3/1 To Win
It’s nearly here.
We’re just two days away from the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and four weeks of our television screens being invariably dominated as 32 different nations lock horns for football’s greatest prize.
Sure, everyone gets excited for what’s to come and Derby County centre back Curtis Davies is no different.
“The World Cup is an iconic tournament and it becomes enjoyable again to watch football when you’re watching all of these different countries going up against each other and the best countries fighting to try and win the best trophy in the world,” he told RamsTV.
“That’s more of the fan side of me. As a player, I am entirely focused on the competition I am involved in, but watching the World Cup will definitely just allow me to enjoy football for football.”
What a four-week long tournament tends to generate is iconic moments, flashes of unforgettable brilliance, stunning goals, shocks and big talking points.
In recent years, we have had Germany’s 7-1 win over Brazil, the final of 2006 and Spain becoming world champions for the first time. Go back further and you have the infamous hand of god, the Cruyff turn, whilst we can’t forget our own Archie Gemmill’s unbelievable strike against Holland.
What is Davies’ favourite World Cup memory, though?
“I remember watching the 1994 World Cup Final and the penalties,” he recalled.
“As a kid you watch England, but you support Brazil. If it’s not England, you’re supporting Brazil because they had all these players like Branco, Bebeto, Romario, a young Ronaldo, Dunga and Taffarel.
“I will always remember Baggio’s miss, which was just so iconic. He was an iconic player as well and I just remember his curly mullet.
“He was one of the best players in the world and as a kid, I would have been 9-years-old, I just thought how has he missed that? It was amazing.”
That’s not the only one, however, with another coming from Republic of Ireland’s involvement in the same competition.
He added: “None of the home nations qualified and I remember being in Mallorca and everyone that was British were supporting Ireland.
“We were in a bar and there were a lot of Irish people over there on holiday. I remember Ray Houghton scoring that goal against Italy – when he did the rollover!
“The place went ballistic. That’s a big memory for me. I’m not an Irish fan as such, but I was happy to support them when we were away.”
We asked Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone, Ikechi Anya, Cameron Jerome and Scott Carson for their pre-World Cup predictions. Look out for what they had to say, only on dcfc.co.uk, on Thursday.
