The first tournament I'm old enough to remember was the '02 World Cup, so I'm definitely a 32 person. Expanding the Euros to 24 turned the last one into an absolute snoozefest.
It's tough, because I stopped being as interested in international football over the past 20 years, and the majority of the most magical memories are all with the 24 as a result.
Either way, I always see the WC as two events:
Event 1: A global carnival in the group stage, where we get to see novelty matchups like Peru v Hungary and Iran v Costa Rica.
Event 2: The actual tournament, which is the knock out stages.
Irrespective of the games themselves, a couple of tournaments were very memorable for me owing to events in my own life.
Euro 2000: I moved from England to the U.S. in the midst of the tournament, so I remember seeing various games as the clock ran down on my time in England. So many things happened after my one way flight to New York that I completely forgot about the tournament until I was walking (not an ideal mode of transportation there) in Los Angeles and realized the final would have been the night before. I looked up the result in a newspaper. On another note, the coverage has come such a long way here since a tiny footnote in a paper.
World Cup 2018: My wife went into labour with our first child in the wee hours on the morning of the final. Our daughter was not born for three more days, and my brother was visiting with his family from out of town, so we watched the slightly bizarre France-Croatia final with that major pending life change going on in the background.
I know someone who set fire to their England shirt after the Iceland game - which is kind of what I imagine the reaction will be like if we're mid-table at Christmas next season.
The 24 team format is rubbish I think. You spend two weeks eliminating just 6 teams, and then eliminate 8 in the next 4 days. The whole thing feels completely unbalanced.
@ReturnToSenda said:
I know someone who set fire to their England shirt after the Iceland game - which is kind of what I imagine the reaction will be like if we're mid-table at Christmas next season.
The fire seems very extreme. But is it a logical solution to ice and winter?
@ReturnToSenda said:
I know someone who set fire to their England shirt after the Iceland game - which is kind of what I imagine the reaction will be like if we're mid-table at Christmas next season.
The fire seems very extreme. But is it a logical solution to ice and winter?
@ReturnToSenda said:
I know someone who set fire to their England shirt after the Iceland game - which is kind of what I imagine the reaction will be like if we're mid-table at Christmas next season.
The fire seems very extreme. But is it a logical solution to ice and winter?
Opponent-appropriate desecration of shirts could open a whole new vista of options?
Lose to MK Dons? Bury your shirt in plastic bottles.
Lose to Oxford? Cut off one of the four quarters.
Lose to Sunderland? Stain it with whine made from sour grapes.
16 teams - WC70: crackly live commentary, David Coleman, Radio Times wall chart, balls with black spots on them, Banks, Moore, Muller, Beckenbauer, Esso coin collection, the introduction of "the panel", Peru's kit, Brazil...
Gerry Armstrong scoring against Spain in '82. Mal Donaghy(?) getting sent off ridiculously as they held onto the lead. That was the good old days when only the "continentals" cheated.
One thing which I think has harmed the WC in the last couple of decades is so many players playing for the same club teams, no matter which country they are from. This is not a negative at a club level, as the teams themselves benefit from "the best of the best". However, at the national level, the teams all appear more similar stylistically now. Watching Brazil used to be like watching football from another world, it was so fundamentally different, whereas now they seem to be just another team playing the same European style.
@LeedsBlue said:
16 teams - WC70: crackly live commentary, David Coleman, Radio Times wall chart, balls with black spots on them, Banks, Moore, Muller, Beckenbauer, Esso coin collection, the introduction of "the panel", Peru's kit, Brazil...
That’s the first one I remember well. Wall charts at Junior school, being allocated a team to follow...Uruguay I think...
That video is fantastic for so many reasons @HCblue, particularly the exuberance of the carding from the ref, and the mention of Northern Ireland having to cancel the flight home that they'd booked in expectation of not getting past the first stage.
78 world cup in Argentina, I can remember being on a fleet of coaches from Castlefield to Margate for a day trip. It seemed to have a large amount of 'Jocks' on board, and when Archie put Scotland 3-1 up, the bus was literally rocking.
Great memories for a football mad young lad.
1970 WC Panini sticker book collection , with Bobby Moore being held aloft by his team mates whilst holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy four years earlier , on the cover.
Comments
Btw if you ever hear someone decribing the dutch national team as 'the netherlands' you know theu aren't football
This is the organization which brought us Russia and Qatar, so par for the course, really.
