What was the best and/or first World Cup you’ve ever seen?

28 comments

1. Still nothing that beats when it was in Germany in 2006. The atmosphere was so great for most of it besides when we lost the semifinals and then you could literally feel the sadness in the air the next day in school, but even that felt kinda cathartic.

2. The first one I have seen is Germany 2006, the best one was South Africa 2010.

3. Los Angeles 1994.

   Maradona. Brazil/Ronaldo (the real Ronaldo). Romario. The goddamn music. The Fucking amazing Logo. The 150000 people stadiums. The Bulgarians coming out of Communism beating the shit out of everyone else and almost winning. The over-the-top everything.

   Not the first World Cup but easily the best World Cup ever.

   Damn I miss the nineties

4. The first world cup I ever watched (and remember) is the one in 94 in the US. I have good memories of the one in 98 🙂

5. I’ve never seen any of em. Because football’s not my sort of thing. Which i know is not the answer you were looking for, but there’s that side of the coin as well.

6. Germany 2006 was my first one and it remains in my best memory because it was also when I learned a lot of basic trivia about football, like learning about legendary players such as Pelé, Garrincha, Maradonna

7. The first I remember watching was Argentina 78.

   Although my Dad tells me that I also watched 1974,as a very young child!

   My favourite was Spain 82 I think.Italy won and football was more important to me then,as a pre-teen.

8. First I remember watching was South Africa. At least partly, didn’t really watch it as much.

   Best…. idk really. As far as memes and such go, 2014. But 2018 also got a shot due to Croatia’s performance.

9. The first I remember was Italia 90. Still love the simple mascot and I remember the stadiums to be insanely big….guess they still are. I remember my father arguing with my 11 year old brother to not hang that german flag out of our window after we won. With the german reunification, ugly scenes in rostock lichtenhagen and the whole post-war history, it was a sensitive time to show our national flag. And it still is, albeit it is totally ok in football context now…especially since the world cup in germany in 2006…

   …Which definetly is my favorite. The whole country was a big good vibes party and I remember so many people coming here saying they never expected germans having such fun. Guess that changes our image for good. Even london bobbies, spanish police and french gendarmerie patroled here together with german police. It was fckn awesome and still widely known as the “sommermärchen”.

   I loved south africa after that, but honestly, those vuvuzelas where unbearable after the second or third match.

   I think there was a big change around the millenium, when FIFA started to fck that
   whole thing up with commercialisation and corporate branding everthing and the stadiums got only half filled but with rich kids and VIPs… Today I barely give a fck on that circus.

10. My first World Cup which I remember is 2006 WC. Sadly, I can only recall the final match France – Italy. Oh my god, what a match it was. I remember like it was yesterday the red card for Zidane and his head butting foul. It was a big controversy. I was in a primary school then and the next day I went to school after final, everybody was talking about this and some class clowns were memeing that foul.

    Edit: Oh, and i have really nice memories about 2010 WC in South Africa. The final match Netherlands – Spain was exactly the same day as my uncle’s wedding XD I remember there was a room with a big tv (in the same building as the wedding reception) and many people watching and cheering. It was a long match, the only scored goal was in an additional time. And I remember the WC song, Waka Waka by Shakira! It was a massive hit also in Poland, I remember even in September people from my new class at high school were dancing the Waka Waka dance. Man, the nostalgia… 🥲😌

    The best World Cup? I don’t know, I love all of them xd I am a bit weird, because I used to hate playing football during PE classes at school and I don’t really watch many football matches in EU football leagues. But when it comes to World Cup and Euro, I watch almost every match and read about past editions on Wikipedia 😅

11. 2010 was my first one too. The first major football tournament I’ve watched as well. And like yours again, it ended up being my favourite since I’m a fan of Spain. Just randomly picked them to cheer on before the WC without even knowing they’ve won the Euros 2 years prior and have sticked to them until this day

