Uzbekistan 2024 is now just 9 days away
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\nBrian Laudrup was, along with the likes of Gabriel Batistuta, Dennis Bergkamp, Ilie Dumitrescu and Robert Prosinecki, one of the most-hyped teenagers on planet football as 1989 began. His brother had dazzled at the 1986 FIFA World Cup\u2122 and was en route to going down as one of the greatest playmakers of all time. Brian\u2019s precocious gifts suggested he could become every bit as good as Michael.<\/p>\n
The younger Laudrup had exploded on to the Danish domestic scene in 1986, made his international debut the following year, and been set to represent Sepp Piontek\u2019s side, at the age of only 18, at UEFA EURO 1988 until a broken collarbone scuppered that dream. Lazio had flashed admiring glances, but now Ajax led the race for the intoxicating creator. Just five days into January 1989, Laudrup was parading his genius to Dutch audiences, though it wasn\u2019t in Amsterdam or even on grass.<\/p>\n
It was, curiously, at the FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122. Climate dictated that the Danish club season ran only from April to October. In the winter months, players, itching action, would compete indoors. It was decidedly different to futsal, but that didn\u2019t dissuade the Danes.<\/p>\n
Richard Moller Nielsen, Piontek\u2019s assistant, was appointed coach. His squad would comprise 11-a-side internationals Lars Olsen, Bent Christensen, Kurt Jorgensen and a 19-year-old Laudrup, who, later that year, would give Branco a torrid time on turf as Denmark destroyed Brazil 4-0.<\/p>\n
They were far from the only footballers making the temporary transition for Netherlands 1989. Adilio, who had been capped by Brazil and helped Flamengo outplay Liverpool in the Intercontinental Cup, was sent. Francisco Alcaraz, on Paraguay duty at Mexico \u2019\u06f8\u06f6, was too. Over half of USA\u2019s squad \u2013 including Mike Windischmann, Peter Vermes, Tab Ramos and Bruce Murray \u2013 would represent them at Italia \u2019\u06f9\u06f0\u066b Algeria, Australia, Canada and Japan summoned 11-a-side internationals aplenty.<\/p>\n
Denmark, despite the intricacies of this new sport, gave hosts and eventual runners-up the Netherlands an almighty test in a 4-2 loss in their curtain-raiser in Rotterdam. Laudrup then hit a late leveller as the Nordic nation drew 2-2 with Paraguay, who\u2019d been futsal practitioners for decades.<\/p>\n
Then came a mouth-watering match-up between diamond and legend. Lakhdar Belloumi had been named African Football of the Year, scored the winner for Algeria against West Germany in a seismic upset at Spain \u2019\u06f8\u06f2, and was widely regarded as his country\u2019s greatest-ever player.<\/p>\n
Belloumi was brilliant in Arnhem, registering a goal and assist apiece, but unfortunately for Algeria, Laudrup was even better. The dashing Dane hit a hat-trick and set up another as they won an 8-4 thriller. It was insufficient to get Denmark through \u2013 Paraguay\u2019s surprise draw with the Netherlands denied them \u2013 but Laudrup and friends loved the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great fun,\u201d he said. \u201cWe loved the whole tournament. We got to see amazing talent, different styles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very difficult at first. Everything was different to us, we were trying to play outdoor football on an indoor court, playing long balls forward, but I think we got used to it and did well.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always see Danes as well organised and physical, but I think we showed that we are technically gifted as well \u2013 or at least some of us did!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Uzbekistan 2024 is now just 9 days away BUY TICKETS Brian Laudrup was, along with the likes of Gabriel Batistuta, Dennis Bergkamp, Ilie Dumitrescu and Robert Prosinecki, one of the most-hyped teenagers on planet football as 1989 began. His brother had dazzled at the 1986 FIFA World Cup\u2122 and was en route to going down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1017427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-1017426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}