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World Cup games


DA Baracus

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Name your favourite games across World Cup history!


I'm just basing it on games I've seen, so sadly none of the three Scotland games from 98 make it, although our game against Brazil in France was close. Base yours on whatever you wish!


Anyway, my favourites, in no particular order (although please feel free to order your own nominations).


Netherlands 2-1 Argentina, France 98: Two teams stacked with great players who went right at each other. Bergkamp's winner was just sublime and remains one of the all time most iconic goals in the tournament.


Portugal 3-3 Spain, Russia 18: A mental game where both teams decided that defence was overrated. Ronaldo was incredible and turned in his best performance in a high profile game for Portugal. Nacho's goal was stunning and Spain were a joy. I was almost gutted when the ref blew for full time.


Brazil 0-1 France, Germany 06: The fucking Zidane show. The best of all time turned in a display that was at times akin to ballet. It would move a man to tears as he dragged a mediocre France to the semi final (and then the final, and almost certainly the cup itself had he not got himself sent off).

Netherlands 5-1 Spain, Brazil 06: A destruction of the then holders. Van Persie's sublime diving header is another  one of the most iconic goals in world cup history.


France 3-0 Brazil, France 98: A Zidane double ensured that the hosts destroyed the holders. This is where Zidane lay down the mark. Only the great man himself has come close when he, as mentioned above, dragged a mediocre France to the final in 06, and if not for his aforementioned madness would have equalled his own greatness.
 

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Guest Moomintroll

I can never forget the Argentina Cameroon game in 1990 when Cannigia was spectacularly emptied. That aside Hungary 10 El Salvador 1 in 1982, the mad Zaire free kick guy in 74 was utterly splendid as well. To be fair the Dutch demolition of Spain in Brazil surpasses everything else, how has that country never won the World Cup with the players they have had?

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1966   North Korea -Portugal. First match I remember paying any attention to on telly. North Korea 3-0 up after 30 min. They eventually lost 5-3.

1970  Brazil-Italy final. Just an absolute master class from Brazil. Every player on top form but playing together as a team almost telepathically. 

1978  Scotland-Holland. The feeling in the country  when Gemmill scored was similar to when Leigh Griffiths got his second against England.   Sadly that feeling also lasted only a few minutes. 

 1982  France-Germany semi-final.  Just pure drama. Battiston nearly lost his head, literally. 

2014   Brazil-Germany semi-final.  Everything about that game was good. My favourite bit was when Brazil got their last minute goal.   The Germans were furious, shouting at each other and  blaming each other for slack defending. They were 7-0 up at the time!           

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In no particular order:

1990 - argentina 0 Cameroon 1 - my first memory of sitting watching a World Cup match and one of the biggest upsets! 

1998 - France 2 Croatia 1 - loved the Croatia strip and really wanted a small nation to go all the way, beaten AET by a brilliant France side and 2 goals from Thuram 

2006 - Germany 0 Italy 2 - for a game that finished 0-0 after 90 mintues it was a fantastic game. Then two great goals for Italy to see them into the final

1994 - Netherland 2 Brazil 3 - Branco scores a screamer of a free kick!

1994 - Romania 3 Argentina 2 - Hagi was incredible in this match and a couple of goals from dumitrescu 

 

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Guest Moomintroll
Some good shouts so far - Bulgaria emptying Germany in 1994 would be in there for me.
Forgot about that game, Ivanov & Letchkov were sum bois.
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  • 1 month later...

1974 - Scotland v Zaire. Scotland won and there were the people from Zaire in traditional African dress; all a bit surreal as Scotland had very few black people back then. A real culture shock.

 

1974 - Scotland v Brazil. Drawing with Brazil should be enough but the non-stop noise from the samba bands and their dancing was out of this world.

 

1982 Scotland v Brazil in Seville. What a beautiful city! 100 degrees in the early evening; a samba band to the left and right of us who would take it in turn to crank up the volume; Narey's toe poke; drinking with the Brazilians after the game in a wee bar with the crowd spilling onto the street and stopping all the traffic. Met some outstanding people.

 

1990 Scotland v Costa Rica in Genoa and the march to the stadium through an underpass with the noise of the pipes deafening. The Italians just stopped driving to watch. Unforgetable... as is the result.

 

When will we see your likes again? Never.

