Video Of The Week: All The Goals Of The 1998 World Cup

Feb 07

This week’s Video of The Week continues the World Cup theme of the last few weeks, with all the goals from the 1998 World Cup, which was, of course, held in France. The optimism that may have existed after England’s decent performance at the 1996 European Championships evaporated over the weeks of the tournament. Tabloid exclusives about the behaviour of the players, rioting in Marseille and a defeat at the hands of Romania were just the build up to a penalty shoot-out defeat at the hands of Argentina. Meanwhile, France and Brazil made the final of a tournament that was the first to feature thirty-two nations. Iran beat the United States of America in the first round but both teams went out,but Jamaica and Japan, who were both arguably beneficiaries of the expansion, brought colour to the tournament off the pitch but offered little resistance on it.

The latter stages of the tournament were dominated by more traditional names, with one notable exception. Croatia were playing in their first World Cup finals and washed through the tournament like a breath of fresh air, sweeping past Germany in the quarter-finals before losing narrowly to France in the semi-finals. The final itself was preceded by one of the most extraordinary sagas in the history of the competition, with rumours of extraordinary happenings in the Brazil changing rooms that ended with rumours of Ronaldo being made to play in spite of having had a seizure shortly before the teams were due to take the pitch. France eventually strolled to a comfortable win in the Stade de France.

This video is in six bite sized parts, and the commentary comes from a variety of different voices, including Barry Davies, Martin Tyler and Gary Bloom.