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1966 FIFA World Cup

The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from July 11 to July 30. England was chosen as hosts by FIFA in August 1960 to celebrate the centenary of the codification of football in England. It was a year of triumph for the host nation, as England won the final beating West Germany 4-2, giving them their first (and so far only) World Cup triumph. Today, the 1966 World Cup is recognized as being an important event in the evolution of international football as a player originally from Africa (Portugal's Eusébio) finished as top goalscorer, and a team from Asia (North Korea) scored one of the biggest upsets of all time.

Qualification

Summary

The 1966 World Cup had a rather unusual hero off the field, a dog called Pickles. In the build up to the tournament the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition display. A nation wide hunt for the icon ensued. It was later discovered wrapped in some newspaper as the dog sniffed under some bushes in London. Pickles met an untimely end the following year when he was accidentally strangled by his own leash. The FA commissioned a replica cup in case the original cup was not found in time. This replica is held at the English National Football Museum, where it is on display.

The format of the 1966 competition remained the same as 1962: 16 qualified teams were divided into four groups of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

Despite achieving record attendances for the time, 1966 was a World Cup with few goals as the teams began to play much more tactically and defensively. This was exemplified by Alf Ramsey's England as they finished top of Group 1 with only four goals to their credit, but having none scored against them. Uruguay were the other team to qualify from that group at the expense of both Mexico and France. All the group's matches were played at Wembley Stadium apart from the match between Uruguay and France which took place at White City Stadium.

In Group 2, West Germany and Argentina qualified with ease as they both finished the group with 5 points, Spain managed 2, while Switzerland left the competition after losing all three group matches.

In the northwest of England, Old Trafford and Goodison Park played host to Group 3 which saw the World Cup holders, Brazil, finish in third place behind Portugal and Hungary and so be eliminated along with Bulgaria. Brazil was defeated by Hungary and Portugal. In both matches, key Brazilian players, such as Pelé, were hunted down violently and injured by the opposing teams. And in both matches, there was an English referee in charge (Ken Dagnall and George McCabe). No players from the opposing teams were sent off in either match.

Group 4, however, provided the biggest upset when North Korea beat Italy 1-0, and finished above them, earning themselves qualification along with the USSR. Chile finished bottom of the group.

The quarter-finals provided a surprisingly easy victory for West Germany as they cruised past Uruguay 4-0. The referee was Jim Finney, from England, who sent off two players from Uruguay: Horacio Troche and Hector Silva. It appeared as though the surprise package North Korea might do the same to Portugal when after 22 minutes they were in the lead 3-0. It fell to one of the greatest stars of the tournament, Eusébio, to change that. He scored four goals in the game and with José Augusto adding a fifth in the 78th minute, one of the most incredible comebacks was complete.

Meanwhile in the other two games, Ferenc Bene's late goal for Hungary against the USSR, who were led by Lev Yashin's stellar goalkeeping, proved little more than a consolation as they crashed out 2-1, and the only goal between Argentina and England came courtesy of England's Geoff Hurst. During that controversial game (for more details see Argentina and England football rivalry), Argentina's Antonio Rattín became the first player to be sent off in a senior international football match at Wembley. The German referee, Rudolf Kreitlein, gave Rattín his marching orders for dissent and the 'look on his face', even though he understood no Spanish. Rattín at first refused to leave the field and eventually had to be escorted by several policemen.

At this point, all semifinalists were from Europe. Both semi-finals finished 2-1: Franz Beckenbauer provided the winning goal for West Germany as they beat the USSR, while Bobby Charlton scored both goals in England's triumph against Portugal. Portugal went on to beat the USSR 2-1 to take third place.

1966 FIFA World Cup Final

For more information, see 1966 FIFA World Cup Final

London's Wembley Stadium provided the venue for the final, and 97,000 people crammed inside to watch. After 12 minutes 32 seconds Helmut Haller had put West Germany ahead, but the score was levelled by Geoff Hurst four minutes later. Martin Peters put England in the lead in the 78th minute; England looked set to claim the title when the referee awarded a free kick to West Germany with one minute left. The ball was launched goalward and Wolfgang Weber managed to poke it across the line, with England appealing in vain for handball as the ball came through the crowded penalty area.

With the score level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, the game went to extra time. In the 98th minute Hurst found himself on the score sheet again; his shot hit the crossbar, bounced down onto the goal line then back into the field of play and was controversially deemed to have crossed the line by the linesman and referee. Whether the ball crossed the goal line or not has been a matter of discussion for decades, and the controversial call has become part of World Cup history. Recent digitally-enhanced footage clearly illustrates that Geoff Hurst's second goal did not cross the line [1]. In the last minute it was Hurst again, who dribbled easily through the German half to net his third goal, just as the gathered crowd invaded the pitch to celebrate with the team, thus cementing the victory for England. This made Geoff Hurst the only player ever to have scored three times in a World Cup final.

BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme's description of the match's closing moments has gone down in history: "Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over." (Hurst scores) "It is now!".

England received the recovered Jules Rimet trophy from the Queen and were crowned World Cup winners for the first time.

Venues

Seven cities hosted the tournament:

Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see 1966 FIFA World Cup squads.

First round

Group 1

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
5 3 2 1 0 4 0
4 3 1 2 0 2 1
2 3 0 2 1 1 3
1 3 0 1 2 2 5

Group 2

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
5 3 2 1 0 7 1
5 3 2 1 0 4 1
2 3 1 0 2 4 5
0 3 0 0 3 1 9

West Germany were placed first due to superior goal average.

Group 3

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
6 3 3 0 0 9 2
4 3 2 0 1 7 5
2 3 1 0 2 4 6
0\ 3 0 0 3 1 8

Group 4

Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA
6 3 3 0 0 6 1
3 3 1 1 1 2 4
2 3 1 0 2 2 2
1 3 0 1 2 2 5

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

For more detail, see 1966 FIFA World Cup Final

Awards

1966 World Cup Winners

England
First title

Scorers

9 goals


6 goals


4 goals


3 goals

2 goals
  • Ruben Marcos
  • Uwe Seeler
  • Kálmán Mészöly
  • Pak Seung-Zin
  • Igor Chislenko


1 goal


Own goals

  • Ivan Davidov (for Hungary)
  • Ivan Vutsov (for Portugal)
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Trivia

  • It was the first World Cup to choose a mascot and an official logo for marketing purposes: The mascot was a lion, a typical symbol of the United Kingdom, wearing a Union Jack jersey called World Cup Willie. His image appeared in the official poster (top of the page). Every World Cup afterwards had featured a mascot (see FIFA World Cup mascots).

External links

This article is from Wikipedia and is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.