Every four years the world huddles towards small TVs at coffee shops and bars to get the latest on the World Cup. This year is no different. Whatever else South Africa has offered in hosting the event (and there has been much), the country has done its job in providing excitement and shock, in a tournament that already suggests it’s going to be one of the most memorable.
Part of World Cup memory lies in its evolution as a game on the world stage. Every four years the tournament itself is a kind of macro-game in which analysts and fans alike can watch for internal change and demonstrably observe it. This year again has been no different; but one thing it seems to have communicated to the world is that soccer theatrics, obviously false injuries, tackles, etc., are as much an accepted part of the game as cleats or the Jubulani ball.
Such a reality indicates a loss of another—an age when soccer players played for something other than just accruing yellow cards on their counterparts. And herein lies the myth and reality of Terry Butcher, the former English football player and coach that at once time would have continued playing as a dripping pool of blood (and indeed he did).
Terry Butcher’s career spanned from 1980 to 1990, in which he played primarily for Ipswich Town and Glasgow Rangers. He also participated as the captain of the English team, played in two memorable World Cups (1982 and 1986) and accrued a remarkable 77 caps in international play. In 1982, he became the youngest member of the English team in the World Cup at Spain, and in 1986 was remembered for desperately trying to tackle Diego Maradona upon scoring his second goal in the quarter final match and beating the English squad 2-1.
Terry Butcher signifies the kind of player that they don’t make anymore.
The examples of this are clear enough. In a 1987 Scottish Premier Division match against Aberdeen, he broke his leg and insisted on continuing to play, even though this proved impossible. Then, roughly a year later, on the 6th of Sept. 1989, in an English World Cup qualifying match in Sweden, he suffered a deep cut to his forehead early on in the game, which was provisionally stitched up by field doctors, only to be reopened when he continued to head the ball throughout the match. The details of the end of the match are well known, as Butcher had managed to completely turn his white English jersey and his face into a mess of blood. Indeed seeing him after the game, and in photos taken, one might just as well guess he was starring in a horror film.
Today soccer referees would not allow Butcher to play in these conditions—for various reasons—but the prohibition demonstrates the tidal wave of change that has descended on world soccer in just twenty years. Whereas players today are often criticized for faking injuries or making the most out of slide tackles in the name of potential penalty kicks, it is clear that this kind of soccer is a sport Butcher could never have participated in, being contrary to the courage and honour that seems so fundamental to him.
The marked difference between him and players of late can be summed in his opinion of Wayne Rooney, whom he thinks is capable of becoming more unglued with the proper provocation:
“If I was an American defender, I would belt him one,” he told a number of British publications. “The Americans have already said they are going to wind him up. And if I was playing against him I would do the same as well. I would stand on his toes, poke him, pinch him and do everything to wind him up — even belt him one because his temperament concerns me.”
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