It will go down in football history as one of the most audacious substitutions ever made at the World Cup. Louis van Gaal’s decision to replace his goalkeeper just before the end of extra-time of the Holland v Costa Rica quarter-final became the main talking point of the game that the Dutch went on to win on penalties. Ultimately, the gamble paid off with Tim Krul making the decisive saves in the shoot-out and everybody hailed van Gaal’s intervention as a stroke of genius.
Here are 5 other football substitutions that changed the game and the course of history…
England (1966) – Prior to the World Cup it was prolific goal scorer Jimmy Greaves who was Sir Alf Ramsey’s preferred choice to play as the main striker for the national team. Indeed, it was the Spurs’ hit man who started the tournament as the spearhead of the England team and had played the first three games in the tournament. Unfortunately for Greaves, he failed to score in any of the games and got injured in the third, leaving the door ajar for a promising West Ham forward called Geoff Hurst, who took his place in the quarter-final game against Argentina in which he scored the winner. England went on to win the Jules Rimet trophy by beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time with Hurst grabbing a hat-trick.
Manchester United (1999) – Known as the ‘Red Devils’, United’s unprecedented and continuous success over the best part of 20 years has had some wondering if Alex Ferguson had indeed made a Faustian pact with Diablo himself! The game that immediately comes to mind is the 1999 Champions League Final when United found themselves facing the Bavarian giants Bayern Munich at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. United fell behind in the first half and were then battered from pillar to post by the Germans who should have been out of sight by the time Fergie brought on Teddy Sheringham on 67’ and then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on 81’. Still losing as the game entered injury time first Teddy scored before Ole struck the killer blow with 93’ on the clock.
France (2000) - The great French team that had won the World Cup two years earlier had entered the European Championships at the peak of their powers. They had eased their way through to the final and were hot favourites to beat an Italian team that had knocked out the joint hosts Holland on penalties in the semi-final. It was Italy that took the lead who then proceeded to defend for their lives. The French coach Roger Lemarre, brought on Arsenal striker Sylvain Wiltord on 58’ before playing his hand by putting on another striker in the shape of David Trezeguet with 15 minutes remaining. Unbelievably, Wiltord equalised in the fourth minute of injury time taking the game into extra time. The coup de grace was administered by Trezeguet's ‘golden goal’ in dramatic fashion on 103’ to win the cup for France.
