disbelieving eye with their attacking approach and strange style of play. Unfortunately for Vidinić’s men, Scotland matched their opposition’s momentum and eventually turned the game in their favour, somehow (undeservedly) winning 2 – 0. However, this defeat was no shame for the champions in power of Africa who had eliminated the favorites of Morocco 3-0 in the qualifiers of this world cup after a supplementary match (third match).

Not at all!!!

Some facts must be cited to show in the following article that the representative of Zaire was not “scarso”, (bad quality) and they knew very well the basic rules of football, as well as the impressions and history of African women.

In fact, despite Scotland manager Willie Ormond’s dismissive pre-match comments (If we can’t beat Zaire, then we should pack our bags and go home.), Zaire had quietly impressed a lot of people and won some new fans. with their wild spirit. and positivity.

Their next match was to be played on June 18, but within four days between the first and second leg, the wheels began to fall off Zaire’s performance. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. “The wheels were punctured” one after the other…….

The President of Zaire, Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (or just ‘Mobutu’, right?), it’s fair to say, was very excited about sending this team out to represent his country. After sealing qualification, President Mobutu invited the team to his personal residence to celebrate and bought all the players houses and cars. So he had invested in this representative.

For the World Cup in v. 1974, Mobutu created a substantial budget that the players could tap into if they needed or wanted anything. He also sent a large entourage of government and Football Federation officials from Zaire to bolster the ranks as a sign of support and strength. However, here’s the rub – that funding started to “flow” and pretty soon they had completely “dried up” it.

The players soon discovered this. At the same time they realized that the money of that budget was not only bonuses, but from their salaries and bonuses. This money was basically stolen and the players would not be able to be paid. Understandably, there was anger and rebellion in the camp. A good majority of the team declared that they would not play on June 18 in the next match. It is said that FIFA intervened and even allegedly paid about 3,000 German marks for each player to take the field and save the reputation of the developing tournament.

III

Reluctantly, the eleven players ran onto the “Park Stadion” field in Gelsenkirchen. But while they were there in body, they were not in spirit. Against Yugoslavia, the game quickly turned into a farce. It can be justified that Zaire “faked” this match in protest. Also the argument could be made that the stress and nonsense off the field resulted in tired players who were not trained properly, were not properly focused and lacked motivation.

But for that match, it can be safely said that it was an embarrassment for all concerned. One of the strangest openings of any World Cup match to date. Yugoslavia took the lead with three goals in the first 20 minutes. So Zaire’s man in charge of the team, Vidinić – a former Yugoslavian international himself – decided to replace his goalkeeper.

Kazadi Muamba came off in the 21st minute. Tubilandu Ndimbi entered the game with number 12, who was only 1.60 m when he stood on his toes. However, within a minute of the substitution, he suffers the 4th goal for the Yugoslavs, the one scored by the Bosnian Katalinski.

Ndimba would have to take the ball out of his own net five more times that evening. A shameful defeat, 9-0!!!

Yugoslavia had a unified team in several republics until the gradual disintegration after v.90-ties, and therefore it was a very strong team. Dusan Bajevic contributed to a
“hat-trick”. (8`; 30`; 81)The legendary winger of “Cervena Zvezda” of Belgrade, Dragan Dzajic, also scored a goal (14′). Like Ivica Surjak (18`), Vladislav Bogičevič (35`), Branko Oblak (61`), Josip Katalinski (22`) and Ilija Petkovic (65`).

6-0 only in the first half.

It was one of the heaviest defeats in the World Cup. However, extenuating circumstances were kept secret. So to the rest of the world Zaire, and African football as a whole, looked sloppy, poor and unprofessional.

Balance: Two matches played. Two games lost. Eleven goals conceded. Zero goals scored. It’s safe to say that Zaire’s first and only World Cup appearance was a disaster. However, it gets worse. Four days after the 9-0 “hammer” against the “Leopards”, already out of the World Cup and completely humiliated, there was still one “final” match left.

Against the reigning world champion, Brazil. However, the situation will worsen again. Much worse this time… Zaire had now completely turned into a funny object.

However, President Mobutu, surprisingly, failed to see precisely this funny side of his representative. All military dictators are a notoriously serious bunch.

Outraged, embarrassed, humiliated and completely enraged, he decided to ‘intervene’. “After the match, he sent his presidential guards to threaten us,” defender Mwepu Ilunga has since claimed in an interview given to the BBC.

“They closed the hotel for all the journalists and said that if we lost 0-4 against Brazil, none of us would be able to go home.”

Now the whole representative was under pressure. In the middle of the second half, Brazil leads 2-0. The reigning world champions, who were not performing so well in this edition of the Cup, came after two 0-0 draws without goals, against Yugoslavia and Scotland. At one point in the game, the Brazilians win the right to a free kick about 25 meters from the Congolese goal.

It is Rivelino who will execute it, but……

Now if the “Leopards” will suffer another goal soon they may find themselves in serious trouble. This is one of the most infamous incidents in the history of the World Cup…

Ilunga seems to be in a panic, breaks away from the wall and runs towards the ball…..
hits it with all the power he has, throwing it as far as possible in field!

It’s a funny moment. All Brazilians laugh…..

Why?

The referee shows Llunga the yellow card and says:

No, no, no!!! Wrong!!! The ball should be hit by the Brazilians and not by you. The free kick is against you…..

“well, obviously because he’s an idiot and nobody on the team knows the basic rules of football”!

This has been the rather implausible assumption ever since. It was called “a strange moment of African ignorance” by BBC commentator John Motson.

But the truth was darker than that!!!

Zaire’s players and Brazilian Roberto Rivelino are arguing aggressively with the referee during a 1974 FIFA World Cup match in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on June 22nd. Brazil wins 3:0.

Llunga himself, asked some time ago after that episode, will declare:

“What? Do you really think that I made that shot out of ignorance of football rules? Of course I knew them……. This maneuver was driven by fear. It was a tactic, a waste of time, designed to confuse and push Brazil. Did it work? Maybe!

Seleção would score again, in min. 79` by Valdomiro and the match ended three-nil, meaning the players were allowed to return to their homeland.

Ashamed, broken and their careers more or less unclear. President Mobutu cut funding to the national team and the game of football in Zaire choked to death.

But as we pointed out at the beginning of this article, African football has been doing since that unfortunate moment of v. 1974, a long way marking an increase in their level in the game of football in every World Cup, especially from 1990.

The names of the representatives of Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, Ghana and others, left traces and positive results in the most prestigious trophy of the world.

(C) Reserved Material | The exclusivity on this page is dated September 18, 2022

By: Pjerin Bj

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Sports Vision +/ The Hour of The Champions since 2013

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