World Cup England 1966 By Gordon Ross
England football 1966 world cup
A pre tournament assessment of the then forthcoming World Cup Finals in England A publication officially approved by The Football Association World Cup England 1966I fear the England football team may not win the World Cup again in the near future so to feel swell about the team I decided to read a pre tournament account of their chances that led to their one and only triumph of 1966 I remember the final well for I was moving home on the day and managed to squeeze in the game in between the move watching the second half sat on packing cases in my new home Joe Mears the chairman of the Football Association World Cup Committee provides a foreword and informs the reader that The World Cup in England are magic words to all of us They certainly were for football fans were to get a look at some of the greatest players in the world with the superb footballers from Brazil attempting to win the trophy for the third time and thus keep it outright But national pride to the fore he does state but I assure you that the footballers of England are absolutely determined to give a good account of themselves and make no mistake we are capable of winning How right he was and immediately after the draw was made on 6 January 1966 England were installed as second favourites at 5 1 with Brazil firm favourites at 9 4 Argentina were third favourites at 13 2 with West Germany eventually the beaten finalists at a hefty 25 1 The back markers were North Korea at 200 1. England 1966 world cup winning team Author Gordon Ross opens his account with an article entitled Can England Win YES Of Course They Can He goes on to point out that since 1950 when England first entered the tournament England s record was not impressive and that they had never reached the semi final However he felt that with manager Alf Ramsey operating a 4 3 3 system wingless wonders and having built his squad over the previous couple of years England could very definitely win the tournament. World Cup England 1966li His reasons for his forecast were sound we were playing at home there were no problems of food strange living conditions or entirely different surroundings and temperatures so everything was in our favour And most prophetically he added no one is quite sure whether Brazil are as good as they used to be and that even with the goalscoring genius of Pele. England 1966 world cup team Mention of Pele gave Ross a second lengthy article extolling the virtues of the world s greatest footballer and pointing out that he had by then scored over 50 international goals and nearly 600 goals in club matches And his annual income was then when footballers were paid a sensible amount for their efforts a staggering 75000. World Cup England 1966fl He also presents us with a complete World Cup Story with all the Cup Final team line ups and results from previous finals plus England s progress at each finals stage This does of course include the embarrassing 1 0 defeat by the then minnows USA at Belo Horizonte in 1950 and this coupled with a 1 0 defeat by Spain they did defeat Chile 2 0 meant that England did not qualify for the final stages that year. EBook World Cup England 1966 mustang The results of all the 1966 Qualifying matches are fully covered and there is even an illustration of an unfortunate Alan Gilzean missing a good chance for Scotland against Italy which condemned the Scots to miss out on the finals And those little thought of North Koreans only managed to enter the final stages by virtue of the fact that South Korea withdrew from their group and therefore North Korea had only to play two games against Australia Even then their qualification was on a knife edge as they won one and lost one but a 6 1 victory in the first game and a 3 1 defeat in the return game just saw them home. World Cup England 1966go There are plenty of photographs of the top players from many of the countries such as Lev Yashin the great Russian goalkeeper Uwe Seeler the West German captain who had been playing international football since 1954 Hans Tilkowski the West German goalkeeper and Antonio Rattin the Argentina captain amongst many others. World Cup England 1966jr Naturally there are plenty of photographs of the England squad but those two Cup Final goalscorers Geoff Hurst with three and Martin Peters are surprisingly not amongst them In fairness they did both greatly enhance their careers throughout the tournament rising from the background to become almost super stars And there are many well remembered and talented players pictured who did not make the finals team such as Peter Thompson George Eastham Alan Peacock Keith Newton John Kaye Norman Hunter and my own particular hero goalkeeper Tony Waiters of Blackpool Indeed those Cup Final stars Hurst and Peters were not even in the opening game line up an unconvincing 0 0 draw with Uruguay with John Connelly in Peters place and another hero of mine Jimmy Greaves in Hurst s place Peters did come in for the second game and remained in the side but Hurst did not appear in the group stages at all coming in for the quarter final against Argentina when the South American captain Rattin was sent off in the 35th minute. England world cup 1966 team As for the highlights of the tournament that of course Ross does not cover who can forget North Korea defeating Italy 1 0 to condemn the Italians fourth favourites for the title to third place and non qualification for the final stages Also North Korea being 3 0 in front after 24 minutes against Portugal in the quarter final before eventually succumbing 5 3 Another memory was the eclipse of Brazil which began when Hungary out muscled them in the group stages and a dispirited Brazil then lost to Portugal to exit the tournament. World Cup England 1966cc But the highlight was undoubtedly the 4 2 extra time World Cup Final victory by England over West Germany and it was euphoria all round when Bobby Moore who had a magnificent tournament went up to collect the Jules Rimet trophy for the first and only time The book brings back happy memories 1966 was a year when football was real football and not the prima donna ish game that it has become today But as Gordon Ross states in his introduction when comparing the 1930s Arsenal team to the pre Munich Manchester United team we will never know the victors So would the England players of 1966 defeat the England team of today That will have to remain just pure speculation But on 30 July 1966 there were very definitely 11 English heroes whose achievement may never be equalled for a long time to come World Cup England 1966
| World Cup England 1966 By Gordon Ross |
| English |
| 42 |
| Hardcover |
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