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I’ve got loads of magazines, building up to the World Cup in 1966.
I think I’ve got 2 match programmes as well, somewhere in the attic, as my brother was at the game .
1966 for me, as it was the first one I remember being on television, closely followed by 1970, 2 instances stand out for me, Pele’s outrageous dummy (ok he never scored, but it was wonderful to see), and of course. Bank’s save from Pele’s header
1970 cos i liked the ball
The hand of God year (86) was decent, lots of boozing and half watching games in the pub, that game was great, watching it in England.
I expect most people will say the World Cup when they were teenagers or early 20s. I knew all the players in the 1970 and 1974 World Cups, but I have never heard of some of the current England and Scotland teams.
I remember watching the 1996 final, when I was 7, but the most memorable World Cups were 1970, 74 and 78. 74 was good because it was in Germany and games were on at sensible times for the UK. The Dutch team in 74 were superb to watch, especially Cruyff.
1978 was good because of the atmosphere in Buenos Aires and the implosion of the Scottish team, especially after they cheated Wales out of a place.
There was a match in the knock-out stages in 2006 when Zidane was incredible - I think it was the semi final against Portugal. Overshadowed by his head-butt in the final of course.
1978, Argentina the best IMO, Holland beat Argentina earlier in the tournament.
I remember an Italian headed goal scored by Roberto Bettega during one of the group matches in either the 1978 or the 1982 World Cup which I thought was the best headed goal I've ever seen. The ball flew into the net like a bullet.
However I've never been able to find video of that goal on Google. Anyone remember it and can trace the video of it?
Being half-Bulgarian it has to be 1994 for me.
The Stoichkov free-kick to beat Germany & reach the semi-finals gets mentioned over there even more than '66 does in England!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqaPYRD7Bso
My favourite was the won that got stolen by a bloke called Jack Russel and was found by a truffle pig called Pinky perky. That was my favourite.
1958 Wales were robbed
Interesting thread.
I don't have a favourite tournament, never been that big on World Cups to be honest, although there have been plenty of games I've enjoyed. One that sticks in the mind was Northern Ireland's victory over Spain in 1982, I can remember really enjoying that.
Probably a reflection of the ages of the people who use this message board, but I see a number have chosen tournaments in the 1970's as their favourites (1978 was the first I can remember watching). There were just 16 teams competing in those finals. Amazing to think the same number will be eliminated at the group stage this year.
There were 16 teams involved from 1934 to 1978. It was 24 teams from 1982 to 1994, and then 32 teams from 1998 to 2022. To me, 48 teams being at this year's tournament pushes it into the realms of farce, not to mention three different countries hosting matches.
My memory of past World Cups is very patchy, but my favourite team was the Dutch in 1974 - Johan Cruyff, Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens, the van de Kerkhofs, Ruud Krol, and some others.
The great names, the aura, the ridiculous skill, the Orange fans, and the fact that they were not England. Total football!