[Football] World cups you can remember ranked.

[blue-shifted]

My memory goes back to 86.

Feel free just to put your favourite 3 and not list them all if you can’t be bothered.

1) Mexico 1986. Ridiculous goals, (Rats, Negrete Maradona), an all time great in his pomp, high scoring games, decent final

2) Russia 2018. Incredible games, (Japan v Belgium, Argentina v France, Spain v Portugal), great strikes, (Pavard, Nacho). French deserved winners

3) Brazil 2014. A semi final as hilarious as it was brilliant; a match for the ages. The dutch stuffing Spain was funny as well

4) Japan Korea 2002. Terrific home sides, French implosion, Keane’s flounce, Ronaldo’s redemption, early morning drinking

5) Italy 1990. Decent England side. Rijkard gobbing on Voller. Excellent goals and skill from Milla, Baggio, Gascoigne and Maradona. Huge physical and mental strength from Germany. Shocking final

6) USA 1994. Rubbish from semi final onwards. Good Colombia, Romania, Sweden and Bulgaria sides earlier in the tournament. All overshadowed by Escobar murder.

7) Germany 2006. Forgettable fare. Apart from a headbutt and terrific goals from Cambiasso and Maxi Rodriguez, very little to commend it. Winners Italy a functional side with a rock solid defence, but not loads else.

8) France 1998. Weird final. Tonnes of cheating (Simeone and Bilic). Croatia beating Germany the only really good game

9) South Africa 2010. A balloon-like ball hardly anyone could keep down. Appalling final. Lack of memorable games. Suarez comic villainy rescues it a bit

 

[Bob!]

1/ 1970

 

[zefarelly]

1982 was my firstr, big screen in the Lady Jane on Shoreham beach

linekar 1986

1990 was good.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

My memory goes back to 86.

funny enough my 3 favourites are

1974,1978 & 1982

depends when you were born I suppose

 

[Austrian Gull]

1978 was the first one I remember. Top 3:

1. Mexico 1986. Loads of amazing knock-out games and a decent final.
2. Spain 1982. Controversy from the draw onwards.
3. Russia 2018. Definitely the best for a long time.

Anyone who says Italy 1990 should be forced to watch every game from the England + Ireland group until they realise the error of their ways.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Anyone who says Italy 1990 should be forced to watch every game from the England + Ireland group until they realise the error of their ways.

the England v Ireland game was horrendous,but then again,so was the weather

in contrast the England v Germany semi was a belter

and what about David Platt's winner against Belgium

Pavorotti and all that,it did capture the imagination

Final was shite mind

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

1978 was an amazing occasion, particularly the confetti welcome to Argentina and Holland in the final. I was at primary school and completed a project on the whole tournament; wish I still had it !

 

[Rugrat]

1982 and just for that Germany v France semi final ... simply the best game of football I've ever seen

 

[Gwylan]

I'd like to say 1966 for the result but the some of the games were pretty ordinary.

My top three

1 !982 - Brazil v Italy was one of the best matches I've ever seen, closely followed by France v Germany. Decent final too.
2 1978 - Cracking final and some really decent teams
3 1966 - The right team won

 

[Is it PotG?]

1974 was the best one.

 

[Swansman]

I only remember the ones from 2002 onwards (I'm turning 31 today and got interested in football pretty late.

But I spent a summer watching 90% of all games - excepting those I couldnt find or the very few ones simply to uninteresting - from the 1958 tournament onwards, and my three favorites are probably:

France 1998. No Sweden. Not the most eventful or exciting tournament. But the level of football (both in attack and defense) was astonishing. Never before or after did a tournament have this number of excellent footballers - almost every team was loaded with quality. And it was still in a sort of "pre-globalised" era: every team played according to culture & tradition. All of the top teams were there, as far as I remember.

Spain 1982. Brazil from this year is probably the most watchable and least efficient team in history. People say "football is always improving", but watch one of these games and tell me that the Brazil stars wouldnt make it today - bollocks. They would be even better, considering you cant kill eachother on the pitch nowadays. Lots of exciting games, the semi-final between Germany & France is unforgettable.

