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Trivia on the 1966 World Cup
Topic Started: Dec 28 2009, 01:12 PM (771 Views)
Gregoriak
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• Betting favorites before the tournament: Brazil (2:1), England (4:1), Italy (7:1), Germany (10:1)

• In the final at Wembley of the 22 players 20 were equipped by Adidas. Gordon Banks and Ray Wilson however wore shoes by Puma. They had worn Adidas during the tournament, but Rudolf Dassler, boss of Puma and brother of Adidas boss Adi Dassler, had managed to “convince” Banks and Wilson right before the final at Wembley that Puma shoes were of higher quality.

• The outfitters of the Korean team faced the problem that the feet of the Korean players were too small-sized for the available shoes.

• The German team that played in the final against England is still the youngest ever to play in a World Cup final.

• The first ever World Cup mascot – “World Cup Willie” – was designed by Walter Tuckwell & Associates, who were assigned the merchandising rights of the 1966 World Cup. Name and appearance of the mascot are to be traced back to the executive of the English organisational committee, E.K. Willson, who was jokingly called “World Cup Willie” by members of his team due to his alleged resemblance to a “friendly little lion.” However the little lion had to stand some derision, as he wore a union jack which represented Great Britain, the World Cup however was held in England.

• The broadcasting rights were sold to BBC for 2.8 million Euros.

• For the British nations (apart from England), the 1966 World Cup was a bitter experience, as none of them managed to qualify for the tournament. Northern Ireland with their aspiring new star player George Best needed to beat Albania away in the last qualification game, but they only drew 1-1. The Scots and Welsh also failed to qualify. Especially bitter for the Scots was that two Scottish managers of English clubs – Bill Shankly (Liverpool FC) and Matt Busby (Manchester United) – refused to let their Scottish players take part in a training course ahead of the decisive game vs. Italy. Thus one of the nominally best ever Scottish national teams, featuring players like Billy Bremner, Denis Law, John Greig, Alan Gilzean, Jim Baxter, Jimmy Johnstone and Pat Crerand, failed to qualify for the World Cup next door.

• African teams withdrew from the qualifying campaign out of protest that they were not granted an automatic place in the World Cup. Asia, Oceania and Africa had to decide one team that would go to the World Cup. The Africans weren't content with that and thus withdrew altogether.

• To qualify for the World Cup, North Korea only had to beat Australia. They did that in two games in the neutral venue of Phnom Penh on November 21 & 24 1965 in Cambodia. The Cambodian head of state Sihanouk ordered one half of the spectators to cheer for Australia and the other half to cheer for North Korea.

• The presence of North Korea caused some diplomatic headaches for hosts England, as North Korea was not accepted by England (and most western countries) as an autonomous state. According to NATO guidelines, the British authorities would have been obliged to deny the North Korean team entry to Great Britain. In that case, however, FIFA arguably would have given the tournament to another country at short notice. Hence the British Foreign Office decided not to cause a stir and quietly adjusted with South Korea.

• On formalistic grounds however, it was decided not to play the North Korean national anthem before a game. Since it would have caused definitely a stir if only the North Korean anthem had not been played, the organisers of the tournament were instructed to not play any anthems at all with the exception of the opening game and the final itself. The 1966 World Cup thus was the only one in which national anthems were not played before games.

• It might be that not a few diplomats of the Foreign Office became more and more nervous due to North Korea’s sensational advancing into the quarterfinal and North Korea almost making it to the semi final if not for Eusebio …

• The North Koreans made up for the physical shortcomings with the help of the socalled “Chollima” style, which mythically symbolised the pace and energy of the Korean people and which in football terms meant that the Koreans were all over their opponents, untiringly like voles. A prototype of “pressing” so to speak.

• English referee Ken Aston – who was the referee in the infamous 1962 scandal game of Chile vs Italy – proved to be quite an innovator in later years. Among other things, it was because of Aston’s suggestion that the squad number of players were shown on the sidelines for substitutes. He also successfully suggested to have an additional referee on standby in case one of the referees got injured. He reasoned that an injured player was no problem for the game to proceed, however an injured referee would stop all action for good. Another idea Aston had was to show yellow and red cards: In the game England vs. Argentina, which Aston had observed from the stands, the off-sent Argentine Rattin demanded to have a translator for he acted as if he had not understood what the referee wanted to tell him. Plus Bobby Charlton only learnt from reading the newspaper the next day that he had been booked by the referee. To avoid such unclarity, Aston came up with the idea of yellow and red cards, which would be understood by anyone, regardless of linguistic barriers.


