World Cup 70 Master Master

World Cup 70 Revisited

1


NGB

A Norman Giller Books publication

First published 2020

Daws Heath, Essex

Website: www.normangillerbooks.com

© Norman Giller 2020

This is a FREE download. If you enjoy the journey back to the

1970 World Cup finals, you may wish to make a small donation to

me through PayPal or to my bank account at Barclays 00661732,

sort code 20-96-96. All profits will be passed on to the hugely

deserving Bobby Moore Cancer Fund. Thank you.

2


In memory of

Robert Frederick Moore,

The Master footballer

And Great Defender

When we old men with snow-white hair

Declare with tears and pride that we were there

Then respectfully listen when we say for sure

There’ll never be another like ‘Sir’ Bobby Moore

3


Contents

Introduction: Fasten Your Safety Belt 5

1. Bracelegate 7

2. The Hate Game. 14

3. Hurst Scores Again 19

4. The Banks Save! 24

5. Clarke On the Spot 33

6. Nightmare in Leon 39

7. Revenge for Brazil 54

8. Game of the Century 59

9. THE FINAL 63

10: Whatever Happened to the Boys from Brazil ? 68

11. Pelé, The King 76

12. Mooro Ten Years On 84

13. The Greenwood Report 97

14. WC70 Facts and Trivia 122

4


Introduction

Fasten Your Safety Belts

CAN it really be fifty years since my visit to the football paradise that was

World Cup ’70? It was without any doubt the greatest football festival in

history, and in the following pages I hope to give you a taste of what it

was like to be there in Mexico to witness the Beautiful Game at its glorious best.

You are in good company, because I am able to call on the memories of

England captain Bobby Moore, who was a colossus in those finals. I covered the

tournament in my role as the then chief football reporter for the Daily Express,

and Bobby gave me his exclusive comments for a Sir Alf Ramsey tribute

brochure that I produced.

Tragically, Bobby is no longer with us. But his recollections are in my

notebook and I will share them with you and those of other major eyewitnesses

as we journey back to the most exhilarating, exciting and – because of the high

altitude – exhausting World Cup finals ever.

The book is lavishly illustrated because in Mexico I was lucky to be in harness

with master cameraman Monté Fresco, who treated me to copies of many of his

photographs for the Ramsey brochure.

Thanks to the terrifying interruption of Covid-19, I had to abandon publishing

in the traditional way. So I am giving away this online book. Please, if you enjoy

the journey, pay me what you think it’s worth and I will pass any profits on to the

Bobby Moore Cancer Fund. Pay me through PayPal or to my bank account at

Barclays 00661732, sort code 20-96-96. Every payment will be acknowledged.

Thank you.

Now, fasten your safety belts and prepare for a thrilling ride back to a time

when ‘lockdown’ meant you were up against England’s ironclad defence. They

went to Mexico as defending champions …

5


England, world champions 1966: Alan Ball, Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst,

Bobby Moore, Ray Wilson, George Cohen, Bobby Charlton

Bobby

Moore and

the heroes of

‘66 (above)

and getting

in good

voice for

World Cup

‘70 (left)

with their

recording of

Back Home

that topped

the charts as

they set off

for Mexico.

6


1. Braceletgate

EVEN before a ball had been kicked in the 1970 World Cup finals,

defending champions England were engulfed in a furore that shook the

world of football. Come with me to the roof of the world at Ecuador for

England’s final warm-up match, which they played just a week ahead of their

opening World Cup group game against Romania in Guadalajara.

England had literally gone up into the clouds for this acclimatising match in

the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, more than 9,000 feet above sea level and where

the air is so thin that any exertion takes your breath away.

The world champions won 2-0 with goals from Francis Lee and Brian Kidd,

but more important than the result for the Sunday newspapermen was the fact

that Ramsey was about to decide which six players of his 28-man squad would

be axed.

Reg Drury, the well-informed News of the World reporter, was the closest to

Alf, from the days when he used to write about him as a Totteham player. Alf,

quite reasonably, wanted to tell the players who were out of the squad before

announcing it to the media.

With a pressing deadline and allowing for the five-hour time difference, Reg

persuaded Alf that no player would see the papers. You have to remember that

Ramsey was the sort of cautious, tight-lipped manager who would not even

reveal what he had for breakfast without making sure it was in total confidence.

Convinced that nobody would utter a word to the players, Alf reluctantly told

Reg just for the ears of his Sunday colleagues that the players who would not

make the final squad were Peter Thompson, David Sadler, Ralph Coates, Peter

Shilton, Bob McNab and Brian Kidd. Their voices were heard on the squad’s

‘Back Home’ hit record … and they were going back home.

The delighted reporters filed their stories and then joined the squad for the

flight to Mexico via a stop over in Bogota.

It was while they were in the air that the plans of mice and men went askew.

A conscientious reporter in the Manchester office of the News of the World

– unaware of the confidentiality clause – telephoned David Sadler’s wife and

asked how she felt about her husband missing the finals.

7


The drama then became a crisis when by coincidence David – waiting for the

connecting flight from Bogota to Mexico – rang his wife minutes after her call

from the newspaper. He was, to say the least, rather surprised to find his wife

giving him the news that he was out of the squad. She also reeled off the names

of the players joining him.

Alf was incandescent with rage when he called the players together to tell

them his decision, only to find some were already into big sulks because they

had discovered their fate.

This, of course, was all overshadowed by what happened next, but before

we reach ‘Braceletgate’ I just have to share one of the all-time great football

reporting stories that revolves around the late, much-mourned Vic Railton, who

was making one of his rare trips abroad for the London Evening News.

West Hammer Vic was acknowledged as one of the best contacts men in

the business. He did it all by telephone, and the likes of Ron Greenwood, Bill

Nicholson, Tommy Docherty and Billy Wright would call him back if ever he

left a message. He won their trust by never breaking confidences and would

always keep them informed with the latest hot football gossip.

Vic’s empire was his office in the days when the News was based at Carmelite

House, just off Fleet Street. While he had his bank of telephones and giant

contacts book, he was safe and in control. But once outside, he was often like a

barracuda out of water. And as for going abroad, he hated it.

Very reluctantly, he joined the England team on their build-up tour leading

to the 1970 finals in Mexico. He showed he had lost all news reporting sense

when he boarded the plane with the England team for the final lap to Mexico,

a flight already heavy with the despair of the six players who were out of the

squad. The pilot was just bringing up the wheels when Vic shared a secret with

the rest of the press party.

‘Here,’ said in-the-know Vic. ‘Three guesses as to who’s not on the plane …’

It was the day Bobby Moore had been arrested at the airport on a trumped-up

jewel-theft charge. Fifteen reporters were trying to decide whether to strangle

Vic or hijack the plane and make the pilot head back to Colombia.

The Daily Mail’s enterprising Ron Crowther (a brilliant reporter beautifully

nicknamed Ron Von Ruintrip because of his constant moaning) got the last seat

on a plane from Mexico back to Bogota and so was first to track down where

Bobby was under house arrest.

Excited Mail editors gathered around the Telex machine for his exclusive

story. This was the first copy they received: ‘Ron Crowther here in Bogota.

What is the Spanish equivalent for shirt neck size fifteen and a half …?’

Detective Giller got on the case, and I discovered that before the match against

8


Colombia the players had been relaxing in Bogata’s five-star Tequendama hotel

that had a jewellery shop in its foyer. The shop was called Fuego Verde (Green

Fire), which is burned into the memory.

Skipper Bobby Moore and living legend Bobby Charlton – the two golden

boys of English football – went together into the shop to look for a present for

Mrs Charlton, Norma. The affable team doctor Neil Phillips, a witty and wise

Welshman, was also in the shop.

After looking at some of the items in the display cases, the two Bobbys found

nothing and left to sit in the foyer. They were quietly chatting to each other

when suddenly the shop assistant Clara Padilla came out in a distressed state

and accused them of stealing a valuable gold bracelet from a display case.

Both Moore and Charlton first thought it was a prank dreamed up by their

team-mates. As it dawned on them that she was not joking, they protested their

innocence and invited the hotel security guards to search them.

By this time the shop manager had called the police.

Eyewitness Alan Mullery told me: ‘Suddenly all hell let loose. Alf went

bananas when he found out what was going on, particularly when armed guards

marched into the hotel. It was like something out of a Hollywood action film.

They pointed their guns at Alf and ordered him to keep his distance from the

two Bobbys.’

