For those of us that missed '66, do you think you will see England ....

a) Host a world cup

b) Win a world cup

c) Win a Euro championship

...during your lifetime?

a)

our time must come again soon

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What did everyone make of the tournament overall? Did you think it was the best, or one of the best ever as claimed by some sections of the media? For me it was the best one since the World Cup was expanded to 32 teams & 64 games for France '98, but I'd only put it as high as equal with 1994 in terms of quality. Mexico '86 is still the best World Cup I've watched.

I thoroughly enjoyed the World Cup - great matches especially in the group stage, loads of great goals and plenty of attacking football. I agree in that it's been the best World Cup since USA 94. Hopefully Russia 2018 will be good too. A while to wait yet but I remember thinking that after the World Cup in South Africa, here we are 4 years later and Brazil 2014 is finished!

Scary to think that I've now seen 8 World Cups. It doesn't seem that long in some ways since I watched the highlights on World Cup Grandstand (remember it?) as a 6 year old of the opening match in 1986 between Italy and Bulgaria. Seems incredible to think that is now 28 years ago.

 

Indeed I do, time certainly flies. Though thankfully it is enough time to do an awful lot with our lives and look back on.

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For those of us that missed '66, do you think you will see England ....
a) Host a world cup
b) Win a world cup
c) Win a Euro championship
...during your lifetime?

None of them.

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One day we'll look in awe on centurions and say "they were actually alive when England won the World Cup!".

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Winning a major tournament - we are further away from that than we've ever been. It will take many years to turn this around, and whilst the Prem exists and is the vile cash cow it is, it'll never change - so it'll never change.

England will never host a World Cup in my lifetime unless there are wholesale root and branch changes within FIFA - so we won't.

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One day we'll look in awe on centurions and say "they were actually alive when England won the World Cup!".

My dad and Grandad were at Wembley that day in 1966, my old man always told me how when he got to Wembley he had a major panic because he thought he had lost his ticket, my Grandfather nearly killed him lol 

I have the world cup final 1966 ticket stubbs along with the match program in a small frame on the wall of my man cave. Means a bit more to me than just what they are, real sentimental value as I was very close to my Grandfather and didn't get enough time with him.

You always hope you will see it in your life time but after this world cup the dream seems as far away as it has ever.

One day we'll look in awe on centurions and say "they were actually alive when England won the World Cup!".

My dad and Grandad were at Wembley that day in 1966, my old man always told me how when he got to Wembley he had a major panic because he thought he had lost his ticket, my Grandfather nearly killed him lol 

I have the world cup final 1966 ticket stubbs along with the match program in a small frame on the wall of my man cave. Means a bit more to me than just what they are, real sentimental value as I was very close to my Grandfather and didn't get enough time with him.

You always hope you will see it in your life time but after this world cup the dream seems as far away as it has ever.

Fair points. That said though, who gave Greece an earthly of even reaching the latter stages of the Euros in 2004, let along winning it? Prior to that tournament, they had only even been to two tournaments; USA '94 and another Euro Championship in 1980, and didn't even manage to score a single goal at either. The team that won in Portugal was by no means the most gifted side ever, but what they did have was a group of players that were prepared to work very hard for each other and were led by a coach, Otto Rehagel, who more than knew what he was doing. So it is possible for the underdogs to get success.

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Joey Barton has said that, after watching England at the World Cup, he's coming out of international retirement as he thinks it's possible he could get a recall.

 

I know he has been a complete tw*t at times, but at least he's interesting, not the sort of media-trained automatons who just trot out stuff like "well, you know, the players tried their best, er, well done to everyone, you know"

 

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Joey Barton has said that, after watching England at the World Cup, he's coming out of international retirement as he thinks it's possible he could get a recall.

 

I know he has been a complete tw*t at times, but at least he's interesting, not the sort of media-trained automatons who just trot out stuff like "well, you know, the players tried their best, er, well done to everyone, you know"

 

I know someone who is presently writing an authorised biography on a well known footballer. Suffice it to say - and despite hours of interviews with said footballer - much of the material is unusable because the footballer is so inarticulate.

Having come under pressure from the publishers 'to get the job done' the said biographer has resorted to sending all of the information to them - in effect saying 'this is the s.h.it I have to deal with".

Germans very excited because they've had to wait since 1990 to win the World Cup for the fourth time.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28306321 

Laughable compared to the attitude here where Woy is given the green light to remain in charge after a dismal effort and we've not won since 1966.

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Germans very excited because they've had to wait since 1990 to win the World Cup for the fourth time.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28306321

Laughable compared to the attitude here where Woy is given the green light to remain in charge after a dismal effort and we've not won since 1966.

Never mind the preceding 11 years, this was the defining moment for jerry by their own admission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BNkO9l318o

Germans very excited because they've had to wait since 1990 to win the World Cup for the fourth time.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28306321

Laughable compared to the attitude here where Woy is given the green light to remain in charge after a dismal effort and we've not won since 1966.

