As Cat Stevens (and PP Arnold and Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow) nearly put it, the first cup is the deepest. It’s hard to recreate the magic of the first World Cup you remember, no matter how many times older fans tell you the tournament had more charm back in their day.
Italia 90 was so dull that it led to the new back-pass law but, start talking about great World Cups to fans in their late 30s, and you’ll hear about Gazza, Pavarotti and Totò Schillaci. So what that the tournament has the lowest goals-per-game ratio in World Cup history.
It’s the same with 1994, the World Cup where the Brazil and Italy players were as goal shy in the final as Diana Ross had been in the opening ceremony. But for some of us, it was our introduction to football. We gasped at Romário and Bebeto without knowing that Pelé and Zico had hit greater heights before or that the Divine Ponytail’s missed penalty was not quite as iconic as the Tardelli cry a dozen years before. If you’re young enough, the 2010 tournament might even be your favourite, regardless of the Jabulani, vuvuzelas and Howard Webb.
You can make the case for every World Cup. It’s hard to beat the first one you remember, the first one you attended or the one when you had nothing better to do than sit on your sofa and drink in every every single minute of action, with your only responsibility in life being the grand task of switching from BBC to ITV every few hours. Whatever your favourite World Cup and whatever your reasons, tell us in the form below and we’ll feature a selection of your responses on the site in the next few weeks.
