I have to say I have never enjoyed reading a thread on any forum as much as this one. I was only a wee baba in '88 and Italy '94 is the first Ireland game I have any recollection of (my Dad's mate jumping so high he came down and went through the chair!) so Italy has to get my vote, but for people of my age, Germany in Kashima is the highlight, to have worked so hard to get there and be there with five other members of my family as a young lad, and to have turned to my Dad as the clock ticked over 90 minutes and asked 'we're not going to do it, are we?' and think it was all over, the World Cup was ending there in front of me...and then Robbie beat Kahn, in the goal I was stood right behind. The only time in my life things moved in slow motion - I used to think 'yeah, right' when people said that, but it did! The most ecstatic moment of my life.
For you who are lucky enough to remember England, I envy you. It was the first, and sadly we will never be able to experience that again. But the next generation will envy all of us for Robbie's goal in Japan!