Some of the media exposure of Brazil is unwarranted , they've had some average teams between the 5 wins but the 82 team wasn't one of them .
Over confidence killed them that day against Italy in Barcelona , simple as that .
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Me and my school mates used to kick a ball about in '82 and say a Brazilian players name after every pass & touch. So that shows what a quality squad they had then, apart from the keeper obviously!. (and I did want Italy to beat them when it mattered)
Remember the chilly Jocky Scotch beating the mighty New Zealand 5-2, and then blowing it against both Brazil & the Soviets. ;)
And also England didn't lose a game that year, we won all 3 games in the first round, and then we drew both of the 2 games in the second round, 0-0!. It just wasn't good enough sadly.
The Dutch should have at least one world cup to their name , they were the best side in the 74 and 78 world cup finals and came up short against the host nations in both those games .
In the 2010 final against Spain they were horrible and deserved nowt .
I thought they were very unfortunate to lose on pens to the Brazilians in the 98 semi final , class team that with the De Boer twins , Davids and Berkamp in their prime .
Beckham being blamed for our exit in France 98 when Sol Campbell's header would have been our golden goal. Alan Shearer elbowing Roa in the face and it being forgotten.
Beckham's winning pen in the 1-0 win against the Argies in '02, yes get in there lol.
Costa Rica beating the jolly Scotch in '90, Saudi Arabia beating Belgium in '94, and Algeria beating W.Germany in '82.
When Lineker equalised against the Germans in the semi final in 1990 .
Feckin hell the pub roof came off , you could have heard a pin drop when Pearce and Waddle missed their pens .
Proper gutting that night , thought it was our time and destiny .
Im a leftie Animal (with both hand & feet), and is it a coincidence then or just bad luck both Pearce and Waddle missed their pens in '90, and they were/are lefties of course!. :O
Without being biased here, I genuinely believe we would have beat that appalling Argie team in that '90 Final.
And if the famous hand ball goal hadn't been given, and if we had actually beat the Argies in '86, do we think we could have beat that Belgium team in the Semis ?.
I was involved in only one penalty shoot out when I played , it was a cup semi final and we were playing a side 4 levels above us and we had done well to draw the game 2-2 .
I was nominated to take the first penalty .
The walk from the half way line is something nobody can prepare you for even at that level , I was around 28 or 29 at the time with many seasons under my belt .
I'm thinking my teammates have run their blood to water , played above ourselves for 120 minutes please don't let me be the one to let them down .
I was absolutely shyttin myself , I had no plan , no composure no nothing .
I put the ball on the spot and just hit it , it went straight down the middle and I scored , somehow .
Pure luck , there's nothing else to describe it .
Elite England footballers are diferent and have the time and help to conquer such issues , yes it's high pressure but it's high pressure for the opposition too and yet we fail every time .
As somebody once said " summats not reight with england in penalty shootout's .
Many folk say the same about Italia 90 had we reached the final etc. Looking at it logically we were poor in that tournament. The only games we played well yet may I add failed to win were the Holland 0-0 and West Germany 1-1. We were shyte against Ireland and Egypt. Belgium were the better side in the last 16. Cameroon were better than us in the quarters. We had lady luck on our side for once lads let's face it. The notion we'd have just beaten the argies in the final maybe a little bit blurred. The fact that we did ourselves justice in that semi with the Germans gives us a false impression of the overall tournament. We won 1 game in 90 minutes throughout the tournament and that was against Egypt.
The argies were shyte too don't get me wrong but we weren't much better. The final would've been a tight affair which couldve gone either way.