My first England memories

Written by Matt Pitt Tuesday, 09 March 2010 11:42

England World Cup Blog

My first memories of the England football team come from the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the tournament that Bobby Robson's boys reached the semi-finals before being ousted by Ze Germans.

To be honest, I don't actually remember too much about the group stages which is hardly surprising as they were pretty uneventful. I also remember David Platt, not

the little shit from Coronation Street, scoring a great goal against the Belgians and then a Lineker double to edge past Cameroon in the Quarter-finals, but it was the Semi-final against West Germany that really started my love affair with football.

Back in 1990 I was only a slip of a lad, the tender age of nine and just getting into football. I'd play in the street with my mates where we'd pretend to be players from teams at the top of the league and this was my first world cup, well the first I could actually remember.

I actually watched the game with my mum, who has zero interest in football, but she sat down with me, probably because her and my dad had got divorced a few months earlier. Most of the game is a blur but I obviously remember Gazza crying at potentially missing the final and I distinctively remember the heartbreak I felt as Andreas Brehme's shot looped over Peter Shilton thanks to a crazy deflection off Paul Parker. I was gutted but even at just nine years old I believed England could get back into it.

The equaliser was marvelous, the deep cross from Paul Parker on the right, the German defence making a right balls of the clearance then Gary Lineker controlling the ball with his right thigh and blasting it into the bottom corner with his left. God I wish he still played for the Three Lions.

Everyone knows the game went to penalties, my first penalty shootout with a place in the World Cup Final at stake. Both teams scored their first three penalties then Stuart "Psycho" Pearce missed the fourth with, what was quite frankly, a complete bag of shit of a penalty kick. Olaf Thon score Germany's next spot kick which meant Chris Waddle had to score to keep the tie alive.

As he stepped up my heart was pounding through my chest, so much so that my mum told me to calm down as she thought I was going to have a heart attack! Anyway, I said to her that if he missed I was going to kick the living room door through, why, I don't know but alas he hit his penalty over the bar and I launched a flying kick into the living room door, putting my heel through it completely!

So not only did I have my heart broken by the England team, I also had to spend my next couple of week's pocket money on repairing the frigging door! You've got to love football!

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