The heroes of 1966 were largely the same group of men to represent the country at the 1970 tournament in Mexico Jack Charlton, Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst, Gordon Banks and Bobby Moore were once again amongst the players selected to win the trophy or break the hearts of the nation; unfortunately this time they would be found guilty of the latter. However, as the only England team to ever be triumphant at a World Cup, they can probably be excused for this one. Considering England were the holders of the competition, we were drafted a pretty shoddy group. Which saw us finishing second behind Brazil on four points during a time when a victory earned you two points rather than the more modern three. We beat both Romania and Czechoslovakia 1-0 respectively. A second place finish left England with the daunting task of a quarter-final clash against group 4 winners, West Germany who were hungry for revenge after England beat them in the previous World Cup final. The Germans had eased to victories in all three of their group stage games, finishing with an intimidating goal difference of +6. We hit the ground running and were 2-0 up within fifty minutes, thanks to goals from Alan Mullery and Martin Peters it all seemed too easy. Unfortunately comical defending allowed the Germans two quick-fire goals and suddenly the reality of extra time gloomed. The momentum was now very much with West Germany and they capitalised on further poor defending in the 108th minute with a Gerd Müller volley the game finished 3-2. Why was 1970 so devastating? Because victory was in the palm of our hands and we threw it away.
A wrestling enthusiast, currently educating the youth of Taiwan English; there are now a bunch of Asian kids running around with Yorkshire accents. Read about that trip and others at dragonstravel.com.
