June 24 - Rude Rudi

HOLLAND and Germany is one of the most heated and intense international football rivalries in the world with Dutch resentment towards Germany after the Second World War fueling the friction between the two nations on the football field.

Johan Cruyff’s total football Dutch side met West Germany in the 1974 World Cup final with Holland the favourites to win the trophy in the German’s back yard in Munich but the Germans pulled off a win that stunned the Dutch team and nation.

A meeting at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina passes largely without incident but the match at the 1980 European Championships in Italy end in a punch-up between Toni Schumacher and Huub Stevens and René van de Kerkhof punching Bernd Schuster in the eye.

Eight years later and the rivals meet again on German soil in Euro 88 when Marco van Basten won the semi-final in the 88th minute, to send the home team out of the tournament. After the final whistle, Ronald Koeman does his bit for German/Dutch relations by swapping his shirt with Olaf Thon and then pretending to wipe his arse on Thon’s jersey.

Come Italia 90 and fireworks were expected as yet again the old sparring partners met in the second round on this day. For the winners: a place in the quarter-finals, for the losers: their BFH (bus fare home for those who missed out on Bullseye).

To add more spice to the mixture, the spines of the German and Dutch teams were at the time playing for two of Italy’s biggest club rivals. Milan were lead by the Dutch triumvirate of Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, whereas Inter were built around the German trio of Andreas Brehme, Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus. Add in the fact that the match took place in the San Siro and you have a recipe for a spicy meatball that was bound to boil over.

Cooking analogies aside, with only 20 minutes played Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler started getting stuck into each other and both were sent off. As they walk off the pitch Rijkaard spits on Völler with the gob hanging off his perm for all to see.

Rijkaard said years later: “That day I was wrong. There was no insult. I always had much respect for Rudi Völler. But I went berserk when I saw that red card. I talked to him after the match and I apologized. I’m very happy that he accepted. I have no bad feeling about him now. We even posed for a very funny advert together, years after.”

Rudi Völler was equally forgiving on reflection: “Everybody was well aware that one of the teams was going home after that game. And regarding our old rivalry that just couldn’t be accepted. I sensed that the atmosphere was very tense. Fortunately I never hear about that incident anymore. Now I’m friends with Frank, even though it took some time… We played each other in the Italian league and we didn’t have any problem. We actually were rather friendly opponents. We talked about the incident later. Frank told me he had big problems at the time, he was in the middle of a divorce, he wasn’t the real Frank Rijkaard. Today I can say that he is a great person. I agreed to do that Dutch advert, if only to bury the hatchet.”

The Germans won the match 2-1 on their way to winning the trophy.

If you really want to see one grown man spitting on another have a look below, otherwise swing by this way tomorrow for a less disgusting trip down memory lane.

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