All information is taken from this superb book: "Fussballweltmeisterschaft 1966 in England" by Olaf Edig, Daniel Meuren and Nicole Selmer.

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libero
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Some interesting tidbits of information. I knew Germany had a young Franz Beckenbauer on their team but did not know they had such a young team overall, especially with veterans like Seeler and Schnellinger on that team.

1966 was a very disappointing touranment for both teams who would be finalists at the following World Cup-Brazil and Italy, neither of whom advanced past the group stage, Italy famously getting eliminated by North Korea. Brazil at least had the excuse that their star Pele was injured after suffering horrible treatment from both Hungary and Portugal. But Italy came in over confident and left embarrassed. Not only did many players on Italy's 1966 team go on to become World Cup runnersup in 1970, but many also were on Italy's European championship winning team in 1968- Albertosi, Burgnich, Facchetti, Rivera and Mazzola.
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Manzanares
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libero that 1966 World Cup was just as bad for Spain, at the time the current European champions, as it was for Brazil and Italy. Spain had a good team then with players like Peiro, Amancio, Gento and a young Pirri and Iribar but they went out without much fanfare. Here is hoping 2010 does not repeat 1966 for Spain as they once more enter a World Cup as the reigning European champions.

One other similarity between 1966 and 2010, back then Uruguay, Mexico and France were grouped together with the host nation, England. In 2010 Uruguay, Mexico and France are once again paired in the same opening group with the host nation!
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Yogi
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libero,Dec 28 2009
10:31 PM
Some interesting tidbits of information. I knew Germany had a young Franz Beckenbauer on their team but did not know they had such a young team overall, especially with veterans like Seeler and Schnellinger on that team.

1966 was a very disappointing touranment for both teams who would be finalists at the following World Cup-Brazil and Italy, neither of whom advanced past the group stage, Italy famously getting eliminated by North Korea. Brazil at least had the excuse that their star Pele was injured after suffering horrible treatment from both Hungary and Portugal. But Italy came in over confident and left embarrassed. Not only did many players on Italy's 1966 team go on to become World Cup runnersup in 1970, but many also were on Italy's European championship winning team in 1968- Albertosi, Burgnich, Facchetti, Rivera and Mazzola.

I did not know the bit of information about Germany having the youngest finalist team ever. Is that information still up to date Gregoriak? When was the book you discussed last printed? To be honest, off the top of my head I cannot think of other young World Cup finalists, most in recent years have had plenty of experienced players on them.

I believe Brazil in 1966 was the first defending World Cup champion which failed to get out of it's qualifying group. France repeated that dubious honor in 2002.

Another curious tidbit to me is that Jimmy Greaves was one of England's biggest stars going into World Cup 1966 and started some of the first few games for the team but he missed a match with an injury and the team functioned better without him. Nothing against Greaves but England manager Alf Ramsey was not going to break up a winning team and the ultimate results backed him up.
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Gregoriak
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Yogi,Dec 31 2009
08:41 AM
libero,Dec 28 2009
10:31 PM
Some interesting tidbits of information.  I knew Germany had a young Franz Beckenbauer on their team but did not know they had such a young team overall, especially with veterans like Seeler and Schnellinger on that team.

1966 was a very disappointing touranment for both teams who would be finalists at the following World Cup-Brazil and Italy, neither of whom advanced past the group stage, Italy famously getting eliminated by North Korea.  Brazil at least had the excuse that their star Pele was injured after suffering horrible treatment from both Hungary and Portugal.  But Italy came in over confident and left embarrassed.  Not only did many players on Italy's 1966 team go on to become World Cup runnersup in 1970, but many also were on Italy's European championship winning team in 1968- Albertosi, Burgnich, Facchetti, Rivera and Mazzola.

I did not know the bit of information about Germany having the youngest finalist team ever. Is that information still up to date Gregoriak? When was the book you discussed last printed? To be honest, off the top of my head I cannot think of other young World Cup finalists, most in recent years have had plenty of experienced players on them.


The book is from 2006. The average age of the German team in the final was 25.
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raconteur
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Another curious tidbit to me is that Jimmy Greaves was one of England's biggest stars going into World Cup 1966 and started some of the first few games for the team but he missed a match with an injury and the team functioned better without him. Nothing against Greaves but England manager Alf Ramsey was not going to break up a winning team and the ultimate results backed him up.


