Zaire, known now as the Democratic Republic of Congo, earned a place in World Cup infamy when they fell to a record 9-0 defeat to Yugoslavia in 1974 – a margin that would be equalled eight years later when Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1 in 1982.
The question of why did this team do so badly, despite the credible performances of African sides in World Cups before and after, was for many years either never fully answered, or became the subject of urban myths, often taken as fact.
The Congo, formerly Zaire under Mobutu’s kleptocratic rule, appeared at their first African Cup of Nations in 1965 in Tunisia. Three years later in Ethiopia, they would win their first African championship with the winner scored by Mukendi Kalala, thus confirming their position as a force in African football. In 1972, with Blagoje Vidinic as coach, they would reach the semi-finals of the Nations Cup with a team whose players formed the basis of their World Cup qualification. At club level, TP Mazembe won the African Champions’ Cup in 1967 and 1968 (they would do so again in 2009 and 2010, in addition to reaching the finals of the 2010 Club World Cup), whilst AS Vita Club would win it in 1973.
The team’s key players included goalkeeper Kazadi Mwamba, defenders Tshimen Bwanga (African footballer of the year in 1973), Mwepu Ilunga and Boba Lobilo, midfielder Mantatu Kidumu, and forwards Adelard Mayanga, Mulamba N’Daye and Etepe Kakoko. Zaire qualified for the 1974 World Cup by defeating Togo, Cameroon and Ghana in the knock-out rounds and then topping a three-team group including Morocco (who’d qualified for 1970) and Zambia. They would then win the 1974 Nations Cup, their second honour, defeating Zambia in a replayed final. N’Daye finished the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals.
Obviously there was little to be expected of them in Germany that year. Nor was it of the other “minnows” in the tournament, Haiti and Australia. Yet Haiti had a brief moment of shocking the world when they took a brief lead against Italy, and the Socceroos earned a point. Zaire would lose all three of their games without scoring – 2-0 to Scotland, 9-0 to Yugoslavia and 3-0 to Brazil. In the Yugoslavia game, goalkeeper Mwamba came off after 21 minutes, having already let in three. But neither the Scotland nor Brazil games were as bad. The outing against Brazil is remembered for Mwepu Ilunga kicking a Brazil free-kick. The most common explanation was that Zaire’s players “did not know the rules of the game”, as if to paint them as hopeless amateurs cruelly exposed on the big stage.
As has been attested to by Zaire’s players, this was long proven to be a lie. The players did know the rules of the game, and they were not as hopelessly talentless as their abominable showing in Germany would have you believe. After all, they came as reigning African champions. Perhaps it was down to inexperience, disorganisation on and off the field, and a lack of mental toughness. More than that, it was well known that there was unrest in the team – players had not been paid the bonuses promised by the Mobutu regime for qualifying. The government’s treatment of the nation’s footballers was appalling. There is good reason to believe the players were capable of better than what eventuated, and thus their failure had many mitigating factors. Neither did this reflect at all on African football – after all, Morocco had performed credibly in Mexico four years earlier, giving the Germans a major fright in their first game, and subsequent African efforts were never less than impressive.
After failing to defend their African title in 1976, Zaire would not take part in either World Cup or Nations Cup qualifiers for 1978. In the 1982 qualifiers, their first game against Mozambique featured two survivors from 1974 (Lobilo and Mwamba) but they did not play any further part in the campaign, which saw them reach the third round and qualifying, but being knocked out by Cameroon. The new stars were Mayele Ayel and Masengo Ilunga, the latter playing several years in Greece. Of the 1974 squad, Etepe Kakoko would even go on to play in Germany.
Zaire qualified for their next Nations Cup in 1988, by which time more of their players were in Europe. They have been there or thereabouts since.
