World Cup 1966.

Nineteen-Sixty-Six is the date that resonates throughout English football, 4-2 the magic scoreline and Kenneth Wolstenholme’s  famous commentary became the soundtrack to England’s wistful nostalgia for an elusive, imagined bygone perfection.

This world cup had everything, passion, controversy, some fine football and one of the greatest footballing upsets of all time, when North Korea knocked out Italy at Ayresome Park.

In an epic battle between the English and German Football associations for the right to stage the finals, the English bid was victorious at the 1960 FIFA congress in Rome. The first instance of “Football Coming Home” was born. It was the perfect companion piece to the Football associations centenary in 1963.

The precursor to the finals was the qualifying competition, which whittled the seventy entries down to the sixteen teams that would attend the finals. With this complete all looked ready for the true competition to begin. However four months before the competition kicked off the trophy was stolen, only to be retrieved from a garden a short time later, by a dog named ‘pickles’.

When the competition finally began it got off to a very slow start.

In Group 1, in the opening match, England were held to a 0-0 draw by Uruguay at Wembley. England then picked up the pace with victories over France and Mexico. While Roger Hunt scored three times in these two matches the prolific Jimmy Greaves failed to score. Further misfortune was to come Greaves’ way when, in the match against France, he suffered a gashed leg which ruled him out of the quarter-final. Misfortune for Greaves but possibly fortuitous for England as up stepped one Geoff Hurst to replace him.

In a highly competitive group 2 West Germany quickly showed their potential with a 5-0 win over Switzerland. But  in the end West Germany and Argentina proved too strong for Spain and Switzerland.

In Group 3 Brazil proved very disappointing. They failed to settle in the North-West, or to survive the decidedly unfriendly attentions of their opponents. Having beaten Bulgaria 2-0 they  then lost their first world cup match since 1954, in a classic encounter with Hungary. They then succumbed to Portugal, whose striker Eusebio was to be one of the stars of the competition. Pele had been injured in the Bulgaria clash and later complained that “My legs ached as a result of Zhechev’s constant tripping and kicking”, despite this and after missing the match with Hungary he was included in the line up for the last group game despite being obviously unfit. After being cynically hacked by Morias, Pele pledged that he would never play in the world cup again. Happily for Brazil and world football, he did not carry this threat through. But this time Brazilian hopes fell with him.

In Group 4, The Soviet Union, efficient and technically adept, cruised through to the quarter finals without alarm. For Italy, however there was to be a rude awakening. Having drawn 0-0 with France and lost 1-0 to the Soviets, and having seen winger Bruno Mora break his leg, they had to beat North Korea to stay in the competition, but what seemed a formality turned into a nightmare. In the 42^nd minute, at a packed Ayresome Park, Pak Doo Ik dispossessed  Gianni Rivera surged forward and scored with a searing shot past Enrico Albertosi. The Italian manager Edmondo Fabbri, who had sensationally left out of the squad some of Italy’s leading players, from that day forth was met with chants of “Ko-re-a” at every Italian stadium he visited, as were members of the losing team. In fact, a disgusted Italian public, welcoming the team home, expressed their frustration by pelting them with rotten fruit.

Thus the group stages were complete, leaving England, Uruguay, West Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Hungary, The Soviet Union and North Korea to fight it out.

The strange events in Liverpool continued at Goodison park when Portugal met North Korea in their Quarter-Final. There was a goal in the opening minute, then a second and a third, all for North Korea. It was then that Eusebio proved his genius, thanks to him and Jose Torres, Portugal clawed back the deficit to win a sensational game 5-3.

Just as memorable, though for less glorified reasons, was the Quarter-Final clash, at Wembley, between England and Argentina, where the visiting captain, Antonio Rattin, not only talked himself into being sent off, but steadfastly refused to leave the pitch. When Rattin was finally escorted from the pitch England made heavy weather of their extra man, until Hurst made his first impression on the tournament, scoring the winner which took England to the World Cup Semi-Finals for the first time.

