“Sunday July 13, 2014 – My 13th World Cup Final – What great excitement!”

Jul 13, 2014 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Ha!  Ha!  In my article on Sunday June 29, 2014, quarterfinals’ time, I predicted that Germany, 2014’s best team; likely winner too; would meet Argentina in today’s W-C final!

I am very seldom wrong, except with lottery numbers!
Brazil, including Neymar, is ordinary, while skipper Tiago Silva is world class and was missed, but comparisons to past Brazil teams is sacrilege!
I even invited bets that Brazil, awful all tournament, would not make the final.  No one took me up.  They were a disaster waiting to happen, and should have lost from Game 1 v Croatia.
To date, I have ‘enjoyed’ 13 Soccer World Cup Finals, from 1966.
A “country-boy”, turning 13 in 1966, so scared when I was to attend one of Guyana’s better high schools, Central High School in Georgetown, I cannot remember much about 1966’s final, except England beating (West) Germany, controversially; 4 – 2.
England’s extra time 3rd goal, by Geoff Hurst, per Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst, is still questioned.  Did the ball actually cross the goal line?
Thankfully, 2014’s new goal-line technology has, to a point, solved that type of mystery!
1970 was my ‘coming out’ year, including understanding international football!
17, in 5th form, good at mathematics and sciences, representing CHS at table tennis, football and cricket, I was primed for my first series for Guyana; West Indies Under-19 cricket tournament; played in Guyana.
With my father, who also died in 1970, every kick was followed on a short-wave Phillips tubed radio as big as a 13-inch television.
Had Italy, including Luigi Riva and Gianni Riviera, played any other team in 1970’s final, except maybe similarly talented Germany, including Wolfgang Overath and incomparable Franz Beckenbauer, my “best player ever”, Italy could have won.
But Brazil was mesmerizing, beating Italy 4-1 in Azteca Stadium, Mexico, nearly 108,000 present!
Stupendous, superlative, spontaneous, Brazil’s 1970 names still swing off the tongue like magic – Felix, Piazza, Everaldo, Carlos Alberto, Pele, Tostao, Rivelino, Gerson, Brito, Clodoaldo and Jairzinho – best team to play football anywhere!
Assistant Air Traffic Controller in 1974, when “Kaiser Franz” lifted FIFA’s new World Cup as Germany’s captain, I too was playing much football, using strength and elasticity from that faster game to help my stamina and fitness for cricket!
2014’s Germany is not as good as 1974’s, not even 1990’s, but that Brazil shellacking, 7-1, was brutal.  Germany could have scored 10!
Playing Test cricket by 1976/7, I was pleased to be contracted to Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester, and able to view all of W-C 1978 from Argentina.
The “Live” commentaries of 1978’s tournament is still, including 2014, the best descriptive, blow-by-blow broadcasting I have ever heard, in any sport!
Osvaldo Ardilles and Mario Kempes powered Argentina.  Holland fought with Ruud Krol and Johnny Rep.
Argentina’s 1978 W-C victory was a small miracle too.  The country was under strict military rule!
1982, trained as a commercial pilot, and family man, still playing for WI, Brazil was led by “Dr.” Socrates.
But Brazil, and (West) Germany – finalists – led by excellent Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, could not stop Italy, and that gazelle, Paolo Rossi.  Italy beat (West) Germany 3-1!
1986, migrated to USA, I saw the “Hand of God” goal, by arguably the best player ever, Diego Maradona.
The greatest irony is that Maradona scored a 2nd goal that day too, “best individual goal ever”, taking the ball from mid-way in his own half, “beating” most of England’s outfielders, before scoring.  Spectacular!
Argentina beat (West) Germany in that splendid final; 3-2; 114,000 attending again at Azteca Stadium.
Assistant Engineer by 1990, when Germany, reunified, exacted immediate revenge, beating Argentina 1-0, in Rome, a violent final, but confirming Beckenbauer, 1974’s winning captain, 1990’s winning manager, as the genius and legend he remains!
USA 1994 brought impressive innovation by ESPN.  With technology advancing steadily, ESPN superimposed uninterrupted games inside an envelope bordering television screens, which still showed sponsors’ continuous commercials too.  Brilliant!
Extra time 0-0, Brazil beat Italy 3-2 on penalties, dedicating their victory to Formula 1 driver Aryton Senna, who also died in 1994.  America caught soccer fever then too!
Re-migrated to enraptured Caribbean, and piloting, by 1998, when Jamaica represented our region well, all enjoyed as surprising French, finishing with 10 men, but including magnificent Zinadine Zidane, beat defending champions Brazil 3-1.
2002, South Korea and Japan, an experiment, two countries hosting for the first time, which FIFA won.
Brazil won its fifth championship too, beating their nemesis Germany 2-0, the best two teams in competition, especially defensively, courtesy of a magical display by Ronaldo.
2006 was “Soca Warriors” time, Trinidad & Tobago carrying our exuberant enjoyment to Germany, where, after extra time, 1-1, Italy eventually beat France on penalties 5-3, the other head-line being 1998 French hero Zidane being sent off for head butting Italy’s Marco Materazzi!
2010’s final, in South Africa, saw Spain beat Holland amid noisy vuvuzelas and a plethora of yellow cards, the most dastardly final ever, Spain eventually winning, 1-0, through Andres Iniesta.
Massive excitement, 48 years of W-C finals.  2014, Germany meet Argentina, again.  History does repeat itself, several times!  Enjoy!

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