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Among the many punishments, however, one is dramatically famous, which has gone down in history as the “punishment kicked backwards” . It is the 1974 World Cup , the one held in West Germany and which had already given a moment to frame and enclose in future narratives: thatWest-East German derby won by the easterners with the goal of Jurgen Sparwasser . But here we are in group 2, the last game, Brazil against Zaire .
The African country, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo , was making its first ever appearance in the world championship event. I arrive in Germany with a little curiosity from the employees after winning the African Cup of the same year and a cheeky look with yellow-green shirts and a roaring leopard drawn inside a circle .
The debut against Scotland was not the best: Zaire lost 2-0, but you saw a good spirit and desire. Everything was blown away in the second game of the tournament: Yugoslavia trimmed 9 goals . And everything happened: the coach Vidinic , at 3-0, replaced the goalkeeper Kazadi with the second Tubilandu who was forced to collect the ball six times from the back of the net. And then a curious episode occurred, genesis without which we would not have the reverse punishment. [/ Vc_column_text] [/ vc_column] [/ vc_row]
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Mwepu was therefore on the pitch in the last match, the one against Brazil. Already eliminated, Zaire falls into a nightmare: from the euphoric joy of the World Cup to the death sentence . Literally. And here the anti-hero of the day enters the scene: in those years Zaire was under the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, the marshal-president, in power for over 30 years. Mobutu, as a self-respecting good tyrant, saw a propaganda tool in football, so much so that I personally pay all the Zairean players who played straight and above all in Belgium to return to their country of origin. The 9-0 suffered against Yugoslavia was too humiliating and before the match against Brazil the threat came to the team: if they lost more than 3-0, no one would return home alive .
At the Gelsenkirchen stadium there were just a few minutes left for the match between Brazil and Zaire. The verdeoro were three goals ahead of the Africans and benefited from a free kick from an insidious position.Rivelino, who had pierced the Zairian goalkeeper shortly before, was confabulating with his other companions. From the other perspective, the players of Zaire, so lined up to form the barrier so as to appear in front of a firing squad, felt the tension and lived with terror the possible metamorphosis of the shot in death sentence .
Suddenly someone came off the barrier, one who did not want to passively suffer and wanted to try to be the architect of his destiny for the last time . Ilunga Mwepu ran with wide strides and threw the ball away with all his last strength . Rivelino almost got hit. Everyone around was incredulous, he was warned and for months and years, press and football fansthey mocked the left-back guilty, according to them not to know the rules of football.
But it was we Westerners who did not know the hidden story of him that I reveal after years of silence, only in 2002 . He wanted to rewrite his life with an instinctive and striking gesture . The opposite punishment with which I save his skin and that of his teammates.
The Guardian has published a series of clips shot in stop-motion, in which some of the most iconic episodes of the World Cup are recreated with Lego and between a Maradona and a Zidane who trims Materazzi’s head, for the edition of the 1974 there is precisely the act of Mwepu.
Joseph Ilunga Mwepu died in Kinshasa on 8 May 2015 after a long illness.
Source: Ultimo Uomo [/ vc_column_text] [/ vc_column] [/ vc_row]
