My Memories Of The World Cup At Goodison Park by Sting Ray Jones

1966 is a special year in the English football calendar, not only because England won the world cup for the first time, but as every true blue knows, in May 66 Everton won the FA cup at Wembley for the third time, beating Sheffield Wednesday 3 – 2 after being 2 goals down.

The idea of writing this article, is to talk about the games that were played at Goodison in July 1966, leading up to the world cup final at Wembley.
The 4 countries drawn to play at Everton`s ground were Brazil, Bulgaria, Hungary and Portugal, real mouth watering stuff, and the prospects of seeing the likes of Pele, Jairzinho, Garrincha, Beckenbauer, and Eusebio etc. for the first time.
All this at Goodison Park after watching the blues lift the FA .Cup just a few short weeks ago, made me realize that God must be an Evertonian.

As I queued up in Goodison road for tickets for the first game, Brazil versus Bulgaria, I couldn’t help but notice, that out of the thousands that were in the queue, (there was 52.000 at the game) nearly every other one had a blue and white scarf on.
Everyone was talking about the FA.cup the buzz was tremendous. My own thoughts kept going back to Wembley, wondering why the hell Harry Catterick had dropped Fred Pickering, and brought in Mike Trebilcock, and silently thanking him for doing so.
Four of us went down to Wembley for the cup final on the Friday, prior to the game and, (no! maybe I should keep that story for another day)

What I can say though is, when I got back home on the Sunday my wife Flo, had decked out the house in blue and white, and with my two sons Steve and Paul we just jigged round the house, that`s what you call happy. As we danced around my two lads kept saying, isn’t it great to be an Evertonian dad.

Little did we know that years later they would create an Everton web site and have nicknames like Kipper and Jogger, but again that’s another story. Sorry I digress, this article is about Goodison Park and the world cup.

Brazil v Hungary, Tuesday 15th July 1966. 1-3 (H/T 1-1) Goals: TOSTAO.(BRAZIL), BENE, FARKAS, MESZOLY.(HUNGARY). Atten. 57,455 HUNGARY: GELEI, KAPOZTA , MATRAI, SZEPESI, MESZOLY, SIPOS, BENE, MATHESZ, ALBERT, FARKAS, RAKOSI. BRAZIL GILMAR, DJALMA SANTOS, BELLINI, ALTAIR, PAULO HENRIQUE, GERSON, LIMA, GARRINCHA, ALCINDO, TOSTAO, JAIRZINHO. When the two teams lined up, the shout from the crowd was, where`s Pele? It seems he took one to many knock`s in the Bulgarian game. But the disappointment was soon over come, because this game resulted in one of the best ever games played at Goodison Park. For pure football skill this was hard to beat. The Hungarians sensed that without Pele, Brazil were not the same team, and so it proved. Bene score first for Hungary, and although Tostao equallised just before half-time, you could see that Hungary were the better team. 2 further goals from Farkas and Meszoly made sure that the Magyar`s were full value for their 3-1 win, in what turned out to be one hell of a game. This also turned out to be Brazil`s first defeat in the world cup since 1954

And so the curtain came down on Goodison Parks involvement in the 1966 World Cup.

Looking back it had been a fabulous experience, to be able to say you had seen the finest players in the world, playing on your home ground, and witness some never to be forgotten goals ie. Pele`s goal against Bulgaria, Bene scored a beauty for Hungary. Beckenbaur`s goal against Russia. The North Korean`s goals, plus Eusebio`s hat-trick, how could you forget them. But if I had to pick one goal that stood out during 1966 it would have to be Derek Temple`s goal against Sheffield Wednesday that won Everton the FA Cup. Amen. Sting Ray Jones (04/09/04)

Have You Any Memories of The World Cup At Goodison Park? email info@bluekipper.com

* I was 15 when the World Cup came to Goodison, we'd just won the F A Cup in one of the greatest comebacks ever and I was seasoned Evertonian as my dad had started to take me to THE GAME as soon as I turned 10. I'd been in the massive crowds watching (twice from the grass on the side of the pitch!) the Championship side of '63, the memory of the 1-0 against Spurs still burns bright.

