There are two countries that define English misery at the World stage. Argentina we have already seen, but in the 1990 World Cup the power house and ultimate winner was West Germany. They had one of the strongest lineups you could imagine, with the likes of Völler, Klinsmann, Matthäus, Brehme, Kohler and coached by the legendary Franz Beckenbauer they had everything. Power, pace, fantastic finishing, dominant defense. They were the complete team, without weakness and great at every area of the game.
England were out matched, but in with a shot but things started to look bad early on when a free kick deflected off the back of Paul Parker and wound up ballooning over the stranded Peter Shilton in the England goal. Lineker equalized for England and the stalemate set in. Paul Gascoigne already on a yellow card was booked in the 71st minute guaranteeing that no matter what happened who would miss the World Cup final and be shed open tears on field during the game. It was the image that summed up the World Cup for England in 1990.
Extra Time. Penalties. Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle miss …. England suffer the ignominy of having to play Italy for third place. Sorry about the music over the video ….
The feeling in England after the game was that if we had gotten through the Germany game was that we would have beaten Argentina in the final. IF …. If ….. if ……
The final between Argentina and West Germany was a dour affair decided by a solitary penalty kick. West Germany had won, and we could do was sit and wonder.
Always felt we outplayed the Germans in that one and deserved the win. I was still living in Liverpool at the time and the place was bedlam.
The 3rd place match? I helped my brother move to Wales that day and couldn’t watch it, too gutted.
Comment by Mark Adams — May 26, 2010 @ 9:22 am