This decade so far has had some pretty **** international tournaments. Which one do you lot think was the worst? Both the 2010 World Cup and this Euros just gone have got to go down as some of the worst football tournaments the world has seen.
not seen any stats, but can imagine that was one of the lowest socring tournaments in terms of ave goals per game
It's not the lowest ever, but it is way lower than in recent tournaments. Here's all of the Euros and the goal averages: Euro 60: 4.25 Euro 64: 3.25 Euro 68: 1.4 Euro 72: 2.5 Euro 76: 4.75 Euro 80: 1.93 Euro 84: 2.73 Euro 88: 2.27 Euro 92: 2.13 Euro 96: 2.06 Euro 2000: 2.74 Euro 2004: 2.48 Euro 2008: 2.48 Euro 2012: 2.45 Euro 2016: 2.12 Coincidentally, some of the dips coincide with tournament expansion - to 8 teams in 1980, 16 teams in 1996, and 24 teams in 2016.
Bound to happen. The more group games you play compared to sudden death ones the more games where teams are happy with a point.
I've just found International Tournaments have become duller and duller in the last 10-15 years. My excitement and passion for them has all but gone. I remember being enthralled by Italia 90, Euro 96. Even USA 94 when England weren't involved, I really liked. But the last tournament I had any massive interest in was probably Japan/South Korea 2002 - it's all been downhill since.
I think I only saw 3 really good games this Euros, Italy v Spain, Portugal v Hungary, and Wales v Belgium. England v Wales was a nice ending but not a good match. I honestly can't remember much about 2010 so can't vote based on that but like Altrincham Tiger says as I've got older the joy out of watching these tournaments seems to have gotten less and less, I look back on the golden years as being between 1986 and 1996 with several decent World Cups rounded off with Euro 96 so it's been twenty years for me.
Kind of as I thought, i remember a stat after the group stage saying it was the lowest scoring since Italia 90, just inlcuding group stages, and it certainly felt like that throughout the whole tournament. Too many teams, too many games where a draw suited, and ultimately a team winning the whole thing who only won 1 match inside of 90 mins. Either drop it back to 16 or increase it to 32 for the next Euros (by inviting some non european teams like the copa america) to keep some excitement
For the record, I think the most enjoyable tournament of recent memory was Euro 2008, coincidentally when we weren't there! maybe it was the not worrying about how **** we are, and being able to actually enjoy the football, maybe it was having Spain in the sweepstake, but I just seem to remember the tournament being a pretty good standard overall and enjoyable to watch
I think one of the best tournament matches was Argentina v Cameroon in 1990. Not for the football - that was crap. But watching Cameroon deck the Argies with boots flying, get reduced to 9 men and still beat them was quality entertainment in itself.
Cameroon were great that year. We almost succumbed to them too in the Quarters - Extra-Time and a penalty (or was it two?) needed. You don't get teams like this in modern tournaments - everyone is too serious and cautious now.
This was one of the worst international tournaments I've watched, but I just couldn't get interested in it. Maybe because of work, maybe because England were so ****. I was really looking forward to it at the beginning, then nothing!
Talking of 1966, it is hard for people not around at the time to appreciate how low key it was compared to the hysteria surrounding tournaments nowadays. For one thing there was only 16 teams meaning that in winning it England only played 6 games. Hard to believe but only one of the quarter finals was televised live. Both BBC broadcast England v Argentina and with all four kicking off at the same time all you saw of the others was highlights. Another was the way the groups went it meant France meeting Uruguay on a Friday night at Wembley. However, Wembley was booked for a greyhound meeting that night so it was switched to White City, where it got the largest crowd of the tournament outside Wembley. As an article said about that, imagine that possibility being mentioned in the bidding process nowadays. I was only 16 the month before the World Cup but regularly went in pubs. There weren't that many pubs with TVs in those days but myself and a mate knew of one where our dads would not be in for an England evening match. Went in and we had to ask for TV to be switched on. Imagine that nowadays. No watching 3 o'clock games in pubs either as they were shut in those days of the swinging sixties from 3pm to 6pm. How things have changed. Some for the better, others not.
It was still like that in the 80's Castro. Not that many people bothered about it in the pub. Gazza's tears changed the world.
Aside from the friendly game in Germany, England as a footballing nation have been bang average. It needs a shake up from top to bottom to kill off this anti football we seem to experts at.
