I’m sad to note the death of Paolo Rossi, who was in effect the prototypical Italian striker, arguably the best ever such.

There is an argument to be made about whether one man can be said to have won a World Cup for his country, the usual example given being Diego Maradona.

However it is almost certain that without Paolo Rossi, Italy would not have won the World Cup in 1982. His contribution to that success was profound – and indispensible.

He had only recently come back from a two year ban resulting from the Totonero betting scandal (in which he said he was unjustly implicated,) and had endured, as did his team-mates to be fair, a non-descript start to the 1982 tournament. But his hat-trick buried an extremely talented Brazil side in what was effectively a knock-out game in the second phase in one of the best-ever World Cup matches. Was there ever such a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles as in his third in that game?

Italy 3-2 Brazil:-

Rossi then scored the two goals which defeated Poland in the semi-final and set Italy on their way to the Cup with the first in the final against West Germany – a goal which he said most exemplified his style in anticipating where the ball would be before the defender could react in time.

Six goals, the Golden Boot, and Golden Ball for most valuable player, with the 1982 Ballon D’Or added in for good measure.

All six goals:-

In his career he had multiple Italian domestic trophies, and all but the EUFA Cup in European competition. One of the greats.

Paolo Rossi: 23/9/1956 – 9/12/2020. So it goes.

The football legend who has died today had a name that needed no further explanation. He was part of that legendary Real Madrid side that captivated the football followers of Glasgow and Scotland at the European Cup Final of 1960 – played at Hampden Park. di Stéfano scored a hat-trick.

I was too young to be aware of it at the time but the folk memory was promulgated and persists. Such was the effect of that display of what football could be that the names of the forward line still trip off the tongue with no need for googling. Canario, Del Sol, di Stéfano, Puskas and Gento. Mind you, I see film of that game now and think, “Where was the marking?”

One curiosity is that I believe the Eintracht Frankfurt team that formed the opposition that day were all amateurs – as was German football as a whole.

di Stéfano may be unique in having played international football for three different countries, his native Argentina, Colombia, where he played league football for a while, and Spain for whom he was naturalised in 1956. That was the type of scenario that I thought had been resolved by FIFA with its rules on eligibility but in the recent World Cup one of the commentators remarked that Kevin-Prince Boateng who played for Ghana in the tournament had previously played for Germany (but not, it seems, for the senior side.)

The World Cup was one stage that di Stéfano did not grace, for various reasons, but his thirteen national titles (two in Argentina, three in Colombia and no less than eight in Spain) and five European Cups – not to mention his scoring record – speak for themselves.

Alfredo Stéfano di Stéfano Laulhé: 4/7/1926 – 7/7/2014. So it goes.

FIFA World Cup Qualifier: Europe, Group A. Hampden Park, 11/9/12.

Brazil 2014? You’re having a laugh.

Again I only saw the highlights but compared to Macedonia – a team fifty below us in the FIFA rankings – we looked sluggish and lacking in confidence.

They moved the ball about slickly and with purpose, we like headless chickens. In short they appeared to know what they were about and we didn’t.

Two games in and looks like we’ll be lucky to avoid coming bottom of the group; except that Wales seem to be even worse. (Then again that’s the sort of situation where they’re likely to jump up and bite us.)

Oh, and by the way, when did Macedonia lose the FYR tag?

FIFA World Cup Qualifier: Europe, Group A, Hampden Park, 8/9/12.

I only saw the highlights – and had managed to avoid finding out the score beforehand, which wasn’t worth it.

We made heavy weather of this but shouldn’t grumble about a draw with a team above us in the rankings. (Only Macedonia in our Group aren’t above us.) Serbia might have scored themselves.

Still, judging from this it’s “Brazil, here we don’t come.”

You only had to look at who won the rights to hold the next two World Cups after 2014 to know money was involved somewhere along the line.

Russia – oligarchs – and Qatar – oil.

It’s only the degree, and whether it actually went to the members of the FIFA board or their pet projects which was in any way in doubt.

All the shock horror is a bit overdone.

But a cleaning out of FIFA’s Augean stables would be no bad thing just the same.

So. It’s Russia.

Well done, comrades. (Or don’t you say that anymore?)

Fat lot of good having David Beckham, the Prince William and Mr Irresponsible presenting the England bid as part of the team did them.

But what an outpouring of bile we got from the commentariat on BBC news in the aftermath, saying that the process was flawed, not transparent enough and must be changed.

What? You lose the vote and that’s because of the system?

