Friday, 17 May 2019

Memories: the 1966 World Cup

I watched the 1966 World Cup final, and England's famous victory over West Germany, at the home of a friend. His father insisted on watching the match on ITV, so I never heard the famous commentary, "They think it's all over... it is now!" which greeted Geoff Hurst's final goal. But I was left with several memories of the tournament besides this. 
   The best match, I have always felt, was Hungary vs. Brazil, in one of the pools. In the first half the Hungarians scored two goals, each quickly followed by an Brazilian equaliser. Pele wasn't playing because of injury, and a certain Florian Albert dominated midfield. In those days no substitutes, no even in the event of serious injury; so when one of the Hungarians (I can't remember his name) broke his collarbone, he continued playing with his arm in a sling. The final score was 4-2 to Hungary.
  In the quarter-finals, England were up against Argentina, whilst simultaneously Portugal played North Korea. One of the stars of the tournament was Eusebio, an incredibly brilliant striker, whereas the North Koreans were complete unknowns who had not been expected to get this far. So the expectation was that if we could win what promised to be a tough match with Argentina, we would meet Portugal in the semifinal. 
  On television I watched, as Rattin, the Argentinian captain, committed foul after foul and disputed evey decision. There were no coloured cards for offences in those days, and eventually the ref said to him something like, "I've had more than enough form you: on your bike!" and sent Rattin off. But Rattin refused to leave the pitch, and the match was held up for some time. During this impasse, scores from the other match were flashed up on the bottom of the screen. They read, "Portugal 0, North Korea 1", then "Portugal 0, North Korea 2", and "Portugal 0, North Korea 3"; which was quickly repeated in block capitals in case viewers didn't believe it. In the end, England managed to beat a ten-man Argentina, whereas in the other match the North Koreans couldn't cope with Eusebio and resorted to hacking him down and conceding two penalities, so the final score was 5-3 to Portugal. 
   But what this showed was that the Portugese defence was pretty rubbish, and that provided we could keep Eusebio quiet, we should be able to beat them in the semi-final; which was in fact what happened. But what I will always retain as a TV memory is Rattin arguing with the ref whilst across the bottom of the screen was the message, "REPEAT: PORTUGAL 0, NORTH KOREA 3"

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