The World Cup

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54yrblade said:
The World cup, Trump and Infantino's corrupt cosying up, the political bin fire that is America can stick both the trophy and that child pacifier peace prize' ( really, just f*ck right off!) from Gianni where the sun don't shine!

It's a condensation of everything that is wrong in the world for me, this time.

Never been less interested or actively hating it as I am right now.

It won't live long in the memory.

Italia '90 or Argentina '78 anyone?
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This brings back memries.
 

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I had 2 imaginary friends growing up. One called Paolo (when I did something good), one called Rossi (when I did something bad)
 
PeterNdlovu081 said:
I think the World Cup that usually resonates with people the most is one of the first two you watched as a child or a teenager.

It's true for me with 1998 and 2002.
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Totally agree…
First I watched was 1978…..and really enjoyed it
Scotland had a great side in 78 and they genuinely fancied their chances to go deep into the tournament.
1st match they totally underestimated Peru losing 1-3, 2nd match the pressure was on and they met a stubborn well organised Iran frustratingly drawing 1-1.
3rd match they were already virtually out and played one of the favourites to win the WC but Scotland were brilliant deservedly beating Holland 3-1.

But by far the best World Cup I’ve seen was Spain 1982.
Brazil played such beautiful open attacking football with their showboating, tricks and flicks one touch Samba style football.
France with the great Michel Platini and Jean Tigana were Europes version of Brazil playing some sublime open attacking football.

Brazil were easily the most talented team, one of the best Brazil sides ever but they were so good, they had naive Kevin Keegan style tactics of not worrying/ thinking about defence. Even the Brazil defenders were really skillful and great going forward but were all weak at defending.

Germany and Italy were tactically very strong and unfortunately for football lovers around the world
Italy surprisingly knocked out Brazil 3-2 in an early knock out, one of the classic WC matches catching Brazil on the break with a Paulo Rossi hatrick.
 
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PeterNdlovu081 said:
1. 1998
2. 2002
3. 2014
4. 2018
5. 2006
6. 2022
7. 2010

I was alive in 1990 and 1994 but too young to remember them.
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My dad said he took me to watch Spain v Switzerland at S6 in the 1966 World Cup, I was only 4 years old and have no memory of the whole tournament apart from admiring at the flags when looking through the car window every time my dad was driving through Penistone Road.

My top 5

1970
1982
1990
1986
1998
 
Silent Blade said:
My dad said he took me to watch Spain v Switzerland at S6 in the 1966 World Cup, I was only 4 years old and have no memory of the whole tournament apart from admiring at the flags when looking through the car window every time my dad was driving through Penistone Road.

My top 5

1970
1982
1990
1986
1998
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I remember playing football after school in our cul-de-sac and then rushing in to watch the first match of France '98 which was Brazil v Scotland.

It was magical, like nothing I'd ever seen.
 
Silent Blade said:
My dad said he took me to watch Spain v Switzerland at S6 in the 1966 World Cup, I was only 4 years old and have no memory of the whole tournament apart from admiring at the flags when looking through the car window every time my dad was driving through Penistone Road.

My top 5

1970
1982
1990
1986
1998
Click to expand...

I’ve spoken to several uncles who’s opinions I trust and they all say.

Agree the 82 World Cup was one of the best….and agree that Brazil 82 side were one of the best teams ever.

However every single one of them say the Mexico 70 World Cup was better and that Brazil 70 side with Pele was the greatest side they’ve ever seen.
England won the World Cup in 66 but many experts says the England 70 side was better than the England 66 side.

Regards the WC I’m looking forward to it…..I always start watching every single match then after watching about 20 games in the first week I’m close to burn out.
So then I become selective and just watch odd games saving my enthusiasm for the knockouts.

Might sound daft but I like to see how these crappy little nations like Haiti, Curacao, Iraq perform.
Also every World Cup there are always big surprise….where a star is born or a crappy little nation performs really well.

Note: Also rate the Mexico 86 World Cup with the great Diego Maradona.
That World Cup is probably the most I’ve ever seen a single player stand out as being so much better than anyone else.
Unlike Messi, Maradona was almost a 1 man team and even the greatest defenders in the world seemed scared of him.
 