This display of sour grapes is profoundly unappealing. You were acting as if it were your divine right to have the tournament. I know God is supposed to be an Englishman but get a grip. No wonder you lost.

Where does this ridiculous sense of entitlement originate? You lucked out once and have been more or less mince ever since. You continually puff up your league as the best in the world. If it is – and that’s by no means a given – it would only be because it is stuffed full of foreign players who are more gifted technically, and more intelligent in the football sense, than your indigenous ones.

And before anyone points the finger, my poor little football country has no such delusions of grandeur. We cured ourselves of any vestige of that a long time ago.

It’s indicative of the desperation fans of England feel that they appear to think that only by hosting the World Cup will they ever win it again. (I would suggest that the way the England team is going now even being hosts wouldn’t guarantee that.)

Face it guys. Nobody likes you. You’re too arrogant.

World Cup. Final. Soccer City, Johannesburg, 11/7/10. aet 0-1.

Not a classic. Again, finals are usually far too nervy affairs for the football to be flowing.

Here it was the Dutch who were more nervous about losing than the Spanish, yet they could have won it if Arjen Robben had put their best chance away.

They were lucky to have eleven men still on the pitch after the first half which featured mostly anti-football. What a comedown from the days of Total Football.

Spain could bury teams if they had a taller forward line, got width and delivered accurate crosses. As it is they seem content to win 1-0. That’s four of those in a row now.

A sideline to the Spanish win is that Scotland once again have the opportunity to be crowned Unofficial World Champions when we play them during the next Euro qualifiers.

That is if someone else doesn’t beat them first.

And pigs fly.

World Cup, 3^rd/4^th place play-off, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth, 10/7/10.

This was a ding-dong encounter, end-to-end stuff, both sides managing to take the lead then being clawed back, one going in front again, the other hitting the bar with the last kick of the ball.

Enjoyable stuff.

I doubt the final tomorrow will be as good as this.

The ref ought to have sent off Germany’s Aogo for a wild, over the top challenge but, as it was the third place game, contented himself with a yellow.

Diego Forlan has looked better and better with every game he has played.

I watched the first half of the game last night in the company of Onebrow. He asked me if I’d noticed that the foul throw no longer seems to be penalised. I told him I had and that it’s only outrageous examples that catch a ref or linesman’s eye nowadays.

I suppose it’s because a throw-in is supposed to be an advantage to the taker (btw a Dumbarton supporter laughs at any such suggestion) and so the officials let minor infringements go.

I also said what annoys me more is the consistent cheating indulged in by those who are awarded a free-kick anywhere outside the attacking third. (The refs are more stringent in that area.) On the award being given the ball has immediately been thrown, or placed, ten yards or more in front of where the foul took place. In some cases this has meant offences in a team’s own half have resulted in a free kick taken in their opponent’s. Another was given for a foul on the goal line and taken from near the eighteen yard line. These instances are surely not hard to spot.

All the teams seem to be at this. And don’t get me started on teams “stealing” yards at throw-ins, which is endemic in the professional game.

In this regard, congratulations to David Villa who, after the field invasion interruption just after the game started, did not lump the ball all the way back to Germany’s goalkeeper on the restart but played it a few yards to where Germany had actually had possession. He gets my “sporting gesture” award for this World Cup. (He’ll probably do a Hand of God in the Final now I’ve said that.)

Far too many (for which read: all) instances of giving the ball back in circumstances like these consist in negating, and more, any advantage the team in possession had at the time of the ball being put out of play.

I also note today that the BBC seems to think FIFA are going to introduce goal-line technology before the next Word Cup.

Parsing what Jerome Valcke says, “I would say that it is the final World Cup with the current refereeing system,” suggests to me that another two refs, one behind each goal line, as in the Europa Cup, rather than microchips in the ball, is what is in the collective FIFA mind.

World Cup Semi-Final: Durban Stadium, Durban, 7/7/10

Again not a classic.

Where were the Germans who swept aside England and Argentina? I can recall them having only the one chance; which fell to the wrong K, Kroos not Klose. Apart from that they were never given much of a chance to counterattack by a Spanish side who pressed them high up the park and didn’t allow them time on the ball.

So the Spanish 1-0 juggernaut rolls on. Three results in a row squeezed out now, three one-nils out of five wins in total. Yet Spain seemed to have less of an aversion to shooting in this game – even if most of their efforts went past the post.

There’ll be a new name on the Cup on Sunday. But neither of them has set the tournament alight.

It’ll also be the first time a European side has won a World Cup outside Europe. Previously only Brazil have won outside their own continent (if you count Argentina’s win in Mexico as being in the Americas.)