Germany golden goal in 1996

German first Major title with unified nation

The "Golden Goal" does exist after all, to Germany's delight, though a doubt was raised with the linesman's flag in the arguable conclusion to the European Championship final on Sunday night.

Five minutes into extra time, the German substitute Oliver Bierhoff pivoted around the defender Miroslav Kadlec and rammed his second goal in 22 minutes through a pair of gloved hands held up as if confronted by a gun. The ball trickled just inside the goalkeeper's far left post to complete the 2-1 comeback victory over the underdog Czech Republic for Germany, its third European title overall — two more than any other country — and the first for Berti Vogts, the beleaguered coach who in that moment fell in step with his German predecessor legends.

As Bierhoff screamed, he didn't notice the orange flag of the Italian linesman Donato Nicoletti held up in silent veto. Neither did the Italian referee, Pierluigi Pairetto, not until the Czech coach Dusan Uhrin stood stubbornly alongside the linesman, whose flag had gone down in a stuttering moment of doubt before popping back up again. By now the penalty box was was littered with fallen Czech defenders as the referee grabbed the linesman and almost shook the truth out of him.

Yes, Stefan Kuntz, the German forward, had been offside.

No, the referee shouted with a Jackie-Gleasonish wave of his arms, Kuntz had not affected play.

"The referee ignored him," Uhrin said. "It's hard to say whether the result is fair, I'm not going to comment on this. But I will say it was a decent final."

"I don't know if it was offside or not," said the Czech goalkeeper Petr Kouba, who added that the shot had deflected off Michal Hornak, one of his defenders.

"But if the linesman has the flag up, then the referee should respect it," Kouba said.


Thus, anticlimactically, arrived the first "Golden Goal" of the tournament after four games decided unsatisfactorily by the penalty shootout.

The Germans, led by Matthias Sammer, who had a personal grievance with the same linesman over the 58th-minute penalty that had given the Czechs their opening lead, took off running toward Bierhoff, who for the moment of indecision had stood in the far corner as if woken from the most incredible dream.

Then he realized that the dream was real. Bierhoff is a striker for Udinese at the bottom of the Italian first division.

He had not played in two weeks, even as the pile-up of four German injuries and two suspensions had compelled the European federation UEFA to allow Vogts to flew in an emergency substitute, Jens Todt, from Germany on Saturday morning. Then, 21 minutes before a recreation of Czechoslovakia's 1976 European final upset of West Germany might have become complete, the unimpressive Bierhoff was being shouted on by Vogts to take the placethe midfielder Mehmet Scholl.

Four minutes later Bierhoff was scoring the goal that began to make a genius of Vogts. He headed in a long free kick from Christian Ziege, with Markus Babbel just behind, his arms spread in fending off two trailing Czech defenders.
 

Couldn't stop the powerful shot from Bierhoff

As the Germans were celebrating Sammer came running to the sideline, screaming himself red at the linesman Nicoletti for not having vetoed thepenaltykick awarded against Sammer 15 minutes earlier.

That movement began at midfield on the break by Pavel Kuka, the arrowhead of most of the Czech attacks. He was brought down with an apparent elbow to the cheek but not before releasing a long ball to Karel Poborsky, the man of the match and a faster man than Sammer, who tripped him one stride from the box.

The Czech fell into the box, long hair in his eyes, elbows first, and as theGermans argued against the penalty, one of the Czechs had run in and replaced the telltale divot just outside the box.

The penalty taken by Patrik Berger — a teammate of Sammer's on the German champion Borussia Dortmund — was positioned no better than one which had knocked England out of its semifinal against Germany four nights earlier.

But this one had steam behind it as it disappeared under Andreas Köpke's dive.

The capacity Wembley crowd had received the final optimistically, despite the absence of England from a game at the stadium for the first time in three weeks — but now most of them were cheering as if they were Czech.

Three weeks ago Germany had opened with a 2-0 victory over the Czechs, but as Vogts pointed out, the only German unavailable that day had been Jürgen Klinsmann.

All night the match had been striding forward, building on the first steps of the Germans — led, leadenly, by Klinsmann, a week after suffering a torn right calf muscle — who were left vulnerable to the counter-attacking Czechs.

Each missed opportunity was answered by the other side, from Rada's runs to the two chances missed point-blank in the first half by Klinsmann's partner Stefan Kuntz, as the energy and pace escalated all the while.