‘Straight away I thought it was some sort of conspiracy,’ said Geoff Hurst,

hat-trick hero in the 1966 World Cup final. ‘As if either of the two Bobbys

would try to steal anything. You could not find two straighter men. I never knew

Alf so livid.’

Both players were questioned by the police, and made an official statement.

There were mumbled apologies when Alf explained they were members of the

England team, due to play Colombia in Bogata on the way to the World Cup

finals.

Everybody thought that was the end of it, and England went ahead with the

match with the two Bobbys both featuring in the game. England strolled to a

4–0 victory.

Then came the match against Ecuador, won 2-0 by England and followed

by the flight to Mexico via Bogota. It was while the party were arriving at the

airport that Bobby Moore was detained by police wanting to charge him with

jewellery theft. Sir Alf Ramsey decided to carry on to the World Cup finals, with

his captain left behind in Colombia under house arrest.

Bobby Charlton offered to stay behind to give evidence on the skipper’s

behalf, but a seething Ramsey told him: ‘They’ve already got one of my players.

They are not going to hold a second one. Let the diplomats sort out the mess.

You’re coming with us.’

9


England v. Ecuador in Quito: Bobby Charlton, Keith Newton, Gordon

Banks, Brian Labone, Martin Peters, Bobby Moore. Front: Alan Ball, Alan

Mullery, Francis Lee, Geoff Hurst, Terry Cooper (and the interpreter).

This was the Daily Express headline on my story from Mexico City after I

toured all the embassies to see what files they had on tourists visiting Bogota.

Crack reporter Ivor Key was our man in Colombia

10


Even now – fifty years since Bobby was arrested – I am often asked with a

whisper and a wink, ‘Come on, tell us ... did Bobby nick that bracelet?’

Of course he didn't, and it was long ago proved that he was the victim of

an attempted sting, but it is human nature that people like to think the worst. I

found out within 48 hours of Bobby's arrest that he had almost certainly been

framed, but it was years before he was officially cleared. I was in Mexico City

at the time and at the insistence of my London editor Derek Marks went to

every embassy, where I was repeatedly told that Bogota was notorious for this

sort of con. There were a string of complaints from tourists on record at each

embassy, and an aide to the American ambassador told me: "We call it the

Bogota boobytrap.”

That inspired the headline they put on my front page lead story filed to the

Daily Express: "BOBBY CAUGHT IN THE BOGOTA BOOBYTRAP.”

It was a nonsense to even suspect Bobby of the crime. As his closest pal

Jimmy Greaves said on hearing the news when he arrived in Mexico City at the

end of his World Cup rally drive: ‘Bobby's nicked a bracelet? Why? He could

afford to buy the bloody shop.’

Colombian police papers released in 2003 – ten years after Bobby's passing

and thirty years after the fiasco – finally revealed that they had believed all

along that he was innocent. He had never taken the shop owners on in a legal

battle because he feared false evidence being produced.

I knew Bobby better than any other journalist. We had grown up together,

he learning the football arts as an apprentice at West Ham, while I was on the

local newspaper learning the art of alliteration. We both arrived at our Everest

together, he collecting the World Cup in the same year of 1966 that I was

appointed chief football writer on the Daily Express.

He told me of the jewel theft experience: ‘I went through hell, but never let

on how it was affecting me. The only thing that mattered is that I knew I was

innocent. Bobby Charlton was with me in the shop and he also knew I was

innocent. They were trying to stitch me up, and I was determined not to let them

know they had me concerned in any way. My house arrest in Bogota was as

farcical as everything else, and the two guards they assigned to me could have

stepped out of a Laurel and Hardy film. It was one of those crazy situations

where you did not know whether to laugh or cry. I trained my thoughts on only

one thing, getting back to the England squad and playing in the World Cup.’

One of my favourite anecdotes from that Mexican adventure involves the

unique Geoffrey Green, legendary ‘Association Football Correspondent’ for

The Times and Bobby's favourite character in the village world of football and

the media

When Bobby arrived in Mexico to rejoin the England squad after his five

11


days under arrest in Colombia, I was among a posse of press reporters and

photographers gathered on the tarmac of Mexico City airport to meet him (can

you imagine the press being allowed on the tarmac in today’s security-obsessed

world?).

Prominent among us was the elegant, Peter O’Toole lookalike Green, arguably

the greatest football writer of any time. Geoffrey had a habit of using lines

from songs when he talked, and he always greeted people with such phrases

as ‘Younger than Springtime, baby’, delivered in a cut-glass Oxbridge accent.

He was using the phrase ‘I’m over the Moon’ long before it became the cliché

crutch of tongue-tied footballers.

As Bobby Moore stepped out from the plane into the dazzling light of scores

of flashbulbs, he spotted the tall, willowy figure of Geoffrey among the hordes

at the bottom of the steps.

He punched the air and shouted, ‘Over the rainbow, baby.’ Foreign reporters,

anxious to record Bobby’s first words on his return to freedom, scratched their

heads as they tried to decipher what the England captain had said.

Bobby’s ordeal was still not over, and he was whipped off to a hideaway at

the British ambassador’s house on the outskirts of Mexico City. I discovered

where he was being hidden and took his West Ham club mate Jimmy Greaves

to try to see him.

Just a couple of hours earlier I had been interviewing Jimmy at the end of

the London-to-Mexico World Cup Rally, when he and co-driver Tony Fall

had finished sixth in their battered Ford Escort. It was a fairly unconventional

interview, because at the time Jimmy was sitting in an armchair that had been

deposited in the pool at the luxury Camino Real hotel. He had a bottle of

Mexican lager in one hand and a tequila chaser in the other. These were his

drinking days, and he had been dry for three weeks of rally driving.

He was quickly up for my suggestion that we go and find our mutual mate

Mooro, even though the embassy house was declared out of bounds.

There was tight security on the front door, and Jimmy being Jimmy he elected

to shin over the garden wall. I gave him a leg up,.and he’d just landed on the

lawn when the ambassador’s wife spotted him and ordered him back over the

wall.

When he told her he wanted to talk to his best friend Mooro, she said: ‘Well

try knocking at the front door. The conventional way.’

Jimmy duly went to the front door and the ambassador’s wife allowed him

in after checking with Bobby. As the two mates hugged each other, Greavsie

made the ambassador’s wife gasp when he asked; ‘So where have you hidden

the bracelet, Mooro?’

Let’s get on with World Cup 70 …

12


How They Lined Up

Scanned from my Mexico 70 press pack ©FIFA

13


2. The Hate Game

NEVER has there been a World Cup to equal the quality, the excitement

and the drama of the 1970 finals in Mexico. Those of us lucky to be

there considered ourselves privileged to be witnesses of football that

touched perfection, and in particular to watch a Brazilian team that brought us a

game from the Gods. Yes, the Beautiful Game.

By the end of the incredible soccer jamboree, the names of their Famous Five

forwards – Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, Pele and Rivelino – were rolling off our

tongues like old friends. And our hero Bobby Moore, after all that he had been

through with the jewel-theft sting, managed to walk tall out of the tournament

with his reputation as being the Great Defender strengthened and now set in

stone for all time.

But let’s not forget that the finals got off to a stagnant start, with one of the

most sterile opening games in World Cup history. I was ringside for the Daily

Express and this is how I reported the kick-off match between host country

Mexico and a Russian (or Soviet) side shrouded in mystery during what was

still the era of the Cold War.

The headline on my report screamed:

NO GOALS – BUT OH, SO MUCH HATE

From NORMAN GILLER, Mexico City, Sunday

Mexico 0, Russia 0

And these were the running report words I shouted to a copy taker from a skyhigh

press box telephone in a capacity-crowded 107,000 seater stadium in which

I could hardly hear myself think …

If this is what England are going to face in Guadalajara, I advise Sir Alf Ramsey

to issue his players with ear plugs. For it was the beginning of a hate war when

Mexico and Russia started the World Cup ball rolling here today with a noscoring

draw.

If you have been in an over-populated parrot house you will have some idea

14


My opening match report in the

Daily Express on June 1 1970.

Like any football reporter, it had

always been my ambition to report

an opening match in a World Cup

finals. What an anti-climax! I had

seen more gripping games on

Hackney Marshes. Both Mexico

and Russia played with a fear of

defeat and were happy to stay in

their own halves.

of what it was like every time a Russian player touched the ball in the roastinghot

stone crater called the Azteca Stadium.

