MEMORY LANE: The greatest World Cup moments

[Rob1981]

Starting to feel real now.  Let's get the usual nostalgia thread going.  But not just the highlights clips we've all seen a load of times before.  Let's have the personal stories that get you all choked up and sentimental as well.  That's what the World Cup is all about after all.

• Earliest memories
• Favourite games
• Favourite goals
• Biggest howlers
• Games you watched in some weird place with some crazy backstory attached

I mean do the highlights clips as well though, obviously. 

Here's Cameroon v Argentina with the great Barry Davies, Must be my earliest memory I suppose because I don't remember 1986.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Rob1981

[decapitated]

98 had some memorable goals

 

[Astafjevs]

Totti's penalty against Australia is one of the best I've seen, under that pressure knowing you'll be playing 30 mins with 10 men if you miss. 

[Rob1981]

That Bergkamp goal is the greatest in the history of the World Cup imo. The vision, the technique, plus coming when it did right at the end of the game as well so you knew it would decide the result.

You can take Maradona’s mazy run and shove it.

That 98 Dutch side just insanely good. Maybe the best they ever had, even though everyone talks about the 70s and even though they have been runners up in three other tournaments.

[GunmaN1905]

Will always be my favorite World Cup game. Payback for blatant robbery in '96 and in some style.

[Haguey]

The Colombia shootout win is my favourite England WC moment.

[decapitated]

10 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

Will always be my favorite World Cup game. Payback for blatant robbery in '96 and in some style.

It's interesting seeing the highlights 24 years on. Does Croatia still win if Worns doesn't get himself sent off? I think they would as their goalkeeper pulls off a lot of world class saves in that match. I'm also reminded of this moment 4 years earlier.

 

[GunmaN1905]

4 minutes ago, decapitated said:

It's interesting seeing the highlights 24 years on. Does Croatia still win if Worns doesn't get himself sent off? I think they would as their goalkeeper pulls off a lot of world class saves in that match. I'm also reminded of this moment 4 years earlier.

Who knows, that was Ladić's career tournament. Germany definitely wouldn't have won in '96 without the red card, but they were a better team in '98.

To this day there's a myth about certain meeting/dinner between officials, when they said how Germany-France will be an amazing semi-final in front of Croatian representatives. Just fueled the fire.

[kpain16]

Then again, if someone isn't dismissing us, we usually make stuff up to use as revenge motivation

[The_jagster]

1 hour ago, Rob1981 said:

That Bergkamp goal is the greatest in the history of the World Cup imo. The vision, the technique, plus coming when it did right at the end of the game as well so you knew it would decide the result.

You can take Maradona’s mazy run and shove it.

That 98 Dutch side just insanely good. Maybe the best they ever had, even though everyone talks about the 70s and even though they have been runners up in three other tournaments.

It gives me goosebumps

[PMLF]

Very Libertadores-like game. 

[kpain16]

7 minutes ago, PMLF said:

Very Libertadores-like game. 

Amazing indeed 

So many red cards not being given than would be given in VAR times.

[thefmveteran86]

I remember this game too fuming at Becks but then for Simeone, not the first time an Argie tried to cheat his way into a win 

 

[thefmveteran86]

I also this little doozy of a cheating showoff Penaldo getting his soon to-be teammate sent off 

 

[Haguey]

Both red cards, sadly. Stupid moments of brainlessness.

[Rob1981]

It’s about this time every tournament when I re-post Rob Smyth’s tremendous long read on England at France 98: https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/world-cup/2018/the-hod-complex-england-and-the-1998-world-cup_sto6795833/story-amp.shtml

[Mickybricks14]

1 hour ago, thefmveteran86 said:

I also this little doozy of a cheating showoff Penaldo getting his soon to-be teammate sent off 

 

Rooney and Ronaldo had already been club mates for two years.

The best bit of that match was carragher scoring his pen but then being told to retake it and missing!

[skybluedave]

My earliest memory is 94. And weirdly Dunga scoring his penalty in the shootout is always first thing that comes to my head. 

I mean my personal favourite memory is Colombia shoot out. It's hard to top that moment Dier's penalty trickled over the line

Non England. Grosso vs Germany was pretty wild. 2006 probably my favourite WC overall

[Rob1981]

17 minutes ago, Mickybricks14 said:

Best bit of that match was carragher scoring his pen but then being told to retake it and missing!

Yeah, not least because they had brought him on 119 minutes in specifically to take a penalty. Then he retires from international football before they were back on the bus pretty much.

[thefmveteran86]

38 minutes ago, Mickybricks14 said:

Rooney and Ronaldo had already been club mates for two years.

