June 20th : England v Sweden

[Dan D]

My memory does not reach back that far (1966). The first game I can remember is the 1974 final. With regard to the Wembley goal, a German physicist a few years ago had scientifically proven that it was no goal but then the German goalkeeper of the 1966 final told him that he had touched the ball slightly which possibly gave the ball a different drive. That means that all calculations are pointless. You would need the force and the angle the ball was hit for exact calculations. So we will never know. Goal is when the referee blows the whistle, is the old saying.
The German team 1974 did have a bad start, yes. I think it was a 0:0. Oh, and there was the 0:1 defeat against the socialistic East-Germany. The guy who scored the goal for East-Germany, Jürgen Sparwasser, once said: "If you write "Hamburg 1974" on my tombstone, everyone will know who is lying underneath". And there was the game against Poland that probably had the best team (even better than Holland that is) on a football ground flooded by stormwater which made the match irregular. They could as well have played stone, paper, scissors. So yes, you need a bit of luck, too. The "German efficieny in football" is a myth. The king is naked, I say.