Well Greaves' replacement Geoff Hurst didn't do too badly though now did he? :o

Maybe England's 1966 story where one of their best known players was dropped during the course of the tournament and his lesser known replacement went on to star, is a bit uncommon. But what is not uncommon is a World Cup winning team ending the tournament with a different team than the one which began the competition. England's 1966 team is not alone in making a significant lineup change to its initial team. Italy's 2006 winners lost Alessandro Nesta to injury and he was replaced later in the competition by Marco Materazzi who as we all know also had a big influence in that final! In 2002 Brazil added Kleberson to their midfield during the competition (I can not recall who started in his place earlier) and that helped the team click. In 1974 Germany added Rainer Bonhof to their midfield with the same effect as Brazil in 2002.
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Sporting
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In this vein we mustn't forget the impact of Schillaci in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. "Toto" came on as substitute for Andrea Carnevale in the latter stages of Italy's opening game against Austria, scored the winner, and ended up with the Golden Boot for the competition. Whereas Carnevale started the next game against the USA, was once again replaced by Schillaci, and never played for Italy again.

However, this mundial also proved to be both Schillaci's finest moment yet more or less his only such streak for Italy, as afterwards he only scored one more goal for his country, playing his last international in 1991.
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Pique
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Sporting,Jan 1 2010
07:05 PM
In this vein we mustn't forget the impact of Schillaci in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. "Toto" came on as substitute for Andrea Carnevale in the latter stages of Italy's opening game against Austria, scored the winner, and ended up with the Golden Boot for the competition. Whereas Carnevale started the next game against the USA, was once again replaced by Schillaci, and never played for Italy again.

However, this mundial also proved to be both Schillaci's finest moment yet more or less his only such streak for Italy, as afterwards he only scored one more goal for his country, playing his last international in 1991.

I think Toto Schillaci had one of the most meteoric rises to prominence of any player I can recall in my lifetime. Sadly he also had one of the quickest falls too. As Sporting writes, he scored 6 goals in the 1990 World Cup and only 1 more the rest of his international career. But for several weeks during Italia 90, he was the toast of the world of football. I loved hearing the crowds all chanting, "To-to Schi-llaci!" during Italy's matches. My best memories of Italia 90 were Schillaci and the rise of the young Roberto Baggio. Italy blew it against Argentina in that semfinal as one mistake allowed Caniggia to score and send the game to penalties. But to me Italy were the best team in that World Cup, even superior to eventual winners Germany.

Back to England 66, that World Cup marked the final appearance of Antonio "Tota" Carbajal, the Mexican goalie who at the time became the first player to appear in 5 different World Cups, a record Lothar Matthaus later equaled.
Esas son las leyendas de futbol mexicano,
En todo Mexico hay un Chiva hermano!
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Martin
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Well if Azeglio Vicini had kept the Schillaci-Baggio forward partnership which was so dynamic and brought Italy so much success in the tournament together and not replaced Baggio with Gianluca Vialli in that semifinal, Italy probably would have beaten Argentina and then who knows how they would have done against Germany? To me Italy and Germany were jointly the two top teams in 1990.

But Schillaci's was an incredible story, rising out of Serie B the year before and doing well enough with Juventus to earn a national team callup. He is the poster boy for seizing your chance. Luca Toni did not have the same individual success as Schillaci but did become a world champion in 2006, but his rise reminded me in some ways of Schillaci's. A guy who a few years before the World Cup was in Serie B and who relatively late in his career got his chance in Serie A, became a goalscoring start and got an opportunity with the national team.

I think Clodoaldo, who was the motor in Brazil's midfield in 1970 also began that World Cup on the bench so there is another example of a player beginning the World Cup as a reserve and going on to become a key figure on a World Cup winner. In 1994, Rai starte din midfield and Ricardo Gomes and Ricardo Rocha were slated to be Brazil's centerbacks but as the tournament progressed mazinho came in for Rai and the two Ricardos were injured and repalced by Aldair and marcio santos and these three fill ins all went on to play key roles in Brazil's eventual title win. So Greaves making way for Hurst in 1966 was not a unique situation.
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raconteur
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Well if Azeglio Vicini had kept the Schillaci-Baggio forward partnership which was so dynamic and brought Italy so much success in the tournament together and not replaced Baggio with Gianluca Vialli in that semifinal, Italy probably would have beaten Argentina and then who knows how they would have done against Germany? To me Italy and Germany were jointly the two top teams in 1990.