Mexico 1970. Lots of goals, Brazil were spectacular and a bunch of exciting games. Only real problem was that you could tell from day 1 that Brazil would win the tournament.

Bubblers: 1974 and 1978, because I love Dutch football. Also 1994 was quite nice for a Swede.

Worst tournaments:

Italy 1990. Incredibly slow, dull and often violent. England & Cameroon was pretty fun to watch, but other than that - complete horseshit. I've never liked Argentina and this tournament fuelled my irritation: how can you produce so many good players yet play so cynical?

South Africa 2010. Spain sleepwalking to the gold with Oranje taking the silver playing their worst football in 50 years. A lot of boring teams, boring football and few upsets excepts for Italy being shit (felt good, admittedly). Only Germany, Uruguay and to some extent Chile was watchable. Forgettable tournament.

Chile 1962. I like football, not MMA.

Bubblers: Russia 2018 - awful, but some tight and exciting games.

The other tournaments - somewhere in between. 2002 is probably the weirdest one, would like to put it in some category but just not possible.

 

[Butch Willykins]

1) 1990 - I was 12. Loved it. Dad let me have a beer during the England semi.

2) 2018 - Enjoyed the tournament. Watched the Colombia game on the shant in France. Only England fan in the bar.

3) 1998 - Good fun watching the Argentina game in the Sports Bar, Haymarket! Carnage in Trafalgar Sq after.

4) 2010 - Dismal football - but had lots of fun watching the group games on the piss in Cyprus.

5) 2002 - Getting smashed at breakfast. Lovely

6) 2006 - Pretty dull, but was living and working in Portugal getting well oiled in the sun, so not all bad.

7) 2014 - Pretty pony. Can't remember much about it other than drinking a lovely Dark Star APA in the Exchange during the Italy match.

8) 1994 - Didn't happen.

 

[Giraffe]

1) 1990 Italy - we could and possibly should have won it
2) 2018 - Russia - Southgate, Kane, beating rubbish countries, semi again - I got to go to the quarters with wife and daughter - an experience we will never forget
3) 2006 - Germany - my first trip to a world cup - took my son to the England v Paraguay game - a great father son moment. I remember just sitting there and feeling like I'd finally achieved a lifetime ambition and sharing it with my son was the icing on the cake. Then went to the semi final (France v Portugal) that we should have been at and booed Ronaldo like the other thousands of English fans who were also at that semi. A great experience nonetheless.
4) 1986 Mexico - all about that Linekar hat trick - I remember staying up late and watching it with my late father. A lovely memory. Shame we then got cheated out of it, but hats off to Maradona for the other good goal. Although the labouring Peter Reid made it easier than perhaps he should have done!
5) 1982 Spain - I loved Kevin Keegan and Steve Foster - seeing a Brighton player play in a world cup finals was quite something. I assumed it was what always happened. It also marked my first trip out alone on my bike further than half a mile as I trecked to the Argus offices to pick up a sticker book with Fozzie in it. My first major disappointment as an England fan.
6) 1978 Argentina - I only remember the final, but it was my first world cup football memory. I wanted the Argies to win because they were blue and white. My mum was the same, but my dad said we had to support Holland because they were nearer to England. They argued about it. I think the ticker tape love I have was started then.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

1. 1966

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

I'd like to say 1966 for the result but the some of the games were pretty ordinary

do you remember the North Korea-Portugal game

North Korea 3-0 up in a World Cup Quarter Final and then lose

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

bit of 1966 World Cup trivia for you

why was the France -Uruguay game played at the White City Stadium and not at Wembley?

 

[A1X]

1. 2002 - felt like a real feast of football, plus the early start times meant we got to spend several mornings watching the football instead of school stuff which was brilliant, good England team as well undone by a freak goal from a phenomenal Brazil side

2. 2018 - real mix of teams doing well rather than the usual suspects, entertaining football, some big match-ups even in the groups (England vs Belgium, Spain vs Portugal) kept it interesting throughout.

