“The Official World Cup Film is a film genre in its own right. It still exists, although FIFA tends to prefer to peddle goal compilations in the market place these days and its powers are now much diminished. A quarter of a century, though, they still mattered. “G’Olé”, the official film of the 1982 World Cup finals, is a classic of the genre. Narrated by Sean Connery, it is in turn fascinating, excrutiating and pretentious beyond belief, to the extent of having a soundtrack by… Rick Wakeman. When it hits its stride, though, it is stunning. The slow-motion footage of Marco Tardelli losing his mind is quite a thing to behold.” (twohundredpercent)

“The former Notts County manager Jimmy Sirrel once said, “The best teams wins, the rest is gossip.” If that’s the case, there’s been an awful lot of idle talk during World Cups. Some of the greatest teams to play the game did not lift the trophy; here’s a subjective list of the top 10…” (SI)

“Falcao: Brazil vs. Italy (1982). From the outside, Falcao was seen very much as the quiet man of the Brazilian side that travelled to Spain 1982. His equaliser in a losing cause against a Paolo Rossi-inspired Italy in the semi-final tie saw him cut inside onto his left foot, dragging three Italian defenders away from the goal and fire a fine shot into the net before charging towards the bench. With veins bulging from his forearms, he evaded Luizinho before doing his best impression of a kangaroo in front of the fans.” (ESPN), (Grand Inquisitor)

“One of the most natural finishers ever to have played the game, Gerd Muller was an accomplished international poacher whose prolific World Cup record for West Germany is a testament to his striking prowess. Der Bomber – as he is affectionately known by the German public – netted an incredible 14 goals in just 12 World Cup games, culminating in the winning strike in the 1974 final.” (ESPN)

Camouflage Comics
“There have been, over the last eighty years or so, several questionable decisions made regarding the hosting of World Cup tournaments. None, however, have been met with quite the fury that met the hosting of the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina. The decision made to award the 1978 finals to Argentina was made in July of 1966, but after a military coup in March 1976 left the country in the hands of a military dictatorship, there were calls for the tournament to be moved elsewhere in a clash of ideologies that pitted the liberal left of popular opinion in Western Europe against the more right-wing politics of FIFA.” (twohundredpercent)

“The story of football in the years immediately following the end of the Second World War often seemed to be following a pre-prepared script, but it was a script that, at the World Cup finals at least, the competing nations seemed unwilling to follow. In 1950, the tournament should have been a procession for the host nation, Brazil, but in the final minutes of the final match, Uruguay silenced the Maracana. And four years later, one of the greatest teams in the history of the game would come unstuck in similar circumstances. They were the ‘Golden Team’ – the Hungarian team of Ferenc Puskas, Nándor Hidegkuti and József Bozsik. This Hungarian team was, tactically, one of the most important in the history of the game, and it only lost one match in four years. It just so happened, however, that the match that they did lose was the most important of all.” (twohundredpercent)