How England Won the World Cup

The summer of 1966 did not feel, in its opening weeks, like the beginning of a legend. England's warm-up performances had been so uninspiring that the press had largely written off their chances before a ball was kicked in earnest. Alf Ramsey, the manager who had promised the nation — with either breathtaking confidence or reckless hubris — that England would win the World Cup, was working with a squad many felt was too limited, too workmanlike, too English in its stolid refusal to dazzle. What unfolded over the following weeks was not a fairy tale. It was something stranger and more interesting than that: a triumph of method, psychology, and stubbornness over glamour, expectation, and chaos.

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