SAVEPLAY SPORTS

ESCOBAR: IT WAS SIX SHOTS FOR ONE GOAL Growing up you must have heard about a certain Escobar who scored an own goal and was killed for doing that. This story tells us as much crazy as the FIFA World Cup can be, but wait was it just about a football match or there is another undertone to it? Let’s go find out what caused the death of “El Caballero del Futbol” (The gentleman of football). Coming to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, the Colombian team had been built to one of the strongest team in the World. They were so strong that the legendary Pele tipped them to make at least the Semifinal at the mundial. This was not an overstatement because in 26 matches leading to the 1994 World Cup, Colombia only lost a match out of 26. To prove further that they were contenders in the real sense of it, in the South America’s last World Cup qualifiers at Buenos Aires, the 1990 finalist and the host, Argentina needed a win against Colombia to qualify but were walloped 5-0 by th...

ARGENTINA v. PERU: THE POLITICAL ACCORD Yesterday we brought you the conspiracy that did not work but today, we are bringing you the conspiracy that worked and only discovered after a very long while, when it is too late. Although it was a World Cup qualifier yesterday, today we are taking you to the second round of the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina To appreciate what we are talking about, we need to explain the format of the FIFA World Cup those days. The World Cup did not have a clearly established format as it is today; the format is based on each World Cup as decided by the organizers. The 1978 World Cup format was such that the 16 qualified teams would be divided into four groups of four teams each. The winners and the runners up of all the groups would proceed to two groups of four teams. The winners of the Second round groups would proceed to the final. A winner of any match would be awarded 2 points while a draw attracts 3 points. Where there was a tie in points teams...