 

 

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Italy 3-2 Brazil   1982 Second Round - how could this happen to that Brazil team?  I was in tears.......never forgiven Paolo Rossi

West Germany 3-3 France aet  1982  Semi-Final - same tournament, incredible game, wrong ending with the evil W.Germans winning the pens against the flamboyant French

Belgium 4-3 USSR  aet  1986   Second Round    Igor Belanov hat-trick not enough as Belgium emerged out of nowhere to win through to the semis and Maradona

Argentina 3-1 Netherlands  aet 1978  First final I saw, that ticker tape, Mario Kempes the hero, fascinating to read now what Argentina was like in those days - brutal basically

Italy 2-0 Germany  aet 2006  Don't recall much from more recent tournaments, but Italy doing their usual job on Germany, and in Dortmund, was memorable - especially Grosso's goal

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In descending order (was only 5 in Italia 90 so mine are from USA 94 onward);

1998:  Argentina 2 England 2.  Just a fantastic game, a wonderful goal from Mick Owen and of course a lovely ending on penalties.

1998:  Argentina 1 Netherlands 2.  I loved the old configuration of the Velodrome in Marseille.  It looked fantastic with the wall of Orange from the Dutch fans and Bergkamp's winner at the death was brilliant.

1994: Brazil 3 Netherlands 2.  Can just about remember watching this at the time (I've seen it back several times since).  I just loved that blue Brazil kit by Umbro.  And it had some great goals in it too.

2002:  Brazil 2 England 1.  Just really, really funny scenes with Seaman getting lobbed from the Brazil 6 yard box so it seemed.

2017: Brazil 1 Germany 7.  My word, the perfect performance from one of the greatest national teams ever IMO.  A team awash with world class, dynamic, rapid lads who threw Brazil about like an empty tracksuit.

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Guest Moomintroll
1). 7-1 2014 - Nothing will ever top this ever. I think everyone was just sitting watching the TV absolutely gobsmacked at what was going on
2).  Spain 1-5 Netherlands 2014 - This was as funny as #1. The tournament favourites getting absolutely battered in their first game. Also responsible for one of the greatest footbal photographs of all time(seen below*)
3.) Spain 3-3 Portugal 2018 - just a beautiful game of football with beautiful goals. Topped off by Ronaldo completing his hatrick with a last-minute equalizing free-kick. Brilliant
4). Portugal 1-0 Netherlands 2006. - The battle of Nuremberg. Two shithouse teams kicking lumps out of each other. 4 red cards and 8 yellows.
5.) Italy 1-1 France - Great final with two amazing teams, probably the final with the most talent on show ever. Zidane's headbutt will go down in history
 
 
Honourable mentions to:
USA 2-2 Portugal 2014
Uruguay 1-1 Ghana 2010
Germany 0-2 Italy (AET) 2006
England 0-0 Portugal 2006
Brazil 0-1 France 2006.
 
You could include almost any match from 2006. Got to be the best World Cup of all time.
 
*
129ybVR.jpg&key=58a19c6809f37b4b2fd979a136ab83770226ade900f6f2837eec885e1f597e7e
 
On point 1, I was forced to watched to watch something else. I checked the score and it was 0-1, what seemed like 5 minutes later, I checked again & it was 0-4, toys out the pram & I suffered for it for days. Point 3, after he forced his way out of Man Utd to go to the Castillian scum I detested every move he ever made, after that night however I had to acknowledge his brilliance much as his choice of club offended me. Great choices.
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3 hours ago, Estragon is a fud said:

You could include almost any match from 2006. Got to be the best World Cup of all time.

 

There will always be the cliched age bias here, depending on what was your era - see my entries above from 78-86 - with Italia's 2006 SF win the only exception.

For me the main reason no modern day tournament can be as good as back in the day, was that World Cups were pretty much the only chance you got to see some of these exotic players from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Cameroon, wherever.  

Brazil 82 were mesmerising - one or two ventured to Europe later in their careers, but the bulk of them were from Sao Paolo, Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, Santos etc .... 

Nowadays you'll see most of them in the main European leagues every weekend, as well as CL/EL.  The WC and Euros are so bloated now on top of that during the qualification stage and finals.

In 2010 every European country beginning with S apart from Scotland and San Marino qualified - but who can remember anything of what Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Slovakia brought to the party except a fairly rigid defensive setup and dull matches.

Like everything else in fitba - over saturated coverage has meant an element of the magic has gone.

Edited by tarapoa
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  • 3 weeks later...

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