I can remember the Ireland France game that @balbec referred too, just about. It was strange that a live soccer game was on when I came home from school I remember.
Spain 82, just the colour of it all, numbers on the shorts, Ardilies with the number one on his shorts and when I quizzed it my older brother showed me a pic from an old album of the Dutch keeper with number 8 on his shirt, I thought that was fascinating at the time. The sound of the claxons, jimmy magee down the end of a phone, shouting for Norn Iron as they were Ireland to me, Robson scoring early, Tardelli’s celebration, Maradona getting sent off… happy memories indeed
Ah here, I’m welling up reading that…
The Italy v Brazil game as well, one of the greatest games. I actually watched it again recently, it was wonderful football and drama. '82 was my first WC and apart from Ireland involved WC’s, it’s one of the best, along with '86.
I could probably tell you more about those WC’s than the last two.
Will ye fuck off to the scumball thread with this shit about the English B team. Post after post about English lads that couldn’t make the queens team and turned up for the £IR pocket money.
Think it’s an age thing that would apply to most people. First World Cup I can properly remember as a child was 1990. Not just because we were in it and there was a carnival atmosphere around the country generally but because I remember watching practically every minute of the whole tournament and being engrossed by it. Watching all the group games involving countries I had never even heard of. The panini sticker collections. The little stick man who was the official logo for italia 90. (Watching the Seria A highlights on RTE on a Monday night way past my bed time and the immortal theme tune. Golazzzzzzzzzooooooooooooo.)
Clearly remember England beating Cameroon in a cracking match. Might have been the quarter final.
The last World Cup I’d say I barely watched four or five matches.
The only game I can remember watching in school was vs Spain the day they scored an OG (Michel?) And we won 1 nil. Was that to qualify us for a tournament?
Sadly banned pretty much everywhere now. An incredible wall of sound which is much missed from both association football and GAA stadiums.
That theme music didn’t appear until the 1992/93 season when Channel 4 started covering Serie A.
RTE started covering Serie A from the 89/90 season on. An hour on Monday nights at 8pm with Martin Tyler commentating on the main match and then doing a round up of the other matches. Only the second half of the season was covered.
Then I think they took Channel 4’s highlights package for a couple of years or so from 92/93 on, with a later start time of 9:30 or 10pm.
It’s not generally remembered but Sky Sports had live Serie A coverage during the 91/92 season but this stopped when they got rights to the Premier League.
I was far too young to have any memory of '82 and have little enough real memory of '86 (I remember hearing about Maradona but don’t recall watching any of the matches). But being very familiar with them from television and video clips since, these World Cups tower above anything since.
Italy v Brazil in '82 was the ultimate World Cup match and it will never, ever be bettered. Played in boiling heat in a jam packed open air stadium with the sound of the klaxons unrelenting throughout. The match was even more unrelenting. Two of the great teams knocking each other punch drunk by the end with everything on the line. Falcao’s celebration of his goal in that match was iconic, but Tardelli’s in the final bettered it.
1990 was the last iconic World Cup of the TV age but was miles behind '82 and '86 in terms of its quality as a tournament.
1994 was decent enough but the terrible final ruined its legacy.
1998 had its moments and the final is probably the best since 1986 but overall it wasn’t vintage.
But '94 and '98 look like the golden age of the World Cup compared to anything since.
All World Cups since 2002 have felt terribly homogenous with little local flavour - every World Cup is played in FIFA land these days. The stadiums all look the same, the concentration of players in European club football means little regional variation in terms of tactics which was previously a great feature of World Cups up to the 90s. The massive increase in the ground modern players have to cover during matches leaves them punch drunk after long seasons, leading to lack of space on the pitch and dour, negative football, especially in the knockout stages.
I think that is it too. They treat the media a certain way but probably are different without a microphone in their face. You do need something about you to manage a room of 20 twenty something millionaires.