Never mind the preceding 11 years, this was the defining moment for jerry by their own admission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BNkO9l318o

The irony there was that however bad the Germans were that night (almost as bad as Brazil were last Tuesday IMO), they came very close to winning the World Cup in 2002; only the might of Ronaldo & co prevented them from winning that final. So they couldn't have been as bad as many then made them out to be!

I reckon it was also that night that was largely responsible for the false dawn that was England's "Golden Generation". Although England did very well to beat the Germans on their own patch as convincingly as they did, how come they then struggled against Greece at Old Trafford a month later and ultimately needed a last-minute Beckham free-kick to guarantee them a place at the 2002 World Cup, thereby avoiding a play-off.

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Germans very excited because they've had to wait since 1990 to win the World Cup for the fourth time.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28306321

Laughable compared to the attitude here where Woy is given the green light to remain in charge after a dismal effort and we've not won since 1966.

Bobby Robson's team had a disaster of a time at Euro '88, yet came within a whisker of reaching the World Cup Final two years later.

Personally I think Hodgson should be given until Euro 2016, assuming England qualify. If that goes belly-up in the group stages, then it may well be time for a change at that point.

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One day we'll look in awe on centurions and say "they were actually alive when England won the World Cup!".

My dad and Grandad were at Wembley that day in 1966, my old man always told me how when he got to Wembley he had a major panic because he thought he had lost his ticket, my Grandfather nearly killed him lol 

I have the world cup final 1966 ticket stubbs along with the match program in a small frame on the wall of my man cave. Means a bit more to me than just what they are, real sentimental value as I was very close to my Grandfather and didn't get enough time with him.

You always hope you will see it in your life time but after this world cup the dream seems as far away as it has ever.

Fair points. That said though, who gave Greece an earthly of even reaching the latter stages of the Euros in 2004, let along winning it? Prior to that tournament, they had only even been to two tournaments; USA '94 and another Euro Championship in 1980, and didn't even manage to score a single goal at either. The team that won in Portugal was by no means the most gifted side ever, but what they did have was a group of players that were prepared to work very hard for each other and were led by a coach, Otto Rehagel, who more than knew what he was doing. So it is possible for the underdogs to get success.

The USA are another example of a team with limited ability which does well because they work hard and do what the coach tell them to do. The problem for England is that many of their players have, well, limited ability but because they play in the Premier League they think they're superstars so why would they need to work hard and why would they need to listen to some old fart coach 'cos they know far better than he does how to pay football.

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Luiz in the team of the tournament 11. WTF???? 😂

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The problem for England is that many of their players have, well, limited ability but because they play in the Premier League they think they're superstars so why would they need to work hard and why would they need to listen to some old fart coach 'cos they know far better than he does how to pay football.

 

But also, there's England players who know they'll be picked regardless of how sh*t they play. Throw in as well that the manager (not just Hodgson guilty of this) will play certain players out of position, where they weaken the team overall, just to get them in his starting 11.

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Hodgson leads England to their highest FIFA rankings since 1996.

Oh no, hang on. My mistake. That should read Hodgson leads England to their lowest FIFA rankings since 1996. We're now 20th.

Spain down from 1st to 8th. Brazil down from 3rd to 7th. Pretty much where it should be. But I don't know what's made Belgium rise from 11th to 5th, after a fairly underwhelming WC for many peoples' 'dark horses', and Uruguay up a place to 6th is also odd, when Brazil got further than them.

 

1 - Germany (+1)	6 - Uruguay (+1)
2 - Argentina (+3)	7 - Brazil (-4)
3 - Netherlands (+12)	8 - Spain (-7)
4 - Colombia (+4)	9 - Switzerland (-3)
5 - Belgium (+6)	10 - France (+7)

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The problem for England is that many of their players have, well, limited ability but because they play in the Premier League they think they're superstars so why would they need to work hard and why would they need to listen to some old fart coach 'cos they know far better than he does how to pay football.

 

But also, there's England players who know they'll be picked regardless of how sh*t they play. Throw in as well that the manager (not just Hodgson guilty of this) will play certain players out of position, where they weaken the team overall, just to get them in his starting 11.

Indeed Saint. I remember in particular SGE was criticised for doing that back in 2006 when a few pundits, Terry Butcher to name one, said that Eriksson was too faithful to David Beckham and believed that Beckham should have been left out of England's starting line-up in at least one of their games at that World Cup. Whether that would have got England any further or not, I don't know, but I agreed completelty with what Butcher said when he remarked that he has never believed that any manager should always play his best players without question. The quality of opposition needs to be taken into account, as does their tactics.

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Luiz in the team of the tournament 11. WTF????

I can only assume that the tournament 11 was drawn up before last Tuesday night's debacle in Belo Horizonte.

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Moving this thread across to the Classic Threads forum shortly. Thanks for all your posts everyone!

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