In the Quarter-Final between the Soviet Union and Hungary, Soviet world cup veteran goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, redeemed himself for his errors which cost the Soviet Union so dear in the 1962 world cup, by heroically frustrating Hungary at Roker Park. While at the other end his team-mates took advantage of Hungarian defensive weaknesses to lead their team to a 2-1 win.

In the fourth Quarter-Final West Germany gave nine-man Uruguay a good old fashioned hammering to win 4-0 and continue their march towards the final.

The first Semi-Final to take place was that between England and Portugal. This match ,in contrast to the second Semi-Final, turned out to be a classic. Bobby Charlton upstaged the mercurial Eusebio with what many believe was his finest ever game in an England shirt. Even receiving congratulatory handshakes from the Portuguese after his spectacular second goal. This match unlike the England v Argentina game was a wonderful advertisement for the game of football. The most poignant image of this game being Eusebio’s tears as he left the pitch.

The second Semi-Final was of very little merit with West Germany narrowly edging out The Soviet Union.

The third place play-off between Portugal and The Soviet Union was, as these affairs tend to be, a subdued affair, with Eusebio scoring his ninth goal of the tournament and  winning the consolation prize of being the tournaments highest scorer.

The day of the final came, 30^th July 1966, a day etched in the minds of all English football fans. The final was played before a packed Wembley with a capacity 96,924 in attendance. The England manager Alf Ramsey caused a sensation before kick-off, by leaving out star striker Jimmy Greaves, despite his return from injury, instead he kept together the winning combination up front of  Hurst and Liverpool’s Roger Hunt, Greaves was distraught. The match kicked off and England had the worst start imaginable, after just thirteen minutes an uncharacteristic lapse of concentration in defense by full back, Ray Wilson, lead to a goal  by Haller. Six minutes later Ramsey’s decision to stick with the winning strike partnership was spectacularly vindicated when Hurst equalized. When Hurst’s West Ham colleague Martin Peters put England in front with only twelve minutes of the match left to play the England players felt that the Jules Rimet Trophy was surely in their grasp. But a scrambled goal from Wolfgang Weber just before the final whistle forced the game into extra time, the first time the final had gone to extra time since 1934. Ramsey refused to let the England players give in to weariness and disappointment. In order to encourage them he pointed at the West German players and barked, “Look at them, they’re finished”. Play restarted and in the 100^th minute controversy raged when Alan Ball crossed and Hurst, coming in on the near post, hammered his shot goal ward. It hit the underside of the bar, bounced down and then out of the goal, but which side of the line did it land. The nearest England player to the ball was Hunt, believing it to be a goal he wheeled away in celebration rather than tap the ball back over the line. The Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst was not sure, but the Soviet linesman Tofik Bakhramov was. The goal was given, 3-2 England !!! The Germans protested but any sense of injustice was crushed when with only seconds left, Bobby Moore struck a long ball up field for Hurst to chase, not only did he chase it he caught it and thumped it into the roof of the German net to become the first player to ever score a hat-trick in a world cup final. As Hurst was running up the left wing, some spectators got onto the pitch, resulting in the commentator, Kenneth Wolstenholme, speaking the words which have become part of English football folklore, “Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over,” then as Hurst’s shot hits the roof of the net he completes the phrase with “It is now !”.  Final score 4-2 England, Bobby Moore climbs the famous Wembley steps to collect the trophy from the Queen. There are unbelievable scenes of celebration. Bobby Moore is carried aloft by the team, Nobby Stiles dances a jig with the world cup in his hand. All images imprinted forever more in any Englishman’s mind. 

For the first time since the world cup in Uruguay, thirty two years previously, the home nation had won the world cup, and in the process inspired an enduring national mythology.

World Cup 1966 UEFA Qualifying.

Play-Off for first place.

Syria withdrew from the competition.

Play-Off for first place.

World Cup 1966 Tournament.

First Round.

Quarter Finals.

Semi Finals.

Third Place Play Off.

Final.

* After extra time.

Tournament Top Scorer.