30th anniversary of Italia 90

my introduction to football. turned 6 shortly after the tournament ended. I'm aware that I had seen the odd football match on telly before this - Scottish Cup Finals and FA Cup Finals and the like - but I have no recollection until this tournament, which was famously shite, but not completely unloveable. probably best remembered in Britain for the bbc's lovely title sequence with the soundtrack of nessun dorma

totò schillaci's exophthalmic visage, roger milla's dance, packie bonner, Gazza crying and Lineker doing that face. Maradona was my dad's hero and perversely for a chilean he was all in for Argentina once Scotland, then Italy (knocked out by Argentina) were eliminated. so the final was a bit of a shiter in the Mendoza household. was also a bit of a shiter in most households outside of Germany because the match was fucking chronic. in hindsight the germans (who I hated) deserved to win, and while they were somewhat cynical/industrial, compared to Argentina they were alter boys - if memory serves Maradona actually drugged Branco of Brazil during their match with downers dissolved in a water bottle - world-class-shithousery from the wee demonic genius.

feel like this forum is a bit fucking dead now, especially with dear-departed posters, including, but not limited to, deems (hopefully temporary), ismael, nakh, but perhaps we can have a new thread that doesn't die immediately

Was it famously shite? Both this and USA 94 are so enshrined in my imagination as my first two World Cups that I struggle to imagine anyone not having been rapt throughout.

anecdotally older people always say it was bad and definitely in the sporting press in the uk it's referred to as having been a poor tournament, this despite England's run. a lot of the knockout stages were low-scoring nervy games (plus ça change I suppose) and it holds the record for lowest average goals per game, with something like 2.4 goals a game (just googled, it was 2.2). goals are overrated obviously but still. my recollection of both tournaments is similar to yours

the opening game defeat for argentina stays in my memory mainly for the attempted murder of caniggia by a couple of cameroonians.