Alternative Football History Part I – England qualify for the 1994 World Cup

I got the idea of re-writing moments of football’s history whilst watching one of the Back to the Future films.  I thought that it would be interesting to alter several moments in the game’s past and see what would happen if things were slightly different.

Luckily you don’t need to get a Deloreon like Marty Mc Fly and Doc Brown did in the Back to the Future series, just a bit of an imagination!

I did get a bit carried away and wrote a lot of different “what if?” scenarios so I’ve decided that I will publish them out in a mini-series.  First up, Graham Taylor masterminds England’s qualification to the 1994 World Cup in America!

First of all, it is important to put a video up of what really happened for each of these scenarios to give some context before writing an alternative version.

We take up the story at the first major talking point of the match.  This was when Holland’s Ronald Koeman pulled David Platt down when the England striker was through on goal.  Skip to 6 minutes 22 seconds in the video below to see how the incident unfolded.  Make sure you pause it before the free kick is taken!

But what if Ronald Koeman was sent off (as by the laws of the game he should have been!) and England scored from the free-kick?  Here is my version of what happened next….

Ronald Koeman is shown a red card by the referee and he slowly trudges off the pitch to the sound of the Dutch crowd booing him.  He doesn’t look back and heads straight down the tunnel, head bowed and looking very remorseful for getting sent off.

As soon as Koeman is off the pitch, the referee blows the whistle for England to take the free kick.  Arsenal’s Paul Merson runs up and smashes the ball hard and low past the Holland wall and the goalkeeper Ed de Goey into the bottom corner of the net.

The English fans go wild and celebrate the goal and so do the players on the pitch.  Paul Merson is swarmed by his team mates who congratulate him.

After the goal England put on a fantastic defensive display  manage to hold on to a famous 1-0 win.  All that is left is an away game with tiny San Marino.  England only need to draw or win to qualify for the World Cup Finals.  This was no problem for them as they win comprehensively despite a scare as San Marino scored after 10 seconds!

Despite many fans and journalists calling for Graham Taylor to resign, the FA decided that he would be the best man to take England into the World Cup in the States.

England were drawn in a group alongside Belgium, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.  It certainly looked easy on paper and many tipped England to do very well in the tournament.

The first group game was in Washington and their opponents were Saudi Arabia.  England took the lead through a Matt Le Tissier free kick in the first half but the Saudis equalised just before half time.

Ian Wright scored a late winner in the 87th minute but the newspapers the following day were very negative about the team and Taylor’s tactics.

Worse was to follow as the team moved down to Orlando, Florida for their final two group games.  Belgium beat England 1-0 with a goal from Enzo Schifo in England’s second game and England had both Stuart Pearce and Ian Wright sent off.  They would both would miss the final group game against Morocco.

There was a real chance that England could go out in the group stages for the third major tournament out of the last four.  Defeat would almost certainly send them home early and even a draw could mean the same.

England struggled in the Florida sun against a tough Morocco side.  Twice Morocco scored but they were both offside and England were hanging on by a thread.

Eventually a goal came and it was from substitute Les Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers.  England won the game 1-0, topped the group and qualified for the Second Round.

Sweden were England’s opponents in the Second Round and it was they who knocked England out of Euro 92.  History was to repeat itself as a first half capitulation by England gave Sweden three easy goals from Henrik Larsson, Patrik Andersson and Martin Dahlin.  A second half consolation goal from David Platt wasn’t nearly enough for England and Sweden were comfortable 3-1 winners.

Graham Taylor resigned from the England manager job straight after the game saying that he had taken the team as far as he could and the FA appointed Terry Venables as his successor a few months later.