Whilst enjoying the skills of El Hadji Diouf, Jon Dahl Tommasson, more established stars such as Rivaldo and his bucked teeth sidekick Ronaldo and of course our very own England boys it has become easy to forget that we have our very own club right here in Kidderminster. This weeks release of the fixtures bought us back down to earth with an untimely bump. Anyhow, it's only once every four years so lets lay down our red and white shirts and our newly purchased season tickets and concentrate on the greatest sporting occasion in the world.

According to the media hacks and the 'expert' opinions of such folk as Harry Harris, Brian Woolnough etc, you would think that England had failed to qualify, but they haven't, and they managed to do something that all of these sides failed at, they weren't victims of a 'shock'. 'There's no easy international game these days' this seems to have become a commonly heard cliché recently, however, here are some examples of teams who didn't pay heed to that statement, enjoy!

1950 England 0-1 United States, Belo Horizonte
In today's game, this result would not appear to be entirely unlikely, however in 1950 it was a very different set of circumstances. England boasted the talents of Tom Finney etc and America was a team of part timers. It was, in those days, England's most humiliating defeat ever. The tournament favourites dominated early on, but in the 37th minute, the US stunned them by taking the lead through Larry Gaetjens. Walter Winterbottom's side could not hit back and were forced to accept a hugely embarrassing defeat. America's scorer hailed from Haiti and was murdered by the secret police in his later life, don't ask me why! When the score was flashed through the wires back to Blity, people assumed a digit had been omitted and the score was actually 10-1, who says the English are arrogant?!?

1966 Italy 0-1 North Korea, Middlesborough
Perhaps the biggest World Cup shock in history, and certainly the strangest result the old Ayresome Park bore witness to. Italy went out to a Park Doo-ik goal in the 42nd minute and the team were later pelted with tomatoes when they returned home. North Korea looked like repeating the feat in the quarter-finals when they went 3-0 up to Portugal but Eusebio took control and scored four times in a 5-3 victory. Can their Southern counterparts repeat their feat 36 years on…

1974 West Germany 0-1 East Germany, Hamburg
Hosts West Germany were expected to humiliate their state "amateur" neighbours but were shocked by a Juergen Sparwasser goal in the 74th minute. The West Germans, however, recovered to win the tournament, they never fully got revenge though as the Berlin Wall came down soon after and the United Germany soon re-took control of the footballing world, until a cold September night in Munich that is, what was the score again???

1990 Argentina 0-1 Cameroon, Milan
Argentina suffered the fate destined for France 12 years later, opening the tournament as world champions with a match against an African team and losing 1-0. Francois Omam Biyick scored the only goal in the 67th minute and the Africans held on to win after finishing with nine men in a tumultuous opening game, of course they progressed to the quarter finals only to lose to two hotly debated penalties, probably the only time our boys have gained an advantage from 12 yards…

1990 Costa Rica 1 Scotland 0, Genoa
Another entry in the catalogue of embarrassing results in Scotland's history. Juan Cayasso condemned the Scots to one of their darkest days with the only goal. Scotland turned in a dreadful performance and set the wheels in motion for another first round exit. Nowadays they cannot even reach that stage…

Who next in this years event???…