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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.0//EN" "http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/xhtml-mobile10.dtd"><html><head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("http://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://m.guardian.co.uk:80/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jul/24/joy-of-six-football-what-ifs","20090804133918","http://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1249393158"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <title>The Guardian</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" media="handheld" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090804133918/http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/view.m?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jul/24/joy-of-six-football-what-ifs"/><style type="text/css">.cb { width: 50%; vertical-align: middle;}.cd { vertical-align: middle; text-align: right;}.ct { vertical-align: top; width: 45%;}.ctl { vertical-align: top;}.fs { color: #005689;}.ib { padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; color: black;}.ibi { border-right-color: white; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 3px;}.it { padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 2px;}.l { color: #005689; font-size: normal; text-decoration: none;}.lcs { color: #999999; padding-left: 2px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 4px;}.page { font-family: Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; font-size: normal;}.para { padding-top: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: small;}.rl { width: 100%;}.sa { background-color: #ededed; text-align: center;}.sb { background-color: #d6e7f5;}.sbb { border-bottom-color: #999999; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; padding-left: 2px;}.sg { background-color: #ededed; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; padding-left: 2px;}.s-News { border-top-color: #d61d00; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-bottom-color: #d61d00; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; padding-left: 2px;}.si { padding-left: 2px;}.sp { padding-top: 2px;}.td { padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; font-size: x-small;}.ttb { width: 100%;}.txb { font-size: small; padding-left: 2px;}.txc { font-size: x-small; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;}.txt { padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; font-size: small; padding-left: 2px;}.txth { font-size: normal; font-family: Georgia; padding-left: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-top: 2px;}.tx { padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;}.para { padding-bottom: 1ex; padding-left: 2px;}</style></head><body class="page"><div class="sp"><div class="sa"/><table class="ttb"><tr class="rl"><td class="cb"><a class="ib-x-link" href="/web/20090804133918/http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/view.m?id=1"><img alt="Image" class="ib" src="/web/20090804133918im_/http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/m/gmg?id=6&iproto=jcr&mtp=scale&x=320.0"/></a></td><td class="cd"><p class="td">4 Aug 2009</p></td></tr></table></div><div><p class="txth">The Joy of Six: half a dozen footballing what ifs</p><div class="sp"><div class="sg"><img alt="Allsport/Getty" class="if" src="/web/20090804133918im_/http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/m/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2009/7/24/1248429419499/Paul-Gascoigne-001.jpg?ihost=static.guim.co.uk&mtp=scale&x=480.0"/><p class="txc">Photograph: Allsport/Getty</p><p class="txc">Paul Gascoigne cries his way into the heart of a nation at Italia 90, but England so nearly failed to qualify. Photograph: Allsport/Getty</p></div></div><div class="s-News"><p class="txt">Rob Smyth</p><p class="txt">guardian.co.uk Blogposts Fri 24 Jul 2009 12:02 BST</p></div><p class="txb"><p class="para">From England scraping through to Italia 90 to a Le Tissier special that didn't go in, we recall half a dozen butterfly effects that changed football's landscape forever</p><strong>1. </strong><strong>Rysard Tarasiewicz hadn't hit the bar</strong><strong>, Poland 0-0 England, World Cup qualification Group 1, 11/10/1989</strong><p class="para">Commentators are fond of saying that "the crossbar is still shaking" when a particularly well-struck shot rebounds off the metalwork. The crossbar in Chorzow has long since stopped shivering from the impact of Ryszard Tarasiewicz's vicious howitzer in the final minute of a World Cup qualifier 20 years ago, but English football is still reverberating. To explain: had Tarasiewicz's shot, the last on a night in which Poland relentlessly pummelled the magnificent Peter Shilton from all angles and distances (or "another parish", as Hugh McIlvanney brilliantly put it on these pages), gone in, England almost certainly would not have qualified for Italia 90*. There have been many fascinating examples of ultimately successful sides who came within a whisker of not even qualifying: Holland in 1974, France in 1982, West Germany in 1990, Bulgaria in 1994, and Brazil in 2002. But none had anywhere near as broad an impact as England's qualification for Italia 90.</p><p class="para">Had they failed to do so there would been no tear-stained, Pavarotti-soundtracked glory, no middle-class adoption of 'footy', no Premier League, <em>no plummy numpties in the Sports Cafe in Haymarket on April 4 2000 saying really loudly, 'Ah there's Wes Brown' when Mikael Silvestre comes on as substitute, Brown having been out all season with a broken leg</em>. These things might have happened eventually, but they would have happened at a different time and in a different way. We might also speculate as to the impact on individuals. Bobby Robson would have been remembered as a complete failure who did not qualify for two out of four tournaments and lost all three games in one of the others; Paul Gascoigne's life might – <em>might </em>– have taken a different path without the overbearing impact of Gazzamania and its darker sequel, Gazza's mania; and we might never have heard of Tim Lovejoy. Sod patriotism: <em>why didn't he score?</em></p><p class="para"><strong><em>* </em></strong><em>A defeat in Poland would not have eliminated England at that time, as there were other games to play and </em><em>a complex system that involved the best runners-up</em><em>. But had those subsequent games, both in England's group and the other relevant groups, panned out as they actually did, a 1-0 defeat in Poland would ultimately have put England out, with Denmark (who were in a different group) qualifying ahead of England on goals scored.</em></p><p class="para"/><strong>2. </strong><strong>Paul Scholes hadn't been wrongly ruled offside</strong><strong>, Manchester United 1-1 FC Porto (agg: 2-3), European Cup first knockout round, 09/03/2004</strong><p class="para">As Manchester United dominated the first decade of New Football, ABUs around the country consoled each other with the received ...</p></p><div class="sbb"><div class="lcs"><a class="l" href="/web/20090804133918/http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/view.m?id=133768&tid=120787&chk_my-text=t,2;c,2&story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fsport%2Fblog%2F2009%2Fjul%2F24%2Fjoy-of-six-football-what-ifs">Go to page 2 of 5></a></div></div><div class="si"><img alt="Image" class="ibi" 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