The best World Cup Final in your lifetime?

kinaldo

This is quite prossibly a waste of time seeing as most of us probably weren't around for all of them, but I couldn't resist and so as not to be ageist I included them all. I vote for Italy 's penalty victory over France as it's the first final where both teams actually managed to score since 1986 and although the quality of football wasn't great it was a fascinating game which I found almost impossible to predict. Everyone I watched it with and spoke to thought it was a boring match. Maybe I should've made a worst final poll given that most of them played in my lifetime were very boring. Although I still have very fond memories of USA '94 even though it was 0-0.

other finals that weren't able to fit into poll :

England 3 - 2 Germany (aet)

Brazil 3 - 1 Czechoslovakia 1

Brazil 5 - 2 Sweden

Germany 3 - 2 Hungary

Uruguay 2 - 1 Brazil (technically a group game but effectively a final - Uruguay needed to win, Brazil needed only a draw)

Italy 4 -2 Hungary

Italy 2 - 1 Czechoslovakia

Uruguay 4 - 2 Argentina

Unearthly

France 3-0 Brazil 98

Well it wasn't a great match but it was certaintly a shock and I'm a sucker for the underdog. Also cemented Zidane as one of the top players in the world at that moment.

Ardent

Argentina 3 - Germany 2 in '86 wasn't bad.

patmac

Showing my age but the best team performance was definetly Brazil 4-1 Italy.
Closest game Argentina 3-2 Germany with Italy 3-1 Germany a close 3rd.Germany were probably the most unpopular team at the time after the Schumacher incident. A good book to read for the younger generation is A History Of the World Cup by Brian Glanville.

Pigman II

My first WC final was 1990 so I really picked a great time to start watching. I wouldn't rate any of them (including 90) above about 2/5 so I'm not even gonna vote.

p.pete

1990 for the win

iregk

I was born in the latter half of the 70's so didn't have the total football experience of the early 70's. I really came to view from 86 onwards and that for me will always go down as my best world cup. Seeing the legend of Diego at his peak was a joy to behold.

redspider

patmac wrote:

the best team performance was definetly Brazil 4-1 Italy.
Closest game Argentina 3-2 Germany with
Italy 3-1 Germany a close 3rd.

Yeah, I agree with the bulk of this.

The 1970 final was a classic final and a benchmark one, not only in terms of the pure style of football that Brazil played but also the fact that it was I believe one of the first finals to be broadcast live and in colour to many millions of television sets. So bringing the beautiful game to many in a beautiful way. 1966 was in Black and White.

Argentina in 1986 (3-2 v DE) was the Maradona final, not to forget the efforts of Burrachaga of course. It had a great German comeback denied by skill and agility.

1982 with Italy was also a good one, but partially because of Italy's sensational 3-2 win v Brazil earlier and the deliriousness of Italy when they won it.

Even though many in Ireland may not like to admit it, the 4-2 win by England in 1966 was a classic match. It had England coming back from being 1-0 down, only for Germany to make it 2-2 in the dying minutes of normal time, with a goal that ricocheted in the box, only for the 'not a goal' goal and then the final wallop of a goal by Hurst. A hat-trick of course for Hurst, the reserve striker behind Jimmy Greaves. It was a good final and better than the 2006 one!

I also enjoyed Argentina v Holland in 1978, and indeed France v Brazil in 1998. Arguably 2002 had better goals than 1998.

Overall, its hard to compare the games over 90 mins in terms of enjoyment.

redspider

patmac

redspider wrote:

Even though many in Ireland may not like to admit it, the 4-2 win by England in 1966 was a classic match. It had England coming back from being 1-0 down, only for Germany to make it 2-2 in the dying minutes of normal time, with a goal that ricocheted in the box, only for the 'not a goal' goal and then the final wallop of a goal by Hurst. A hat-trick of course for Hurst, the reserve striker behind Jimmy Greaves. It was a good final and better than the 2006 one!

Yeah I suppose if we looked at it objectively (impossible to do) it was one of the better finals but if it had finished 8-7 with ever goal a classic I still wouldn't vote for it even if I was sitting beside the queen!

garred

86 was the first WC I can remember and to be honest it was my favourite. I remember seeing Platini for the first time and was disappointed France (who had a great team) did'nt qualify for the final after beating Brazil and Italy in the knock outs. Great final with the small fat genius pulling the strings.....and it gave us the mexican wave..ole

Dustaz

I missed the 70 finals by 2 years so without a doubt the best finals (and i voted for the Final on the basis of that feast of football) was 82.

That world cup set my expectation levels for world football to an unbelieveably high plateau. Only 1986 came close (euro 2002 was the only other time i thought football really reached this).
Brazil and Argentina playing classic south american football? Yep.
Bizzarre 2nd group stage (featuring Brazil, Argentina AND italy in the same group)? You got it.
Norn Iron providing interest and beating a highly fancied side? Totally.
Sheikh led pitch invasion? You betcha
TWO of the ALL TIME best matches in world cup history(Fra Vs Ger, Ita Vs Bra)? Believe it.

And of course the final, where rossi shrugged off 2 years of disgrace to become the top scorer of the tournament and one of the last times weve seen italy relying on attacking football rather than defensive football.

Anyone who voted for this years final (or christ help us, 1990) should go and get the DVD of 1982 and watch it until they kneel down and cry about thier heresy

edit: zomg forgot about brasil vs italy