Rewind four years to Korea/Japan, the night before the knockout stages. So far there have been shocks, goals, exciting games - and a scattering shake-up of the world order. France and Argentina, the pre-tournament favourites, humbled, humiliated; South Korea, Senegal and the US holding ambitions that were fantasies two weeks ago. Everyone agrees: this World Cup could go down as a classic.
Then, a few hours later, Germany v Paraguay kicks off and cold caution kicks in. The dingy 1-0 sets a precedent; thereafter results read like binary code - 0s and 1s and 1s and 0s - and not much else. In the end there are just 25 goals in 15 knockout games (excluding the irrelevant third-place play-off) and just one classic - Italy v South Korea. And soon another consensus is reached: this World Cup has been dire.
And rightly so, too. For while ranking World Cups is subjective (for the record my order is Mexico 86, Spain 82, USA 94, France 98, Italy 90 and Korea/Japan 02), ultimately the best tournaments are about great teams playing spectacular games, ideally against each other.
Mexico had its plunging lows, as anyone that stayed awake through the twin tediums of West Germany v Morocco and West Germany v Mexico will remember. But they were spectacularly trumped by the magic moments - France 1-1 USSR and Denmark 6-1 Uruguay in the group stages, followed by Belgium 4-3 USSR, Spain 5-1 Denmark, Argentina 2-1 England and, of course, France 1-1 Brazil, a game Pele described as the greatest he'd ever seen.
España 82 wasn't far behind. Even now iconic images linger in the memory: David Narey's wonder-strike against Brazil, and the seleção's sizzling riposte, including Eder's featherduster chip over a statuesque Alan Rough; Zico, Falcao and Socrates creating genius; Marco Tardelli's tears in the final. There were great games too, especially in the ultimate group of death, which saw Brazil, Argentina and Italy play winner takes all, as well as a wildly exciting semi-final between West Germany and France.
These tournaments, España 82 and Mexico 86, were a perfect World Cup indoctrination. No others since have glowed as brightly - although USA 94 certainly had its moments (Romania 3-2 Argentina, Italy 2-1 Nigeria, Italy 2-1 Spain and Bulgaria 2-1 Germany), as did France 98 (Nigeria 3-2 Spain, Argentina 2-2 England, Holland 2-1 Argentina and Brazil 1-1 Holland).
Italia 90, however, was cynical and cautious - and best forgotten. West Germany were brilliant, especially in their 4-1 demolition of a Yugoslavia side containing Prosinecki, Savicevic and Stojkovic, but no one else was. And, the Germans' spit-soaked 2-1 win over Holland, England's 3-2 win over Cameroon and their epic semi-final with West Germany apart, blockbusters were scarce.
And Germany 2006? Well, so far, so good. The big guns are all through; many are looking ominous. When the stakes are racked upwards that could change horribly, of course. But for now, we can all dream of fireworks and illumination.