12. The best must probably be the 1990 WC.. Not because it was the best football.. It was probably football-wise regarded as one of the worst.. Though think the tournament had something special being hosted in Italy at a time when Italy had the nr.1 league in the world.. with such player in their league as van Basten and Maradona.. And their stadium were such a thing.. rough as it could be.. And all the the thing going on at the same time.. So much that were going to end.. it was the last time you would se yugoslavia playing footall.. just imagine Red Star Belgrade going to win the predecessor to champions league next year.. or that it also would be the last time USSR would play in a FIFA WC.. That USSR who had played their final against W-Germany in 1988… So many historical things with that championchip.. Not to speak of the dramatic/special events.. like the penalty shoot outs in both semifinals.. The Holland vs W-Germany game.. with Völler and Rijkard dispute etc.. Not to speak Maradona playing semi-finale against Italy in his home-town Napoli..

    So sumarized.. not always the best football.. but for history and excitement.. Most likely WC 1990.. Also the fact that the people of Italy lived and breathed for football.. When you got to WC 1994 in USA..”most” americans didn’t care about the game. Would probably be different next time USA would host.. football.. (or soccer as they call it) has gained som popularity since 1994..

13. Mexico ’86 and the Hand of God goal.

    My dad didn’t like football so of course that meant I couldn’t watch it, but it was all anyone was talking about at school

14. My first was 2006 and my favourite 2010 and not only because we won

15. 2006, i was young but i clearly Remember Trezeguet miss and Grosso on the penalty kick 🥰

16. 1990. Heard about it in the radio a lot, when I was in my grandparents garden. Still remember that song by Gianna Nannini which was used as anthem for the tournament.

    Never gave a flying fuck about football, still don’t give. I usually use the games to go shopping, since everything is pretty much empty.

17. 1970 in Mexico City. God and his clones couldn’t have stopped Brazil.

18. I know I watched 2006, but I dont remember anything as I was 7 years old. The only thing I do remember from that tournament was hearing the final on a radio because my dad took me out on a canoeing trip in the Swedish woods for a week at that exact time.

    2010 was the first I clearly remember watching. 2018 I largely missed due to military conscription, but I saw some of it, 2022 im boycotting.

    2014 was probably the best, but 2010 is nostalgic for being the first for me. Although I guess the vuvuzelas pissed people off a lot.

19. The first World Cup that I somewhat remember seeing was the 2010 South Africa one. The best one was either that one or Brazil 2014.

20. I’m probably the only one here who never really watched World Cup. I watched only one match back in 2014 by accident and I don’t remember anything about it.

    I guess it’s because i don’t watch sport events in general.

21. I’ve seen 10 world cups. The best 3 for the matches and overall vibes

    1. Germany in 2006
    2. Japan south Korea 2002
    3 Italia 90.

    The worst

    Qatar 2022
    South Africa 2010
    Brazil 2014

22. I think it was the 1990 World Cup. I remember it rather well, watching it with my dad. Not so much the 1994 one due to the time difference. The first I activly followed by myself was 1998, watching the Italy vs. Austria game in a huge crowd in Vienna. After that I followed most others until the one in Russia, which I already boycotted. I turned my back on pro football and am only watching lower league games once in a while.

23. 1978 was the first I remember. Lots of good ones since then. 1990 was special for Ireland, getting to the quarter-final in our first World Cup, so we remember that one particularly here.

24. ‘94 was a delight since my country became 4th. I was 7 years old and everybody was celebrating. Looking back I can say I also like the kits the teams wore, very different from now. The most boring one was South Africa, because Spain won by simply winning most of their games scoring one goal only.

25. 2006 was the first one I saw, I was a child but I remember well the games against Germany and France. Obviously it’s also the one I have the the best memories of (also because our results in the WC after 2006 are quite terrible…)

26. The first one i actually watched was 2002. It was wild. My school put a big screen and we were allowed to watch instead of following class. This was in Belgium.

    Best one I guess the 2018 one cause we actually had a shot at winning the darn thing.

27. The first one I remember is ’98.
    The best one is 2010.

28. That one day, 8th of July 2014. When the whole world had to check if what they were watching was reallity.