Bergkamp on his otherworldly goal against Argentina
Dennis Bergkamp chats about his masterpiece for the Netherlands against La Albiceleste in their 1998 FIFA World Cup quarter-final.
Dennis Bergkamp scored one of the best World Cup goals ever at France 1998
The Dutchman's strike against Argentina is an iconic moment in tournament history
Legend takes trip down memory lane 28 years after his Marseille masterpiece
“That was my time to shine!”
When Dennis Bergkamp talks about his delightful goal against Argentina at the 1998 FIFA World Cup™, he doesn’t beat about the bush. Over the course of a dazzling career, the Dutch craftsman’s goalscoring repertoire included brilliant lobs, timeless efforts caressed into the back of the net and physics-defying top-corner screamers, all executed with poise, creativity and technical precision. Despite a catalogue of gorgeous goals from which to choose, his favourite of all remains the one he scored in Marseille on 4 July 1998.
“When I pick a goal, not only one scored by me, but from other players as well, I always look at the stage, what sort of game it is, who is the opponent, which goal, is it a 5-0 or is it a 2-1. Which goal you scored, that makes a difference for me,” explained the Dutchman to FIFA, almost three decades after his jaw-dropping strike.
The stage was perfectly set. The location: Marseille’s Stade Velodrome. The scene: a titanic tussle between the Dutch and Argentinians for a place in the France 1998 semi-finals. The denouement: Bergkamp’s show-stopping stunner.
Patrick Kluivert, the other star striker in Guus Hiddink’s team, opened the scoring in the 12th minute following an exquisite assist from none other than Bergkamp himself, who stooped to cushion a perfectly weighted header into Kluivert’s path. But just five minutes later, Claudio Lopez sprang the Oranje’s offside trap and restored parity after slotting the ball through keeper Edwin van der Sar’s legs. With the stakes so high and the match proving to be a hard-fought contest, tempers flared and Dutch defender Arthur Numan and Argentinian ace Ariel Ortega both received their marching orders in separate incidents in the second period.
With 90 minutes on the clock, the score was still 1-1, the Oranje and the Albiceleste were both down to ten men and extra time was looming large. However, no one could have predicted that on this clear, cloudless July day in Marseille proverbial lightning would strike. It started with a flash of inspiration from Dutch captain Frank de Boer, who launched a pinpoint, raking pass from inside his own half to the team’s trusted talisman.
“First of all, you need to have the connection with the player who passes the ball so that you know he’s going to pass to you and for him to know that I was running that way,” analysed the Amsterdam-born virtuoso. “So, I created some space for myself. Then the second part is, of course, that the ball has to be right, but OK, that’s not my job,” he laughed.
Though Bergkamp had stolen a step on the retreating Argentinian defenders, he still had three opponents for company. However, the unflappable attacker had one thing on his mind. After plucking the ball from out of the sky with his right foot, he instinctively cut inside Roberto Ayala with a deliciously deft touch, keeping the ball under spellbinding control throughout the breathtaking manoeuvre.
“I had to control the ball in such a way that I kept it close to myself because I needed another touch after that,” said the forward. “And so, when you just break it up in different parts and all those parts come together, then it all works out well.”
Within the space of three bewildering seconds, Bergkamp had arrowed an unstoppable effort past Carlos Roa with the outside of his right boot; the shot-stopper reduced to a frustrated spectator with a front-row view of the devastating sequence that sparked an explosion of joy from the wall of orange behind the goal.
“It’s years of practice,” he said. “After the control and the second touch, if I didn’t score the goal, it’d have been a mistake from me because it was a clear chance. With just the goalkeeper to beat, it was up to me to put the ball past him. Before that, what happened was kind of special.”
Moments after having planted the ball in the top corner and swept away by the sheer joy of it all, the Dutch maestro threw himself to the turf, arms raised to the heavens in celebration, team-mates piling on top of him and all those of a Dutch persuasion going wild.
“You can’t copy the feeling. It’s indescribable,” he recounted. “When you score that goal, something explodes. It’s like a big celebration in your head. You don’t know what to do. You just realise that you scored a goal, you won the game and you play at the highest level. Your family is in the stands. You will be remembered for this. All those things come together in three seconds, maybe.”
Although the Dutch would go on to suffer shoot-out heartbreak at the hands of Brazil in the semi-finals before Croatia edged past them 2-1 in the match for third place, Bergkamp had earned his spot in the pantheon of legends thanks to his exploits in Marseille.
“You just realise that this is one of those moments that will be part of you for the rest of your life,” said Bergkamp. “And after the tournament, what was really enjoyable for me was that all the people that talked about that goal explained where they were at the time. One was in the stadium. One was on holiday. One was working. And you realise that you connect so many people in the world by just one moment. And that made me realise afterwards that football just unites people.”
Bergkamp will live forever in more ways than one. It’s fair to say, that quarter-final showdown against Argentina was clearly his time to shine.