But back to the World Cup. I had saved all my paper round money for months to buy a season ticket for every game. (The stubs of which I have still got). This included tickets for all the qualifiers, quarter and semi finals. I remember the buzz, the crowds, the weather was great, and in a strange way the fact that you didn't really care who won added to the festival atmosphere.

My memories:

1. Pele being kicked off the pitch by Bulgaria and then Portugal. In those days you really did have to look after yourself cos the ref didn't.
2. Pele's goal against Bulgaria
3. Brazil's kit glistening under the floodlights in the night game against Hungary
4. Being in the front of the old paddock and as we were at eye level with the pitch we could see how bent Garrincha's legs were (he'd had
Polio as a kid). No wonder the fullbacks couldn't workout which way he was going to go!
5. Farkas' goal against Brazil
6. Eusebio's goal against Brazil
7. Being behind the Gwladys Street goal chanting "North Korea" as they raced to a 3-0 lead
8. Eusebio's hatrick
9. Beckenbauer's goal
10. Being cheated out of the England v. Portugal game by the London based twats who couldn't be arsed traveling to Goodison for the England
semi-final. In fairness they probably didn't know where it was. Imagine if they tried that today! The Russia v. Germany game was fucking awful.

Great days, all packed into a few months, at 15 life couldn't be better, especially as the Blues offered me trial later that year. I couldn't go, but why is another story. Blooblud. (11/09/04)

* Hungary v Brazil in that tournament ranks as probably the best match I have still ever seen. Hungary were based at Southport for their group matches and the local Merseyside population took to them, especially in this game. It was as if it were Everton playing such was the support for them!! It was on a Friday night, so the floodlights added to the atmosphere and the diving header that Albert scored will long linger.

Pele’s absence was well noted and Brazil were considered to be well beatable-which proved to be the case!! If any facts here are wrong , then apologies, the haze of time does that!! Richard Barnett. (07/09/04)

* Being Portuguese, and an Everton supporter since the mid-60's, the World Cup of '66 has to have very fond memories for me.

For any Portuguese football fan old enough to remember the '66 World Cup that was the brightest moment of our national team's history, even surpassing its recently much-hyped efforts in Euro 2004.

And of course Portugal played its two most unforgettable games at Goodison Park, against Brazil and North Korea.

Against Brazil I seem to remember we could even lose the game by two goals and still go through. The pressure was all on the Brazilians. For the average Brazilian supporter, forever convinced of their team's unquestionable superiority over anybody else, it was completely out of the question that they would not beat their former colonial masters by at least three goals. Unfortunately for them Portugal was still hanging on to the African part of its former Empire and it could draw on its footballing talent, here in evidence in the shape of Hilario, Coluna and, most of all, Eusebio, all born in Mozambique. The "Black Panther" did make all the difference in this game by scoring two goals, the second being an absolute cracker from the edge of the area, following a corner. One small correction is due here on Sting Ray Jones' article: it was Morais, and not Coluna, who played Pele out of the game, and not, I have to admit, in the most sportsmanlike fashion, to put it mildly.

Goodison Park was again to prove a happy venue for Portugal in the famous quarter-final tie against North Korea. Three-nil down after twenty minutes, everybody but me had deserted the living room at my parents' house before half-time. I stuck to the telly and saw Eusebio score twice before the interval. By the start of the second-half all the doubting Thomases had made their way back and we could all watch the remainder of Portugal's incredible come-back.

In case you're not aware, the England v Portugal semi-final was initially scheduled to be played at Goodison Park too (this was how the pre-arranged draw had determined it) but in view of the fact that Wembley provided a larger venue and it would not, in any case, be full for the West Germany v Soviet Union game (even country's names have changed, it was all so long ago!), the organising committee decided to switch venues.

Great memories from my distant boyhood! Alex Burmester. Oporto, Portugal. (06/09/04)