England Football Club

England are one of football’s biggest international teams and is one of only seven nations to have lifted the most converted prize in international football, the Fifa World Cup. This victory in the final of the World Cup back in 1966 is still their first and only success in international football, beating what was then West Germany in extra time with a final score of 4-2.

England share the record with France, as the only team to have won the trophy once and on home soil with the French winning the World Cup during the 1998 tournament which they hosted. Since winning the World Cup in 1966 England have struggled on the world stage, only managing to reach a semi-final of a tournament once loosing on penalties to the team of West Germany. Despite this lack of success the English football team still remain reasonably prominent in the football world and are still considered one of the best teams in the sport. This can be seen in the official Fifa rankings, with England rarely dropping from the top ten.

Following the failure of 1934, Argentina decided not to participate in the three following World Cup(1938, 1950 and 1954). During these years Argentina was a great team with several players within the legendary team River Plate nicknamed La Máquina (9 championship titles between 1941 and 1957). Among them, Jose Manuel Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera and Angel Labruna.

The Argentina only played on their continent. They limited their International appearances to the Copa America, and they won it no fewer than six times between 1941 and 1957. They returned to the World Cup in 1958 in Sweden. They failed to go beyond the first round as they did four years later in Chile, despite a really good striker called striker Jose Francisco Sanfilippo.

At the 1966 World Cup, with players like Luis Artime, Ermindo Onega or Antonio Rattín, Argentina went through the first round (particularly after a very successful victory against Spain). In the quarterfinals they got beaten by the host, England, at Wembley 1-0. During this game the captain of Argentina Rattín was sent off because of his hard playing.Alongside these mixed performances in World Cup, Argentina also lost his Continental leadership (one Copa America in 1959 won at home).

After a bad World Cup in 1970 in Mexico (won by its rival Brazil), Argentina prepared the 1974 World Cup with young players like Mario Kempes or Rene Houseman surrended by more experienced players like Hector Yazalde and Roberto Perfumo.

Unfortunatly they lost in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands of Johan Cruyff (0-4). From then Argentina had 4 years to get ready for its very own World Cup at home…

The mission to win the title was assigned to a young coach, Cesar Luis Menotti (39 years old). This time he was reluctant to rely on a young player named Diego Maradona (18 years old). He finally didn’t select the prodigy and trusted players like Daniel Passarella, Oswaldo Ardiles, Daniel Bertoni and Mario Kempes.

Argentina finished second of his group behind Italy who beat them 1-0 in Buenos Aires and ahead of France and Hungary). In the second round they beat Poland (2-0), draw against Brazil (0-0) before scoring six goals to Peru. These goals helped Argentina to finish ahead of their rivals Brasil and qualify for the finals. Mario Kempes is the man of the final. He scored twice against the Netherlands and helped Argentina win its first World Cup. In 1982 despite playing with Diego Maradona, Argentina left the World Cup after 2 defeats in the second round.

Four years later Argentina won its second World Cup against RFA in Mexico.

The 1990 World Cup was the last World Cup where Argentina reached the Final (where they lost against RFA). They haven’t been able to go further than the quarterfinals since then.