That decision by Vicini still bothers me almost 20 years later. I think Italy's team in 1990 was superior to the one which won the last World Cup. Everything was in place for Italy to take the Cup in 1990, the defense was impeccable with Baresi, Ferri, Bergomi and Maldini in front of Zenga, there were Giannini and Donadoni in midfield and that electric attack of Schillaci and Baggio up front which Vicini fouled up by inserting Vialli to start the game in place of Baggio. The coach finally brought Baggio on after 73 minutes but by then Argentina had parked the bus in front of goal and were playing for extra time and penalties.

Vicini did not learn the lesson which Alf Ramsey should have taught him from 1966 when he kept the well known Greaves out of England's starting team as he did not want to break up a winning side.
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Merengue
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Vicini did not learn the lesson which Alf Ramsey should have taught him from 1966 when he kept the well known Greaves out of England's starting team as he did not want to break up a winning side.

A good point, so Vicini then was the original Tinkerman! Why a coach would break up not just a winning combination but one which had been so effective in leading Italy to the semiifnals is just beyond me. Sometimes coaches just overcoach. If it is not broken do not fix it!

Of course the 1966 World Cup is also remembered for perhaps the most controversial call in World Cup Finals history in debating whether Hurst's goal, the first in extra time, crossed the line or not.

Wikipedia's entry on the controversial third England goal

I will ignore as unsubstantiated the Russian linesman's supposed deathbed confession as listed in Wikipedia but what is amazing is he and the Swiss referee did not speak the same langauge and according to this entry, the linesman thought the ball had hit the back of the net and bounced back and not hit the cross bar which makes his subsequent ruling of a goal even more dubious! Definitely one of the most controversial events in World Cup history.
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Martin
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Merengue,Jan 3 2010
10:26 PM
Of course the 1966 World Cup is also remembered for perhaps the most controversial call in World Cup Finals history in debating whether Hurst's goal, the first in extra time, crossed the line or not.

Wikipedia's entry on the controversial third England goal

I will ignore as unsubstantiated the Russian linesman's supposed deathbed confession as listed in Wikipedia but what is amazing is he and the Swiss referee did not speak the same langauge and according to this entry, the linesman thought the ball had hit the back of the net and bounced back and not hit the cross bar which makes his subsequent ruling of a goal even more dubious! Definitely one of the most controversial events in World Cup history.

Wow, I did not know about the linesman not even knowing Hurst's shot hit the cross bar and bounced down but instead thought the bounce came from the shot rebounding off of the back of the net. Yes it does as Merengue writes make that call even more dubious and I agree it has to rank as one of the most controversial incidents in World Cup history. Another controversy from the 1966 World Cup was the last minute switching of the England-Portugal semifinal from Liverpool to Wembley stadium. Supposedly it was done so that the other semifinal between West Germany and the Soviet Union would be played at the smaller capacity Goodison Park in Liverpool instead of Wembley as it was felt that game might not fill Wembley while England's match of course would. Of course the side benefit of England playing it's semifinal in the larger capacity national stadium was of no import to the organizers! ;)
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Simon
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Funnily enough, right on 90 minutes, one of the German forwards was climbing all over Jack Charlton and yet the referee oddly gave Germany a free-kick. From the resulting scramble, Weber equalised and the game went into ET. Wouldn't it have been less interesting in these subsequent years if the final had simply finished 2-1?! I've always thought that Kenneth Wolstenholme's famous commentary on the fourth goal... "some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over! It is now! It's four!"...has tended to detract from what a good goal it was by Hurst, left-footed and right in the top corner. He has said that his aim was to shoot at goal as hard as he could, so that if it didn't go in it would at least run the clock down a bit! There was no time to restart the game after that goal. Amazingly, I've read that Hurst was under the impression that the whistle had blown before he shot, and it was only later that evening that he learned that the final score was 4-2 and that he'd got a hat-trick!

