#4 England 1966
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For obvious reasons this tournament remains the most memorable in England – it was the only one to take place over here and it remains England’s only World Cup victory following arguably the best final in tournament history – the dramatic 4-2 win over West Germany that required extra-time, the World Cup final’s only hat-trick from Geoff Hurst, and the controversial second goal from Hurst that may or may not have crossed the line.
Hurst, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore were the outstanding players for England, who started slowly with a 0-0 draw against Uruguay but then picked up steam to beat Mexico, France, Argentina and Portugal en route to the final. With Pele injured and Brazil eliminated in the group stage, another star was born in Portugal’s Eusebio, who scored nine goals as his side reached the semis. And North Korea scored one of the all-time great upsets too, beating Italy 1-0 in the group stage to send them packing.
It’s the final game – the classic clash between Moore’s England and Beckenbauer’s West Germany – that ensures this tournament a place in history, though. Even outside of England it’s still one of the most memorable due to such a tremendous final.
#3 Brazil 2014
The latest edition of the World Cup got off to an absolute bang – on just the second day of the competition, the Netherlands thumped reigning champions Spain 5-1 – and never really slowed down from there. There were only five 0-0 draws throughout the competition and the majority of the games – ranging from group clashes between Italy and England, Portugal and the USA, and Australia and the Netherlands through to knockout clashes like Belgium vs. USA and Algeria vs. Germany were fantastic.
For the first time too there were no true whipping boys – smaller sides like Costa Rica and Algeria advanced to the knockout stages and pushed the bigger sides harder than ever, and even the likes of Iran and Australia gave good accounts of themselves in losses. The most memorable moment though was Maracanazo, part deux. The hosts Brazil had advanced to the semi-finals despite looking shaky at numerous points, but in their game against Germany they were cruelly exposed and embarrassed in a 7-1 loss.
Germany went on to defeat Argentina 1-0 in a replay of the 1990 final, but the game was much better tempered and more entertaining even if it was tight. In the end, 2014 lived up to all of the hype.
