World Cup History: England 1966

Written by flyfra on 01 March 2010 | No comments yet | in: World Cup

England-Champion-world-cup-1966

The World Cup ‘s history of 1966 in England The choice of the place and the stolen cup England knew the increasing popularity of football, so decided to end its battle against FIFA and proposed its country as a candidate for the next world competition. FIFA ‘s president of those years, Sir Stanley Rous, successor of Jules Rimet, had english origins and he promoted the idea of England as host country for the world cup. The event of 1966 began with a weird case of crime. Indeed, during a public exhibition, on the 20 March 1966, the Jules Rimet cup was stolen. It was found thanked to the powerful scent of a mongrel, Pickles, which found the object wrapped in a paper in one of the Londoner parks. In the meantime, the english federation decided to create a copy of the cup, which is fostered now in the football national museum. The rounds and Italy and Brazil’s eliminations The 16 teams which took part in the event were: Brazil England Italy Germany Portugal Argentina Chile North Korea URSS Hungary Spain Mexico Uruguay Switzerland France Bulgaria As in the previous editions, the model adopted was the italian rounds ‘system. The difference of the scored goals was adopted as a crucial criterion in the cases of draw. The two winner teams of each round took part in the quarter-final, where the first qualified team played against the second of the next round. This step ended with the defeat and the deserting of important teams such as Italy and Brazil. Italy, leaded by the coach Edmondo Fabbri, won against Chile for 2-0, forgetting what had happened in Santiago in the previous edition. In the next match against Urss, Italy conceded Cislenko’s goals and lost the match. The italian team showed a precarious kind of play, with no action in facing with the enemy’s strategy. But Italy could be safe if it had won against Korea. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Pak Doo Ik’s goals marked the end of Italy’s adventure in the world cup. Brazil lived the same experience, even though it was the champion of tho world cup’s edition (Sweden 1958 and Chile 1962) The brazilian team won the first match against Bulgaria for 2-0, but it was defeated in the two next matches with Hungary and Portugal. Pelè had an accident in the first match and the team did not have great players such as Didi, Vavà and Zagalo. The great Eusebio and his Portugal Without any doubt, Portugal was the revelation team of the competition. Among its players, there was the great Eusebio, Golden ball in 1965, and with 9 scored goals he was the top-goalscorer of the World Cup. Originally from Monzabico, Eusebio was considered the european counter-party to Pelè. For his sharp and elegant movements during the action he was called the “black panther”. Player of the Benfica, he collected many winnings and titles: 11 national titles, top-goal scorer for 7 times, an European cup in 1962, Golden shoes for two times (in 1968 and 1973) and winner of the golden ball. In Lisbon, a bronze statue of Eusebio was placed in the entry of the Estadio da Luz, as memory of a glorious player in ‘60s. Portugal qualified for the first time in a final phase of the competition. It arrived in the semi-final where it was stopped by England, which arrived to the final step against Germany. Germany, in turn, won against Uruguay for 4-0 and against URSS for 2-1 in the semi-final. The final England- Germany and the non-existent goal The final England –Germany was held on 30 July of 1966 in the Wembley stadium of London and it was followed by 100.000 TV viewers. The english team, leaded by sir Alf Ramsey, was highly motivated to play better than in the previous world cup’s editions. According to Ramsey’s dispositions the team was made up of Banks, Cohen, J. Charlton, Moore, Stiles, Wilson, Ball, Hunt, Hurst, R. Charlton, Peters. Instead, the german coach Helmut Schön lined up: H Tilkowski, Höttges, Weber, Schnellinger, Schulz, Beckenbauer, Haller, Emmerich, Held, Overath, Seeler. At the 12’Germany got the advantage with a goal of Haller but, after only 6 minutes, Hurst scored the goal of the draw. From this moment the match showed a condition of real equilibrium, until the goal of Peters, twelve minutes before the end of the match, which seemed give the victory to England. However, at one minute before the end, the german Weber scored the goal of the draw. The result was 2-2 and the teams went to the extra-times. The situation remained unchanged until the 101 minute, when Hurst kicked the ball in the lower part of the crossbar, and then it bounced in the line before coming back to the pitch. The kick gave the illusion of the goal and the referee validated the english goal. It was the most doubtful goal of the World Cup’s history. From the following analysis, it was demonstrated the error, because the ball did not completely cross the door’s line. From this moment on, people began to talk about the non-existent goal or “ghost goal”. Many people believe the referee Dienst, uncertain about the situation, asked some advice to his assistant Tofif Bakhramov. He could not speak english correctly, so his words were misunderstood. According to others, some people screamed to Bakhramow (ex sergeant of the Russian Army in the 2nd world war) “remember of Stalingrad!”, referring to the battle of Russia against Germany. So England got the advantage thank to the “ghost goal” of Hurst. He also scored another goal at the and of the match, signing the 4-2, and above the record of three goals in a final of world cup, still nowadays unbeaten. Although the match was the most criticized of the history, England won the world cup (its first and only time), with the Wimbley stadium full of overjoyed fans. The championship is also remembered for the partiality of the referees and because it was the first time that a mascot (the lion Willie) and a logo were adopted for business’ reasons The two main characters of the final: Bobby Charlton e Franz Beckenbauer The final match of the world cup saw two of the greatest players of all the times, playing in the opposite teams: Bobby Charlton in the english team and Franz Beckenbauer in the german one. Bobby Charlton was a strong forward of the Manchester United and the crucial point of reference for the rebirth of the team after the plane accident of 1958, where many of his friends and players died. Perhaps his main characteristic was versatility. Technically skilful to give ball to others, his kicks were very accurate. He is also remembered for his athletic skills, honesty and fair play. Franz Anton Beckenbauer, player of Bayer Monaco from 1964 to 1977, is placed at the 4th position in the special charts of the best players of the XX century, after Pelè, Maradona and Crujff. Remembered also as the “Kaiser” (the Emperor), he won the golden ball for two times, both in 1972 and 1976. He is considered the best defender of all the times. Pictures of the World Cup of 1966