The best bit of that match was carragher scoring his pen but then being told to retake it and missing!

Ah my mistake 

[CFuller]

1998 was my first World Cup. Scotland scaring Brazil in the opener, Beckham's free-kick, Beckham's red card, my first experience of hating penalties, DENNIS BERGKAMP! When Des asked "Shouldn't you be at work?" before the Tunisia game, I was watching the game at school, and everybody went crazy when Shearer scored.

2002 was my favourite World Cup. Particularly remember Papa Bouba Diop's opener against France (RIP), and watching England's Quarter Final defeat against Brazil in the morning before lessons. That was the proudest I'd ever been as an England fan until 2018.

2006 had its moments too. It was my last World Cup at school, and remember my teacher (who was half-Italian) becoming more enthusiastic about Italy (and Fabio Grosso in particular) as the knockout stages went on. Also, there was probably my favourite World Cup goal ever.

2010 was a miserable tournament. Got Slovakia in a sweepstake, and they arguably performed better than England (who had an unlikeable team and an unlikeable manager). The lowlight was probably the Final, where the Dutch played kung-fu for 110 minutes and Spain played football for 10.

2014. "Brasil, Braseeeeeeel." They were really good, until Neymar got injured and Germany destroyed his team-mates. Joel Campbell was briefly the most exciting player in the world, and Tim Howard turned into Prime Neuer against the Belgians.

2018 was great - not as great as 2002 in my opinion, but probably my favourite World Cup as an adult. And not just because England were good and likeable again either. I had a lot of fun following the tournament on these forums with you guys (even that Mike fella who hated England with every fibre of his being ), and the France vs Argentina game was truly nuts. As was Neymar.

 

[Barry Cartman]

This is my first ever memory of football 

Would have been around 7

[Darius1998]

Probably not the greatest tournament overall but this was first World Cup game that I watched.

There's also France going on strike and falling apart spectacularly and New Zealand going unbeaten and contributing to Italy getting knocked out straight away.

[mrw072]

My earliest memory was probably on my 10th birthday watching England beat France 3-1, with Bryan Robson scoring the fastest ever World Cup finals goal.  So that has probably been my favourite game and goal.

The biggest howler has to be Diana Ross in the opening ceremony in 94, missing that open goal

I haven't really watched any games from any weird places.  But I remember in 1990 being sat on the stairs in the house during the Belgium game as I couldn't take the pressure

[Harryseaess]

1 hour ago, Darius1998 said:

Probably not the greatest tournament overall but this was first World Cup game that I watched.

There's also France going on strike and falling apart spectacularly and New Zealand going unbeaten and contributing to Italy getting knocked out straight away.

Was coming in here to post this. The buzz when that went in was incredible.

[Crispypaul]

Gazza crying at Italia 90

[Citizen Sandman]

21 hours ago, decapitated said:

98 had some memorable goals

 

How's ya touch?

[Constantine]

A national tragedy. I was six, seven years old when this happened and I still remember watching this disaster on a TV with my grandad.

One of, if not the most talented squad we had, maybe ever. Football in Serbia stopped after this.

[georginho_juventusygr]

On 10/11/2022 at 19:51, Rob1981 said:

Starting to feel real now.  Let's get the usual nostalgia thread going.  But not just the highlights clips we've all seen a load of times before.  Let's have the personal stories that get you all choked up and sentimental as well.  That's what the World Cup is all about after all.

• Earliest memories
• Favourite games
• Favourite goals
• Biggest howlers
• Games you watched in some weird place with some crazy backstory attached

I mean do the highlights clips as well though, obviously. 

Here's Cameroon v Argentina with the great Barry Davies, Must be my earliest memory I suppose because I don't remember 1986.

...

Earliest memories were me following 1998 religiously. I read every squad, every clubs the players played for, every result until the final. For some unknown reason, the excitement has gone downhill ever since. Maybe it's the money gap the sport has created in general, among the rich clubs and the poor ones ...

Favorite game is definitely Italy vs France in 2006. Or the whole tournament for Italy that year. Marcello Lippi made it. Gianluigi Buffon conceded two goals: one own goal and one penalty. Although it had a sad other side of the coin for me: I think my favorite striker David Trezeguet never truly recovered after that.

The other memorable match for me is France vs Senegal in 2002. France decided to bring Zinedine Zidane to the World Cup and rushed him through his injury. But there was no him in the opening match, no soul, as if they didn't know how to play without him.

And Liverpool somehow bought El Hadji Diouf after that tournament.