The flamboyantly dressed Mexican fans, splashing the stadium with every

colour under the rainbow, filled the thin air with screeches and piercing whistles

that was a volcanic display of hatred.

I have never witnessed such wild partisanship. Frightening is not too strong

a word to describe it, and what worries me is that only the England and Russian

flags were given the hate treatment in the pre-match parade.

Ever since I stepped foot in Mexico City I have known nothing but hatred

and derision aimed in the direction of Sir Alf Ramsey, who has never been

forgiven in Latin America for calling Argentina ‘animals’ after the ugly World

Cup quarter-final war in 1966. England must be prepared for the malice mania

when they face Romania on Tuesday.

I won’t subject you to any more of my report, because it was, frankly, one of

the most boring international matches I ever had the chore of chronicling, even

duller and more defensive than the 1966 goalless opener between England and

Uruguay at Wembley. It was one of the few dud matches in the 1970s finals, yet

15


at the end of it the Mexican fans celebrated their draw as if they had won the

Jules Rimet trophy. They indulged in dozens of Mexican Waves, which were

fairly new to European eyes, having been first spontaneously created during the

Mexico Olympics of 1968 but now perfected to a point where the TV directors

were finding the mass movement more televisual than the football.

Mexico City came to a standstill as thousands of ecstatic, singing, chanting

supporters paraded through the streets in carnival mood. My projected twenty

minute drive back to the Camino Real Hotel took two and a half hours!

The World Cup had lift off, and the only noteworthy thing was that the first

ever yellow cards had been flourished, all against Russian players. And here’s

something on which to ponder, not a single red card was shown throughout a

tournament that had sportsmanship at the same premium level as skill.

An interlude here, to consider how the disciplinary card system had been

invented. Back in 1966 there were five people heavily involved in the 1966

World Cup who lived within just a square mile of each other (or six, if you

include me!). Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, Jimmy Greaves and

I were all near neighbours in Essex, as was Ken Aston, the head of the Fifa

Referees’ Committee. He was a primary school headmaster from Ilford, and

standing a straight-backed 6ft 3in and with Dr Spock ears he must have been a

daunting sight to his young pupils.

A lieutenant-colonel in the British Indian Army during the war, he served

as a judge on the Changi War Crimes Tribunal and then returned to England

to carry on what was a hobby as a referee, an authoritarian, yet who won the

respect of the players because of his determination to show discretion rather

than being an unthinking puppet of the rules.

I often gave Ken a lift to matches and he tried (and failed) to educate me about

the laws of the game on which he was a walking record book. In fact he helped

write and update a lot of them. Surprisingly for a hugely patriotic Englishman,

he was always of the opinion that the controversial second Geoff Hurst goal in

the 1966 World Cup Final should have been disallowed. He kept this view to

himself until standing down from his Fifa role after the 1974 World Cup.

His favourite party trick was to get a football and a sheet of plain A4-sized

paper. He would put the ball down on the floor and tuck the sheet of paper under

one side, not touching the ball, but within the full circumference of it. The paper

was a make-believe goal-line.

‘Now,’ he’d say. ‘Goal or no goal?’

‘Goal,’ I’d say, playing his straight man.

‘Wrong,’ he’d reply. ‘The complete circumference of the ball has to be over

the line. That was not the case with Geoff’s second goal. No camera angle I’ve

16


seen since has persuaded me that was a goal. On instinct, I know that I would

have waved play on, and awarded a corner because a German defender had

kicked the rebound behind the goal.’

Whenever I was in Ken’s company I felt as if I were one of his pupils. Force

of habit made him talk at rather than to you, and I used to wonder if I should

raise a hand to get a word in.

He was opinionated and egotistical, but that comes with the territory of being

a good referee, otherwise you will be eaten alive by the arrogant players like

Argentina’s Antonio Rattin, who infamously got his marching orders against

England in the explosive quarter-final at Wembley.

I have since met Tony several times, and you could not encounter a

more charming companion, but that day in the World Cup he went too far with

trying to dictate to the referee. Ken Aston was the man who came hurrying to

the touchline to sort out the mayhem after German referee Rudolf Kreitlein had

sent him off.

‘There can only be one referee of a match,’ Aston told me, ‘and that

cannot be a player. Rattin was trying to referee the game and was

questioning every decision. Had I been the referee I would have taken

him to the touchline, found an interpreter, and explained very clearly if he did

not stop interfering he would be given his marching orders.

‘Alf Ramsey was ill advised to publicly call the Argentines animals, but there

was a lot of spitting going on when I was on the touchline trying to bring some

sanity to the proceedings, so I could understand Alf’s sentiments. Englishmen

do not spit at people and find it despicable.’

This was the worst scene in a World Cup match since the 1962 finals and Ken

Aston was also bang in the middle of that explosive episode, when Italy and host

country Chile got involved in a brawling battle that led to naked hatred between

the South American and European football associations. It became infamous as

The Battle of Santiago, referee Aston sent off two players, numerous punches

were thrown, there were crowd invasions of the pitch and police intervention

was required four times.

The hangover was still there when the 1966 finals kicked off, and helps

to explain why Argentina came into the tournament with a suspicion that the

Europeans were weighing everything against them before a ball was kicked.

The Chile-Italy battle in Santiago – which led to the countries breaking

off diplomatic relations – was Aston’s last World Cup match, and his farewell

as a referee came in the 1963 FA Cup Final when Manchester United beat

Leicester City.

He moved upstairs to become highly regarded chairman of the Fifa Referees

17


Committee and the world’s chief refereeing instructor.

Ken, who passed on in 2001 aged 86, left the legacy of the card

discipline procedure introduced in the 1970 finals. He told me:

‘The idea came to me after the Argentina game when I had to go on to the

pitch to get Rattin off. The newspapers wrote that both of the Charlton brothers

had been booked. Neither player could recall having their names taken and

Ramsey rang up the Fifa office for clarification because no one had seen the

bookings. Because a referee had to verbally tell a player he was having his

name taken it often wasn’t heard because of the noise of the crowd. We needed

something to make it clear to players and spectators what was going on.

‘As I was driving home from Wembley in my little MGB and going down

Kensington High Street, the traffic lights turned red. I thought, ‘Yellow, take it

easy, red, stop, you’re off’. That’s where the idea came from.

‘I went home and discussed it with my wife, Hilda. I was scratching my head

wondering how I could signal yellow and red to the players when Hilda came

out of her sewing room with two cards, one red, one yellow and pushed them

into my top pocket. So Hilda deserves a share of the credit.’

He was in Mexico to see his card-waving system being put into operation for

the first time in a World Cup.

Ken Aston, quite a card.

Okay, now back to the main thrust of this book, the 1970 World Cup finals

and the start of England’s defence of the title.

There was an unreported, disconcerting moment on the eve of the game

against Romania. A Mexican street trader wandered into the England hotel, the

Guadalajara Hilton, selling watches and jewellery from wooden trays that he lay

down on the foyer tables, inviting the players and hotel guests to look at them.

After a couple of hours, he started packing up, and suddenly shouted that

somebody had stolen a watch.

Alf Ramsey immediately thought: ‘Oh no, not again.’

He quietly persuaded the players to have a $10 whip round to give the trader

enough money to cover the cost of the watch and he went away happy..

As he led the players into the dining room for their evening meal, Sir Alf said

firmly: ‘Not a word of this to anybody. We’re here to play football ...’

18


3. Hurst scores again

DEFENDING champions England arrived in Mexico rated at No 1 ... in

the pop charts. Their ‘Back Home’ song was top of the pops, but after

the Bobby Moore fiasco in Bogota and their hostile welcome there were

few people who believed they would be No 1 team in this 1970 tournament. The

England football authorities had been leading critics of the choice of Mexico

as a venue for the World Cup because of the thin air, and this had not been

forgotten by their hosts.

When they got to their hotel in Guadalajara they found many locals less than

friendly, and – particularly before the Brazil match – the players struggled to

sleep because of the noise being deliberately generated by crowds of rowdy

supporters chanting, honking car horns and banging drums into the early hours.

England hardly made things easier for themselves with disastrous public

relations. They brought their own coach and driver, their own chefs, their own

refrigerated food, and Alf Ramsey treated most non-English people with sulky

suspicion. Foreign (and many British) reporters found him rude, arrogant,monosyllabic.

He could communicate with his players, but was deaf to the media.

While most of their rivals were visiting local schools and hospitals, signing

autographs and handing out flags and lapel badges. England’s players were

under orders not to step foot outside the hotel and training ground.

