Sepp Blatter thinks that this is the best ever World Cup – but there again he would.

Meanwhile a number of columnists, commentators, and bloggers have already taken this World Cup to the garbage dump. Maybe it is premature either way given that we are only at the quarter final stage.

My first vivid memories of a World Cup was 1966 and here is how I would rate the past editions (best to worst):

1974 - Memories - The Dutch and Cruyff.

Outstanding games - Brazil vs. Scotland, Poland vs. Argentina, Netherlands vs. Argentina, West Germany vs. Sweden, West Germany vs. Netherlands.

1986 - Memories – Maradona, Peter Beardsley.

Outstanding games - Denmark vs. Uruguay, Denmark vs. Spain, England vs. Poland, Denmark vs. Spain, Argentina vs. England, Brazil vs. France, Argentina vs. W. Germany

1970 -  Memories – Brazil, Bobby Moore, Uwe Seeler, the first British TV panel of experts on ITV.

Outstanding games - England vs. Brazil, W. Germany vs. England, W. Germany vs. Italy, Brazil vs. Peru.

1982 – Memories – Northern Ireland, the French midfield, Paulo Rossi, Falcao.

 Outstanding games – England vs. France, Northern Ireland vs. Spain, Brazil vs. Scotland, Italy vs. Brazil, W. Germany vs. France.

1966 - Memories – North Koreans, Eusebio, Beckenbauer and Geoff Hurst.

Outstanding games W. Germany vs. Switzerland, Portugal vs. Hungary, Portugal vs. Brazil, North Korea vs. Italy, Portugal vs. North Korea, England vs. West Germany

2002 – Memories – South Korean fans, Oliver Kahn, and Ronaldo.

Outstanding games – France vs. Senegal, Senegal vs. Uruguay, Costa Rica vs. Brazil, Argentina vs. England, USA vs. Mexico, South Korea vs. Italy, England vs. Brazil.

1994 - Memories – Romario and George Haghi.

Outstanding games - USA vs. Colombia, Spain vs. South Korea, Nigeria vs. Bulgaria, Bulgaria vs. W. Germany.

 1998 – Memories – Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desaily, Dennis Bergkamp.

Outstanding games – Nigeria vs. Denmark, Argentina vs, England, Netherlands vs. Argentina, Brazil vs. Netherlands, France vs. Brazil.

1978 - Memories - Ossie Ardilles, Mario Kempes and Leopoldo Luque.

Outstanding games - Italy vs. France, Italy vs. Argentina, Sweden vs. Brazil, Netherlands vs. Scotland, Netherlands vs. Italy.

1990 – Cameroon and Group F (F for frigging awful, 7 goals in 6 games).

Outstanding games – W. Germany vs. Netherlands, Republic of Ireland vs. Romania, England vs. Cameroon.

As the round of 16 it is quite possible that the winner of the Golden Shoe - the tournament top scorer - has not hit the mark yet.

Here are the current scoring leaders and here is a list of past winners back to 1966 and in what game they broke their duck.

2002 Ronaldo (8 goals) 1^st game vs. Turkey 1998 #### (6) 1^st vs. Jamaica

1994 Salenko (6) 2^nd game vs. Sweden and Stoitchkov (6) 2^nd game vs. Greece

1990 Schillachi (6) 1^st game vs. Austria

1986 Lineker (6) 3^rd game vs. Poland

1982 Rossi (6) 5^th game vs. Brazil

1978 Kempes (6) 4^th game vs. Poland

1974 Lato (7) 1^st game vs. Argentina

1970 Muller (10) 1^st game vs. Morocco  

1966 Eusebio (9) 2^nd game vs. Bulgaria

You can see from the list of previous winners that getting to the semi-final stage and ensuring the maximum number of games appears to be important. Only Salenko (5 goals in one game against Cameroon distorts his stats) and Gary Lineker in 1986 fail to fit the profile.

Of the current top 20, nine players have packed their bags and gone home.

 However, I can't see anyone ever beating Just Fontaine's 1958 record of 13 goals at a single World Cup Final.

 Of course after tomorrows games we may be looking at Ronaldo as being the single greatest goal scorer of all time at the World Cup finals.

 Who tickles your fancy?

It is always a temptation to project the present into the future and the history of the World Cup is littered with countries that treated the tournament as a sprint rather than a very quick middle distance race – league championships are marathons.

So although much of the hot money may have moved in the direction of Argentina, in particular, and Spain, it may not be worth considering some of the other countries who have had the look of Champion-in-waiting over the last half century or so, only to flounder.

1954 – Hungary won their first four games and scored an amazing 25 goals while only conceding 7. One of those wins was 8-3 over West Germany and they met again in the Final. Hungary led 2-0 but West Germany came back to score three in what become known as “The Miracle of Berne.”

1974 – A Johan Cruyff inspired Netherlands won five and drew one while destroying some good teams in the process. They scored from a penalty kick awarded in the first minute of the Final but eventually lost 2-1 to West Germany.

1982 – The best Brazil team since 1970 won their first four games convincingly before a Paulo Rossi hat trick saw them off.

1986 – Denmark won all three games in the “Group of Death” but disintegrated in losing 5-1 to Spain in the first knockout round.

2002 – Spain took a 100% record into the last sixteen and then defeated the Republic of Ireland on penalties. However, the quarterfinal was the end of the road as they lost to South Korea.