[HoChiKim]

Roger Milla dancing or Seaman flapping at Ronaldinho's free kick immediately come to mind when I think of world cups.

[streety]

Roberto baggio penalty miss. Carlos Valdaramma hair style. Best world cup for me Italia 90

[Barnzy]

Blanco’s bunny hope sticks with me for some reason 

[Mahzun_Savas]

As an Australian 2006 coming from behind to beat Japan 3-1 and making it out of the group followed by the last minute heartbreak of the Italian penalty knocking us out 

 

 

 

[Rob1981]

Remember watching that final Croatia v Australia group game in a random pub on Finchley Road.  Australia going through and the 3 Graham Poll yellow cards.

Literally every Australian in NW London had descended on the Walkabout near the tube, then spilled over into all the other pubs up the road once it got full.

By the end there were hundreds of Aussies spilling out into the road and all the traffic stopped

[bdcuk]

One of my earliest memory was the 78 final with all the ticker taper

And Keegan missing a simple header in 82 

 

[FaceCrusher]

My earliest memory is Hadji's goal against Norway. I watched all matches I could catch in that summer.

 

[RTHerringbone]

I've got good memories of Italia 90 but this game probably featured the two strongest memories I have of USA 94. Well, apart from Diana Ross:

 

[Rob1981]

Been so busy at work this week I haven't had time to get "ready" and haven't (yet) wallowed in all the all footage for hours.

But I did watch this last night, a great hour-long BBC review of Italia 90 that they showed at Christmas at the end of that year.

 

Like I said in the OP, this was the first World Cup that I remember.  But it's patchy.  I must have been pumped up for it beforehand because I had the Orbis 'partwork' where you got the bits from the newsagent each week and built it into a folder of greatest games and greatest goals and stuff.  Remember the opening game between Cameroon and Argentina, beyond that only a few other bits really stand out with a clear memory.  Like for some reason I remember there was a power cut during the Argentina v Yugoslavia quarter final... literally the TV went off in the middle of the penalties () and we were waiting for ages for it to come back and to find out who had won.  Pretty sure I watched the Cameroon v Colombia game live as well, where Higuita came miles out his goal and gave the ball away for 2-0.  And the Cameroon v England game sticks in my head because I watched it with aunts and uncles and all my cousins and there were probably about 20 of us all crowded around the TV.  Which was a big deal because they aren't really a 'football family' on my dad's side.

The rest of it I don't really know if I watched live, or if I just think I remember it because you've seen the footage so many times afterwards.  I guess I must have watched the other England games at least, definitely the Belgium and Germany games.  But I do remember being away on a cub camp when it was the 3rd/4th place playoff between England and Italy ().  And we all went to play football outside and ignored it and all the adults were trying to coax us back so they didn't have to come out and supervise while the game was on.  But even as nine year old kids we must have known that the 3rd/4th place playoff is pointless.

Edited November 18, 2022 by Rob1981

[martinji]

On 11/11/2022 at 13:53, Darius1998 said:

 

There's also France going on strike and falling apart spectacularly and New Zealand going unbeaten and contributing to Italy getting knocked out straight away.

as a Plymouth Argyle fan, watching Rory Fallon (who was with us at the time) jumping into Italian defenders and knocking them about, was great entertainment until he got brought off to avoid picking up a second yellow

[martinji]

A off the cuff list of things from me, not repeating things I've seen already talked about

- Lothar Mattheus being absolutely imperious in the group stages in 1990, he made the Germans seem unbeatable all by himself even before you thought about all their other great players

- Rijkaard spitting at Voller, 1990, was shocking at the time

- Bulgaria and especially Stoichkov in 1994, starting with his goal v Mexico (which was a great game) he became my favourite player for a while - i think having no England at the tourney sparked me to take more interest in non-England games and deepened my enjoyment of all future WC as a result

- Maradona's swansong with a drug fuelled celebration into a camera in 1994 (tbf was a good goal)

- Graham Poll booking Simunic 3 times in 2006

- Tim Cahill's goal v Netherlands in 2014, my all time favourite WC goal, was robbed for goal of the tournament IMO

- 2014 again, when Germany scored 4 goals in 6 minutes to go 5-0 up after half an hour of the semi final v Brazil, the most incredible few minutes of football I've ever seen

Edited November 18, 2022 by martinji

[The_jagster]

There's something special about a team winning against a big host, like Germany in 2014 and Greece in 2004, but the late goal here makes it. I watched the extended highlights earlier and the excitement's building for me.

I probably bang on about this a lot but the official FIFA channel has re-recorded most commentaries and it's not the same.