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Been watching some old world cup games today...including this famous one. "famous" for the wrong reasons. Ive just watched the full 90 for the first time and kept asking myself.."who knew the fix was on?"...first 20 minutes it was Peru who went closest...two good chances, one hitting the post...Argentina were in top gear pretty much all first half and Tarantinis goal just before half time was vital...two early second half goals and it was job done. Ive done a bit of reading on the game and my initial belief that some sort of trade agreement was struck seems misplaced. It was far more sinister...the Argentine military junta agreed to "look after" a number of perus political opponents in return for the right result. From my view it just looked like perus dodgy defence was overwhelmed by wave after wave of attack...but as I said...that early chance they had could have been the deal breaker.
As a footnote, at half time on my dvd of the game you can hear the commentator(our fave rave mr.Tyler)having a one way conversation with I assume is his producer..he says
"hope im not going over the top, but the atmosphere here is fantastic...ok...well..if i go over the top you make sure you tell me..."
Had to chuckle at that..wonder what he says off air now?

At that time, the game caused a lot of mutterings about a 'fix', but no-one in the media seemed willing to broadcast such thoughts out loud and many people were left just wondering.

For me, it left a strange taste in the mouth. To be fair, Argentina played some terrific attacking football in the later 1970s after their perplexing failure in the 1974 World Cup and, particularly inspired by the great Mario Kempes, they were a joy to watch.

On the other hand, Peru were my favourite International team in the 1970s, following their excitingly explosive impact in the 1970 World Cup. They basically played an open 4-2-4 formation and with the roly-poly figure of Chumpitaz as one of the midfield 2, there was never going to be a grinding, middle-of-the-park battle when these guys were in town. In spite of his unathletic appearance, Chumpitaz was a real maestro on the ball and Peru attacked non-stop from the start although, after all these years, I can't recall if he was still in the team at that stage of his career in 1978.

For myself, seeing the way the game played out, with so many unanswered questions thereafter, it all seemed so unbelievable.

Yes MC Chumpitaz played in the game...although he was substituted. Upon further reading its not even clear to me that the Argentinian players knew something was up...their tough as teak centre forward Luque said years later that he felt the victory was tainted because of this game...well if id not known the scenario and watched that game again It doesnt scream fix to me...just one top side overwhelming a decent but defensively loose opponent...still its one of the best games for atmosphere ive ever seen...shall watch it again on my tv with sound up high next time...only had the laptop on for this viewing...which leads me to another game...the final...which I saw as a seven year old but not since...apparently thats as fishy as fuck too...I look forward to seeing it...

You're right about Leopoldo Luque being "tough as teak"; he always seemed to be the perfect foil for Mario Kempes, in spite of being immeasurably less talented.

During the 1978 World Cup finals, Luque's father died and although he was, by all accounts, devastated, rather than miss any games for his country, he continued to play on and did so very well.