What are your earliest World Cup memories.

[Josephus]

I know I'm one of the oldest people here (I'm turning 60 in less than two weeks  ). but I'm sure many of you, particularly the Europeans among us, have been following the World Cup as long as they can remember. And how long do you remember?

I was born a month before England won the World Cup, and don't remember any of that. I'm sure I would have watched some of the World Cup 1970 but I was 4, and remember nothing.

But I do remember the 74 world cup in West and East Germany. Tip and Tap were the mascots. I would have just turned 8. At this point, although school was out for the summer, I would have had several neighbourhood friends and we would have talked about it, probably parroting our fathers. For instance, I remember the first game Brazil V. Yugoslavia. The word in the playground as we kicked around our black and white balls, was that Brazil would not do well, as it was the first world cup in a decade that Pele would not be playing. But MY DAD said that they still had Rivellino and Jarizinho. That game, disappointingly (and perhaps a portent of many WC games to come) finished in a 0-0 draw.

I do remember Italy hammering Haiti 5-1 and my introduction to Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff. And i remember quite well the final with West Germany beating Holland 2-1 and loving the name Beckenbauer.

And yours?