So many things were stacked against England. They were not about to play

all their home games at Wembley as in 1966, and they were going to have to

battle with the suffocating heat and altitude of Mexico. The general opinion

throughout Latin America is that England had been handed the World Cup four

years earlier by contentious refereeing decisions and being favoured with every

one of their matches at their national stadium. As I detected from the hostile

reception of the English flag before the opening match, there was little love for

them in Mexico.

In the four years since becoming holders of the Jules Rimet trophy, England

had lost just four times, but rarely with their victories forged with the sort of

19


The England squad, as scanned from my ©Fifa Press pack

style and panache expected of world champions. Ramsey’s Wingless Wonders

were respected rather than widely popular.

Yet Bobby Moore, shrugging off his own personal problems, was convinced

England could go all the way to the final. He told me before England’s opening

game against Romania: ‘If I was asked to select the greatest England team with

which I have played I would not go for the 1966 World Cup winners but for this

side that I am proud to lead in these 1970 finals. There is no doubt in my mind

that this team has more strength in depth than when we won the World Cup, and

if we get a little luck I’m confident we can at least get to the final in our defence

of the title.’

The local media jumped on any opportunity to criticise England, and when

Jeff Astle was shown being helped off a domestic flight looking the worse for

wear the Mexican newspapers branded them ‘thieves and drunks.’ The Football

Association PR machine was slow to counter attack and by the time they came

up with the story that Jeff was a bad flier who had suffered air sickness the

damage had been done.

It was a relief for England when they at last started their World Cup defence

20


against Romania, and they began where they had left off four years earlier with

Geoff Hurst emerging as the goal-scoring hero.

His goal in the 66th minute – the ball going through the legs of the Romanian

goalkeeper – was enough to give England a winning send-off. Captain Bobby

Moore, back with the squad after his harrowing jewel-theft charge experience

in Colombia, was the outstanding defender on the pitch.

It was a satisfactory rather than spectacular start by England against opponents

who concentrated solely on defence in a bid to squeeze a draw out of a hardfought

match. The one worry for England was an injury to right-back Keith

Newton, but his Everton clubmate Tommy Wright proved a sound substitute.

The England team:

Banks Newton (Wright) Cooper Mullery Labone Moore*

Lee (Osgood) Ball Charlton R. Hurst Peters

Bobby Moore told me: ‘This was the first substitution that Alf had to make in

a World Cup match. Tommy slipped in comfortably as partner to Terry Cooper,

and we were always in control against a side that took no prisoners with their

tackling. I was just glad to be back playing after my ordeal in Bogota. As far as

I was concerned, that was now history.’

‘It wasn’t the greatest goal I’ve ever scored,’ Geoff Hurst admitted with a

rueful grin, ‘but they all count. The Romanians were, let’s say, very competitive

and when they tackled they really meant it. Once we’d got the goal we could

relax and play the sort of walking keep-ball that is necessary to survive in these

sort of conditions. All the acclimatisation work we’ve done paid off, because we

lasted better than our opponents. Now for the big one. Brazil!’

The Brazilians launched their campaign with a stunning performance against

Czechoslovakia, a repeat of the 1962 final. We got a taste of what was to come

when Pelé controlled Gerson’s long pass with his chest before bringing it down

and scoring in one sweet movement for an exquisite goal to make it 2-1. It was

in this game that Pelé audaciously tried to lob goalkeeper Ivo Viktor from the

halfway line, missing the target by just inches. A very capable Czech side was

pulled apart and their exhausted players were on their knees at the final whistle

and lucky to get away with only a 4-1 shellacking.

I met up with my old friend Dave Sexton, Chelsea manager, who was in

Mexico on a busman’s holiday, making notes for how he could improve his

already great knowledge of the game. He was up in the clouds after watching

the Brazil performance.

‘They are taking the game to a new level,’ Dave enthused. ‘Pelé was

21


Just like the old days ... Bobby Charlton congratulates Geoff Hurst on his goal against

Ecuador. Also in the photograph in a ‘job done’ mood are Martin Peters and Francis

Lee. England’s World Cup defence was up and running.

outstanding, but the player who took my eye was Gerson. What a craftsman! He

pulls the strings from midfield, and gives chipped passes that take out two and

three of the opposition with just a dink of the ball. Incredible! You will rarelty

see a more accurate left foot. I will, of course, be supporting England against

them, but this is an exceptional side and I will be delighted if we can get a draw

out of it. It’s been worth the journey just to see that performance.’

All eyes were now on the game we had been eagerly anticipating ever since

the World Cup draw ... 1966 champions England v. 1958 and 1962 title holders

Brazil. And I was getting paid to watch it!

22


The Group results are scanned from my Mexico ‘70 press pack

and I thank my friends at Fifa for permission to publish them.

23


4. That Banks Save!

NOW take your pitch-side seat for one of the finest football matches I (or

anybody else) ever witnessed: Bobby Moore’s England against Pele’s

Brazil in Guadalajara on the seventh day of World Cup 70. To feed the

great God of television, the game was staged in the heat of the mid-day sun on

a scorching Sunday that was ideally suited for a siesta rather than soccer. Only

mad dogs and footballers would have gone out in such sweltering 98-degree

conditions, and at a thin-air altitude that made walking let alone running a

challenge. No excuses, but it’s fair to say the clammy climate favoured the Latin

Americans.

This is how the teams lined up for what was to be a classic confrontation:

ENGLAND

Banks

Wright Labone Moore* Cooper

Mullery Ball Charlton (Bell) Peters

Lee (Astle) Hurst

BRAZIL

Felix

Carlos Alberto* Brito Piazza Everaldo

Clodoaldo Cézar Rivelino

Jairzinho Tostao (Roberto) Pelé

Brazilian playmaker Gerson failed a late fitness test, and his substitute was

the flamboyant Paulo Cézar, who would have been a first choice for any other

team in the tournament. He was more of a ball player and exhibitionist than

Gerson, and Rivelino was pulled back from his usual left wing role to rove in

midfield.

The match was just ten minutes old and goalless when the master of all

strikers – Pele – came face to face with a genius among goalkeepers – Gordon

24


England and Brazil line up in the sold-out Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara.

Banks – in a High Noon duel. Carlos Alberto, Brazilian defender and captain,

pushed a carefully calculated pass down the right wing into the path of the

skilled Jairzinho, who suddenly and dramatically accelerated past Terry Cooper

to the byline. He then stabbed a centre into the goalmouth that seemed to hang

invitingly for Pele, who had instinctively read the situation as only he could. He

had got himself perfectly positioned beyond his marker Alan Mullery to meet

the ball.

The master climbed above the ball and headed it with ferocious power down –

and so he and we thought – into the net. Mullery later reported that Pele shouted

‘Goal!’ as the ball flew off his head. So did most spectators in the stadium,

including the commentators sending their descriptive phrases around the world

to millions of television viewers and radio listeners. They were commentating

in lots of different languages but the common denominator word rolling off all

their tongues was, ‘G-O-A-L!’

Banks looked rooted on the wrong side of goal but suddenly, with the blurring

speed of a panther, sprinted and then dived to his right and somehow managed

to get an outstretched hand under the ball to flick it up and away over the bar. It

was as if we were witnessing Clark Kent turning into Superman.

Pele stopped dead in mid-celebration to mourn what had somehow become

a missed chance. This moment of astounding gymnastics from Banks inspired

England to give the eventual world champions their hardest match of the

tournament, but after a magnificent battle they finally succumbed to a superbly

drilled shot by Jairzinho on the hour.

He cut in from the right to score after an arrowing Tostao pass and a deft,

25


A picture paints

a thousand

words. Two

masters of the

Beautiful Game

acknowledge

each oher

26


perfectly delivered ball from Pele had ripped open the middle of the England

defence.

There was a memorable moment almost in the Pelé/Banks class when Bobby

Moore made one of the greatest tackles ever seen on the World Cup stage to

stop another incisive run by Jaizinho. The England skipper timed his challenge

to such perfection that 50 years later coaches are still showing film of the action

as an example of how to tackle.

Bobby then started a counter attack from which Jeff Astle had a gilt-edged

chance to equalise within moments of coming on as a substitute but – yes, even

in those heatwave conditions – he was caught cold and shot tamely wide of an

empty net. There were cackles of laughter and derision from the partisan crowd.

