Argentina 1978 is the first World Cup I remember. The tinny sounding theme tune from matches on tv starting as I raced indoors in my silky blue and white striped Argentina replica shirt.

The other tune I remember, ofcourse, is the Scotland song "We're On The March With Ally's Army"!
Peru and Iran stopped Scotlands march as rapidly as has become normal nowadays.

Fonder memories are of the skills on the pitch from Mario Kempes, Daniel Passarella and Ossie Ardiles.

Mexico 86 about first one I remember in detail.

Who could forget Gary Linekar and all those goals.

Who could forget Uruguays Jose Batista being red carded after 30 seconds of the match vs Scotland!

Who could forget Maradona's hand of god cheat?

I remember the pitches were poor - either due to the high heat, or the recent earthquake damage.

Got a magazine article on World Cup history here. Will summarise for you:-

ITALIA 1990
Plagued by dull games (the nadir being its particularly dreary and rather savage final), Italia 90 is regarded as the worst World Cup in history.
It caused FIFA to panic and consider changing the rules, with bigger goals and fewer players among the dafter suggestions mooted.
Aptly in the home of catenaccio, defenders dominated, and the tournament produced the least goals to date.
But it wasn't all gloom - Salvatore Schillaci came from nowhere, Cameroon delighted and surprised, while Gazza's tears provided the opening chapter to dozens of sociology books!

U S A 1994
Uncle Sam's soccer tournament began and ended with pathetic penalties - Diana Ross at opening ceremony to Roberto Baggio penalty at the end.
USA 94 contained enough fine play to distract American nation briefly from their own peculiar ball games.
Two stories from the dark side of the game overshadowed the sport - Maradona's expulsion for drugs, and the assassination of Andres Escobar after his own-goal sent Colombia crashing out.
Hristo Stoichkov's six goals led Bulgaria to their best ever finish - fourth.
The intense heat took a toll on the competitors - and Jack Charlton's armpits - but didn't seem to bother eventual winners Brazil in a dire final decided on penalties for first time ever.

FRANCE 1998
Jules Rimet would have thoroughly approved of the second World Cup held in his homeland. Not only was the number of participants increased to 32 teams, but France's win was inspired by the son of Algerian immigrants helping to ease the tense race-relations problems plaguing the nation. Aside from Zinedine Zidane's majesty, tough new refereeing guidelines led to a record number of red cards - David Beckham's arguably put paid to England's hopes - but the ref guidelines also protected flair players helping Rivaldo, Robert Prosinecki and Michael Owen to come to the fore.
Davor Sukor's six goals dragged his unfancied Croatia side to the semi's,
while Romanians full squad bleached their hair in an odd fit of team bonding.
France left best to last, dispatching a lacklustre Brazil 3-0.
Key moment:-
Remember the huge 60 yard long ball from Frank de Boer was brought down with almost supernatural elegance by Dennis Bergkamp before the ingenious Dutch forward - in the same flowing movement - curled a shot into the top corner of Argentina's goal.

KOREA/JAPAN 2002
Much hyped pre tournament favourites Argentina and France failed to even make it out of their groups. England seemed devoid of the one quality they can generally rely on - passion. Even the behaviour of often kimono-bedecked England fans was impeccable as England cruised into quarter finals with an easy 3-0 win over the Danes.
Eleven exceptional Brazilian individuals moulded into a top class team by Luis 'Big Phil' Scolari won it, and Ronaldo had recovered from injury hell to win Golden Boot.
Senegal had earlier stunned France 1-0 then amused the world with their bonkers round-the-handbag dancing.

For me USA 1994 is a great memory.
Romario, one of my favourite players at that time, became world champion and player of the tournament. Holland already got knocked out in the quarter finals, but that month I was on holiday in Italy and they reached final. With a superb Roberto Baggio they kept winning their matches untill they reached the final against Brazil. A very boring match, but the penalties were exciting. After Baggio missed the last penalty, the terrace at the camp-site where I was watching was empty within seconds

It was good USA embraced "soccer" as until then, I think, it was mainly womans soccer that dominated play Stateside.

Freddy Adu, the young wonderkid, is in the USA squad this summer, so I really hope to see him grace the World Cup, even if its as a super-sub.

I have fond memories of the last 5 world cups.

I plan to put some money on England winning, so at least I can get very drunk with winnings should the unimaginable happen!

Seriously though, it has to be said England are under-achievers over the years, as with the talent of individual players, how many managers are they going to go thru until they find one who can win the world cup these players deserve?
Some Middlesburgh manager who can't even win the uefa cup is not the answer.

Argentina 78 my first World Cup memory.

The ticker tape thrown from stands and all over the pitch at goals looked great.

I saw on tv last night scenes from Argentina 78 and the ticker tape thrown from stands and all over the pitch at goals. It did indeed look great.

I pity the poor groundsmen tidying up the mess afterwards though!

Can't wait for Germay 2006 to begin now.
Plenty beers chilling in the fridge already!

I have a world cup party to attend today, from mid-afternoon.

A mix of too much sun and too much beer could mean my World Cup memories are not as good as they should be.

Looking forward to the next month of this footballing feast.

The WC tune I remember the most is the one for Spain 82 I think which had that guy from Gregory's girl.

"We have a dream" I think it was called.

GMcD.

Good shout Oh Beardy One. The world cup pop songs were almost always awful.

"We Have a Dream" is as bad as it gets, and oddly I remember at the time, being a young man, having very different types of dreams!

New Order did an OK song for England World Cup song one year - World In Motion I think it was called.

Being younger than most of you, and Irish, my first world cup memories are Italia 90.
For you guys that might have been a dull tournament but for us it was a wonder ride.
There was partying in Ireland galore when we beat Romania on penalties to go through to the quarters to play Italy.

It was not the thrilling openning match against England (we love playing them you know)
but the dull encounter against Egypt that I remember. I was so bored I went outside, we were holidaying in Wexford at the time in a caravan, i went outside and starting kicking a tennis ball around, it went under the caravan next door, I ran around the front and into the towbar splitting my head open. My father brought me to the hospital, I had to wait until the end of the match for a doctor to see to me. they were all watching the match. I still have a little scar just below the hair line.

But the joy of Bonner's save and the O'leary's score sent the country into delight. I got my face painted next door (now back at home) there was dancing on the streets.

Against Italy, my family played host to my granny, grandad, some great aunts and cousins for the match. And when Scilaci (sp?) scored that goal and we failed to score again I was in tears. I was crying because I didn't understand why we're through.

I went out to welcome the team home, there was a stage set up in the centre of the Dublin for them, there was thousands of people there to welcome the team back.
Jacks heroes.

The next world cup started brillantly, we won our openning game against Italy.
But it went south in the Miami heat against Mexico, before we scrapped through the group only to beaten again in the heat this time by Holland.

There was much exhira and delira around the last world cup, not much work got done on Irish match days it has to be said.
And Ireland learned Englands pain, elimanated on penos.

My immediatte memory of World Cup 2006 is ZIDANE red card.

Zi-zou - Oh You Zonk.



Yerk

My first very vague memory of a World Cup was Argentina in '78, Scotland beating Holland 3-2, and for some reason I thought we had won the the World Cup - I was young!

The '82 World Cup is the earliest I can remember properly. The highlight for me was the Italy 3-2 Brazil match.

Although Narey's goal that got Brazil angry before they went on to pummell us 4-1 was pretty good too!