3. 2006 - pretty good and the final was memorable for a lot of reasons

4. 1998 - my first one, don't remember a lot but some real iconic moments (Owen vs Argentina, Bergkamp vs Argentina, the final), also had the best opening theme of any World Cup I can remember on ITV (Italia '90 obviously better objectively but I don't remember that)

5. 2014 - was on a par with 2010 for poorness until that semi-final. Was the most perfect World Cup match ever, from the tributes to Neymar like he'd died before it started to the entitled fans blubbing their eyes out as Germany just demolished them methodically and thoroughly. I maintain that funny sport is on a par with good sport, and that was probably the funniest game of football I've ever witnessed.

6. 2010 - awful tournament with hardly any redeeming features. Can't remember a single stand-out game from it.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

1) 1990: My first world cup. Just turned 10. It's hard to beat your first world cup in terms of sensory overload, the excitement, anticipation, the rollercoaster of emotions the exceptionalism of the whole idea of a football tournament with games every day that I could watch on TV. The quality might have been poor (was it? I was 10...) but as an England fan it will never be bettered for me. The group games might have been shit but to me they were epic, tense battles, finally settled by Mark Wrights header. The 2nd round game had Platt's volley in the last minute of extra time - a beautiful goal and my introduction to just how good a last minute winner could be(I'm not sure I'd seen one before then), the see saw nature of the quarter final against Cameroon first 1-0 up then 2-1 down, then level, extra time, and finally a winner. And then, then the game that introduced me to England and glorious failure. What a semi final. And Gazza at his sublime, cheeky best for the whole tournament. The only thing in football that had a bigger impact on me was my first Brighton game.

2) 1998: I really enjoyed this one even though England got knocked out early. Just turned 18, just finished my A-levels, my future an open road ahead of me and England with a cracking team at a world cup. The Argentina game is as dramatic a game of football as I could wish. Shame we lost but you can't have everything. And the tournament had the greatest goal ever scored(IMO obviously). Dennis Bergkamp, wow.

3) 2018: England made the semis with an on paper pretty average team. The team and the journey to the semis made watching England at a tournament fun again for the first time in over a decade.

4) 2014: England were shit but there were some great goals, Van Persie's diving header form outside the box? O.K Then! It had some extraordinary games, Spain, the reigning champions and the undeniable best team of the previous 6 or 7 years, dethroned in the most humiliating way. Or at least that was until Germany eviscerated Brazil 7-1 in the semi final. A semi final! in brazil! Extraordinary.

5) 2002: Exotic locale and Asia arrives on the world stage. Plus Korea somehow made the semi finals. On an England front who didn't enjoy Beckham exercising his demons against the Argentinians?

6) 2006: Due to the time difference I didnt see much of this other than the England games and the odd other game. It seemed alright. The German team looked pretty fun and Zidane nutting the Italian in the final is pretty memorable.

7) 1994) I might have had this higher but it turns out one of my strongest memories from it was the goal Bergkamp scored 4 years later... Other than that I remember the final being awful and Escobar being shot. I'm sure I enjoyed Haji's Romania and Stoichov's Bulgaria but no specific moments jump out.

8)2010: ****ing vuvezelas and the crappy Jubilani ball. And England. My God, England.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

I agree it’s age related - mine would be brilliant Brazil in 70, the big win in 66 and the Dutch masterclass in 74 - I do wish they’d won it. Cruyff was a genius(I’m sure Pascal agrees)

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

(1) Italia 90 - I went and it was a wonderful tournament in a wonderful Country.

Try reading Pete Davies All Played Out/One Night in Turin for a full insight.

(2) Spain 82 - Again I'm biased because I was there.

Remember this was our first appearance since that dreaded defeat in the QF in 1970

We were based in San Sebastian for the group games - a beautiful place and who can forget Brazil losing to Italy in probably one of the greatest WC matches ever.

(3) 1966 - simply because we won it - and deserved to (although in 1970 probably had a better team)