21 Years Ago Today - Where Were You?

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Originally Posted by fergalr

Behind the goal but in with the neutrals - Irish section was to our left (being part of the "diaspora" at the time we boiught our tickets in Germany).

Agree with Gary that this was the best day bar none. I was with my brother and two mates - we make a point of keeping in touch each June 12th and this is the email I sent to them yesterday:


June 12th 1988, Stuttgart, West Germany.

A lot of water under the bridge since then. Chelsea had just been relegated, West Germany was still West Germany and another country that no longer exists were about to go all the way to the final of Euro 88. Taoiseach Charlie Haughey watched it in the big gaff he then owned. At the game itself were Brian Lenihan (with original kidneys) and Bertie Ahern (happily married). FAI Security man was Joe Delaney (the Da) – no problems with the tickets then. Then it was emigration nowadays it is (or was) the Celtic Tiger. Then it was Gibraltar and Michael Stone with guns and grenades – nowadays it’s the Peace Process and Michael Stone with a grenade (but this time it was “performance art”).

Looking at some old press clippings – two things at random. The mayor of Stuttgart was Manfred Rommel (son of you know who). Back home many watched the game in shuttered pubs – Kick-off was 2:30 on a Sunday – slap bang in the middle of holy hour (but of course the Gardai “generally turned a blind eye”).

And our day? Don’t remember the coach trip there. I do remember the car park and going into the stadium and being in the neutral section with the Irish section to our left. I remember the heat. I think I remember the goal and the celebrations (we must have had a great view of it). I remember counting down (and shouting out) the minutes on the big clock. I remember chance after chance in front of us in the second half. I remember the added time and the last corner - by then even the Germans were rattling the fence screaming for the final whistle. I have no recollection of the final whistle or what we did then. I do recall us being on the coach again – the English in silence, us in silence (we were drained) and the Scots singing. I recall we ended up that night in a quiet pub (I guess it must have been in Darmstad) letting the enormity of what we had witnessed slowly sink in……

800 years of hurt. Rayser put the ball in the English net. Stuttgart 88 was our equivalent of the GPO 1916. It was 20 years ago today. And we were there.

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Excellent

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Originally Posted by bholg

even at 8 years old I knew to make the most of it.. kids can get away with horrendously gleeful gloating!!!

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Totally! I was 8 too, watching it at home on the tv with my (english) father. I was (and remain) a football nut and was 100% behind Ireland. Fair play to me Da', he let me get on with it and allowed me to go mental when we scored.

I was even worse when Sheedy scored two years later, some seriously in-your-face celebrating, but again he just kept calm and let me get on with it. Fair play.

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Originally Posted by theworm2345

Tommy Smyth talked about the goal today on the ESPN broadcast, but did not mention that today was the anniversary (at least not in this part, I missed most the rest of it). I've emailed him to see if he knew.

http://www.shareonall.com/Tommy_Smyt...r_bofk_avi.htm

Also don't forget yesterday was the day Sheedy scored against them in 1990


Fred54 posted them on my request
http://www.shareonall.com/Euro88.Eng...4_bwhw_avi.htm

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Thanks a lot worm and please thank Fred54 who is a legend with the MOTD highlights for games

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Originally Posted by Drumcondra 69er

Funilly enough the atmosphere in the home Euro 88 qualifiers was fairly subdued because the games were pretty crap (2 nil alls and a scrappy win against Luxembourg) bar the Bulgaria match. I remember there being loads of space on the terraces compared to the following campaign, even at the Bulgaria game the stadium was half empty as people had given uip on qualification at that stage.

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was at the bulgaria match myself and there cant have been more than 20,000 at it. within a few years i had to camp out on the pavement for 14 hours in a vain attempt to get england ’91 tickets

it will take something special to have an experience like 88 or usa 94 again. would it really mean as much these days?

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

it will take something special to have an experience like 88 or usa 94 again. would it really mean as much these days?

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id say yes. was at wc 2002 in japan/korea and it was the best three weeks ever

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Secondly, it looks like gspain, billybunter and the rest started off the mexican wave at ireland matches.

Thirdly, the atmosphere does not sound that good in fairness, so people saying old matches had great atmospheres sounds somewhat misleading. People can have blurred images imprinted in their minds from history....just a thought, though this could be down to tension, nerves etc.

