Most memorable football tournaments

Billy86

adaminho wrote: »

I thought the times made it better. Ireland vs Cameroon at 7.30am on a bank holiday Saturday, trying to find out which pub's were serving alcohol, then into work without letting on you were drinking. The whole place shutting down for the Germany match at 12.30, even the busses stopped running so had to run into town to watch it. Even the Spain match was early on the Sunday and I had to work straight after.

Not junior cert history. Not junior cert history...

DvB

For me the best tournament without question was Euro 2000, in world cups i'd probably go with 82 or 86, but 82 would shade it if I had to choose one, the Italy v brazil game & the dramatic semi final between france & West Germany would seal the deal there.

jmayo

breffni bogballer wrote: »

Euro 84,possibly the best game ever between FRA v PORT, then you had Schmacher in the german goals in 82 :eek: now that was a proper hatchet job on Battisson,and unbelievably he ended:up doing bestman for him some years later :p

It is so unbelievable because it is false.

Schumacker was sent to visit Battison the day before his wedding, but the hastily arranged press conference turned into disaster where French press turned on him.

Battison to this day has damaged vertrabe, had suffered three knocked out teeth and broken ribs.

The joke of Dutch ref must have learned reffing in Belgium.

That is still one of my favourite tournaments along with Mexico 86 where Maradona reigned supreme.

Also other memories (some good some bad) from 82 are Algeria beating the Germans, the Germans and Austrians cheating their way to second round to knock out Algeria, Brazil and Italy thriller, Maradona being kicked around the pitches and Gentile assaulting him, the Kuwaitis walking off the pitch mid match, El Salavador losing 10-1 but proud they had scored their first WC tournament goal and Northern Ireland beating the Spanish at home in Sevilla.

ronjo

Beefy78 wrote: »

86 was the first I remember. 90 made me fall in love with the game at 11 years old. Being English, 96 is probably the tournament I look back on most fondly. That demolition of the Dutch, beating Scotland with the Gazza goal and Shearer looking like a beast of a striker during a warm English summer. Football came home.

Dont forget the Spaniards being cheated out of qualification for the semis

Nerdlingr

USA 94

After the turgid affair of Italia 90 this was like a breath of fresh air!! Argentina v Romania, Brazil V Holland, Bulgaria V Germany ... fantastic games that I still remember to this day.
Maradonna's fall from grace
Poor ol Escobar's own goal
Diana Ross (and Baggio's!!) penalty miss
Ray Houghton, Paul Mcgrath - Giants Stadium
Ravelli and Lecthkov...Sweden and Bulgaria ..the darkhorses..played great football.
Spain V Italy - Luis enrique getting elbowed in a fiesty affair!
Leonardo's elbow putting Tony Ramos in hospital
Bebeto's "rocking the baby" goal celebration
Nigeria with such a strong team, The States fianlly coming good, Record crowds.. Romario on top form etc etc
... i could keep going. but i wont.

Richard Hillman

The ones when you are younger are probably more fondly remembered. There will probably be lads in their 20s in 10-15 years time raving about South Africa 2010 and Euro 2012, even though they were dreadful.

I loved all of the WCs from my football watching age from 1994-2014 bar South Africa.

Billy86

Nerdlingr wrote: »

USA 94

After the turgid affair of Italia 90 this was like a breath of fresh air!! Argentina v Romania, Brazil V Holland, Bulgaria V Germany ... fantastic games that I still remember to this day.

You left out Ireland vs Norway!!!

2002 or 2014 was probably my favourite, but 1994 was the first I remember much of. Houghton's goals and randomly, Pagliuca's (or was it USA's Tony Meola's?) throw outs and Alexi Lalas' stupid f'n hair.

And McGrath plucking a high, long ball out of the air and shaking/eluding his man with his first touch over/across them, followed by putting it away beautifully on his second. It was disallowed for a high foot only for the commentator to say "if Dennis Bergkamp scored that at the other end, they would call it great skill".

Sure, it's obvious which was the better goal but still, pretty prophetic all things considered...

Plus, McGrath's was by a CB instead of a CF in 2 touches and not 3, and against probably the best defensive mid to ever play the game (who was kicking on a little, but still only 32 at the time).

Not G.R

Richard Hillman wrote: »

. There will probably be lads in their 20s in 10-15 years time raving about South Africa 2010.

Yeah, I can't wait to tell my kids all BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR about how Spai BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR showed us all how BRRRRRRRR Football should be playe BRRRRRRRRRRRrRRRrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

jem

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

There will never be another Italia '90 moment in this country, so for those of us who were of an age to get the most out of it it will never be forgotten.


Apart from that I really enjoyed Mexico 86, Euro 88 and Spain 82.
But then again I was at an age to have more time to enjoy them then.

I agree and was also old enough to enjoy them , ya old fart

Andre 3000

I'm gonna go a little unorthodox here....the Confederations Cup of 2005.

Some absolute fantastic games, Germany the hosts being involved in several and most games had absolute belters of goals but the main reason for me remembering it so fondly was due to the genius of Riquelme for Argentina and the monster that was Adriano for Brazil. Two cult heroes I guess, at the peak of their powers.

The fact the final was so one sided doesn't mean much for me as that Brazil team was an absolute joy to watch. On paper Kaka, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Adriano could rival any attack in history but it was rare that they all actually performed to their abilities so that was special.

cj maxx

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

There will never be another Italia '90 moment in this country, so for those of us who were of an age to get the most out of it it will never be forgotten.


i also agree . '82 is my first memory of a world cup. I was 7. NI , paulo rossi and schmacher's tackle on platini ,and Zico the standouts.
'86 was really the one that hooked me. Maradonna v England is the most awesome and and game defining performance i will ever see. At the time , even on replays , i didnt believe his first goal was hand ball and his 2nd , wow. The memory of terry butcher et al throwing themselves trying to stop him is still vivid 30 years later. England , only for Maradonna, probably would have won that tournament.
From an Irish perspective in '88 we (as someone posted ) could possibly have won it , unlikely as it sounds .It'll be a long time till we see an Irish team of that caliber again . Beating England in the first game and Ronnie Whelan's goal v USSR. I didnt even know we had a soccer team before '88 !
,90 though was an unbelievable time if you were of an age to get into it properly. The whole country were die-hard fans and experts for a month! So i guess its MOST memorable. 2000 was probably the best football ive seen but i didnt see that much in America