Your First World Cup Memory

[Gwylan]

1
But 1970 was the real deal for me. The coins, the song, as Gwylan says - England winning was simply the natural order. It was all fantastic. Except Leon. I am not sure I have ever recovered from that.

Most commentators seemed to think we had more chance in 1970 and, on paper, the 1970 side was better than the 1966 one. Once we saw Brazil though we guessed there was going only to be one winner.

I do remember that our playing field games changed during that World Cup: before we were pretending to be Charlton and Hurst, once the WC started we were Rivelino and Jairzinho (I don't recall anyone being Pele though).

We could have stomached being knocked out by Brazil but by WG and not in the manner that we were.

 

[Austrian Gull]

Spain 82 and Robsons goal against France. I also have memories of a farce when France (I think) playing someone, got very messy with teams walking off the pitch after someone in the crowd blew a whistle and one team stopping, the other team scoring. From what I recall the ref. allowed the goal then the opposing team walked off so he changed his mind and the other team walked off ?.

Kuwait v France - Kuwaiti players stopped because they heard a whistle which was in fact from someone in the crowd. France played on and scored.

A Sheikh went on the pitch and called the team off. Legendary stuff.

My first memories are from Argentina 78 - Scotland missing a penalty and Cubillas scoring, Arie Haan scoring from about 40 yards, France scoring in the first 30 seconds against Italy and still losing, tickertape, Argentina getting every dodgy decision going and probably bribing Peru, Clive Thomas blowing for full-time half a second before Brazil scored - one of the most appalling decisions I've ever seen.

Oh, and I've just got a mental image of Peru's goalkeeper rugby-tackling a Polish player - possibly Lato - in Poland's half.

 

[Lethargic]

First memory is the 1974 Cup Final.

 

[The Large One]

Oh, and I've just got a mental image of Peru's goalkeeper rugby-tackling a Polish player - possibly Lato - in Poland's half.

The Argentinian-born Ramon Quiroga, who later admitted he took a bribe to allow Argentina to win by their required 4 goals against Peru (final score 6-0) to qualify for the final.

It wasn't until 1986 that deciding matches were played simultaneously.

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

2002, was on holiday in St Lucia for the majority of the tournament, and got back the day before the England-Brazil game, and missed Owen's goal due to Jetlag, so my first real definitive memory was THAT free kick

[YT]ExUX7MBk5UM[/YT]

 

[LABHA]

Spain 82 and getting 2 england badges in 2 packets of stickers,think i swapped 1 england badge for 200-300 shit stickers,(needed more than 2 elastic bands) i thought i was the bees kness at school.

 

[TonyBloomsPokerFace]

France '98 - watching England : Tunisia in class at primary school.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

1970.




First I saw live was in Spain in 82 - Bryan Robson scoring against France after 27 seconds.

First three gamew were in Bilbao - Steve Foster played in the third game against Kuwait.

Another thing I remember about that game in Bilbao in 82 was the complete lack of segregation. An interesting afternoon!

 

[Cecil]

Vaguely remember France losing to West Germany in Spain 82 on pens but my main first WC final memories come from Mexico 86.

 

[Giant Seagull]

Not really the football but i remember the mini coca cola footballs from Italia 90.

USA 94 i remembering falling asleep during the final because it was so shit.

 

[Gully]

Argentina 78, can remember staying up late into the evening to listen to a Scotland match on the radio (we had no TV at home)...then finding it really hard to hear any of the commentary because of a mixture of dodgy accents from the commentators/interference/crowd noise...probably went to sleep sometime during the first half.

Four years later and Spain 82, by which time we had a telly, everyone on the bus on the way home from school going mental when England scored early in a game.

Best World cup was Italia 90, not just because England put up a really decent show, but because I was off work sick for the whole tournament and didn't miss a game on the box!

 

[jezzer]

Watching Brazil in `74 but they werent that good in that tournament but the germany holland final was good. The best memory though is 1982 and that wonderful Brazilian team of Socrates, Falcao, Zico, Junior etc, exquisite goals exquisite football, can remember being so gutted when they lost to Italy, they shouldve gone all the way

Watch it here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZxvYy5-ekI

 

[trancing]

usa 94, Roberto Baggio skying his pen in the final

 

[Cpt. Spavil]

france 98 in primary school we were banned from watching it on tv for some reason but we were listening to it on the radio then when the first goal went in we all celebrated

then just before owen scored we watched it and the head teacher who is an albion fan started to cheer lol

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

These days I always feel cheated whenever I watch Brazil on the tellybox because my first World Cup memory was of Brazil being flair in Mexico '86. It was the last time they were truly flair.

 

[Acker79]

Italia 90. Not so much the footie, but the sticker album/info serial. These were a mixture of fact packs on each team in the world cup and their history in the competition, as well as regular panini stickers. You bought the pages weekly and they all collected into these big folders.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Italia 90. Not so much the footie, but the sticker album/info serial. These were a mixture of fact packs on each team in the world cup and their history in the competition, as well as regular panini stickers. You bought the pages weekly and they all collected into these big folders.

I didn't collect them but I remember the adverts featuring Brian Clough for a part-work entitled 'World Cup '90' - was that it?

Italia '90 was the first tournament I properly understood - apart from Cameroon and a few others, the football was pretty negative.

 

[Acker79]

I didn't collect them but I remember the adverts featuring Brian Clough for a part-work entitled 'World Cup '90' - was that it?

Italia '90 was the first tournament I properly understood - apart from Cameroon and a few others, the football was pretty negative.

I think so, yeah.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Argentina 78. Collecting the Panini stickers, Archie Gemmill's goal and Willie Johnston getting sent home.

Likewise. It was a pretty magical world cup as well I thought, all the ticker tape and the pictures looked like they were thousands of miles away.

 

[Spun Cuppa]

Argentina '78 for me

The final with ticker tape and all that. Blinder...