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Also rate the Mexico 86 World Cup with the great Diego Maradona.
That World Cup is probably the most I’ve ever seen a single player stand out as being so much better than anyone else.
Unlike Messi, Maradona was almost a 1 man team and even the greatest defenders in the world seemed scared of him.

Always said Maradona at his peak was better than Messi or Ronaldo at their peaks.
However looking at the bigger picture I’d say both Messi and even Ronaldo were overall better than Maradona

And the reason is consistency, mentality and longevity at the very top. They’ve both been in the top 5 best players in the world for almost 15 seasons.
Whereas Maradona (like George Best and Gazza) had demons, was unreliable, a loose cannon and faded away prematurely.
 
Slightly different for me. Because "I'm a goer". I was setting myself up in life in the early to mid 1980s - jobs, career, higher education, qualifications, etc. So, I could only really chuck myself into it from Italia 90.

I was at the Italy v Germany Final in the Bernabeu as a neutral.

I went to the England games in Sardinia in 1990. But, as England were playing Belgium in Bologna I was, unfortunately, on a plane home being deported!!! Following a subsequent misunderstanding, as England were playing Cameroon in Naples, I was also on a plane home, being deported for the second time from the same tournament!!! Things were different in those days.

You'll understand I missed both the semi final and the 3rd/4th in that Italia 90 tournament.

After that, I had a run of all the England games in France '98, Japan/Korea '02, Germany '06, South Africa '10, Brazil '14.

The more modern World Cups have little appeal to me I'm afraid. I had unused conditional Final Tickets for both Russia and Qatar. And I've got the same ticket for NYC.

As "a goer" I enjoyed the Japanese World Cup most.
 



Ball_Sup (Phil) said:
Slightly different for me. Because "I'm a goer". I was setting myself up in life in the early to mid 1980s - jobs, career, higher education, qualifications, etc. So, I could only really chuck myself into it from Italia 90.

I was at the Italy v Germany Final in the Bernabeu as a neutral.

I went to the England games in Sardinia in 1990. But, as England were playing Belgium in Bologna I was, unfortunately, on a plane home being deported!!! Following a subsequent misunderstanding, as England were playing Cameroon in Naples, I was also on a plane home, being deported for the second time from the same tournament!!! Things were different in those days.

You'll understand I missed both the semi final and the 3rd/4th in that Italia 90 tournament.

After that, I had a run of all the England games in France '98, Japan/Korea '02, Germany '06, South Africa '10, Brazil '14.

The more modern World Cups have little appeal to me I'm afraid. I had unused conditional Final Tickets for both Russia and Qatar. And I've got the same ticket for NYC.

As "a goer" I enjoyed the Japanese World Cup most.
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My cousin has been in Club England for years and gets all the England tickets.

He often says when expectations are low and there’s doom and gloom surrounding a tournament they often turn out the best.
He says regards the Russia World Cup there were all the rumours of Russian hooligans deliberately targeting English fans and how Russia is unfriendly.

But he says all the Russians he met were fantastic people, incredibly friendly and surprisingly really knowledgable about English football.

Just shows you can never judge stereotypes and need to get out there and experience things yourself.
 
Sheffsteel said:
My cousin has been in Club England for years and gets all the England tickets.

He often says when expectations are low and there’s doom and gloom surrounding a tournament they often turn out the best.
He says regards the Russia World Cup there were all the rumours of Russian hooligans deliberately targeting English fans and how Russia is unfriendly.

But he says all the Russians he met were fantastic people, incredibly friendly and surprisingly really knowledgable about English football.

Just shows you can never judge stereotypes and need to get out there and experience things yourself.
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I was in Moscow for Russia v England in 2007. And in Marseille in 2016. The Russian Firms have their own way and rules. I'm not hard. But I find some of their behaviour a little comical.

I've been to Russia on conventional holiday as well.

Your point is correct of course - people are people.
 
54yrblade said:
The World cup, Trump and Infantino's corrupt cosying up, the political bin fire that is America can stick both the trophy and that child pacifier peace prize' ( really, just f*ck right off!) from Gianni where the sun don't shine!