A lasting memory of the match for all those lucky enough to have witnessed

the classic confrontation is of Bobby Moore and Pelé cuddling each other before

swapping shirts, two masters of the game recognising each other’s genius. Ali

hugging Marciano. Federer high fiving Laver. Bradman acknowledging Viv

Richards. Hyperbole? Maybe, but that was how it came across to me as Moore

and Pelé fell into each other’s arms.

Every one of the Brazilian players made a point of shaking Moore’s hand at

the final whistle during lump-in-the-throat moments as they paid their respects

to a master of the game. They were showing solidarity over his appalling

treatment in Bogota, and bowing the knee to a footballer supreme.

In the despair of defeat, England had the consolation of knowing that if they

won their next match against Czechoslovakia they would go through to the

quarter-finals. So an England-Brazil final was still an enticing possibility.

Evidence that the England players had given their all is that several of them

lost up to ten pounds in weight after running round in the mid-day sun so that

the World Cup organisers could satisfy the deadline demands of the ravenous

wolf of world-wide television. The millions tuned into the match will always

recall it for having seen one of the finest World Cuo matches of all time.

In one match they had seen ‘the save of the century’, the ‘tackle of the century’

and what poor Jeff Astle would always recall as ‘the miss of the century.’

Bobby Moore led the anthems of acclaim for the unbelievable Banks save. ‘I

was getting ready to pick the ball out of the net when Gordon appeared out of

nowhere. He swooped across the goal like Superman and must have set some

sort of world speed record getting from his near post to the far post. Was it a

bird? Was it a plane? No, it was Banksie! What a pity we lost the game, because

Gordon didn’t deserve to be on the losing side after making a save like that.

It was out of this world! This was one of the greatest games in which I ever

played, and I was proud to be part of it even though we lost’”

Pelé, in his faltering English (much more fluent than my five words of

27


Portuguese) told me during one of his many visits to the UK: ‘I just couldn’t

believe it when Gordon stopped my header. It was the biggest surprise I ever

had on a football pitch. I was convinced I had scored.’

Bobby Charlton, who had been substituted late in what was his 104th match

for England – one behind Billy Wright’s record – said after watching a TV

replay of the game back at the hotel: ‘Even we were impressed. You could

take that film and use it for coaching. That is what the game at the top is all

about. There was everything in that, all the skills and techniques, all the tactical

control, the lot. There was some special stuff played out there.’

Brazil manager Mario Zagolla, a World Cup winner in 1958 and 1962, was

ecstatic. ‘This was a game for adults. The Beautiful Game. I congratulate

England on the part they played in a classic of football at its best. Both teams

were competitive yet sporting. It was played in the right spirit and can be held

up to young generations as to how to give one hundred per cent yet within the

laws of the game. England played like the champions they are and must not be

counted out of this tournament.’

Sir Alf Ramsey could not hide his disappointment in defeat. ‘I thought at the

very least we deserved a draw,’ he said. ‘I congratulate Brazil on their victory,

but we are still the champions and are down but not out. Considering the

energy-sapping conditions, I thought we performed very well and Brazil were

so relieved to hear that final whistle. There were two or three chances we should

have taken, but I am not going to criticise individuals. Nobody deliberately

misses a goal.’

Asked about the Gordon Banks save, Alf – always a master of understatement

– commented: ‘It was rather special. Gordon has exceptional reflexes.’

Fast forward forty years and I had the honour of working on a book with

Gordon and Pelé and their British-based manager Terry Baker, centred on the

save. Hurting my imagination, I called the book: BANKS v PELE, The Save that

Shook the World.

Pelé told me for the book:’To this day I do not believe that Gordon made that

save. Alan Mullery was marking me, and tells me that I was shouting ‘G-o-a-l’

as I headed the ball down. Suddenly Gordon appeared from nowhere and not

only managed to get his hand to the ball but also to flick it up and over the bar.

I scored more than 1000 goals during my career and so I knew a goal when I

saw it. I was convinced my header was a goal, and when I watch it being shown

time and again on television I find it just unbelievable that Gordon managed to

save it.

‘We have become great friends since that 1970 World Cup, and it is hard

to believe that 40 years have gone by. Gordon is a modest man and does not

28


Three views of the ‘Save of the

Century’. Note in the colour photo

above where Banks is positioned

after Pelé has headed the ball

down and towards the net. In the

black and white picture left, Bobby

Moore and Brian Labone look on

as Gordon somehow pushes the

ball up against the bar. Below,

Gordon impersonates Superman,

with a disbelieving Tostao as a

witness of a footballing miracle.

29


shout very loudly about what he achieved. So I will do it for him. He was one

of the greatest goalkeepers who ever lived, and I considered it an honour and a

privilege to be on the same pitch as him.

‘People are always talking to me about the goals that I scored, but when I

come to England they talk about the goal I failed to score! I tell them I was

beaten by what can only be called a miracle save.’

Gordon, with whom I collaborated on his Banks of England autobiography,

told me: ‘I am honoured to have the save remembered in this way. To this day,

when I see an action replay of it I think to myself, ‘How on earth did I manage

that?’ To be honest, it looks impossible. I remember Mooro whacking me on the

backside and saying in that deadpan way of his, ‘Next time, Banksie, for gawd’s

sake catch the bloody thing!’.

‘I can remember the move starting with a pass from Carlos Alberto that was

like nothing I’d ever seen before. He struck the ball with the outside of his right

foot from just beyond his penalty area and it swerved right round our left-back

Terry Cooper and into the path of the sprinting Jairzinho. I knew they could

perform banana free-kicks, but this was a banana pass! Poor old Terry had been

left for dead.

‘Tostao drifted to the near post and I went with him as I sensed that Jairzinho

would try to hit him with a diagonal pass. What I didn’t see was Pelé running

beyond his marker Alan Mullery at the far post. Jairzinho lofted a dipping centre

high in the direction of Pelé and I suddenly had to scamper back across my goal.

‘Pelé got above the ball and powered it low and hard towards the corner of

the net. It was the perfect header. I was now into a dive to my right and as the

ball hit the ground just in front of the goal-line I flicked it with my outstretched

right hand as it came up. I had managed to divert it up and over the bar. Alan

Mullery told me later that Pelé had been shouting “Goal” as I reached the ball.

‘It was only afterwards that I realised it was something pretty special when

Pelé told the press, “It was the greatest save I have ever seen.”’

Geoff Hurst, 1966 hat-trick hero, told me: ‘I remember clearly watching it

from thirty yards away, and thinking, ‘Oh well, we’re a goal down …’ I had to

blink several times before I could believe what I was seeing. Somehow Banksie

got himself from one side of the goal to the other to pull off the greatest save I

ever saw. It was the closest you will get to having a miracle happen before your

eyes. It was astonishing, and reminds me of when he saved a penalty from me

in a League Cup semi-final. I hit the ball with all my might and somehow he

pushed it over the bar. I knew what Pele felt like!’

Gordon, who sadly passed on in 2019, will not mind me saying that I always

have difficulty choosing between him and Peter Shilton as the greatest of all

England goalkeepers. There was only a fingertip between them, but Shilts – one

30


of the six players omitted from the final squad for Mexico – bows the knee

to Banksie. ‘He was my hero when I was at school,’ he told me, ‘and set the

standards that I was determined to try to at least equal.’

There was always a little of the Master and Apprentice about Banksie and

Shilts. Peter had grown up in the shadow of Gordon at Leicester, learning his

trade by watching Banks in action in the first-team.

He had learned his lessons so well that when Gordon returned from the glory

of helping England win the World Cup in 1966 the Leicester directors decided

they could afford to let him move on to Stoke, because in the young Shilton they

had a ready-made replacement.

Shilts developed into a magnificent goalkeeper. The arguments will always

continue as to whether he became even better than Banks. I finally come down

on Gordon’s side because of THAT save against Pelé.

I am convinced that Gordon would have won many more than his 73 caps but

for the car smash that robbed him of the sight of his right eye in the summer of

1972, just a few weeks after he had been voted Footballer of the Year. Even with

only one eye he managed to get himself elected the ‘Most Valuable Goalkeeper’

in the United States soccer circus after he had failed to get back into League

football because of his handicap.

His record with England was phenomenal. He let in just 57 goals in his 73

appearances, a miserly average of just 0.78 goals per game. And he kept a

remarkable 35 clean sheets, and was never on the losing side for a sequence of

23 matches between 1964 and 1967, which embraced the 1966 World Cup when

he went unbeaten right up to the Eusebio penalty in the semi-final.

