This isn’t just the rooster-blue-tinted goggles of nostalgia, no: it’s the lost sense of freedom and joy and the connection to the real football world in Road to World Cup 98 that make it a beautiful bit of sandbox that stood the test of time, and a painfully sweet reminder of what a fun sports game could look like.
What comes to your mind when you think of a World Cup FIFA game? A chance to pick one team and steer them through the qualification, then play with all the usual big dogs in the real group stage, right? Well, yes, that is more or less what the experience is like these days. But boy oh boy, did things used to be different back in 1998.
