Consolation from the Cup

The Empire is gone. The pound is going down -- and now even skirts seem to be. The Beatles were hooted out of Manila, and the national cricket team is currently getting clobbered by the West Indies. Still, England oscillates. The cause of the excitement is an ugly, 12-in.-high trophy known as the World Cup and symbolic of supremacy in soccer -- a game that seems tame to Americans, but still is the most popular spectator sport on earth. In London last week, after years of trying, England finally won the World Cup by defeating West Germany 4-2.

Nobody knows for sure how many fans watch soccer each year, although estimates run to 500 million. Queen Elizabeth and 97,000 of her more delirious subjects crammed into Wembley Stadium to watch the climactic contest of a 71 -nation competition that started two years ago. England was the odds-on (at 1-2) favorite on the strength of a tenacious defense, led by Captain Bobby Moore, that had allowed just one goal (on a penalty shot) during the entire World Cup playoff -- plus a swarming, aggressive offense sparked by Bobby Charlton, who scored both goals when England beat Portugal 2 to 1 in the semifinals. The West Germans were longshots at 7 to 4, but they had beaten Russia in the semis and their own defense had given up only two goals during the tournament. Experts predicted a low-scoring match: a single goal, they said, would probably be enough.

If they had been right, the World Cup would be in Bonn. The game was only minutes old when Germany's Helmut Haller slipped a screen shot past Goalie Gordon Banks. The English bounced back, went ahead 2 to 1, and the victory celebration had already started in the stands when--oops!--Germany's Wolfgang Weber booted the ball home to tie the score, with 30 sec. to go. Into overtime it went, and for ten long minutes it looked as though the two weary teams (no substitutes are permitted in soccer) might still be playing next week. Then Geoff Hurst got his second wind, ramming in a five-footer for one goal and scoring the clincher on a long solo dash to bring England the World Cup for the first time in history.

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