It's a condensation of everything that is wrong in the world for me, this time.
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Totally agree. The pair of them are corrupt beyond belief.
FatPaul said:
I'm sure once the soccer starts, it will be fun.
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I hope you're right. But I'm not so sure.
Security for the USA games will have to be incredibly tight with what is currently happening. Iran may or may not be planning some kind of terror attack. I wouldn't put it past Trump to organise a false flag attack of some sort to give him justification for doing the unthinkable.
I'm sure there will be stories of fans being barred from entry after they've paid enormous sums to get there. I already know of at least one person who has gone early for the world cup , with what they believed to be all the correct documentation and have been refused entry.
The Crab said:
For me it’s the Trump / Infantino circle jerk that I can’t abide the most.
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Two of the biggest Cunts going.
 
There was more mystique about World Cups like 1982. I think all those brilliant Brazilians still played their club football in Brazil, even the great Zico who played for Flamengo. There wasn't the coverage and the internet obviously so you'd get to see players you'd never seen play before.
Now all the best South American talent gets cherry picked and ruined by the big European clubs before they're 20.

I'll watch the England and Scotland games and maybe a few others but I'm not nearly as interested as I was.
 
Sheffsteel said:
England won the World Cup in 66 but many experts says the England 70 side was better than the England 66 side.
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1966 team
Banks, Cohen, Wilson, Stiles, J Charlton, Moore, Ball, Hunt, B Charlton, Hurst, Peters

1970 team that lost to Brazil in group match
Banks, Wright, Cooper, Mullery, Labone, Moore, Ball, Lee, B Charlton, Hurst, Peters.

I was too young to compare the teams as I only started to become football mad from January 1970. Banks was probably better in 1970 and many rated him as the best keeper in the world at the time. Were Wright (replaced Newton who was injured) and Cooper better than Cohen and Wilson. I read that Wilson was a class left back but Cooper did get rave reviews during the 1970 World Cup. Newton was probably the first choice right back in 1970 and was back in the team for the West Germany quarter final match, he was one of the 6 that failed to make the final cut for the 1966 squad.

Who was better, Jack Charlton or Brian Labone? Labone turned down the chance to be in the 1966 squad because he was getting married, I thought he was poor in the 3-2 defeat to West Germany in 1970 after watching the full match in Youtube some years ago. Jack Charlton did play in the group match against Czechoslovakia but he was 35 at the time.

Bobby Moore was outstanding against Brazil in 1970 so probably he was a better player than he was 1966?

Alan Ball was probably at his peak in 1970.

Was Mullery better than Stiles? Stiles was in the 1970 World Cup squad in 1970 but wasnt picked for any of the matches despite that he was only 28! Looking at his career details, he played only 8 games for Man U in 1969-70 season and 17 games in 1970-71 before going to Boro. He is one of my favourite non Blades players because he (and Ian Ure) told Paddy Crerand off for shouting at me after the Blades v Man U reserves match in Sept 1970!

Bobby Charlton was definitely better in 1966 than in 1970 and I still dont think Alf Ramsey was wrong in bringing on the energetic Colin Bell to replace Bobby when England were winning 2-1 against West Germany. Bell was definitely the best player on the pitch for the rest of the game and pressed the Germans a lot.

Peters was more experienced in 1970 than in 1966. He was also substituted in the West Germany game as Ramsey decided to bring on the more defensive Hunter. Newton was struggling with an injury in the second half and Peters tried to point that out when he was told to come off.

Hurst was more experienced in 1970 but he wasnt the first choice striker in 1966 as Jimmy Greaves got injured in the group match against France. The papers (also my dad) wanted the fit again Greaves to play in the final but Ramsey quite rightly stuck with Hurst.

Was Lee better than Hunt? Lee was powerful and dynamic in 1970, Hunt was scoring a lot of goals for Liverpool in the mid 1960s but soon stopped playing for England and dropped down a division to play for Bolton during the 1969-70 season.

Maybe the experts were right that the 1970 squad was stronger?
 



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