What I do know for sure is that when Gordon was between the posts in

international matches the defence was as safe as the Banks of England.

Back to the story of the 1970 World Cup, and next up for England were

Czechoslovakia, the team that had been so ruthlessly put to the sword by the

brilliant Brazilians in their opening group-stage match. It was a game England

had to win. No pressure then on international debutant Allan Clarke.

31


Allan Clarke all set for his England debut in sky blue colours.

32


5. Clarke on the Spot

ALLAN CLARKE remains one of the most confident characters to cross

my path in the village world of football. When Sir Alf Ramsey asked in

the dressing-room for a volunteer to take any necessary penalties in the

crucial World Cup group match against Czechoslovakia, it was ‘Sniffer’ who

put up his hand. It just happened that he was about to make his England debut.

I got close to Allan the day he first arrived at Fulham from Walsall in 1966.

England won the World Cup shortly after he signed for the Craven Cottage club,

and he told me in his heavy, mournful Black Country accent: ‘My ambition is

to help England keep the World Cup, and I want to score the winning goal in

the 1970 final. You must always aim high.’ At the time, he was 19 and had only

played a handful of First Division matches.

Fulham were never going to be big enough for his ambitions, and he quickly

moved on to Leicester City before arriving at Leeds United, where Don Revie’s

sky-high aspirations matched his. He proceeded to become a legend at Leeds

with the consistency and class of his goal scoring.

Allan was not a big head, but just had super confidence in his own ability.

He had always needed to be competitive because he had four brothers who all

became professional footballers. A kick-about in the park for the Clarkes was

always like a World Cup stage.

So Allan was ready for his test when he became one of the first players ever

to make an international debut in a World Cup finals match.

This was the 4-4-2 formation in which he lined up, taking the place of Francis

Lee, who got a knock against Brazil:

Banks

Newton Charlton J. Moore* Cooper

Mullery Bell Charlton R. (Ball) Peters

Astle (Osgood) Clarke

33


Czechoslovakia were playing for pride, after their 4-1 pounding by Brazil and

then a 2-1 defeat against European rivals Romania. They contrived a cautious

game against an England team still suffering a hangover from their defeat by

the Brazilians. It had been a match to remember against the South Americans

but the fact remained that England had finished second best and now they had

to conquer the Czechs to earn a place in the quarter-finals.

Allan Clarke’s bravado in raising his hand when Ramsey called for a

volunteer to take any penalties was starkly put to the test in the fifth minute of

the second-half. England appealed for a foul when Czech defender Vladimir

Hagara clumsily brought down Colin Bell as he produced one of his darting

runs into the box, and to make French referee Roger Manchin’s job easier the

ball hit Hagara’s hand as he fell to the floor.

So it was Clarke versus experienced Czech goalkeeper Ivo Victor from the

penalty spot, and the Leeds striker coolly sent his nemesis one way while slotting

the ball into the opposite right hand corner. The pulse rates of most Englishmen

watching were racing but for ‘Sniffer’ it was like playing in a Staffordshire park

with his brothers.

Czechoslovakia looked like scoring only once, when a speculative shot from

twenty-five yards by right-back Dobias swerved in the thin air. Gordon Banks,

standing at full stretch, managed to tip it on to the bar and as he turned the ball

rebounded into his arms.

Clarke’s penalty won the match for England and cemented their place in the

quarter-finals where waiting for them were, of all teams, West Germany.

Skipper Bobby Moore told me: ‘I admired Clarkey’s balls in volunteering to

take the penalty, particularly as it was his debut. That is a specialist job and you

need a lot of self confidence as well as the skill to be able to place the ball just

so. Things got a bit tense out there but we couldn’t help laughing when Gordon

caught the ball as it bounced into his arms off the bar. I said, ‘Great catch,

Banksie. Now can you go to first slip.’

All these years on it seems remarkable that Allan Clarke was handed the

responsibility of taking the penalty in his England debut when around him were

vastly experienced internationals of the calibre of Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst,

Alan Ball and Alan Mullery.

‘Allan put his hand up like a shot,’ Mullers reported. ‘We all thought that if he

was so keen he should be allowed the honour! You have to remember this was

all before penalty shoot-outs became commonplace and taking a penalty was

very much considered a specialist skill.’

34


For the record, the first penalty shoot-out in an English professional game

came when Manchester United beat Hull City in the semi-final of the now

defunct Watney Cup at Boothferry Park on August 5 1970, two months after the

World Cup finals. George Best was the first player to take a kick and score, and

the first miss was by Denis Law. His shot was saved by Ian McKechnie, who

then became the first goalkeeper to take a kick; his effort hit the crossbar and

deflected over, putting Hull City out of the Cup.

‘Sniffer’ Clarke – now into his 70s – recalled in a moment of quiet reflection

his outstanding career as a goal hunter, including 151 goals for Revie’s ruthlessly

tough but highly skilled Leeds team:

❛I had no hesitation in volunteering for taking the penalty in my England

debut. I thrived on that sort of responsibility. It will sound big headed

but it’s a fact that I was a natural at sticking the ball into the net. You’ve

either got it or you haven’t. You cannot be taught to be a goalscorer,

Players like Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law and me are born to it. We can’t be

manufactured. If it was easy, every team would have a glut of goalscorers.

But the really great ones are few and far between. That’s why they cost a

fortune in the transfer market.

From when I first pulled on a pair of football boots I always fancied

myself as a goal scorer. I was a West Brom fan, but grew up watching the

great Wolves team. Molineux was just a bus ride away from where I lived,

while it took three buses to get to The Hawthorns.

‘I used to go behind the goal in the North Bank and I would watch the

strikers for both teams. The Wolves side included Bert Williams, Billy

Wright, Ron Flowers, Jimmy Mullen, Peter Broadbent, and little Johnny

Hancocks. He was my hero because he was only a titch but had a right foot

shot as hard as Peter Lorimer. I would catch the bus back home to Short

Heath after each Wolves game and would be straight out on the local park

pitch practising what I had seen.

At the time I stood only four and a half feet tall and they used to call me

Tiny. I suddenly shot up to a six footer between fifteen and seventeen. That

sudden growth spurt took all my energy and I used to have to go to bed

early every night to conserve my strength.

Once I was fully grown I gained the confidence to go with my power

and I always used to think I was going to score when I went on to the pitch.

I was so lucky to be a part of the outstanding Leeds team. We would wipe

the floor with most of today’s top sides.

35


When the penalty was awarded for England against the Czechs in the

World Cup in Mexico, that was my proudest moment as I tucked the ball

away after dummying to send their goalie the wrong way. That’s what I

had been dreaming about since the days when I was Tiny Clarke. I had no

doubts I would score. Football is all about confidence and I believed in

myself.

The gaffer (Sir Alf) said ‘well done’ and that was great praise for me

because I knew Alf had been England’s penalty specialist for much of his

playing career. I also managed to pop the ball into the net from the penalty

spot in the 1973 World Cup qualifier against Poland at Wembley. But that’s

all I want to remember from that nightmare of a match!❜

Let’s take a pause here to consider what was going on in the other three groups.

These finals were the ninth in the history of the World Cup, a fiesta of football

staged in Mexico from 31 May to 21 June. It was the first World Cup tournament

staged outside Europe and South America. Teams representing 75 nations set

out on the qualifying rounds journey back in May 1968.

Fourteen teams qualified to join host nation Mexico and defending champions

England in the 16-team final tournament. El Salvador, Israel and Morocco were

making their first appearances at the final stage.

After the sterile goalless opening match, both Mexico and Russia won their

remaining two games to progress from Group 1 at the expense of Belgium and

El Salvador. Belgium once again failed to live up to their rich promise, even

with one of Europe’s most dynamic playmakers – Paul van Himst – pulling the

strings in midfield for them.

Group 2 was the lowest-scoring of the groups with only six goals in its six

matches. Reigning South American champions Uruguay, and European titleholders

Italy edged past Sweden and Israel to qualify for the quarter-finals

Sweden would have progressed if they had managed a two-goal victory

against Uruguay in their final game, but it was not until the last minute that they

scored the only goal for a frustrating 1-0 victory. There was huge controversy just

hours before the game when FIFA announced they were replacing the scheduled

referee after unproven bribery rumours hit the headlines. It was Uruguay who

advanced, to be joined by Italy after they avoided defeat in the group finale

against a gallant Israeli team. The Italians hid their flair behind a defensive wall

and the goalless draw gave them a ticket through to a quarter-final date against

host country Mexico.

