the 06 world cup was the pinnacle in terms of player and team quality. The games may not have been as high scoring or as exciting as the 22 edition but the standard of player and team was vastly superior. I think itâs as good as soccer can be really, itâs pretty much declined since then and before it wasnât as good
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1978 was the first one I actively watched. I have a vague memory of the 1974 final. 82 was a great tournament.
1978 the first World Cup that I remember. Would have followed it closely enough as a kid even though the times were a bit awkward. England didnât qualify in 1978 so the focus was very much on Scotland who were off to the Argentine to win the World Cup under Ally McLeod.
I think 1990 was the first year that uniform goalposts were employed. Nowadays all stadia look the same on TV - uniform camera angles, pitchside advertising, goalposts/stanchions etc.
Rosario and Mendoza in 78 and Gijon in 82 had particularly unique goalposts.
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On reflection, and leaving aside the rose tinted view Irish people have of 1990, I think itâs possible it gets overegged how bad it was.
I think the group stages were bad alright, very bad.
The main action in the group stages was:
Schillaciâs entrance and Baggioâs great goal against Czechoslovakia.
Cameroon beating Argentina and Roger Millaâs entrance.
Scotland doing a Scotland. Costa Rica qualifying.
West Germanyâs Giro dâItalia against Yugoslavia and Colombiaâs late equaliser against Germany to qualify.
Uruguay scoring a last second goal against South Korea in front of a sparse crowd to qualify.
Englandâs performance against Holland in a 0-0.
Apart from Cameroon, all of that was run of the mill, and apart from that there was virtually nothing. The format with 16 of 24 teams qualifying did not help.
The last 16 was decent.
Cameroon v Colombia is an iconic World Cup game.
Brazil v Argentina was a cliffhanger won by a moment of genius by Maradona.
West Germany v Holland produced glorious needle, one of the most notorious incidents in World Cup history when Rijkaard spat at Voller, and a beautiful goal by Brehme.
Dragan Stojkovic put in a great individual performance when Yugoslavia beat Spain.
England beating Belgium with the last kick in the definition of a tense World Cup knockout tie.
The quarter-finals were all rot apart from Cameroon v England which was a classic.
I think the two semi-finals were classics. Italy being dumped out in Naples by Maradona and Argentina? Thatâs an iconic World Cup semi-final. And so is England v West Germany.
The final was rot, but so were plenty of other finals.
1990 is iconic because of other factors beyond football. It felt zeitgeisty because Serie A had become the unquestioned best league in the world and Italy felt like a classic host nation. The music of the time and the way that World Cup overlapped with the music scene and the pop culture scene in a way no other World Cup has. Put 'Em Under Pressure, World In Motion, Nessun Dorma, that Italian theme tune, the ITV theme tune. The classic kits. West Germany, Italy, Argentina, Yugoslavia, Colombia, Cameroon. The very recognisable mascot. The first FIFA bowls appeared in the Turin and Bari. The San Siro was the height of modernity and looked like a spaceship. It was one of the last World Cups which looked visibly different from club football. The sticker albums, particularly Orbis World Cup '90.
Gascoigneâs tears, Maradonaâs tears, Maradonaâs joy, Millaâs celebration, Rijkaardâs spit, Bonnerâs grimace, all these are iconic images.
By USA '94 Sky had taken over football and the Champions League had started. By '98 this process had accelerated and all the top players were in Europe.
Iâm not sure 2006 was much if any better than 1990.
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Look at the 06 Argentian team and tell me it wasnât a whole lot better than the 22 team that won. In fact look at any of the major nations teams and tell me the 06 version wasnât a whole lot better than it is now
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I was in Germany for the World Cup in 06. Started out in Frankfurt the day of the opening game and traveled mostly south and middle areas until midway thru the quarter finals when i pretty much just ran out of money. It was brilliant there. Tickets for group games impossible to get, but as teams got eliminated and supporters left having bought ahead in hope, freed up allocations.
I dont know if 06 was the start of the fanfest type situations, but the way the German cities set them up was fantastic. Frankfurt on the river, with a huge big screen on barges and veiwing from stands on the river bank. Munich by the Olympic stadium in a huge hill amphitheatre. Stuttgart in the town centre, Cologne by the cathedral, Nurnberg near the big Nazi congress hall. Brilliantly set up and great atmosphere.
Going around and picking out games where there would be good games and supporters. Got to see Italy beat Australia so great to have seen the eventual world champions. Some great stories from the travels and encounters with fans. And the quality of the games and match ups were brilliant. Loved it.
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+1. Brazil, Argentina, England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany all better on paper in 2006 than 2022. Thatâs why I was slightly sceptical of Argentina at the outset as I didnât think their team was anywhere near as talented as the 2006/2010 vintage. Even the likes of Ayala and Samuel were tremendous defenders.
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It was probably better on paper, but matches arenât won on paper. If they were Argentina wouldnât have been winning this World Cup because France are much better on paper and so are four or five other teams at least.
Did 2006 have better games than 1990 had? The final was pretty dreadful. France v Portugal was a bore. Most of the quarter-finals was a bore. Maybe half the last 16 ties were any use with the rest being rubbish.
Iâd look at 1998 as a real quality World Cup with heavyweight ties but still lacking the overall iconic nature of 1970, 1982 or 1986.
Narratives make World Cups. The Hero film about the 1986 World Cup works so well because of the rich narrative there was to work with. Films about subsequent World Cups couldnât work as well because the narrative material was inferior. Until now.
Bar Germany Id agree
There havenât been many better defenders than Ayala at the highest level really. The Italian defence. You had Terry and Ferdinand. Lucio was a collosus for brazil. Figo was still knocking about, Del Piero, Henry. Zidane. Real Ronaldo, Ronaldinho. It was an up and coming German team who would bate the current edition with their caps
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That German team was still in transition after a poor Euro 2004 alright. The narrative at the time was that they slightly overachieved in reaching a semi-final. Iâm not sure the current team have strikers of the quality of Klose and Podolski though.
Portugal are probably around the same level on paper now as they were back then. They were a fine side in 2006 too.
From an Irish perspective we had a vastly superior squad in 2006 qualifying to what we have now.
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There isnât anything close to resembling the quality of Ballack, Schweinsteiger or Lahm in the current German team.
Podolski and Klose did fuck all at club level really but were a great tournament partnership. Germany 06 were very solid at the back and had a spark. They were good
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Think that Musiala fella is going to fire Germany on. I never saw any o their games at this world cup but couldnt believe they were knocked out in the group.
Kroos mustve been a big loss, but had read the coach was a hotshot
Id forgotten those boys, Ballack was the prototype
There was a narrative in the media before the tournament that Germany had feck all other than Ballack. He was just about still in his prime at the time and scoring about a goal every other game. Never sustained it at Chelsea then when he went there after the tournament. Brilliant at Leverkusen and Bayern though.
Germany 2010 were a better team than Germany 2006. Spain 2010 were a team of all the talents. They still served up shit on a stick when they played each other in a semi-final and that World Cup is not remembered as a classic.
Sweden had their golden team even, zlatan, henrik,ljunberg
Yaya, Drogba
Ruud, robben, van persie, sneijder
Vidic, stankovic
Figo, deco, cr7
The quality was immense
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Ballack was a game wrecker for a few years, there was nothing he couldnât do
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And they didnât even make it out of the group of death. Had the likes of Kolo Toure and Zokora too. England failed to catch fire at it at all. Their games were very dull. A cracker involving the English always adds to the backdrop.