By Trevor Stynes
ATLANTA, July 14 (Reuters) – Antonio Rattin refusing to leave the pitch in 1966. Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal in 1986. David Beckham’s red card in 1998.
Few World Cup rivalries have produced so many moments that transcend sport, becoming part of the political and cultural history of two nations.
As England and Argentina prepare to meet in the World Cup semi-finals on Wednesday, Reuters tracked down eyewitnesses who were inside the stadium for each of those defining incidents.
Across six decades, they recall the anger, disbelief, jubilation and heartbreak of matches that helped forge one of football’s fiercest rivalries, offering a rare first-person account of occasions that still echo far beyond the final whistle.
1966 – Argentine Rex Gowar.
Rex Gowar was born and raised in Argentina, and finished secondary school in England. In the summer of 1966, along with two friends, he bought tickets for the World Cup quarter-final at Wembley.
“We just wrote away for tickets, it was so easy and so cheap back then,” Gowar said.
“We knew England would be playing, but when we bought them we weren’t certain it would be against Argentina.”
The game’s turning-point came in the first half when Argentina midfielder Rattin was sent off, with the game held up for several minutes as he refused to leave the pitch.
“We were all so surprised by what happened,” Gowar said.
“Rattin was haranguing the referee all the time, asking for explanations of why he kept blowing against Argentina for fouls.
“We were behind the goal, where the teams came out, so when Rattin eventually sauntered off, he passed in front of us before going down the tunnel.
“The abiding memory of that match was the English manager Alf Ramsey calling the Argentines animals, and there’s a picture of him stopping one of his team changing shirts with an Argentine player.”
Geoff Hurst scored England’s goal in the 1-0 win, and they went on to win the World Cup.
1986 – Photographer Gary Hershorn and Reporter Rex Gowar.
The sides met in another quarter-final 20 years later. The game at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City came four years after Argentina and Britain fought a war over the islands known by the British as the Falklands and Argentines as the Malvinas.
Gary Hershorn was covering his first World Cup as a photographer.
“It was in everybody’s mind that there was a bigger geopolitical scale to this game than any other we covered during that World Cup,” Hershorn said.
Maradona scored two goals in quick succession early in the second half, and the first is one which England and the world have never forgotten, but many of those who were there failed to spot the “Hand of God” incident.
“Unfortunately, I was at the opposite end to where it happened,” Hershorn said.
“So I didn’t get to see it or photograph it. In the moment when it happened, I wasn’t aware of it, not until after the game when I went back into our dark room did I have a sense that something big had happened.”
Gowar was there as a Reuters reporter.
“I was way up in the press box and I missed it,” Gowar said.
“I mean, I could have seen it, I was looking in that direction. It was all so quick.
“But a colleague beside me said ‘that was with his hand’. I think some people saw it straight away, but it was so sudden.”
For Hershorn the moment is a bittersweet memory.
“I had a terrific run with Maradona,” he said.
“I took a lot of really nice pictures of him over the course of the World Cup, but that one play was always a regret for me having actually not had anything.”
Gowar, meanwhile, was the person who relayed Maradona’s words to the world.
“A bunch of journalists went down to the changing rooms, but I couldn’t get in there,” he said.
“An Argentine colleague passed me the quote, saying, ‘This is what he’s just said’ so I went to the desk and they said, ‘write it up, quick’.
“There was some excitement about the quote — ‘a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God’ — in our newsroom, but the extent to which it would become a sort of ongoing narrative, I don’t think I thought that at the time.”
Argentina won 2-1 and went on to lift the trophy.
1998 – Nigel Martyn, England’s reserve goalkeeper.
Martyn was on the bench when the sides met in the last 16 in St Etienne.
“I remember it just being a really important game that we were focused on winning,” Martyn said.
“I think the feeling of rivalry was being more whipped up by the media.”
The first half ended 2-2, and Beckham was sent off just after the break for kicking out at Diego Simeone. England went on to lose on penalties, with media and fans laying the blame at Beckham’s feet.
“I felt that it was unjust because there really wasn’t much in it, certainly not enough for a red card,” Martyn said.
“I think it was very harsh some of the things that were said and written. He cared about the team and was crestfallen by getting sent off and us getting knocked out of the tournament.”
England did have the upper hand when the sides met again four years later and Argentina failed to advance from the group stage.
“The 2002 World Cup game against them felt a lot more of a grudge match,” Martyn recalled.
“And beating them 1-0 with a Beckham penalty felt like revenge.”
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
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