I've read in the past that point about the linesman thinking the ball had hit the net, but I've also several times read a direct quote from him saying that he saw the ball hit the bar and that he could 'still visualise to this day' his image of the ball bouncing just behind the line. I take what I read on wikipedia with a pinch of salt, and I'm dubious about the 'Stalingrad' comment, but who knows? I tend to think, on the balance of probability, that the ball landed either just over the line or almost (but not quite) entirely over. Roger Hunt had the best view of anyone, and rather than tapping the ball in he turned around to celebrate as he says he'd seen the ball go in. Things would be a lot less complicated had he just knocked the ball back in the net! I reckon that Hunt turning away to celebrate would have had an instant impression on the linesman's decision, even if on a subconscious level. I guess we'll never know for certain - all the more reason IMO for FIFA to have extra officials or technology. I recall an almost identical incident at a tournament a few years ago (Euro 2000 perhaps?) when a Romanian shot from almost the exact same position and angle as Hurst, the ball hit the crossbar and then bounced out and no goal was given. Subsequent replays showed that the ball had crossed the line. Of course that doesn't prove things one way or another as regards 1966, but I remember it just struck me as ludicrous that within seconds of the shot, millions of TV viewers knew that it was a valid goal but the referee didn't! A further titbit: the 'Russian linesman' was in fact Azerbaijani, and their national stadium is named after him!

As others have said, the England line-up evolved during that tournament. It wasn't just Greaves or Hurst, it was England's whole tactical set-up. Ramsey had some decent wingers but he decided that none of them had really proved themselves. He'd been tinkering prior to the tournament and it hadn't adversely affected results as England were unbeaten in two years and entered the tournament on an eight-game winning streak which included wins over Germany in February and in Madrid against Spain who were Euro champions at the time. Ramsey played a different set-up in each of England's group matches, with one match each for John Connelly (Man United), Ian Callaghan (Liverpool) and Terry Paine (Southampton). Unconvinced by any of them, he took the dramatic decision to ditch the idea of playing wingers altogether and instead fielded both Alan Ball and Martin Peters in midfield with Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles. I can't think of another instance where a team has won a WC while making quite such a dramatic change during the tournament? Some commentators were horrified by this development of playing without wingers. On the morning of the WC Final, L'Equipe had a headline "Tomorrow: How England won the World Cup and what we can do about it! :P In fact, 4-4-2 needn't be defensive at all - in fact in these days of one up front, 4-4-2 virtually counts as adventurous!

Traditionally England have had more fervent support in the provinces than at Wembley, so it may well have been a further advantage to England had the semi been played at Goodison. Still, the 1966 Final was England's 9th game against Germany, having previously won 7 and drawn 1 of those matches, so they were big favourites. I think the 66 tournament proves the same point as every WC. Home advantage certainly helps a lot, but to win a WC at any time you need a spine of world class players, you need to hit form at the right time and you need a bit of luck.

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Merengue
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I think the 66 tournament proves the same point as every WC. Home advantage certainly helps a lot, but to win a WC at any time you need a spine of world class players, you need to hit form at the right time and you need a bit of luck.

Absolutely right on the mark Simon. Whom would you say were the world class players on that English team in 1966? I would say Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton were quite possibly the best players in the world at their respective positions in 1966, so that is the world class spine you wrote of. Maybe Nobby Stiles as a destroyer would be ranked just below them, maybe not the best but one of the better players at his position at the time. But then you had guys like Peters, Hunt and Cohen who probably were nothing special but fit into their roles well to help form the team. Maybe they were the 1966 World Cup's version of Kleberson, Roque Junior, Christian Karembeu or Guido Buchwald, all decent but not great players who fulfilled their duties on later World Cup winning teams.

I tried finding a clip of the foul on Jackie Charlton near the end of regualtion in 1966 that Simon wrote about but most video compilations I found of the final skip to the free kick which led to Germany's scrambled equalizer. The closest I could find was this strange 9 minute video of highlights of the final with occasional Spanish commentary (which oddly is about 10 seconds ahead of the video!). At the 5:22 mark there is a field level picture of a tangle of legs which the commentator said was a foul and which led to the free kick which eventually became the late equalizer. But you cannot really see the foul at all. Well at least this video is in color!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2CAbraGjc&feature=related

It also has pretty good angles on Hurst's infamous 2nd goal and you can see the referee had no idea whether it was a goal or not and went over to his linesman. Amazing to think that it never occurred to FIFA to have a team of officials who all spoke the same language!

Watching this video and seeing the fans waving Union Jacks brings this question to my mind, when did English fans stop using the Union Jack at international matches and started using the St. George's cross flag?

