While we count down the hours, minutes, and seconds until all our football heroes from Qatar and Ecuador step up to write their own page in history, let’s look back at previous opening games since England invented the World Cup in 1966...
Cameroon ended the match with nine men and two points to set them on their memorable way to the quarter-finals, while Argentina, like some kind of proto-Portugal, licked their many literal and metaphorical wounds and recovered sufficiently to somehow shithouse their own way into the final where they were finally thwarted once and for all by a West German lesser of two evils.The 1994 World Cup was absolutely tremendous, and its opening match was no different.
It seems strange now when tournament summers/winters in Scotland consist solely of waiting for the inevitable-but-no-less-enjoyable-for-that demise of England, but back then the Scots were regular guests at FIFA’s top table. At least for the first week or so. And here they were, Colin Calderwood and Colin Hendry frustrating Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Bebeto. John Collins’ penalty looked like it might earn Scotland a famous point until Cafu’s shot ricocheted off Jim Leighton’s face and Tommy Boyd’s shoulder before bobbling agonisingly out of reach of Hendry’s desperate last-ditch lunge and into the net. Another first-round exit followed for Scotland, who at least haven’t had to endure that specific yet familiar pain since.
Papa Bouba Diop had other ideas, scoring the only goal to send shockwaves through the tournament from the very first game. And things got no better for the French, who departed Asia’s first World Cup with barely a Gallic shrug, scoring not a single goal as they finished bottom of Group A.A switch back to the hosts getting the opening-night honour, but happily no return to those dreary goalless days of the 60s and 70s.
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