Chinaglia retires and scores his last goal for Lazio
- Simon Basten
- Oct 15, 2022
- 3 min read
Chinaglia Day, Friendly
Sunday, October 16, 1983
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Lazio New York Cosmos 3-1
Giorgio Chinaglia quits active football playing one half with Cosmos and another with Lazio, scoring a final goal for his beloved Lazio
Today was a day to celebrate Giorgio Chinaglia.
For his farewell match, the club had organised a friendly with New York Cosmos with Long John playing the first half with the Americans and the second with Lazio.
The match
This was a day to celebrate the great Giorgio Chinaglia. Long John would have probably wanted to continue playing for Lazio, and he would have certainly been very helpful, but the rules of Italian football prohibited Presidents from playing. But it was time to close his career characterised by two distinct periods: Lazio between 1969 and 1976 and New York Cosmos from then on.
Cosmos was not as full as stars as we perhaps used to remember them but still alongside Long John there was Franz Bekenbauer, West Germany captain winner of the 1974 World Cup, Carlos Alberto, who played and scored against Italy in the 1970 final won by Brazil, and Johan Neeskens, marvellous Ajax player and winner of three consecutive European Cups who also played in two World Cup finals.
After just two minutes Lazio were already ahead. Joao Batista to Mauro Meluso, ball to Michael Laudrup who slalomed through the Cosmos defence and beat Hubert Birkenmeier.
The Americans did not play passively, the contrary. The main objective was to get Giorgio to score and they did everything they could to do so. They managed to equalise in the 26th minute thanks to Romero, a promising Paraguayan midfielder, who scored a splendid goal with a lob over Massimo Cacciatori.
In the second half Chinaglia substituted Meluso and played his last 45 minutes for Lazio. In the 52nd minute Laudrup scored again, a marvellous volley following a Batista assist.
But what the crowd really wanted was for Chinaglia to score. And he did. In the 76th minute Bruno Giordano managed to serve him the perfect assist and Long John raced all alone towards the goal. Like in the good old days, he dribbled past the keeper and made it 3-1. In those ten seconds as he was running towards the old glory, everybody held their breaths, hoping for him to score. It was the perfect ending to a fairy tale and after the goal the fans raced onto the pitch wanting to celebrate with their hero. It took a while to restart the match!!!
Five minutes to the end, Chinaglia did a lap of honour ending under Curva Nord. The excited fans invaded the pitch once more and the game ended.
There will never be player like Giorgio Chinaglia.
Who played for Lazio
Cacciatori (81’ Ielpo), Miele (46’ Chiarenza), Piscedda, Manfredonia, Batista, Vinazzani, Cupini (46’ Marini), D’Amico (46’ Giordano), Meluso (46’ Chinaglia), Laudrup, Piraccini (46’ Calisti)
Manager: Morrone
Who played for New York Cosmos
Birkenmeier, Carlos Alberto (46' Durgan), Beckenbauer, Rijsbergen (65' Geer), Eskandarian (82' Borja), Neeskens, Fox, Romero, Chinaglia (46' Peterson), Bogicevic, Cabanas
Manager: Mazzei
Referee: Longhi
Goals: 2’ Laudrup, 26’ Romero, 52’ Laudrup, 76’ Chinaglia
Sources
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