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00:00 (crowd chanting)
00:02 - It really was the game that had everything.
00:09 (speaking in foreign language)
00:13 - England against Argentina was one of the greatest games
00:19 in World Cup history because of the drama,
00:22 because of the sending off,
00:23 because of the reaction of the 10 England players,
00:26 because a star was born,
00:27 because one of the greatest goals of all time
00:29 had lit up the tournament.
00:31 Because of the resilience,
00:34 because of the support of the fans,
00:36 because of the drama that continued afterwards.
00:38 It's like you're up in the sky
00:42 and you're just saying, "It can't get better."
00:45 And then all of a sudden you're down in the dirt.
00:47 (crowd chanting)
00:53 (soft music)
00:55 - September '96, went to Moldova to see England play away.
01:05 David Beckham's first game for England,
01:06 I think it was Gaz's last game, and just got the bug.
01:10 I certainly did travel to Rome.
01:12 The best nil-nil game I've ever seen in my life.
01:15 Qualifying campaign definitely affected
01:18 the hopes and expectations.
01:20 We'd come through a difficult group.
01:22 We'd lost to Italy at home.
01:24 Zola was magical that night.
01:26 And we went to Italy and we got a draw,
01:28 which not many people expected us to get.
01:30 So there was some degree of expectation.
01:34 - Rome was inspiring for England for many reasons.
01:36 First, it showed that Hoddle could handle the buildup,
01:40 the tense buildup, going to a difficult place,
01:43 and tactically set the team up brilliantly.
01:45 There was no alcohol for the England players to celebrate,
01:48 but Gazza, who remembered where doping control was,
01:50 and went in there and opened the fridge and nicked some beers
01:54 and took them back to the away dressing room,
01:56 England deservedly celebrated.
01:58 I think there was a buzz about the possibility
02:00 of England winning this tournament
02:02 when you looked at the quality of the squad.
02:05 The other one or two issues, and then obviously Hoddle
02:08 wanted to bring Eileen Jury to France,
02:11 and everyone was going on about,
02:13 is she a psychologist, is she a faith healer?
02:16 And there were headlines of England flying out to France
02:18 on a mumbo-jumbo jet.
02:20 So it was the usual mix of hype, confidence,
02:24 and a fair bit of nonsense along the way.
02:26 There was a lot of glamour in English football at that time,
02:28 the explosion of the Premier League,
02:30 more interest in the players,
02:31 and not simply interest in them as footballers,
02:34 but in their lifestyles as well,
02:36 and that obviously was embodied by David Beckham.
02:40 - Football started to be almost on the same levels,
02:48 you know, pop stars, rock stars kind of thing,
02:50 film stars, you know, on the same level.
02:52 - You've got to remember that the buildup to the tournament
02:57 was all about trouble, and you know, it was a bit scary.
03:00 I can remember in Marseille going to a supermarket
03:04 the day before the England-Tunisia game,
03:06 and it's the only supermarket I've ever visited
03:09 in the world where the aisles were being patrolled,
03:12 not just by security, but by Alsatian dogs.
03:15 And I thought, yeah, this is quite a rough part of town.
03:18 And that was where it kicked off on the beach on match day.
03:23 Of course, what happened in the campaign was so often,
03:27 we lost a game which we should have won.
03:29 We lost a game to Romania, the second game,
03:32 which meant that we finished second in the group,
03:34 which meant we were then going to play Argentina
03:36 in the group 16.
03:37 - Yes, we had seen the whole round on TV,
03:45 I think it was Japan, Jamaica and Croatia.
03:47 And after Croatia, we travelled to Paris,
03:51 and from there we went to Saint-Étienne
03:53 to watch the game against England.
03:55 No, yes, we already knew we were going to play against England,
04:00 which made everything a thousand times more exciting,
04:04 and the level of nerves was going up,
04:11 because it was too early to play against England,
04:16 a heavyweight rival, but since the first round
04:20 had been very good, there was a lot of faith
04:23 that we could do well and we could make it to the quarterfinals.
04:27 - It was all part of a process,
04:31 because Pasarela had had them since they were very young,
04:35 they had been playing together in the Olympic Games in 1996.
04:44 They believed in this team a lot.
