What's your earliest soccer World Cup memory?

[naka]

78.  Great spectacle with the ticker tape.  The theme tune.  Kempes' long hair and the tightness of the Argentinian shorts.  The talk around Cruyff not playing - he had fallen out with the Dutch FA i think and that was his last chance at a tournament.  Archie Gemmill's goal and how Scotland were so close to pulling off a great escape act.  The talk before the tournament from Ally McCloud about how Scotland were going to win it.  The images of him with his head in his hands.  Willy Johnson being sent home for failing a drugs test.

thought cruyff refused to go because of the military junta?

[Gold]

1990 Opening Ceremony. Maradona doing keep ups before kick off then Cameroon trying to murder Cannagia and stealing the win with a header

Heaven

[redzone]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019rjr

Hopefully that link works. Pat Nevin on Cruyff

[Wildweasel74]

82, seem to remember N Ireland beating Spain, The Brazilian samba fball, Oscar, Zico, Socrates, Falco, Junior, Rossi the bollacks, the steel faced Dino, and, Karl Heniz hitting the crossbar. Best Memory Maradona goal. Saddest a few, Hillsborough, the game against Juventus,

[Hoof Hearted]

Question of sport tonight was a WC special
Few of these moments mentioned were shown

Class

[Eamonnca1]

Nice thread.

Getting some sort of wall chart for España 82. Helped me to understand what was going on and kept me interested in all the matches. Was glued to it every night. In NI v Spain I seem to remember being outraged at the dirty play by the Spaniards.

[Hound]

1982 was my first World Cup, and still 82 and 86 are my favourite World Cups.

Brazil 1982 is definitely the most entertaining team I ever saw, and probably the best. No team can win every game they play, especially in soccer, and Italy did beat them, but it was a bit of a freak. Brazil would have beaten them 9 times out of 10. And France were the second best team in the tournament, I was delighted they went on to win Euro 84. Thankfully the Germans were eventually beaten in the final - you couldn't have watched that tournament and not hated them!

England were a very interesting team in 82. Only conceded 1 goal in 5 games, and should really have knocked out the Germans in the ridiculous round robin quarter-finals. Keegan and Brooking were top class players coming to the end of their careers, both picked in the squad despite being injured, and both made their first appearance for the last 25 minutes of their final game v Spain, where they needed to win and dominated, but only drew 0-0, allowing the Germans to progress to a semi final v Poland. It was a top quality England team, who could easily have made the final and would have had at least a 50-50 chance v the Italians.

1986 had some absolute worldie goals, and was a really great tournament, but in the end it was all about Diego. The greatest individual display ever in a World Cup.

[tonto1888]

Italia 90. Argentina getting beat by Cameroon, Ireland v England, pens v Romania, Schillaci, England losing on pens and an awful final.

[seafoid]

I remember the name Gaetano Scirea. He was one ofvthe best Italian defenders in the catenaccio system that beat Brazil

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_ScireaDeathEdit

In summer 1989, Scirea visited Poland as an observer to watch Górnik Zabrze, against which Juventus was to play in the UEFA Cup. On 3 September 1989 a car carrying him collided head-on with a truck near Babsk. The car carried four canisters of gasoline in the trunk (a common practice in Poland at that time due to frequent gas shortages), which exploded upon impact, killing Scirea along with two fellow passengers.[9]

[ziggy90]

North Korea v Portugal 1966 WC Q/F .The Koreans went 3-0 up before a Eusebio inspired Portugal beat them 5- 3.
I think it was played at Goodison Park.

[quit yo jibbajabba]

This thread has secretly become a "how old are you thread" 😃😃😉

[shark]

This thread has secretly become a "how old are you thread" 😃😃😉

Was thinking the same. I've been coming to this board for what must be close to 20 years , and I'm still one of the youngest here judging by this thread. Too young to remember Italia 90

[quit yo jibbajabba]

This thread has secretly become a "how old are you thread" 😃😃😉

Was thinking the same. I've been coming to this board for what must be close to 20 years , and I'm still one of the youngest here judging by this thread. Too young to remember Italia 90

Damm you to hell shark!!!!

[Eamonnca1]

Some great memories here.

ITV's 1986 theme

Reminds me of going outside to kick the ball around the yard with my brothers after every match.

ITV nailed it again with their 1990 theme

And of course, there's Put em under pressure. There was a lot of World Cup tunes in the charts at the time, but this is the one that sticks.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Italian 90: When football changed forever tonight on C4 @ 9pm (albeit about England but looks good)