I'm here because of my wife - Mexico 1970
Four years after the historic World Cup win, the England team came early to the American continent to properly prepare for the attempt to defend the title.
Before the start of the tournament in Mexico, the Three Lions team landed in a training camp in Colombia, where captain Bobby Moore used free time to buy a piece of jewelry for his wife, but instead of a bracelet he "purchased" handcuffs, because the sellers called the police and accused him of theft.
All the explanations did not help Moore, and instead of practicing closing diagonally in defense, he practiced closing a barred door in the detention center, where he sat for four days, until the members of the English delegation convinced the station commander that this was a decent and innocent man.
In the end, he returned to England without the World Cup and without a piece of jewelery for Mrs Moore - as terrifying as a detention cell in Colombia.
Mor.
He spent four days in detention in Colombia, photo: AP
Far away - West Germany 1974
The Zaire team (now Congo) was to be cannon fodder in the tournament, but more than its rivals it feared the dictator who headed the country, Mobutu Sasa Seko, who took the concept of expelling a player one step further.
It happened after the 9:0 defeat to Yugoslavia.
The cruel leader sent journalists to the team's hotel with the threatening message: lose the next game to world champions Brazil by a score of 4:0 or higher - and no player will be allowed to return to Zaire.
In a situation of 0:3 to Brazil, she won a free kick, but just before Rivalino was about to kick it, Zaire's Joseph Vopo burst out of the wall - and kicked the ball wildly into the stands.
He explained: "I panicked because of the threat."
No further goals were scored until the end of the game.
The Zaire players were allowed to return to their homeland, it's just a shame that they started their journey home by stealing a bus, where they tried to cross the border to France before they were caught at the last minute.
The Prince of Tides - Spain 1982
France was on its way to an easy victory over Kuwait, when Alain Giers took advantage of a stalemate in the opponent's defense to make it 1:4.
The tricolor celebrated, while the opposing players berated the referee and claimed they heard a whistle that caused them to stop playing.
The man and the whistle, the Ukrainian Miroslav Stopar, ignored the shouts and rightly confirmed the goal, but it was not enough to restart the game because he had a royal visit.
It was Prince Fahd, the chairman of the Kuwaiti Football Association, who left his seat in the honor stand and burst, alongside security guards, onto the lawn. After a short and "friendly" conversation with the stunned Stopar, the latter canceled the goal to everyone's astonishment, while Prince Fahd went back to sitting comfortably In his place. How did the story end? France conquered again, Kuwait was relegated, His Highness was fined £8,000, and poor Stopar was suspended from judging until further notice, which never came.
The final whistle.
So what will you drink? - Italy 1990
As world champions, Argentina came to the tournament to defend the title by any means necessary.
After being surprised in the opening round by Cameroon (1:0), the Albiceleste somehow managed to advance to the round of 16, only for the draw to arrange a meeting with the toughest and most hated team for them - Brazil.
Everyone expected the Selecao to dance for the blood of the opponent, but a genius assist by Diego Maradona to Claudio Caniga was enough for a surprising 0:1 victory over the extinguished Brazilians.
Accidental bite?
Maradona and his coach in the same tournament, Carlos Bilardo, provided after 14 years a different and shameless explanation: the two admitted that with the help of one of the team members, they injected a prohibited substance, a blurring drug, into the drinking bottles of the Brazilian players.
Maradona was even proud of it, but already in the World Cup that followed in 1994 he learned the power of karma first hand (and blood), when he was thrown home in shame after failing... a drug test.
Maradona.
He was not ashamed to admit the scam, photo: Reuters
0:7, draw, tie - South Africa 2010
The late songwriter and journalist Ali Mohar used to seal his personal tour as a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan with a fixed prediction for the Reds' next game: "We will dismantle them 0:1".
Four years after his death, it was the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who perfected Mohr's immortal theorem in the first World Cup on the Black Continent, after his country's team was mercilessly defeated 7:0 by the favorite Portugal.
The crazy dictator declared to the citizens of the republic that he had found a way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo and his friends, and allowed the summary to be broadcast on local television after the game ended, after he ordered that all the goals conceded by the brave Asian team players be edited out.
This is how it turned out that the viewers of the broadcast in North Korea discovered that their kicking heroes stood strong against the formidable players of Portugal - and "dismantled them 0:0".
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