1974! A year to remember

TiCam · Published by TiCam- 05-23-07

Haiti's first serious attempt at World Cup Qualification was in 1968 when the Grenadiers topped group 2 against Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago. Haiti eliminated the USA in round 2 by winning both legs and on June 15th 1969 the national selection was one step away from Qualifying to the 1970 FIFA World Cup. If the current home and away rules were in place in 1969, Haiti would have qualified for World Cup 1970 with a 4:2 advantage on aggregate. Instead a 3rd Playoff game was played on neutral grounds and El Salvador defeated Haiti by a score of 1:0 to qualify for World Cup 1970 in Mexico.

After such a narrow miss, four years later, the Haitian National Selection was determined to reach World Cup 1974. Confident about the team, the Haitian Football Federation along with the Haitian Government at the time successfully won the bid to have the Final group round played in Haiti. Haiti eliminated Puerto Rico in the first round as expected by an aggregate score of 12:0 over two legs, with two hattricks by Sanon. The entire nation rallied behind the team and with key players such as Francillon (Keeper), Pierre Bayonne (Defender), Phillipe Vorbe (midfielder) and striker Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon, many believed that Haiti was ready to be part of the top 16 teams of the World. Don Bosco's striker, Manno Sanon, proved to be unstoppable in the final group round of the qualifiers by scoring 5 goals out of 8 goals scored in this group phase. The striker accounted for 11 out of the total of 20 goals scored by the team and played a major role in Haiti's qualification to World Cup 1974 in Germany.

In 1974 only 16 teams participated in the World Cup finals and Haiti was the sole representative for CONCACAF. The teams were divided in 4 groups of 4 teams and Haiti was drawn in Group D against the soccer powers of the time, Poland, Argentina and Italy. A good showing was all that was expected from the Haitian side and the general feeling was that the Haitian team "scoring two goals, one against Italy and another against Argentina, they made sure their presence did not go unnoticed" and the whole nation was satisfied with just being a part of the World Cup. In Haiti's first game, when the first half against Italy ended 0:0 time seemed to have stopped in Haiti. At this moment in time field with emotions of disbelief, hope and shock the Haitian fans were speechless and the silence extended throughout the entire nation. One Minute into the second half the country literally exploded, it's son, Manno Sanon had put an end to Dino Zoff's invincibility and took the lead against Italy. The lead only lasted six minutes and Haiti went on to lose all the group games.

Images Caption

1-Italy goalkeeper Dino Zoff (on ground) watches Haiti forward Emmanuel Sanon break Italy's famous 'catenacio' defense and score the opening goal of the nations' FIFA World Cup finals meeting on 15 June 1974 in Munich. Sanon acted on a superb pass from captain Philippe Vorbe and started his run from the center of the field. Sanon's goal was the first goal scored against Zoff in the last 1143 minutes

2-Arsene Auguste (Pelao) trying to stop Poland forward Grzegorz Lato during the 1974 FIFA World Cup first round match against Haiti

3-Arsene Auguste on the ground as Grzegorz Lato heads towards his second goal. Haiti lost 7-0 to Poland on June 19, 1974

The heroes

The Haitians may not have stuck around very long defeats in all three of their matches ensured they took the first flight home ? but by scoring two goals, one against Italy and another against Argentina, they made sure their presence did not go unnoticed and the names that follows had made it to the list of National Heroes:

FRANCILLON Henry (GK)

AUGUSTE Arsene

BAYONNE Pierre

VORBE Philippe

DESIR Jean Claude

ANTOINE Eddy

FRANCOIS Guy

SAINT-VIL Guy

JEAN-JOSEPH Ernst

NAZAIRE Wilner

SANON Emmanuel

PIQUANT Ewilner (GK)