When was the golden era of English soccer? Many fans will likely say it was the period when England won the FIFA World Cup. It was actually the period from 1966 to 1970 when English teams had success at both the club and international level. Equally, some fantastic players played in the English First Division and England team.
The 1966 World Cup was the first one England hosted. As such, England played out their triumphant World Cup campaign with home advantage at Wembley Stadium. The England team progressed to their first World Cup final after an excellent 2-1 victory against Portugal.
In the final, England did enough to win the Jules Rimmet trophy in 90 minutes, but a late German equalizer denied them victory in regular time. Hurst sealed the win with two further goals in extra-time to win England its first World Cup. A controversial goal in which the ball bounced off the crossbar and maybe over the line has been disputed ever since. The referee gave that goal without line technology and the match ended 4-2 to the Three Lions.
This memorable World Cup for England was not the only reason the 1960s was a golden age for English soccer. At the club level, great English club sides emerged, such as the triumphant Spurs double-winning team of the early 1960s. Bill Shankly soon became a hero of the Kop, as Liverpool won the league title in 1966. In addition, Busby’s Best-inspired Manchester United team was beginning to make an impact in the European Cup.
The 1968 season was another watershed for English soccer. Manchester Utd became the first English club side to win the European Cup after a great 4-1 victory over Benfica. Their victory in the European Cup was also emulated with Leeds United winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968.
Leeds Utd’s triumph in 1968 would see English clubs continue to dominate the Inter Fairs Cup into the 1970s. Newcastle United won the Fairs Cup in 1969, and then Arsenal won their first European trophy in 1970 with a fine 3-0 victory against Anderlecht in the second leg.
By the 1970 World Cup, England were defending champions. For this World Cup, England was drawn with Brazil in the group stages. As such, the world champions played one of Brazil’s best sides in a great game that Brazil won 1-0.
Yet, England still progressed into the quarter-finals, where they met Germany again. After gaining a 2-0 lead, the Germans were able to come back from two down to win the game 3-2.
With that, the golden era of English soccer, for the national team at least, had ended. England failed to qualify for the 1970 World Cups. The English club sides continued to do well in Europe and began to dominate the European Cup.
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