Are you a 32 or 24 man Shev?
The first tournament I'm old enough to remember was the '02 World Cup, so I'm definitely a 32 person. Expanding the Euros to 24 turned the last one into an absolute snoozefest.
It's tough, because I stopped being as interested in international football over the past 20 years, and the majority of the most magical memories are all with the 24 as a result.
Either way, I always see the WC as two events:
Event 1: A global carnival in the group stage, where we get to see novelty matchups like Peru v Hungary and Iran v Costa Rica.
Event 2: The actual tournament, which is the knock out stages.
16 or 32 for me (ie 2 qualifiers only from each group). Even 8 (like it was when I was a kid up to and including 1992)
Finishing 3rd in a group of 4 and qualifying for the next stage is an absolute nonsense.
True that - Portugal won the last Euros after finishing 3rd in their group, if I remember correctly.
They also only won one game in 90 minutes.
Indeed. And Ronaldo reinforced his reputation as a 'flat track bully' only scoring in the group game v Hungary
Irrespective of the games themselves, a couple of tournaments were very memorable for me owing to events in my own life.
Euro 2000: I moved from England to the U.S. in the midst of the tournament, so I remember seeing various games as the clock ran down on my time in England. So many things happened after my one way flight to New York that I completely forgot about the tournament until I was walking (not an ideal mode of transportation there) in Los Angeles and realized the final would have been the night before. I looked up the result in a newspaper. On another note, the coverage has come such a long way here since a tiny footnote in a paper.
World Cup 2018: My wife went into labour with our first child in the wee hours on the morning of the final. Our daughter was not born for three more days, and my brother was visiting with his family from out of town, so we watched the slightly bizarre France-Croatia final with that major pending life change going on in the background.
Anyone else with some stories?
I know someone who set fire to their England shirt after the Iceland game - which is kind of what I imagine the reaction will be like if we're mid-table at Christmas next season.
World Cup 1986 is my earliest memory that I can put a date on.
The 24 team format is rubbish I think. You spend two weeks eliminating just 6 teams, and then eliminate 8 in the next 4 days. The whole thing feels completely unbalanced.
I’m with @eric_plant and @Last_Quarter
The fire seems very extreme. But is it a logical solution to ice and winter?
16 was perfect for the Euros. Every game mattered and you’d get some good teams missing out on the quarters.
The first World Cup I really remember is USA 94, so 24 teams has always felt natural, but it’s not very elegant. 48 is ridiculous.
The Copa America format this year is two teams of five with four going through from each. So 20 games to eliminate two teams...
Very good point!
Opponent-appropriate desecration of shirts could open a whole new vista of options?
Lose to MK Dons? Bury your shirt in plastic bottles.
Lose to Oxford? Cut off one of the four quarters.
Lose to Sunderland? Stain it with whine made from sour grapes.
16 teams - WC70: crackly live commentary, David Coleman, Radio Times wall chart, balls with black spots on them, Banks, Moore, Muller, Beckenbauer, Esso coin collection, the introduction of "the panel", Peru's kit, Brazil...
Gerry Armstrong scoring against Spain in '82. Mal Donaghy(?) getting sent off ridiculously as they held onto the lead. That was the good old days when only the "continentals" cheated.
One thing which I think has harmed the WC in the last couple of decades is so many players playing for the same club teams, no matter which country they are from. This is not a negative at a club level, as the teams themselves benefit from "the best of the best". However, at the national level, the teams all appear more similar stylistically now. Watching Brazil used to be like watching football from another world, it was so fundamentally different, whereas now they seem to be just another team playing the same European style.
This is a pretty epic little time capsule:
That’s the first one I remember well. Wall charts at Junior school, being allocated a team to follow...Uruguay I think...
That video is fantastic for so many reasons @HCblue, particularly the exuberance of the carding from the ref, and the mention of Northern Ireland having to cancel the flight home that they'd booked in expectation of not getting past the first stage.
78 world cup in Argentina, I can remember being on a fleet of coaches from Castlefield to Margate for a day trip. It seemed to have a large amount of 'Jocks' on board, and when Archie put Scotland 3-1 up, the bus was literally rocking.
Great memories for a football mad young lad.
Superb.
1970 WC Panini sticker book collection , with Bobby Moore being held aloft by his team mates whilst holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy four years earlier , on the cover.