When one of the Allied players breakes his leg or something he was subsituted. As far as I know subsitutions weren't allowed until 1970(?).
It would have been a far better movie if Mr. Stallone hadn't been in it, or if he and the director and writing team had at least seen a football match (I hate the word soccer). If they have ever seen a match, then they can not have paid too much attention to what happened on the pitch.
been on tv today. The playter who runs back on is pele, who finishes the match with broken ribs. not a sub as thought.
shareI recorded this when it was on TV the other day and watched it last night with my 12 year old son who thought it was brilliant.
There is a player that gets injured before Pele does who is replaced by a substitute. When Pele gets injured they decide for some reason to willingly play with 10 men despite apparantely having other replacements on the bench.
It is also true that substitutes were not introduced until the late 1960s at the very earliest (there weren't any allowed in the 1966 World Cup for instance). Obviously Huston decided to turn a blind eye to this (bearing in mind that it was filmed in 1981).
It's no big deal though. Subs were first used in English league games in 1965, and in Internationals in 1968 (I think).
I don't believe that historical accuracy is paramount to this film; it is essentially a fellgood film with WWII used as a backdrop.