04:49 It wasn't the team that had as much shine
04:52 as the one led by Alfio Basile in 1994,
04:56 but they had players of a superlative level,
05:00 like Batistuta in attack, like Ariel Ortega,
05:05 and then they had very good players in the middle of the pitch,
05:10 like Diego Simeone, for example.
05:12 - It was hot, I must say, boiling.
05:16 But, you know, you're just buzzing.
05:21 You're buzzing, you're seeing the fans.
05:25 You're living a dream.
05:27 You're playing for your country,
05:29 you're working your socks off.
05:31 That's the world, really, you know, playing for your country.
05:33 - There was huge excitement that it was Argentina,
05:36 because immediately all the footballing stories come back.
05:39 Raton in '66, Maradona '86,
05:42 and people talk about revenge,
05:44 and one or two people strayed into the Falklands narrative.
05:47 - Yeah, of course, there's the rivalry.
05:50 Glen Hoddle didn't kind of, you know, feed on that.
05:55 For us, it was a game that we needed to win.
06:01 We wanted to go to the next level, get into the quarterfinals.
06:06 So, but obviously behind the scenes, the tension is there.
06:11 And it was, you know, it was a titanic game.
06:15 - There's a concentration, a state of...
06:21 I don't know if it's a mixture of concentration and fear
06:26 with what's at stake in the game,
06:28 but before the game, when we went out to the field,
06:32 there was the English team,
06:35 and Ortega, who was always one of the most uninhibited,
06:40 came into the dressing room, and in the silence,
06:44 the first thing he thought of was how nice Beckham was.
06:48 So, everyone relaxed, laughing.
06:55 - Because of the number of English fans around me,
06:58 the situation was not good for singing.
07:01 And five minutes later, Argentina had a penalty.
07:08 And when I went out, I started screaming and jumping, "Penalty!"
07:13 I went in to hug my father, who had charged us a penalty
07:15 at the first half of the game.
07:18 I got a fist bump on the right side of my face
07:22 from an English player who had two teeth.
07:26 - I remember being told that, I think it was the late Brian Moore
07:31 was commentating for ITV, and he was...
07:34 He was being a bit critical of the England fans,
07:36 a miserable lot, as always.
07:38 You know, lots of the no-surrender business
07:40 and the Royal Britannia and all the rest of it.
07:43 And at the other end, all the Argentine fans
07:45 are jumping up and down, obviously in their vertical
07:48 blue and white striped shirts.
07:49 He said, "What a fantastic carnival atmosphere.
07:51 "Why can't we have an England fan culture like that?"
07:54 And I asked an Argentinian friend, I said,
07:57 "What were they chanting? It seemed quite a good song,
08:00 "really jolly."
08:01 He said, "Oh, what were they chanting?
08:03 "'If your mother's not an English whore, jump in the air.'"
08:06 "Oh, right, OK."
08:07 [crowd chanting]
08:16 - I think we've got to go again.
08:18 We've got to go again.
08:20 And that's the confidence we had.
08:21 We've got to go again.
08:23 People say football's like theatre.
08:24 It was theatre. It was.
08:26 You sometimes feel, where's this game going?
08:30 Where's it going?
08:31 What other turns, what other twists
08:34 are going to be slung at us?
08:36 And there was a lot of twists and turns.
08:39 - A lot of us have been watching Michael Owen
08:41 as he came through the ranks to Liverpool.
08:43 I remember the first goal he ever scored
08:45 at Selhurst Park against, I think it was at Wimbledon.
08:50 And the moment he scored, he ran into the net,
08:53 picked up the ball.
08:54 There was no celebration.
08:55 Went back, put it on the centre circle.
08:58 So you knew then that this was a talented, driven player.
09:01 So we were just waiting for Michael Owen to take off.
09:04 Didn't realise he was going to be quite as spectacular
09:06 as he did.
09:07 Obviously, he won the penalty.
09:09 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:12 [CROWD CHEERING]
09:16 [CROWD CHEERING]
09:20 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
09:23 - I said to myself, OK, he's got the ball, right?
09:47 Is he going to pass it off to anybody?
09:49 And then goes past one, goes past two.
09:51 - A Shamok comes across, and then Ayala comes across.
