We at 3i go back 52years to take a look at “The 1966 FIFA World Cup Final” which was played by England and West Germany on 30 July 1966 at Wembley Stadium in London, and had an attendance of 96,924. The British television audience peaked at 32.3 million viewers, making it the most watched television event ever in the United Kingdom.
England won 4–2 after extra time to win the Jules Rimet Trophy. The England team became known as the "wingless wonders", on account of their then-unconventional narrow attacking formation, described at the time as a 4–4–2. The match is remembered for England's only World Cup trophy, Geoff Hurst's hat-trick – the first, and to date, only one ever scored in a FIFA World Cup Final – and the controversial third goal awarded to England by referee Gottfried Dienst and linesman Tofiq Bahramov.
Road to the final
Both teams were strong throughout the tournament. Each won two and drew one of their three matches in the group stages. England did not concede a goal until their semi-final against Portugal.
England played their opening game against Uruguay and they drew 0-0, their second and third game against Mexico and France respectively ended in a 2-0 victory. They beat Argentina 1-0 in the quarter-finals before beating Portugal 2-1 in the semi-finals. All their games were played in the Wembley Stadium in London.
West Germany beat Switzerland 5–0 at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield in their opening match, their second match ended as a 0-0 draw against Argentina in Villa Park, Birmingham, their third game against Spain ended in a 2–1 victory. They beat Uruguay 4–0 at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield in theQuarter-final and also beating Soviet Union 2–1 at Goodison Park, Liverpool in the Semi-final
Match
Normal time
England, managed by Alf Ramsey and captained by Bobby Moore, won the toss and elected to kick off. After 12 minutes, Sigfried Held sent a cross into the English penalty area which Ray Wilson misheaded to Helmut Haller, who got his shot on target. Jack Charlton and goalkeeper Gordon Banks failed to deal with the shot which went in making it 1–0 to West Germany.
In the 19th minute, Wolfgang Overath conceded a free kick, which Moore took immediately, floating a cross into the West German area, where Geoff Hurst rose unchallenged and levelled the scores with a downward glancing header. The teams were level at half-time, and after 77 minutes England won a corner. Alan Ball delivered the ball to Geoff Hurst whose deflected shot from the edge of the area found Martin Peters. He produced the final shot, beating the West German keeper from eight yards to make the score 2–1 to England.
Germany pressed for an equaliser in the closing moments, and in the 89th minute Jack Charlton conceded a free kick for climbing on Uwe Seeleras they both went up for a header. The kick was taken by Lothar Emmerich, who struck it into George Cohen in the wall; the rebound fell to Held, who shot across the face of goal and into the body of Karl-Heinz Schnellinger. The ball deflected across the England six-yard box, wrong-footing the England defence and allowing Wolfgang Weber to level the score at 2–2 and force the match into extra time. Banks protested that the ball had struck Schnellinger on the arm, and reiterated the claim in his 2002 autobiography, but replays showed that it actually struck Schnellinger on the back.
Extra time
Geoff Hurst's “Goal at Wembley "
England pressed forward and created several chances. In particular, with five minutes gone, Bobby Charlton struck the post and sent another shot just wide. With 11 minutes of extra time gone, Alan Ball put in a cross and Geoff Hurst swivelled and shot from close range. The ball hit the underside of the crossbar, bounced down and was cleared. The referee Gottfried Dienst was uncertain if it had been a goal and consulted his linesman, Tofiq Bahramov from Azerbaijan in the USSR, who indicated that it was, and the Swiss referee awarded the goal to the home team. The crowd and the audience of 400 million television viewers were left arguing whether the goal should have been given or not.
England's third goal has remained controversial ever since the match. According to the Laws of the Game the definition of a goal is when "the whole of the ball passes over the goal line”. English supporters cited the good position of the linesman and the statement of Roger Hunt, the nearest England player to the ball, who claimed it was a goal and that was why he wheeled away in celebration rather than attempting to tap the rebounding ball in.
Modern studies using film analysis and computer simulation have shown that the ball never crossed the line – both Duncan Gillies of the Visual Information Processing Group at Imperial College London and Ian Reid and Andrew Zisserman of the Department of Engineering Science at University of Oxford have stated that the ball would have needed to travel a further 2.5–6.0 cm to fully cross the line.
Some Germans cited possible bias of the Soviet linesman, especially as the USSR had just been defeated in the semi-finals by West Germany. Bahramov later stated in his memoirs that he believed the ball had bounced back not from the crossbar but from the net, and that he was not able to observe the rest of the scene, so it did not matter where the ball hit the ground anyway.
Queen Elizabeth II presented England captain Bobby Moore with the FIFA World Cup trophy (Jules Rimet).
One minute before the end of play, the West Germans sent their defenders forward in a desperate attempt to score a last-minute equaliser. Winning the ball, Bobby Moore picked out the unmarked Geoff Hurst with a long pass, which Hurst carried forward while some spectators began streaming onto the field and Hurst scored moments later. Hurst later admitted that his blistering shot was as much intended to send the ball as far into the Wembley stands as possible should it miss, in order to kill time on the clock.
The final goal gave rise to one of the most famous sayings in English football, when BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme described the situation as follows: "And here comes Hurst. He's got... some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over. It is now! It's four!"
Details
30 July 196615:00 BST
England 4–2 (a.e.t.) West Germany
Hurst 18', 101', 120'
Peters 78' Report Haller
Weber 89'
Wembley Stadium, London
Attendance: 96,924
Referee: Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland)
ENGLAND
GK 1 Gordon Banks
RB 2 George Cohen
CB 5 Jack Charlton
CB 6 Bobby Moore(c)
LB 3 Ray Wilson
DM 4 Nobby Stiles
RM 7 Alan Ball
AM 9 Bobby Charlton
LM 16 Martin Peters
CF 10 Geoff Hurst
CF 21 Roger Hunt
Manager:
Alf Ramsey
WEST GERMANY
GK 1 Hans Tilkowski
RB 2 Horst-Dieter Höttges
CB 5 Willi Schulz
CB 6 Wolfgang Weber
LB 3 Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
CM 4 Franz Beckenbauer
CM 12 Wolfgang Overath
RF 8 Helmut Haller
CF 9 Uwe Seeler (c)
CF 10 Sigfried Held
LF 11 Lothar Emmerich
Manager:
Helmut Schön
Officials
Linesman: Tofiq Bahramov (Soviet Union)
Linesman: Dr. Karol Galba (Czechoslovakia)
Match rules
90 minutes
30 minutes of extra time if necessary
Replay if scores still level:
• 19:30 BST, Tuesday, 2 August 1966
• Wembley Stadium, London
No substitutions
WIKIPEDIA
No comments:
Post a Comment