36


The Group results are scanned from my Mexico ‘70 press pack

and I thank my friends at Fifa for permission to publish them.

37


Italy, with their two Golden Boys – Luigi Riva and Gianni Rivera – in

their ranks looked the team most likely to go all the way. In their opening two

matches they played with a panache and a power that suggested they could even

trouble joint favourites Brazil and England if they could find the temperament to

match their talent. But their cautious performance against the minnows of Israel

provided evidence they were still suffering from the scars of their humiliating

1966 World Cup exit against alleged ‘no hopers’ North Korea. Coach Ferruccio

Valcareggi took terrible stick from the Italian media for refusing to play his two

midfield maestros Mazzola and Rivera together, continually swapping them in

what the newspapers dubbed the “staffetta” (relay) match strategy. But the fact

that Italy went all the way through to the final proved that the controversial

system worked, with a fresh Rivera replacing Mazzola in each second-half..

In Group 4, Peru – powered by ‘Young Player of the Tournament’ Teofilo

Cubillas – came from 2-0 down against Bulgaria to win a thrilling contest 3-2.

The ‘Pelé of Peru’, 20-year-old Cubillas was a magnificent midfield artist,

combining being the architect of attacks and gliding through to often be the

goal-striking assassin. The Peruvians went into the tournament in mourning for

70,000 casualties in the earthquake that hit their home land just two days before

the opening match. ‘We are playing for the memory of our loved ones,’ said

skipper Hector Chumpitaz. ‘Our hearts are broken but we have a duty to lift the

spirits of our compatriots at home.’

Morocco, the first African World Cup representatives since Egypt in 1934,

snatched a shock lead against West Germany, but – with Gerd ‘Der Bomber’

Müller in devastating form – the 1966 runners-up came back to win 2–1. They

also went behind against Bulgaria in their second match, but a Müller hat-trick

lifted them to a 5–2 victory.

And it was Müller – the eventual Golden Boot winner with ten goals – who

plundered another hat-trick against Peru to send the Germans marching into the

quarter-finals and a showdown in Leon with the old enemy, England.

Could they come from behind yet again? I wonder.

38


6. Nightmare in Leon

SADLY, Peter Bonetti passed on just before I started to revisit his nightmare

that was the 1970 World Cup quarter-finals. In brutal honesty, death came

as a relief to that lovely man after a long, horrible fight with dementia and

at long last he was free of the ghosts of his footballing past.

The whole nation and its brother blamed poor Peter for the agonising 3-2

defeat by West Germany, after England had opened up what we all thought was

an impregnable two-goal lead. Nobody ever came back from two goals down

against Ramsey’s England. Did they?

For ever after Peter was haunted by memories of the two soft goals he let in

that brought Germany back from the dead and gave them the chance to avenge

their 1966 World Cup final defeat.

The High Noon duel was fought in what was literally the breath-taking

beauty of Leon at the heart of Mexico’s Central Plateau. It was the 6,000 feet

high altitude that took the breath away.

Bonetti went to his grave with the defeat as an albatross around his neck. He

confessed to me not long before Alzheimer’s took away his memory that he was

tortured by the two goals he knew he would have saved ninety nine times out

of a hundred.

‘I have tried to push it out of my mind, but every time I give an interview

horrible journalists like you kindly remind me of it,’ he said, only half smiling.

‘I have played the goals over and over in my mind and always manage to save

them.’

Peter was mercilessly criticised by those who did not know the full story of

how he came to be a last-minute replacement for his good friend and the man he

acknowledged as the greatest of all goalkeepers, Gordon Banks.

The couch coaches were so vicious with their abuse that it got to the stage

where his Swiss-born mother wrote to the newspapers to plead with them to

stop publishing such poisonous vitriol (It was Mrs Bonetti who had written to

Chelsea when he was 14 asking for them to give her son a trial).

39


Let me, in Peter’s memory, try to balance things so that at least you can

spread the facts to make his critics more sympathetic. Goodness knows what

the social media would have made of it all had the internet been up and about

then; even now, fifty years on, you find keyboard warriors – who probably never

saw him play with distinction for Chelsea in more than 600 matches – making

disparaging remarks about the Bonetti blunders.

First of all the match. We join it in the 69th minute with England in total

control and leading from goals by Alan Mullery (31st minute) and Martin

Peters (49th minute). All England had to do was avoid silly mistakes and they

were home and dry and through to a semi-final against the winners of the Italy-

Mexico match.

Here comes silly mistake number one. Bonetti had not played a full competitive

game since the end of the club season with Chelsea when he helped them win

the FA Cup in a brutal final reply against Leeds. His timing was way off when he

dived to stop what looked a tame 19-yard shot from German ubermeister Franz

Beckenbauer. The ball bounced and disastrously rolled under the diving Bonetti

and into the net. Beckenbauer was as surprised as the rest of us.

Bonetti ‘The Cat’ – arguably the best catcher of the ball of any of England’s

goalkeepers – had let in a shot that he would normally have saved in his sleep.

Now silly mistake number two. Alf Ramsey, who had never experienced

substitutions in his life time as a player and manager, chose this moment to take

off England’s talisman Bobby Charlton, deciding to save the veteran playmaker

for a semi-final that never came. It was the only time I ever knew Alf take

anything for granted.

As he sent Colin Bell on in place of Charlton – appearing in his record 106th

(and last) international match – you could almost see the Germans growing in

confidence and belief. They were like a punctured balloon miraculously being

re-inflated.

‘It was as if we were being given an early Christmas present,’ Beckenbauer

said later. ‘To see the great Bobby Charlton being taken off was a signal for us

to raise our game. Without him, we felt England were not nearly so strong. I

thought I was on the next plane home. Now, suddenly, we had hope.’

Silly mistake number three came in the 81st minute when Alf called off

Martin Peters and sent on the warrior Norman Hunter – more one-footed than

Long John Silver – to defend with his razor left foot on the right side of the

pitch. England were now unbalanced and with their two most creative players

reduced to the role of frustrated spectators.

Meantime, German coach Helmut Schoen had sent on tricky, sprinting

40


winger Jürgen Grabowski, who was running an exhausted Terry Cooper into the

ground. It was Cooper who needed to be replaced but Ramsey, a novice at the

substitution game, had called it wrong.

Now Germany were in the ascendancy as they hunted an equaliser, and The

Cat lost another of his lives when he failed to challenge for a hopeful centre

from Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and allowed skipper Uwe Seeler to conjure a

freak back header to make it 2-2.

As in 1966, the match went into extra-time and with all the momentum with

the Germans. The game was into its 108th minute when Gerd Müller continued

his one-man bombing raid, slamming the ball past the flapping Bonetti from

close range after Grabowski had yet again skinned the weary Terry Cooper.

England were out of the World Cup and ex-champions. For Peter Bonetti the

nightmare continued for nearly half a century, continually haunted by inquisitive

football writers like me reopening old wounds.

Desmond Hackett, famously ‘the Man in the Brown Bowler’, reported the

match for the Daily Express. ‘Bonetti throws it away for England,’ was his

unmerciful line. I was on “quotes” duty and mixing with the England squad

after the defeat was like being at a wake. Everybody was stunned.

‘I can’t believe what’s just happened,’ said Alan Ball in his Clitheroe Kid

voice. ‘I would have put my house on us winning when we were two goals up.

We were taking them to the cleaners all over the pitch. Then Peter lets in that

soft goal and it suddenly becomes a completely different game. I feel I’m in the

middle of a bad dream.’

Back at the hotel, a disgusted – and somewhat worse for wear – Ballie threw

his medal for taking part in the finals into the swimming pool.

Bobby Charlton was in a state of shock. ‘I can’t believe Alf took me off,’ he

kept saying. ‘I felt I could have run all day. I know Alf was thinking ahead and

saving me for the semi-final. But the Germans had just scored and I felt I needed

to be out on the pitch, not looking on helplessly from the bench.’

Peter Osgood, Bonetti’s Chelsea clubmate who watched from the touchline,

told me: “Somebody got at Gordon, no doubt about it. Throughout this trip

we’ve all done everything together as far as food and drink was concerned.

We all ate the same things, we were all on salt tablets and various other pills

to protect our stomachs. Why did only Gordon go down? Nobody is blaming

Peter. It was an impossible situation for him to be called into the team so late.

The ball does funny things out here and no goalkeeper can have full confidence,

particularly when you’ve hardly played for two months.’