09:54 And even though he's drifting to the right,
09:57 there's a reason for him doing that.
09:59 He wants to isolate the goalkeeper.
10:01 He's almost like a chess grandmaster
10:05 setting up an ambush.
10:06 So he draws Carlos Rura, and then Michael's
10:09 got that ability just to dink the ball
10:11 from right to left past him.
10:14 One of those classic moments when there's a split-second
10:16 pause, and then the England fans are scattered
10:19 all around the ground.
10:20 There were even some right in the middle of the hardcore
10:22 Argentinian supporters.
10:23 I looked down at them just to see if they were celebrating.
10:26 And there were four of them going absolutely crazy,
10:28 surrounded by a sea of blue and white
10:31 and stony-faced Argentinians.
10:34 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:38 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:42 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:45 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:48 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:52 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:55 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
10:59 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
11:02 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
11:05 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
11:09 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
11:12 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
11:40 I've spoken to the players since,
11:42 and I know that they were disappointed going in
11:45 at halftime.
11:46 The Argentinians were obviously buoyed.
11:48 But I still think there was so much confidence
11:50 in that England team.
11:51 There was a lot of determination in there.
11:53 They also realized that Owen had the running
11:55 of that Argentinian defense.
11:57 They looked scared, the Argentinians,
11:59 when Michael Owen picked up the ball.
12:02 England were caught by a sucker punch.
12:04 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
12:08 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
12:11 You know, when you look at the kick,
12:16 I think if you did that kick now,
12:18 you might just get a yellow.
12:19 I think you would get a red.
12:23 It is more petulant.
12:25 The Argentinians had known that Beckham
12:31 had a petulant streak, could be ambushed,
12:34 and he fell for it with Simeone's reaction.
12:38 Simeone kind of almost falling around
12:42 like he's been pole axed by some kind of machine.
12:46 The Argentinian players like Almeida and Batistuta
12:51 surrounded Kimmels and Nielsen.
12:54 They were pressurizing the referee,
12:58 and he sent him off.
13:00 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
13:04 The way England played after that,
13:16 it wasn't simply the stamina, the lion hearted,
13:20 the bloody mindedness of some people like that.
13:23 It was the tactical sophistication,
13:25 which they took on one of the most intelligent teams
13:27 in the world.
13:28 What do you want? What do the fans want?
13:30 They want players to attack,
13:32 they want for them to play with pride in the shirt,
13:34 and England did both, all ten men.
13:36 I don't think I'm ever going to forget that moment.
13:42 Literally, ecstasy, unbelievable.
13:47 We're nearly there, and then you've got to leg it back
13:50 because they've done a restart.
13:52 It's like you're up in the skies,
13:55 and you're just saying, "It can't get better."
13:58 And then all of a sudden you turn around,
14:00 and you're down in the dirt,
14:02 with your face in the mud,
14:05 and you've got to get back,
14:07 and it was only a stretched out leg
14:11 from Darren Anderton that saved us,
14:14 because if they scored that, it was all over.
14:16 I think by that stage of the game,
14:19 you're always writing,
14:20 and there was frustration that Sol Campbell's goal
14:23 wasn't given, Shearer apparently fouled Carlos Rua.
14:27 So that was frustrating,
14:29 but at that stage of the game,
14:31 you're not necessarily taking in emotion.
14:34 It's all about hitting the deadline
14:36 and getting the presses rolling.
14:38 Suffolk just says,
14:49 "You've got to keep on going for your country.
14:51 "Keep on going for your country."
14:53 Every last bit of energy left in your body,
14:59 just give it up and just go for it.
15:02 That's how you win.
15:05 We're worried, obviously.
15:15 After the first five,
15:20 you have to look around,
15:22 and eventually, it would have come to me.
15:25 Eventually, you've got to take one.
15:28 The most difficult thing was when Crespo missed.
15:32 I burst into tears.
15:34 My son grabbed me and said,
15:36 "Don't let them see you cry."
15:38 I knew Baty would cut him off.
15:46 I thought Ince was going to nail him,
15:49 but Baty, as soon as you saw him walk,
15:51 he was dead.
15:53 He was looking at the floor.
15:55 You can tell when a player...
