You never forget your first love. Nor your first World Cup final.
For those of a certain age, Wednesday night’s semi-final will bring back golden childhood memories.
Such as the June 25, 1978, World Cup final. The blue-and-white stripes of Argentina, the brilliant orange of Netherlands, the ticker tape.
And one tall, impossibly glamorous star striker.
For once, Argentina’s No 10 was not the best player on the pitch. Behind the Dutch masters Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep and Rob Rensenbrink, he was fourth-best, tops.
But the 1978 World Cup final will always be about Mario Kempes.
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For this impressionable eight-year-old, Kempes was the epitome of cool. Not the calm-under-pressure cool Lionel Messi is famed for.
No, Kempes was cool in the way 1970s rock stars were cool. On the pitch, the team played with panache, too, their legendary coach Cesar Luis Menotti having resurrected “la nuestra”, the dazzling 1930s style associated with Argentine football the nation expected.
As the Dutch players noted, the atmosphere was “boiling”.
Few finals since have looked anything like it, perhaps because only once, France in 1998, has a home nation reached the final. These days, fans from around the world mingle, giving the occasion a friendly festival atmosphere rather than a truly partisan one. Not in 1978.
As the teams stepped onto the Estadio Monumental pitch in Buenos Aires, the stands disappeared behind curtains of ticker tape. It was mesmerising.
To a man, the Argentine players, like matadors who knew their opponents stood no chance of victory, raised their arms in pre-emptive triumph.
The Dutch probably knew, too. Several players later said they suspected, whatever happened, that they would not be walking off that pitch as winners.
They were right.
To this day, suggestions of bribery and manipulation by General Jorge Rafael Videla, the Argentine president, haunt the 1978 World Cup. But we knew little of military dictatorships back then. Just bring on the football.
Kempes was brilliant that night, and more so in my memory today.
On 37 minutes he received a square pass from Leopoldo Luque, took one touch with his left foot and slipped the ball under Dutch keeper Jan Jongbloed.
The old television box shook, the fans again disappeared behind the ticker tape and Kempes wore a smile brighter than Holland’s orange shirts.
Four years earlier in West Germany, Kempes was a second-half substitute as Argentina were humiliated 4-0 by a Dutch team at the pinnacle of their Total Football brilliance. The peerless Johan Cruyff had delivered a masterclass of running and passing. He set up a goal for Rep and scored two himself, the first a blueprint for Dennis Bergkamp’s astonishing goal against (who else?) Argentina in 1998.
The prickly Cruyff refused to take part in Argentina 1978, but even without him, it was a formidable Dutch team, and Dirk Nanninga equalised in the 83rd minute.
Then came the night’s most dramatic moment.
With seconds left, as Rensenbrink’s toe poke trickled toward the goal, there looked nothing that Kempes, Menotti or Vidale could do to stop a Dutch triumph. Instead, the ball struck the post.
If the Dutch had suspected they would not win before, they now knew for certain.
So to extra-time. Cometh the half-hour, cometh the man. Destiny, and perhaps something more sinister, had shadowed Argentina’s every step. In their last group match, against Peru, they needed to win by four clear goals to qualify to the final, ahead of Brazil. They won 6-0, with Kempes scoring twice. An earlier match against Poland, in particular, would have sent today’s football community scampering to their keyboards in righteous indignation.
With Argentina leading 1-0, Kempes denied Zbigniew Boniek an equaliser with a handball uncannily similar to Luis Suarez’s infamous save against Ghana 32 years later.
Kempes was not booked, and Ubaldo Fillol saved Kazmierz Deyna’s penalty. To make things worse, Kempes scored again.
Eight years before the “Hand of God”, here was the hand of Kempes at work.
There could be only one winner in extra time of the final. And only one hero.
Kempes skipped past two challenges before seeing his shot saved by Jongbloed. In the exact spot where Rensenbrink earlier had missed, Kempes prodded the rebound over the line. It was his sixth, and Golden Boot-winning, strike of the tournament.
The Dutch were beaten, and five minutes from the end, Daniel Bertoni made it 3-1.
Captain Daniel Passarella and his players re-enacted their earlier triumphant salute, but this time with the trophy in hand.
Fate, and Kempes, had ensured one of Argentina’s greatest nights. Messi and company have a lot to live up to on Wednesday.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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