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Definitely not taking the blame for the Mexican Wave. :mad: Half the fans in Hannover missed ronnie's goal becaus eof it. Thankfully I didn't.

The atmosphere was great. Really Really tense and nervous but still electric.

I wasn't at home for any of the games. i would have loved to have been at home afterwards but wouldn't have missed the game sfor anything. However my impression was that Euro88 was not as big at home as Italia90. It still was huge but life still went on - eg buses ran etc. for Italia90 everything stopped. An americna colleague in Galway forgot about the Romanian game and was working late, left and drove across Galway without seeing anything. He genuinely believed a Nuclear holocaust had happened and was trying to rush home to his wife and daughter. The roads, streets atc were totally empty. The whole country was watching. No other sporting event can or has come close.

Stuttgart for me still tops Genoa but the world cup really took over.

Italy also launched the corporate fan. In Germany it was the football people of Ireland. By Italy out in the islands it was much the same but then for the Italy match the corporate types came out in droves on daytrips (I appreciate football fans did too and I know some of the daytrippers). I was sitting in front of Ossie Kilkenny and some of his mates in brand new Ireland rugby shirts.

One other story I was just reminded of concerns a colleague in Galway at the time who had to attend an important meeting in Holland on June 13th 1988. He generously offered to save the company money by flying on the saturday (saturday night stay was big in those days for flights) and of course got the train to Stuttgart. Unfortunately afte rthe game he missed his train back to holland and when he sobered up on the Tuesday (in Stuttgart) he just made his flight home. He still managed to keep his job.

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Originally Posted by gspain

Your memory is 100% correct 2.36pm Irish time 3.36pm local time.

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Cheers,its not like The Daily TAR to get their facts wrong or is it???????????:)

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Secondly, it looks like gspain, billybunter and the rest started off the mexican wave at ireland matches.

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I cant take credit for that, but if memory serves me correctly, we used to have a right good bunch on the south terrace for those qualifiers (I started going in 1986 to Ireland home games) and the majority were happy to partake in the wave - it became somewhat of a ritual. When it then got round to certain sections of the South stand, it would meet with a lack of participation...to which we used to tease those fukers about charging their seats on "access/ Visa" - they were the enemy back in the day - the corporate goonies that would'nt join in this ritual!!!!. My oh my - how things have changed!!!!!

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Originally Posted by gspain

Definitely not taking the blame for the Mexican Wave. :mad: Half the fans in Hannover missed ronnie's goal becaus eof it. Thankfully I didn't.

The atmosphere was great. Really Really tense and nervous but still electric.

I wasn't at home for any of the games. i would have loved to have been at home afterwards but wouldn't have missed the game sfor anything. However my impression was that Euro88 was not as big at home as Italia90. It still was huge but life still went on - eg buses ran etc. for Italia90 everything stopped. An americna colleague in Galway forgot about the Romanian game and was working late, left and drove across Galway without seeing anything. He genuinely believed a Nuclear holocaust had happened and was trying to rush home to his wife and daughter. The roads, streets atc were totally empty. The whole country was watching. No other sporting event can or has come close.

Stuttgart for me still tops Genoa but the world cup really took over.

Italy also launched the corporate fan. In Germany it was the football people of Ireland. By Italy out in the islands it was much the same but then for the Italy match the corporate types came out in droves on daytrips (I appreciate football fans did too and I know some of the daytrippers). I was sitting in front of Ossie Kilkenny and some of his mates in brand new Ireland rugby shirts.

One other story I was just reminded of concerns a colleague in Galway at the time who had to attend an important meeting in Holland on June 13th 1988. He generously offered to save the company money by flying on the saturday (saturday night stay was big in those days for flights) and of course got the train to Stuttgart. Unfortunately afte rthe game he missed his train back to holland and when he sobered up on the Tuesday (in Stuttgart) he just made his flight home. He still managed to keep his job.

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I knew things were starting to go downhill after 88 when I saw that prat Chris DeBurgh on the running track after the Italy 1990 game waving at the fans. He admitted later he was'nt really a sports fan.

I had just completed my Leaving cert and was in Dublin with my Dad in a pub called the Horse and Jockey in Inchicore.I was a real GAA supporter at the time and was in training with the Galway minor hurling team but seeing that Galway reached so many semi finals/finals in both the football and hurling and never seemed to win anything I switched my alliance to supporting the enemy. My Dad did not know I had broken my pledge at the time but sorta found out when my fifteen year old brother and myself both got sick on top of my next door neighbour on the way home.

