England at the World Cup.The Best and the Worst.

A couple of graphs from the past featuring England at their ultimate peak and their lowest low.

Expected points artificially inflates the in running gap between teams because of the choice of three points for a win.Therefore for each of these games I've plotted "success probability" instead.This weighs a win as 1.0 success points and a draw as a shared 0.5 a point each.This approach more accurately tracks how close each teams are to winning the match rather than reflecting the amount of league points teams are likely to accrue.

England 0-1 USA,World Cup Group Stages Brazil 1950.

England didn't consider the FIFA World cup important enough to enter until the competition had been in existence for twenty years,so 1950 was their first appearance at the finals.The team consisted of some of the biggest names from England's long history.Mortensen,Finney and Wright played in the match,while a recently arrived Matthews watched on from the stands.The later to be Sir,Alf Ramsey played fullback.

The USA team,consisting of part time players and coached by a Scottish born manager,were unconsidered 500-1 shots to lift the trophy (England by contrast were just 3-1),but they scored the game's only goal in the 37th minute.Some English newspapers thought the scoreline had been misread and assumed that England had won 10-1.They hadn't.

Scorer:United States,Gaetjens 37'.
.........................................................................................................................................


England 4-2 West Germany.World Cup Final 1966,Wembley Stadium.

Redemption of sorts for Alf Ramsey,soon to be Sir Alf.A fullback in the defeated England team from 1950 in Brazil,his "wingless" wonders" made full use of home advantage and some generous officiating to usher in "30/40 years of hurt" for England fans.
The game was a magnificent example of two equally matched teams producing a tense contest,as first one team then the other saw their advantage quickly nullified before controversy swung the game massively in England's favour late in the day.The graph gives a strong impression that it was all over after 101'.It certainly was after 120.

Scorers.
0-1,Haller,12'
1-1,Hurst,18'
2-1,Peters,78'
2-2,Weber,89'
3-2,Hurst,101'
"they think it's all over...."
4-2,Hurst,120'
"it is now".