June 22 - Free Kick Specialist

FOOTBALL, as famous dog-catcher Jimmy Greaves once told us is “a funny old game.” Which is good news for the purveyors of DVD’s such as “David Seaman’s Jeepers Keepers” or even the heavyweight “Ian Wright - It Really Shouldn’t Happen to a Footballer” that we all find in our Christmas stockings. Today marks the anniversary of one of the staple moments of any of these titles, when Zaire defender Mwepu Llunga got a tad over excited awaiting a Brazilian free kick and couldn’t resist booting the ball down the pitch in their 1974 World Cup clash.

The story of Zaire’s World Cup 74 journey is an eventful tale and one that we believe would be ripe for the big budget Cool Runnings-esque Hollywood makeover.

The dictatorship of Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo was the first black African nation to make it to the World Cup in 1974 after President Mobutu decided that a decent football team would give his nation prestige on the international stage and pumped money in accordingly.

When his charges qualified for the tournament in West Germany Mobutu called in the squad to his presidential palace and gave them all a car and promised a sack of cash on their return.

Western journalists wrote condescending articles about the Zaire team, suggesting that the players had taken monkeys with them to eat and that they lacked any kind of tactical nous to make an impression on the field. The stage was set for The Leopards to prove their doubters wrong, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.

Their opening game saw a 2-0 loss to Scotland, which was not as embarrassing as it would be these days, but their second Group 2 match saw a 9-0 reverse at the hands of Miljan Miljanic’s flamboyant Yugoslavia side.

Mobutu was not amused. The free kick specialist himself Llunga said: “After the match, he sent his presidential guards to threaten us. They closed the hotel to all journalists and said that if we lost 0-4 to Brazil, none of us would be able to return home.”

As we proved the other day, this kind of motivation can be pretty priceless when it comes to getting a result. Zaire managed to keep the score down to 3-0, and it becomes clear why right-back Llunga decided to take Brazil’s set-pieces for them.

The side were able to return home without fear of retribution, despite having lost all three games, failing to score and conceding 14 goals. Mobutu’s promises of riches for the squad were not kept, as he began to lose interest in football, pulling the side from the 1978 World Cup and instead playing host to the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ when Mohammed Ali fought George Foreman in October 1974.

Still, the Zairians paved the way for the likes of the Cameroon team of 1990 or Senegal’s 2002 vintage to announce the coming of African football, which will surely shake off the curse of Pele’s prediction that an African nation would win the World Cup by the year 2000.

Enjoy Zaire’s most famous contribution to both World Cup football and DVD promoter’s Christmas funds below and head back tomorrow for the story of another comedy World Cup side.

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