World Cup

I just about remember watching the 1966 World Cup Final on a black and white TV with my Dad and brother.

I vividly remember watching England throw the game away against the Germans 4 years later thinking how could that happen. I remember 1978 thinking how far away Argentina seemed watching the Dutch contrive to lose again after losing in '74. I remember watching Platini in 1982 and '86 as well as the "hand of god" .1990 of course lives on in the memory. I remember 1994 and the heresy of staging it in the USA.

In 1998 we were on holiday in Brittany for the final.I remember my son, who was only 7 at the time, wanting Brazil to win as we stood and watched the match in a bar full of passionate French fans. We went back to our apartment at half time as he got a bit scared as the French got more passionate. 2002 mostly passed me by but 2006 lives on as we were in a hotel bar in Barcelona full of Italians for the final.

Four years ago I was in Cuba for some of the World Cup watching England humiliate us again only softened by drowning my sorrows with excellent Mojitos.

This year it is hard to remember that England actually played in the competition, we were so poor.

it has been a funny World Cup this time round. It seems to me that the quality of the football has actually got worse the longer the competition has gone on. Brazil have been poor and their match against Colombia was not worthy of a quarter final of the biggest competition in the world. France and Belgium looked like they had had enough and wanted to go home in their defeats flattering the Germans and the Argentinians in the process.

The match I am watching now as I type ( Holland v Costa Rica) is again very poor. It is hard to believe this is the same Dutch team that two weeks ago destroyed Spain.

But I'll keep watching the match and the rest of the competition because the World up has been an important part of my life for literally as long as I can remember.