The Football World Cup 1958 in Sweden is one of the more forgotten tournaments. Four years after the miracle of Bern came defending champion Germany after all in the semifinals against the hosts. The Herberger-Elf lost, in German reading especially because the Gothenburg public had unnerved the DFB team with his "Heja Sverige" staccato. Otherwise, the world remembers especially a 17-year-old young guy from Brazil who called himself Pelé.
The Northern Irish are reminiscent of Harry Gregg, Danny Blanchflower, Peter McParland, Billy Bingham and Peter Doherty.
Whenever a Northern Ireland team has the chance to qualify for a major football tournament, the "Spirit of 58" will be summoned to Belfast. In the current European Championship qualification Northern Ireland has four victories in four games and now challenges the team of coach Joachim Loew (Monday 20.45 clock, live ticker SPIEGEL, TV: RTL). It's time again for the spirit of 1958. When Northern Ireland advanced to its first quarter-finals in the World Cup quarter-finals. Never again since then.
How made for hero stories
The history of the Northern Ireland World Cup participation in 1958 is a story made for myths, heroic stories, triumphs and tragedy, sometimes even comedy. A story that also tells a lot about how different football was back then.
That starts with the qualification. The Northern Irish with their coach Peter Doherty have to deal with Portugal and the football superpower Italy. At the home game against Italy at Windsor Park in December 1957, everything is ready for the shootout - only the referee is not there. He got stuck in the fog in London. The game is renamed without further ado to the friendly game and set in January new. Northern Ireland wins the replay 2: 1, winning goalkeeper Wilbur Cash becomes a hero.
Northern Ireland is qualified for the first time, but instead of jubilation, there is sadness. At the beginning of February, the charter machine "Lord Burleigh" crashes with Manchester United players at Munich Airport, slipping over the runway in the slush. 23 people die in the "Munich Air Disaster", including eight United professionals, the famous team of Busby Babes is no more. Northern Ireland United players Harry Gregg and Jackie Blanchflower survive. Goalkeeper Gregg rescues several players from the wreck, he is three weeks later back on the football field. Blanchflower, the gifted younger brother of Northern Ireland captain Danny, will never play a game after that.
Games on Holy Sunday cause a stir
The awful misfortune of Munich hangs as a gloomy shadow over British football, for the first time (and for the last time), all four home nations, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, qualified for a World Cup. The participation of the Northern Irish, however, is uncertain for weeks. The church is storming against the fact that games are scheduled for the World Cup on Sunday. In Northern Ireland itself, no football is played in the 1950s on Sunday. After weeks of negotiations, the church and the association agree on a compromise: Northern Ireland may travel to Sweden for the World Cup. In the future, however, the team should never again be allowed to participate in a tournament that is also played on Sundays.
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Photo gallery: The Spirit of 1958Northern Ireland start the tournament with a win over Czechoslovakia, enlivened by Tottenham Hotspur's already 31-year-old Danny Blanchflower at the height of his creative power, spurred on by the scorching Peter McParland and nimble right winger Billy Bingham and guarded by United keeper Harry Gregg keeps in goal, as if he processed the trauma of Munich in its own way by outstanding achievements.
The second game against Argentina is lost, but in the third game against defending champion Gregg, the man in the yellow goalkeeper jersey, brings the DFB attackers to the 54-hero Helmut Rahn, Fritz Walter and Hans Schäfer to despair. The Northern Irish lead long 2: 1, before a young man from Hamburg still manages to overcome the insurmountable. The 2: 2 by Uwe Seeler brings the DFB-Elf the group victory, Northern Ireland and Czechoslovakia have to play for the rank of group second a playoffs.
Two liters of whiskey for the ankle
This playoff game against Czechoslovakia in Malmö becomes a drama. Gregg has injured his ankle against Germany, he can not play, instead his representative Norman Uprichard moves between the posts. The substitute pulls himself early also a heavy ankle injury. He has to clench his teeth, there were no substitutions during the game yet. The team leaders treat the injury with unusual means: The ankle is soaked in whiskey, two liter bottles are evacuated over the ankle. The Belfast Telegraph sighs in its coverage: "What a waste of the finest Irish whiskey."
Every step hurts Uprichard, and the drama takes its course. At the beginning of the second half, the goalkeeper collides with a Czech attacker and breaks his left hand. Somehow, the Northern Irish save themselves in extra time, and there is the miracle: McParland scored in the 99th minute, the 2: 1, the Czechoslovaks are so paralyzed that they can not respond. Northern Ireland no longer has a healthy goalkeeper but is in the quarter-finals. The press at home celebrates "the Magic in Malmö".
In the next game, Gregg tortured again, but the team has no chance against brilliant French, loses 4-0, Just Fontaine, France star, scored three goals, the tournament is over for the Northern Irishman. The homecoming becomes a triumphal procession.
It takes 24 years for Northern Ireland to be allowed to participate in a tournament again. Coach of the team, which fights in 1982 until the World Cup round, is Billy Bingham, who once nimble right wing. The spirit of 1958, he blew again. He should blow again on Monday.