15:58 You can tell.
16:01 You can't.
16:02 And David Baty was that.
16:04 Two of the most lion-hearted players,
16:09 Ince and Baty, took penalties,
16:11 and it wasn't really their thing.
16:13 It was brutal.
16:15 If Beckham had been on the pitch,
16:17 Beckham would have taken one.
16:19 An extra frustration with him being sent off.
16:21 He felt empty.
16:25 You know, everybody...
16:27 Some people probably thought, you know,
16:29 it was their fault.
16:31 Some people thought, you know,
16:33 maybe if I'd done this, I'd done that.
16:36 Others saying, you know,
16:38 this is my last World Cup.
16:40 We tried.
16:43 I think it's one of those games
16:46 that inevitably,
16:49 even as time goes by,
16:51 you remember.
16:53 I'll never forget
16:56 when we had to eliminate England
16:59 in the round of 16 of a World Cup.
17:02 And then you saw the Argentinian bus,
17:04 which was very close by.
17:05 In fact, it was so close,
17:06 one of the England reporters
17:08 actually got on it by mistake.
17:09 The Argentinians, understandably,
17:11 were celebrating.
17:12 They were all singing.
17:13 And this has got to be put into perspective.
17:15 Two or three of them probably turned around,
17:17 and they saw the England players,
17:19 and they saw the England families
17:21 just trying to, you know,
17:23 trying to console the England players.
17:25 And there were a few taunting songs
17:28 directed at one or two of the England players.
17:31 Just no class at all.
17:32 What are you doing?
17:34 You know, tops off,
17:36 you know, whirling their shirts around,
17:39 banging on the window.
17:40 We've got our kids and wives and girlfriends,
17:44 and just looking at them
17:45 as just a bunch of kind of idiots.
17:47 It certainly wasn't all the Argentinians,
17:50 and it certainly didn't go on for too long.
17:52 But it went on long enough,
17:53 and it hurt enough
17:55 for certainly one or two individuals
17:57 like Michael Owen, who was 18 at the time,
18:00 to sort of mutter to those around him next time.
18:03 It was more than a football game.
18:21 More than a football game.
18:23 There was more in there.
18:25 There's past battles,
18:28 and it seemed like it was all rolled up into one.
18:31 From the headline in the Daily Mirror the next day
18:34 was "Ten Lions and One Stupid Boy."
18:37 And I remember Hoddle stepping off the plane
18:42 at Leuchten, or wherever it was,
18:44 and he just shrugged.
18:45 He'd done everything,
18:46 and England got a good reception,
18:48 and they certainly deserved it.
18:49 The problem with France '98,
18:51 and you knew it was going to be a huge issue,
18:53 first because we had an issue with Hoddle
18:55 not practicing penalties.
18:56 We said, "Why aren't you practicing penalties?"
18:58 We had this narrative in the lead-up to it,
19:00 and it tensified when England got out of the group phase.
19:04 And he said, "Well, you can't replicate the pressure."
19:07 And we said, "Well, does a golfer not practice?"
19:10 So that when he steps onto the 18th fairway at St. Andrews,
19:13 that all his technique, psychologically,
19:16 he's got the right mindset to deliver from a set piece.
19:20 I don't actually think it's a pressure thing.
19:23 I don't think it's a pressure thing.
19:25 I think it's just a mindset thing, you know?
19:29 Not a pressure of taking the penalty.
19:31 I think we've just got to believe
19:33 that we can win in penalties,
19:36 and I think that could change the mindset for us.
19:41 No, no, no.
19:43 I saw penalties that are always very tense,
19:48 very special,
19:50 but this one had an incomparable connotation
19:54 because it was Argentina-England.
19:57 And one of the two, unfortunately, had to come back
20:00 after having given everything, after having...
20:04 I think...
20:05 Let's see, the game ends, the 90 minutes,
20:08 and I think the best definition was, well, they both won.
20:12 But, well, that's football.
20:14 The World Cups have this,
20:16 and that's why they're still so popular.
20:20 And, well, there comes a time when it's all or nothing.
20:23 And the rules are these.
20:26 But, no, obviously,
20:28 I had never heard of a definition like this.
20:31 [Music]
20:37 [MUSIC]