Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990 TAG: 9007050290
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME LENGTH: Medium
Until the semifinals, the teams had progressed in vastly different fashion. The Germans were awesome, overpowering nearly everyone with a precise attack, speed and strength. The Argentines were lucky, getting by on experience and guile.
Both took the same route through the semifinals, however. After 1-1 ties, they won shootouts 4-3, putting in all four of their penalty kicks while their opponents missed the final two.
West Germany made its third straight final, fifth overall, by beating England on Wednesday night in Turin. The previous evening, in Naples, the defending champion Argentines edged host Italy.
On Sunday, in Rome, as they did four years ago in Mexico City, Carlos Bilardo's Argentina plays Franz Beckenbauer's West Germany.
"It should be an open game, just like tonight," Beckenbauer said. "It's great to have the opportunity to beat Argentina."
"It will be like a chess game, with a lot of marking in the midfield. Whoever makes a mistake will lose," Bilardo said. "The bottom line is that if we want to be world champions, we have to beat everybody."
It will be the third final in the past four World Cups for Argentina, seeking to equal Brazil's record of winning three of four. The Germans are the first to make three straight finals.
But they aren't getting cocky about it.
"The match was more difficult than expected. We can't remember such a good and dramatic match as this one," Beckenbauer said. "Both teams had reached their peak for tonight.
"It was advertising for soccer. All 120 minutes were played to full tempo, and England played a great game."
It was the first time England did so in the tournament.
"We get told we play medieval, old-fashioned football," manager Bobby Robson said. "We have shown, with all our players, that our game hasn't gone back at all.
"I couldn't be more proud. We can go back home in honor. We always played sensibly, we've done our best and that's all we can ask."
Perhaps they could have asked for more success in the shootout. The English came up with a late goal for the third straight game, with Gary Lineker scoring his third in two games on a defensive mistake with 10 minutes remaining.
Both teams hit the goalpost in the overtime, and then came the shootout.
by CNB