“Terrier Berti” and “The Disgrace from Cordoba”

It was the great 1970s in German football. The Maier, Vogts, Beckenbauer, Schwarzenbeck, Hoeneß, Netzer, Overath and Müller generation enraptured the world.

1972 European champions in Brussels, 1974 World Cup winners on home soil. In 1976 they were denied the European title by a cheeky spot kick scored by the Czech Antonin Panenka in the penalty shoot out. But then two years later the football world were laughing their heads off and the laughing stock was West Germany’s national team. Mentioning the word Cordoba still causes some participants to wince. The heroes from Brussels and Munich, the unlucky Belgrade side mutated into the tournament fools at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. There was maliciousness instead of a title and farewells instead of a triumph. Celebrated World Cup winners like Sepp Maier, Hans-Hubert Vogts, Rainer Bonhof and Bernd Hölzenbein were forced to undergo the “Disgrace from Cordoba” in the twilight of their careers. National coach Helmut Schön even stepped down afterwards.

“I’m going crazy” – title holders Germany dumped

Whilst Argentina became world champions for the first time on home soil whereby they, as the Germans had done so four years previously, destroyed the dreams the Dutch had of winning their first World Cup, Germany’s attempt to defend their title turned into a case of them, along with their captain Hans-Hubert, nicknamed Berti, Vogts, having to run the gauntlet. The opening match against Poland (0-0) went down in the chronicles as “a cure for insomniacs”. The 6-0 win against the weak Mexicans was followed by a dreadful goalless draw against Tunisia in the first group phase of the finals. It did not get any better in the second phase. Germany started with another 0-0 draw against Italy before sharing the spoils against the Netherlands (2-2). Then came the 21 June 1978, which was to turn into a black day.

Captain Vogts and his team needed a win to give them a chance of getting to the final. Though there were to be no semifinals at the 1978 World Cup but the match had all the features of a semi. Austria entered the match under no illusions after losing 5-1 against the Netherlands and 1-0 to the Italians. For 58 minutes the Germans were close to achieving their heart’s desire. A Karl-Heinz Rummenigge goal in the 19th minute gave them hope they would successfully defend their title. But then, of all people, “Terrier” Vogts gave away an own goal (59th min). Germany started to wobbling. Hans Krankl then struck in the 66th minute to put Austria 2-1 ahead. Hölzenbein (68th) answered immediately to equalise (2-2). With two minutes to go before the Israeli referee Klein was due to blow the final whistle it was now time for the situation that the ORF, the Austrian television channel, was to describe in the following words: “Krankl is in the 18-yard box – shoots … goooal, goooal, goooal, goooal, goooal, goooal! I’m going crazy. Krankl’s scored – 3-2 for Austria! Ladies and gentlemen, we’re hugging each other here; Rippel, my colleague, Posch the engineer – we’re kissing each other. 3-2 for Austria, our Krankl’s scored. He left them for dead.…It’s aaaall oooover! The whistle’s gone. The end of the game! Germany are beaten!"

A 2-2 draw would also not have been enough to put Germany into the final. A 3-2 defeat wasn’t even enough for the third place play-off. The defence consisting of Maier, Kaltz, Vogts, Rüssmann and Dietz had no chance. Krankl’s goal had put one over the great Helmut Schön and Austria had made a mockery of Germany. Forty seven years and 12 internationals on, the “little brother” had finally won a match against Germany.

Ballack prevents a second Cordoba

The historical game made the Austrians hysterical for years after: the “Miracle – or disaster depending on the angle one sees it – from Cordoba”. 5000 fans turned up at Vienna Airport to give the homecomers a heroes’ welcome. Now to the UEFA UERO 2008™. Thirty years later Krankl’s team-mate “Pepi” Hickersberger, now the Austrian coach, used the film and the sound of the commentator Finger to motivate his team before the third group match against Germany on home soil. A Michael Ballack goal prevented a second Cordoba from taking place in Vienna. One can still find an internet website written in the broad Vienna dialect on Cordoba. It includes pictures of Vogts kneeling on the ground with a caption underneath calling him a wimp. But it really just does not do justice to Vogts’ career both as a player and a coach.

Vogts, born on 30 December 1946 in Büttgen and brought up in Neuss, became an orphan when still very young and consequently grew up with an aunt. He soon got to know Hennes Weisweiler, the great coach, who took the youngster under his wings. Weisweiler took the 19-year-old to the 1966 World Cup so that he could get some experience. It heightened Vogts’ already big ambition to go further up the tree. He played 419 matches for Borussia Mönchengladbach and scored 32 goals. Vogts was capped 96 times between 1967 and 1978 (1 goal). As a player, Vogts was a World Cup winner and European Champion, though he did not play in the final of the latter competition After retiring he worked for the German Football Association from 1979 to 1998. In his time as the national coach, he was in charge of Germany’s national team on 102 occasions. He can look back on 67 wins and only 12 losses. Vogts was the head planner for the World Cup winning coach Franz Beckenbauer in 1990 and took over the team after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

European champion as a player and coach

Vogts’ greatest coaching triumphs were the 1996 European Championship title in England, 22 years on from the European Championship win as a player, and the runner-up spot with the first combined German team after reunification. His lows are linked to the World Cup disasters in the USA in 1994 and France in 1998. After an unsuccessful Bundesliga coaching debut at Leverkusen, the football expert and father of a son fled abroad. But whether it was in Kuwait, Scotland, Nigeria or in Azerbaijan, the former “Terrier” was never really that happy. But it was never as bad as the “Disgrace from Cordoba”.