Thys Turns Belgium Into a Soccer Power : Red Devils’ Inferiority Complex Has Been Replaced by Some Superior Play, Which Has Put Them in World Cup Semifinals

They are known as the Diables Rouges, the Red Devils, and they are the surprise team of the 1986 World Cup.

No one, not even Guy Thys, their cigar-puffing coach, expected them still to be in the running. And yet here they are, in the semifinals.

Wednesday afternoon, tiny Belgium, a country that managed to qualify for the trip to Mexico by edging Holland in a playoff, will come face to face with Argentina and with history.

No Belgian team has ever come this far before. No Belgian team has ever dreamed it possible.

But to scoff at their chances would be to ignore what the Belgians have accomplished in the tournament so far--and what they achieved in 1982.

In the five games it has played in the 1986 World Cup, Belgium has:

--Been beaten by Mexico, 2-1.

--Beaten Iraq, 2-1.

--Tied Paraguay, 2-2, to finish third in its first-round group and earn a spot in the second round.

--Defeated the Soviet Union, 4-3, in overtime, in an astonishing game during which five goals were scored in the last 50 minutes.

--Tied Spain, 1-1, in a quarterfinal match that also went to overtime and finally was settled by penalty kicks, Belgium advancing, 5-4.

The mastermind behind this string of successes is a 63-year-old Milton Berle look-alike who has somehow instilled in his players a belief in themselves and a confidence that allows them to continue defying the odds.

Thys knows all too well Belgium’s history of World Cup failure. This is, after all, the country that in 1930 was shut out in its very first World Cup game by, of all nations, the United States.

Belgium, in fact, brought with it to Mexico a dismal World Cup record of 3-9-2 dating back to that loss 56 years ago to the Americans in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Then, too, there is what Thys has refered to as Belgium’s “inferiority complex” in regard to its more powerful soccer neighbors.

Geographically, Belgium is a minnow surrounded by sharks, what with two-time World Cup runner-up the Netherlands to the north, two-time World Cup winner West Germany to the east and European champion France to the south.

Thys’ task since becoming the national team coach in 1977 has been to raise Belgium to the level of its neighbors. He remembers the challenge that faced him at the time of his appointment.

“It was a difficult time,” he said. “Belgium had not qualified for the 1974 World Cup, was already certain not to qualify for Argentina the following year (1978), and we were suffering from a mighty inferiority complex every time we looked across at Holland.”

The Dutch, riding high on the talents of Johan Cruyff and a whole generation of top-quality players, reached the World Cup final in Munich in 1974 and were destined to do so again in Buenos Aires in 1978.

The only success Belgium could point to was an Olympic gold medal won way back in 1920 and a fourth-place finish in the European championships of 1972.

But, under Thys’ guidance, the Belgians gradually developed into one of Europe’s better teams. They were not a major power, certainly, but they were respectable.

In 1980, Belgium shocked everyone by finishing second to West Germany in the European championships. Then, to the delight of the country as a whole, Belgium qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain at the expense of the Netherlands and ahead of France.

“Obviously we are taken far more seriously now, but there are some who seem to think we are a fluke team,” Thys said before the team’s first match in Spain. “They could be in for another shock.”

That shock was duly delivered. In the opening match of the 1982 tournament at giant Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona, Belgium upset defending champion Argentina, 1-0. It is a result the Argentines will remember when they take the field Wednesday.

The Belgian team was eliminated in the second round in Spain, but it proved a point: Belgium could no longer be taken for granted.

Thys, a soft-spoken man of gentle good humor and an iron will--he refused to attend the postgame press conference after Sunday’s victory over Spain because the Spanish coach, Miguel Munoz, took too much time in his remarks to the media--believes strongly in teamwork.

With the possible exception of goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff, the Belgian team has no real stars. Instead, it is a collection of hard-working players whom Thys has been able to mold into a unit even though some are French-speaking and some are Flemmish.

“In football, players must want to pass the ball to each other, and they will do that far more easily if they are friends,” Thys said in 1982. “Talking to players is such an integral part of a manager’s job. You can win matches with reasonable words as well as with fierce tackles.”

And you can also win them if you have strong defensive players such as Eric Gerets and Georges Grun, excellent midfielders like team captain Jan Ceulemans and rising star Vincenzo Scifo, and talented forwards such as Nico Claesen and Daniel Veyt.

But, of all the Diables Rouges, it is 32-year-old goalkeeper Pfaff who has been most responsible for Belgium’s success over the last six years.

Particularly strong on the goal line--as demonstrated by his save of Jose Eloy’s penalty kick Sunday--Pfaff is also known for his sharp reflexes and excellent anticipation. He is sound in the air and a good organizer of his defense. In other words, a top-class goalkeeper.

He will need every one of those qualities Wednesday, when Diego Maradona, Jorge Valdano and the rest of the Argentine attack will be doing everything possible to see that the surprise team of the 1986 World Cup is denied one more surprise.