Discussion
It's a testament to how dire the English national team have been, that we are still harping on about this. Considering the number of utter tonkings we've had off the Germans since, and their WC record v ours, I find it all a bit embarrassing.
We had a half decent team 50 years ago, let's move on.
We had a half decent team 50 years ago, let's move on.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
It's a testament to how dire the English national team have been, that we are still harping on about this..<etc.>
Well I'm enjoying it and it's not compulsory viewing as they say...And I will be having a pint in the Boleyn Arms on Saturday and looking at the bronze statue on the way out and sitting in the Bobby Moore stand for the game.
Half of the garden lawn at my parents house was returfed with turf taken from Wembley when they dug up the 66 pitch and relaid it in around 1971-ish 
Sadly, that historic titbit of info didn't interest the prospective buyers of the house when I recently had to put it up for sale after my mother passed away.
Sadly, that historic titbit of info didn't interest the prospective buyers of the house when I recently had to put it up for sale after my mother passed away.
aeropilot said:
Half of the garden lawn at my parents house was returfed with turf taken from Wembley when they dug up the 66 pitch and relaid it in around 1971-ish
Anyone recall the 70 cup final. They'd held Horse of the Year show at Wembley the week before, so it was just like a ploughed field. So bad the reply had to be moved to Old Trafford.As I said above, I'd never seen as much of the match as was shown, must have been at least 40-50 minutes worth of game time.
There's always a lot of talk about the football nowadays is much better than back then etc, but watching that game really changed my view.
Yeah there were some mistakes and poor play, but we see the same thing happen now. What impressed me most was how quickly they looked to get play going again and weren't just smasing it long etc.
In the 120th minute of the game has Moore bringing the ball down on his chest, almost in his 6 yard box, rather than hoofing it anywhere. Not only that he plays a short ball to another player before getting it back, then picking out Hunt...and the rest is history.
The other game I want to get a good copy is the England v Brazil 1970 game. From memory some of the football played in that game makes many of todays look amateur.
There's always a lot of talk about the football nowadays is much better than back then etc, but watching that game really changed my view.
Yeah there were some mistakes and poor play, but we see the same thing happen now. What impressed me most was how quickly they looked to get play going again and weren't just smasing it long etc.
In the 120th minute of the game has Moore bringing the ball down on his chest, almost in his 6 yard box, rather than hoofing it anywhere. Not only that he plays a short ball to another player before getting it back, then picking out Hunt...and the rest is history.
The other game I want to get a good copy is the England v Brazil 1970 game. From memory some of the football played in that game makes many of todays look amateur.
London424 said:
In the 120th minute of the game has Moore bringing the ball down on his chest, almost in his 6 yard box, rather than hoofing it anywhere. Not only that he plays a short ball to another player before getting it back, then picking out Hunt...and the rest is history.
Err.... you mean Hurst, not Hunt 
aeropilot said:
London424 said:
In the 120th minute of the game has Moore bringing the ball down on his chest, almost in his 6 yard box, rather than hoofing it anywhere. Not only that he plays a short ball to another player before getting it back, then picking out Hunt...and the rest is history.
Err.... you mean Hurst, not Hunt I watched this last night, and agree with the sentiments of other posts. It's easy to think we're using rose-coloured specs etc., but everything seemed so much less frantic. The documentary mentioned the Stiles tackle which caused some furore at the time, but it was a mere bagatelle compared to what we see virtually every weekend in the Premiership. There was no shirt-pulling, no cynical fouls, no fisticuffs in the penalty box. I don't think I ever saw Bobby Moore resort to anything of that kind in his entire career. Class counts, but of course it's a lot easier when the opposition aren't doing it either.
It was good to see some of the sometimes forgotten players get a mention - it was a very well-balanced team. Nobby gets due credit for completely obliterating the menace of Eusebio in the semi-final. It was his day of days. And the look on Jimmy Greaves' face at the final whistle! Such sadness and regret, mixed with pleasure for his teammates.
I doubt if Moore would hack it in the modern game. He was too nice. Ron Greenwood once told a story of how in training he would suddenly blow a whistle and stop play, and then ask players to stand still and tell him who was the nearest teammate to himself, and where they stood. Some players could give him a few answers, but Moore could reel off just about everybody on the pitch. Extraordinary awareness of everything that was going on around him.
It was nice to see Bobby Charlton's shooting prowess again. That man could hit a ball with venom.And accuracy. It wasn't the "beachball" we use today, either.
(I hadn't heard before about the attempt by Argentina to start a fight. Shows how good the press were in those days at respecting Ramsey's request not to report the incident.)
It was good to see some of the sometimes forgotten players get a mention - it was a very well-balanced team. Nobby gets due credit for completely obliterating the menace of Eusebio in the semi-final. It was his day of days. And the look on Jimmy Greaves' face at the final whistle! Such sadness and regret, mixed with pleasure for his teammates.
I doubt if Moore would hack it in the modern game. He was too nice. Ron Greenwood once told a story of how in training he would suddenly blow a whistle and stop play, and then ask players to stand still and tell him who was the nearest teammate to himself, and where they stood. Some players could give him a few answers, but Moore could reel off just about everybody on the pitch. Extraordinary awareness of everything that was going on around him.
It was nice to see Bobby Charlton's shooting prowess again. That man could hit a ball with venom.And accuracy. It wasn't the "beachball" we use today, either.
(I hadn't heard before about the attempt by Argentina to start a fight. Shows how good the press were in those days at respecting Ramsey's request not to report the incident.)
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