The game between Algeria and Austria this Saturday (27) in Kansas City has great importance in the sporting aspect, the classification for the next phase, but also a historical component: 44 years have passed since the Game of Shame between the Austrians and the Germans, which was fatal for the Algerians.
“We must inform the players about what Austria and Germany did in the 1982 World Cup. The sporting revenge is necessary.” With these words, spoken on the Dzair Tube website, the myth of the Fennecs, Lakhdar Belloumi, gave voice to the general feeling in the North African country.
None of the 26 members of the current team had been born when that game was played, whose development, outcome and consequences provoked controversy and then a major scandal.
They hadn’t been born, but everyone knows the story because the wound is still open.
Flashback.
After giving a huge surprise by beating West Germany 2-1, the first victory for an African team over a European team in a World Cup, Algeria lost 2-0 to Austria and then defeated Chile 3-2.
To aspire to progress to the second phase, Algeria needed a draw or a defeat for the Germans against the Austrians, or, on the contrary, a three-goal victory for West Germany in the last game of Group 2.
None of this happened on June 25 in Gijón.
After Horst Hrubesch opened the scoring in the 11th minute, the players from both teams did nothing more than exchange passes without trying offensive plays, to the boos of the public. In the stands, peseta notes were waved in the air and people sang “May they kiss, may they kiss!”.
‘Shame’, ‘Scham’
On several television channels around the world, including the German ARD, the same word was uttered: “Scham”, that is, “shame”.
The president of the Algerian federation, indignant, denounced a parody of the game.
Forty-four years after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, a Spanish newspaper even described the confrontation as the “Anschluss Game” (annexation in German)…
Shortly after the game, German full-back Paul Breitner defended himself: “The public is stupid if they don’t understand that it was just about qualifying.”
“It’s an insult!” cried the German coach, Jupp Derwall, when asked about a combination of results.
“Of course we are playing tactically today! But if, for this reason, 10,000 desert children want to make a scandal, it simply shows that they did not go to school enough,” declared Hans Tshak, head of the Austrian delegation.
“It happens that a sheikh comes out of an oasis, who has the right, for the first time in 300 years, to savor the atmosphere of a World Cup, and who believes that he can now open his big mouth”, he added with superiority.
Over the years, tempers have calmed, but Algerian resentment remains. “It looked more like a friendly game than a World Cup match. Unfortunately, it was Algeria who paid the price”, explains to AFP former Algerian football star Rabah Madjer, who scored a goal in the epic victory against the Germans.
“After that, FIFA changed the rules to avoid any combination in the future”, he adds.
Algeria faced Chile on the eve of that Austria x Germany, so the Central European neighbors already knew in advance which result suited them both.
Since the following World Cup, Mexico 1986, the last two games in the same group have been played at the same time.
‘Non-aggression pact’
Over time, tongues also loosened, until Paul Breitner recognized the pact in 2006: “At a certain point, each team began to manage the score.”
“I understand the Algerian discontent, because it seemed like everything was agreed. Halfway through the second half, the game had become unwatchable. It was a true non-aggression pact,” added German defender Karl-Heinz Förster a year later.
“Let’s say it was a partial agreement,” former Austrian goalkeeper Friedrich Koncilia told AFP.
“The spectators realized that there was a kind of ‘ceasefire’ between Germany and Austria; a poorly chosen term, because there are so many wars going on these days… I would say more that we had agreed not to lose by more than 2-0”, he adds.
“What happened was, of course, painful, but we assimilated it well. Suppose we had faced Tunisia, Morocco or another Arab country; if we were in Germany and Austria’s place, we would have done the same”, now admits former striker Salah Assad, also interviewed by AFP.
Interestingly, 44 years later, fate wanted Algeria and Austria to face each other again in a World Cup… and a draw could qualify both!
