What was it like at the 78 World Cup? Apart from France any other standouts? As a boy I remember the likes of Krankl, Bettega, Kempes etc.....from teams Scotland didn't play.
What was Argetina like? I've been a number of times in the last decade so was wondering what it would be like to experience with the Junta being in charge.
The whole trip was unbelievable as we were there for about 5 weeks ( 3 of us )
We flew from South Africa & we got lifted by the police on the first night, just singing & being drunk , but we knew nothing of the Junta at that time, to much to tell you about & so little time, could have written a book about it to be honest
Football first, Scotland played first two games in Cordoba , against Peru we travelled up in a Peru supporters bus, mental but great time took about 12 hours from BA
Against Iran again travelled from BA this time third class on a train, fuckin murder freezing the whole journey overnight as well.
After that onto Mendoza & Archie Gemmils goal ,
With Scotland out a wee bit of touring ,over the Andes with a fuckin nutcase driving a minibus into Chile, that was scary the pubs were jumping at 6 pm & shut at 8:30 ??? We had no idea there's a curfew on we were floating about looking for a boozer next minute soldiers & tanks are on the street !!!
When we returned to Argentina we travelled north to Paraguay by bus ,not a good move as it was far too long especially when we had to return to BA ( our hotel was included in our package for the duration of our stay & most of our clothes remained in our room),
We seen another couple of games & then on a boat over to Uruguay, met a real nazi through a German guy we had met in south Africa ( should have booted the auld bastard in the balls) got pissed up over there along with a load of British sailors, missed our return journey on the boat we came in & we spent the next three days ( two of us ) as Stowaways, gospel truth
The sailors were Merchant navy & as long as the officers didn't find out all would be well.
The old guy who gave us food, bevy & generally looked after us was a bluenose from Kinning Park & he was retiring after that trip so when we did get back to BA our other mate who was back before the two of us who stowed away, he spat the dummy out, fell out with us ,so we got his ticket for the third place playoff between Italy &Brazil took a taxi down to the docks & took the old guy (Alex) to the match & he had a great day.
The day of the final I'm just about skint & on the morning I got offered 1000 American dollars for my ticket, I thought about it as I had no job to return to in South Africa & I had cancelled my wedding to go on this adventure so not much sympathy from my ex but I declined & I went to the game.
Hope that helped mate