I was over the moon because the girl across the road said she'd go out with me. I was twelve you see. As a result I missed the whole game.

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Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

I was over the moon because the girl across the road said she'd go out with me. I was twelve you see. As a result I missed the whole game.

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Sweet Jaysus, i hope to God you've learnt the error of your ways!

I've no recollection of the game at all, was only a couple of days past my 3rd birthday. Doubt my father would even have watched it, no interest in football :(

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

id say yes. was at wc 2002 in japan/korea and it was the best three weeks ever

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100% agree. Japan / Korea 02 was streets ahead of USA 94 for the craic. Don't get me wrong, the states was a great experience as well but the locals didn't give a toss about what was going on. Whereas in Japan and Korea the locals were mad for it, the welcome we got in Japan is something I'll never forget, they were genuinely grateful that we'd travelled so far to visit their country, one of the best months of my life.....

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Originally Posted by Drumcondra 69er

100% agree. Japan / Korea 02 was streets ahead of USA 94 for the craic. Don't get me wrong, the states was a great experience as well but the locals didn't give a toss about what was going on. Whereas in Japan and Korea the locals were mad for it, the welcome we got in Japan is something I'll never forget, they were genuinely grateful that we'd travelled so far to visit their country, one of the best months of my life.....

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Agree with that. The U.S. organsied the World Cup very well and everything ran like clockwock but nobody knew it was on there and nobody really cared. The Gay Olympics was on in New York the weekend of the Italy game and it was bigger news. Great country to visit but not for football.

I enjoyed Italy the most. It was chaotic unlike Korea/Japan and the U.S. but every single man woman and child in Italy eat slept and drank football for the month.

I really enjoyed Japan (and Korea) and the locals were really into football. It was also run very well in Japan at least.

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Originally Posted by gspain

The Gay Olympics was on in New York the weekend of the Italy game and it was bigger news.

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I don't think that's right, it's the same every weekend in central park. ;)

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Originally Posted by gspain

I really enjoyed Japan (and Korea) and the locals were really into football. It was also run very well in Japan at least.

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Well we should have got them to organise our training then.


I was in a university common room in London with a bunch of English lads and a few other foreigners (all seemed to be lined up with England). I was the only person supporting Ireland in the room.

Some were ****ed at the end but some were surprisingly gracious (more than I'd have been tbh).

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Originally Posted by gspain

The Gay Olympics was on in New York the weekend of the Italy game and it was bigger news.

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On the flight over from London to JFK, Me and my very homophobic friend sat beside this gay chap. He went into gory details about the male g-spot and how he'd shag my mate over Cindy Crawford. I thought I was gonna die from the six hours of laughter.

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Originally Posted by stojkovic

On the flight over from London to JFK, Me and my very homophobic friend sat beside this gay chap. He went into gory details about the male g-spot and how he'd shag my mate over Cindy Crawford. I thought I was gonna die from the six hours of laughter.

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On the flight down to Florida the day after the game my mate Jim dressed in Ireland shirt, tricolour shorts. We were split up all over the plane. He was chatting to this woman on the way to visit her daughter in Florida. He announced "I was just in New York competing in the Gay olympics" The woman replied in all seriousness "I had figured that out all right". He still gets ribbed over it. :D

I think the Italy game result merited an inch on the corner of page 7 of the Sports section of the New York paper that morning. The Gay Olympics had a pages of coverage.

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Originally Posted by gspain

On the flight down to Florida the day after the game my mate Jim dressed in Ireland shirt, tricolour shorts. We were split up all over the plane. He was chatting to this woman on the way to visit her daughter in Florida. He announced "I was just in New York competing in the Gay olympics" The woman replied in all seriousness "I had figured that out all right". He still gets ribbed over it. :D

I think the Italy game result merited an inch on the corner of page 7 of the Sports section of the New York paper that morning. The Gay Olympics had a pages of coverage.

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I was too busy following the OJ Simpson story to even notice the Gay Olympics was on to be honest! :D

Tonight me some friends will watch the Turkey vs Croatia game at home and then take out the videos and reminisce about 1988 over copious amounts of beer and wine. Wife is gone to Belfast :D