Another thing about Spain's team in 1966 which Manzanares discussed about above, not only were Spain the current European champions but in 1966 Real Madrid won the European Cup with their beloved "Ye-Ye" team,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye-Ye_(Real_Madrid)

This team was composed entirely of Spanish players and featured the veteran Gento and young players like Amancio, Pirri, Zoco, Pachin and Sanchis, it was a little before my time but growing up I used to hear plenty of stories about the exciting Ye-Ye team (read the Wikipedia entry for how they got that name) and in later years Amancio and Pirri would be my child age footballing heroes. Yet a team built around the current champions of Europe at club and national team level went out in the first round in 1966 losing 2-1 to both Argentina and West Germany and beating Switzerland by that same score. Just one of many disappointing World Cups for Spain. :(
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Simon
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At 07:23 on Merengue's video, you can see all (or only most?) of the goal-line in front of the ball as it bounces back off the bar. Between that and Hunt turning round to celebrate, I think we can see why the goal was given.

Yep, Banks, Moore and Charlton from the final, as well as Jimmy Greaves. I just looked up Greaves' goalscoring record, which was 357 goals in 516 league games - apparently still an all-time record. He also scored 44 international goals in 57 games, which places him 3rd on England's all time list, although he played many fewer games than either Lineker or Charlton who are ahead of him. His time at AC Milan was not so successful, but for mainly non-footballing reasons. Greaves was always a bit of a 'jack the lad' and said he hated the stifling control Italian clubs exert over every moment of their players' lives. He also said, in that catenaccio era, that he wasn't enjoying the football which he found far too boring and regimented. But he still scored 9 goals in 12 Serie A games for Milan! He made a quick return to Spurs, joking that every penny he'd earned in Italy he'd had to pay back to Milan in fines for defying club curfew orders!

His wiki page is pretty interesting, I didn't know Garrincha kept the dog that peed on Greaves during the 1962 WC quarters!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Greaves

Hurst wasn't in Greaves' class, but he does still rank 11th on England's all-time list with 24 goals in 49 internationals. Martin Peters deserves to be elevated above the status of foot soldier. His intelligent interpretation of his role in the 'wingless wonders' was what made the system work. Ramsey was clearly a big admirer, saying Peters was 'ten years ahead of his time'. The understanding down that right side of Moore, Peters and Hurst, all of West Ham, was key. And they were getting used to Wembley finals, having won the FA Cup there in 64 and the ECWC against 1860 Munich at Wembley in 65! For all Hurst's heroics, the man of the match in the final is generally reckoned to be Alan Ball, who had the game of his life. Ironically he got up to support the attack so much that you could argue that he did actually operate as a winger that day. There's a nice line in Wolstenholme's commentary about "little Alan Ball, running himself daft!" I also like Ball's line about chasing onto the through ball to set up Hurst's second, despite feeling he'd 'already died a thousand times'! I agree with your assessment of Stiles. I wouldn't know whether to call Roger Hunt 'world class'. Perhaps not, but maybe that leaves me open to a charge of anti-Liverpool bias. Hunt scored a huge number of goals for Liverpool and remains their all-time record league goalscorer, besides scoring three goals in six WC games that year.

Cohen, Wilson and Jackie Charlton were solid and dependable defenders. England had only conceded one goal before the final, a Eusebio penalty in the semi. Actually, that's a good story as well. England had done intensive research on Eusebio's penalty-taking and discovered that he almost always stuck penalties just to the goalie's right. Banks had this drummed into him, just in case Portugal should get a pen. When this happened, Banks and the England bench exchanged knowing nods. Eusebio ran up to take the pen, sure enough he put it just to the goalie's right - but Banks dived to his left and let it in! Afterwards he said to the incredulous England staff that he'd just suddenly had the feeling that Eusebio would put it the other way! Goalkeepers eh?

Speaking of Eusebio, we United fans often hear of the 1966 European Cup that Merengue mentions. We were drawn against that mighty Benfica side in the quarters, twice European champions and always in the final. We won the first leg 2-1, but there were real doubts over whether that narrow lead would be enough to take to the Stadium of Light, where Benfica won virtually every game they played. In the event, United put on what is still regularly rated as the finest 90 minutes in the club's history, winning 5-1 in Lisbon! Just when everyone became convinced that we'd win the European Cup that year, we blew up in the semis against Partizan Belgrade! :(
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