USA 1994
England didn't qualify for the USA world cup in 1994.
I remember being pretty depressed about this at the time.
The fly on the wall documentary made about the doomed qualification, and it's hopelessly inept manager, Graham Taylor, is as one Amazon reviewer says 'Pure Alan Partridge'.
Taylor managed to squander some of the greatest talents in the Premier League, by employing a long ball system, and had Carlton Palmer as his playmaker, whilst Matt Le Tissier remained unused despite doing this kind of thing on a regular basis.



Anyway, that summer, everybody in England became Irish, as they went about their good spirited and effective way to the 2nd round.
They lost to Holland, mostly due to a dreadful goalkeeping mistake.

Maradona went from God to Monster in one supposedly drug fuelled hit, the Romanians still had their mullets, Bulgaria beat Germany in one of the most satisfying games, and it all shook out that Brazil played Italy in the final.

I was in Prague that year, so had my first final with beer, and promptly slept through most of the dull final, which was the first ever decided by penalties.

The divine ponytail, Roberto Baggio, who had carried Italy so far, fell at the last hurdle and skied his shot to samba jubilation.

The best goal in 1994, was this beauty from Saeed Owarian in the match between Saudi Arabia vs Belgium.

posted by Andy Lepki @ 6:31 PM