I was born in a World Cup year, the day before the start of the 1978 Word Cup in Argentina to be exact, so every 4 years I get the double whammy of my birthday quickly followed by the start of the World Cup. Actually, last time around it started on my birthday, but I digress… This years World Cup is just around the corner, and, as usual, I’m pretty psyched about it.
As I was born in a World Cup year, it tends to follow periods in my life, this one being no exception. Alas I was way too young to remember anything about the 1978 World Cup first hand, what with only being a few days old when Archie Gemmil scored possibly the greatest goal ever. The same goes for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, I was only 4 then, and I dont remember a damn thing, of course now I remember Dave Narey’s classic “toepoke” rocket against Brazil, and Zico’s free kick reply, not to mention Marco Tardelli’s bug eyed celebration against West Germany or German keeper Harald Schumacher almost decapitating France’s Patrick Battiston and walking away without so much as a booking. Yes, those were different times…
Now, Mexico 86 is where I remember stuff vividly, 8 years old, a year later we would move house, my dad rented (rented!) a VCR to tape matches as the time difference meant games would be on way too late for me and my brother (who wants an 8 and 10 year old up late anyways?). Who can forget Gordon Strachan’s goal against West Germany, and his superbly silly “too-small-to-jump-the-advertising-boards-so-i’ll-hop-beside-them-instead” celebration? Or SFA president Ernie Walker calling the Uruguay team “scum of the earth” following their game against Scotland when José Batista of Uruguay was sent off after less than a minute, a record that still stands in World Cup finals…. How about Diego Maradonna’s “hand of god” goal against England (us Scots LOVED that one) or his equally memorable 2nd against England? (Let’s face it, it’s so good it deserves crazy Spanish alternate commentary). Good times really, except for Scotland glorious failure in the “group of death” (Denmark, West Germany and Uruguay).
Italia 90 was a pretty boring affair, it was memorable for me as it was that period in between primary and secondary school, a summer spent playing football in the streets/any grassy area from dawn until dusk (and sometimes beyond). Scotland had what looked like an easier group than 1986, Costa Rica, Sweden and Brazil, and as usual, glorious failure would ensue but not before Murdo MacLeod got his bell well and truely rung by a Branco free kick in Scotland’s last match. An unexpected defat for reigning champions Argentina against Cameroon in the opening match kicked things off but the most memorable moment was easily Paul Gascoigne’s crying following his booking against West Germany in the semi finals, that and Roberto Baggio’s sublime goal against Czechoslovakia. Yes, it was that boring…
USA 1994, a strange World Cup indeed, who would have guessed that this World Cup would break attandance records, my family were on holiday in Florida when it began, in fact we weren’t even supposed to see the first match as we were due to fly home, but some weird 24 hour delay ended with us being put up in the Hyatt hotel inside Orlando Airport, so we got the see the opening Germany vs. Bolivia match and the USA vs. Switzerland game the next day, score! We also got the see the infamous OJ Simpson White Bronco chase… It was also strange that there was no British teams, though one could argue Ireland was as much British than Irish with players like John Aldridge and Ray Houghton, who scored a cracker against Italy in their opening game, in their squad. Also teams like Sweden and Bulgaria progressed further than anyone would have expected, Saudi Arabian Saeed Owairan scored the goal of the tournament against Belguim, though Gheorghe Hagi’s audacious lob against Colombia was better in my opinion. In the end it was down to a Roberto Baggio penalty in the final… And he blew it.
France 98 was party time for me, Scotland had qualified again and since I was 20 at the time, it meant one thing, copious amounts of alochol… The opening game was world champions Brazil against Scotland, and in the true spirit of Scotland it meant a glorious 2-1 defeat (but we could have beaten them on any other day). A rousing draw against Norway followed and all we needed was a win against Morocco, a 3-0 defeat silenced that dream in a hurry, but we celebrated none the less with bottles of champagne in the Strathclyde Uni Student Union, who takes defeat better than us? Onto the rest of the competition, Argentina’s defeat of England was proabably the best game (in my humble opinion) of the tournament, and who could forget Dennis Bergkamps stunning control against Argentina? To top it off, I had a bet on France would win and it bagged me £160 for my troubles…
Korea/Japan 2002 was probably my least watched World Cup since Mexico 86, this was due to Scotland not qualifying and games being on in the morning and afternoon in the UK due to the time difference, and that meant I was working throughout the competition. I did see some of it though, the office I was working in set up a few TV’s in the cafeteria area so I saw parts of games like the second half of Ireland vs. Germany and Robbie Keanes thunderous last minute equaliser, the first half of Argentina vs. England and Beckhams penalty, the second half of Brazil vs. England and Ronaldiniho’s sweet free kick but my favourite was Jared Borgetti’s flick header against Italy, just perfect.
This brings us up to Germany 2006, another period in my life (married and living in America), Scotland failed to qualify again, and I’d rather not be clichéd and suddenly become a Trinidad & Tobago, Sweden and Paraguay supporter overnight as they are in England’s group, instead I’m going to follow the fortunes of the US team, though they have to make it out of a tough group (Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic) if they want to perform better than the quarter final place in 2002. A bonus of our trip to the UK means I’ll most likely get to see a few games (like the USA vs Italy game on June 17th) instead of TiVoing them.