41


After all he had been through, skipper Bobby Moore was too exhausted and

frustrated to make more than cliché comments on England’s exit. ‘Good luck to

Germany, they showed a lot of bottle to come back,’ he told the British press as

we pushed for quotes from the man who had been in the headlines ever since

the Bogota bracelet affair. ‘Of course we’re all gutted, but that’s football. You have

to take the rough with the smooth. I thought we had it won at 2-0 but you must

never take things for granted at this level. I thought we were the better team but

we’re out. Heartbreaking but that’s football for you.’

A desperately disappointed Bobby was talking on auto-pilot, holding back on

what he really felt about a defeat that cut deep into his soul. Much later and out

of the world spotlight he told me what he really thought about the ‘Nightmare

in Leon’:

❛Let’s be honest, Alf made a dog’s breakfast of the substitutions. He got

it all wrong. Trying to save Bobby Charlton for the semi-final gave the

Germans a huge lift, because seeing him go off was a bonus. Suddenly

Franz (Beckenbauer) felt a free man and started to dominate. Then sending

Norman on for Martin unbalanced us. Terry Cooper was out on his feet

and was the player who should have been substituted. Grabowski was fresh

and full of running. Gerd Müller hardly had a kick but then comes up with

the winner. That’s what makes him a great player. Producing the goods

when it really matters.

‘But losing Gordon before a ball was kicked was what really did for us.

With the greatest respect to Catty Bonetti, I know Gordon would not have

let in two of those goals. Poor old Peter was just not properly prepared for

the game. Who would have liked to have been in his boots?

‘I’ve often discussed the game with Franz since the finals and he said

they couldn’t believe it when Alf took Bobby off just as they scored. We had

them down and out, but suddenly they were given new energy.

‘My harrowing experience in Bogota really toughened me. I was

determined not to let them beat me with their lies and slander. People often

ask why I didn’t sue them. We thought about it but realised this would

have given them the chance to conjure up another lying witness. It was not

worth the hassle.

‘I knew I hadn’t done it and that was all that mattered. It gave me the

motivation to play my heart out and show everybody that they had not got

to me.

‘Alf and the rest of the boys were great and got right behind me. I will

always maintain that it was in many ways an even stronger squad than the

one that I was privileged to captain to the World Cup in 1966.❜

42


The good news goal for England as Alan Mullery (No 4) celebrates scoring in Leon

The bad news goal for England as Gerd Müller (No 13) slams the winner in Leon

43


For the record, the team line-ups in Leon:

West Germany: Maier, Höttges, Schnellinger, Vogts, Fichtel, Beckenbauer,

Overath, Seeler*, Müller, Libuda Löhr. Subs: Schulz, Grabowski.

England: Bonetti, Newton, Cooper, Mullery, Labone, Moore*, Ball, Charlton,

Lee, Hurst, Peters. Subs: Bell, Hunter.

Now let me hand over the reins of this story to the man who knew better than

anybody the circumstances of Peter Bonetti’s despair ... the one and only Gordon

Banks, who passed on just over a year before Peter. This is what Gordon told me

about the nightmare in Leon when we worked together on his autobiography,

Banks of England:

❛England team doctor Neil Phillips was meticulous in the way he watched

everything we ate and drank in a country notorious for Montezuma’s

Revenge. We had our own food and drinks shipped in and everything was

fine right up until two days before the quarter-final against Germany.

To relax after the game against Czechoslovakia, we went to a smart

country club for a couple of hours and somebody passed me a bottle of

Mexican beer with the top already off. Within an hour of drinking that beer

I started to feel sick. I went back to the team hotel at the Hilton and tried

to sleep it off.

I was starting to have the runs, spending hours on the loo. Neil Phillips

came and examined me and prescribed some sickness tablets. Rarely

having been ill in my life, I was confident I could shrug off the sickness.

There was a five-hour coach ride to Leon for the quarter-final and I spent

the whole journey fighting not to be sick over my team-mates. I felt like

death warmed up.

We had a brief fitness session on the hotel lawn after arriving in Leon

and I pulled myself together sufficiently to convince Alf that I was fit to

play in the monumental game.

But when I got to my room I spent all the time running between my

bed and the toilet. I had galloping diarrhoea, stomach cramps and I was

shivering and sweating. There were just hours to go to the kick-off and Alf

called a team meeting in one of the hotel conference rooms.

I told Alf that I had every intention of playing but I was delirious, and

he knew he was going to have to make a team change when I fainted as he

was about to address the squad.

44


That’s when Peter was told he was playing. Talk about being thrown in

at the deep end. I had played in all the major matches and was acclimatised

and familiar with the way the ball swung in the thin air, while poor old

Catty had not played a serious game of football since the FA Cup final

replay with Chelsea back in April.

I went back to my bed and slept while the rest of the team travelled to

the stadium that I never even saw. When I came out of my deep sleep,

I switched on the television in my hotel room and started to watch a

highlights film of the quarter-final, We were leading 2-0 and I was getting

excited when the door swung open and my room-mate Alex Stepney came

in looking as if he had been to a funeral.

‘Sorry to spoil it for you Banksie,’ he said, ‘but we lost 3-2.’

I thought he was pulling my leg but realised he was telling the truth

when Peter got beaten by a shot from Beckenbauer that he would normally

have saved with ease.

For ages afterwards I had the taste of that one beer in my mouth, and

I got to believing the conspiracy theories that I had been nobbled. I am

convinced somebody slipped me a doctored drink. Got no proof. Just

suspicion. Of all the twenty-two players in the squad, I was the only one

who went down ill. Why me?

My sympathy was with Peter. Nobody should have had to go into a

game of that importance with such little preparation. We’ve since had

many times together but have never once been able to bring up the subject.

The memory makes both of us feel sick.❜

It took hours to find Alf Ramsey after the quarter-final debacle. It was my dear

friend Ken Jones of the Daily Mirror who finally sniffed him out. Alf had taken

refuge in a hotel chalet with England travel agent Cyril Broderick and together

they had been drinking their sorrows away. Alf was a G and T man and had

emptied the drinks cabinet of gin.

As stubborn and unbending as ever, Alf said: ‘I’ve never seen my team give

away such easy goals. They were bad goals. No team – at least not one as

strong as England’s – should lose a two-goal lead. The whole thing was unreal,

a complete freak. I thought we played tremendously well. For an hour, we were

brilliant. The Germans were never in the match. If I could do this all over again

I wouldn’t alter anything apart from the result. I don’t care what anybody says,

we did not deserve to lose that game.’

45


I followed Alf and the team to the airport the next day, and – stone cold sober

and with Lady Victoria at his side – he was continuing with the same mantra: ‘I

would not change a thing.’

Boldly, I told him that the knives were out for him at home. He had made

enemies at the Football Association with his cold manner and reluctance to let

the amateur Blazered Brigade claim the spotlight as they had in the old days,

when they used to pick the team before Alf insisted on becoming sole selector.

As he waited for the London flight to be called, Alf gave me an exclusive

interview that featured in the Daily Express while the England team were in the

air on their way home:

❛This is one plane I did not want to be catching. I was convinced we

would be making final preparations today for tomorrow’s semi-final. I

am bitterly disappointed because I know the players I have with me now

are good enough to have retained the championship. They are still the

champions in my eyes.

I appreciate that the people at home are sick over our elimination,

particularly the manner in which it happened. Believe me, nobody – and

I do mean nobody – feels it as badly as I do. I am not feeling sorry for

myself but for my players. I will not have a word of criticism aimed at any

one of them.

You don’t have to tell me there are people gunning for me at home.

They are entitled to say and do what they like. People with hindsight will

find it easy to pick holes. But there is not much I would change if I could

go through it all again.

Looking back, there is one thing that I would have done everything

in my power to have prevented. That was the Bobby Moore business in

Bogotá.

It had an unsettling effect on everybody. But Bobby came through it

magnificently. The happiest moment for me on the whole tour was when

he finally arrived at Guadalajara and rejoined the team.

I have already said what I think of that Bogota affair. It was a complete

nonsense from beginning to end. But I believe everyone will agree that

Bobby Moore has come through it all with great dignity.

From a playing the point of view I am ready to accept that perhaps

the tactics were not everything they should have been. But, again, this is

judging it with hindsight.

46


Scanned from my cuttings

book ... the headline on my

exclusive Daily Express

interview with Sir Alf

Ramsey at Mexico Airport

on the day that England

came Back Home earlier

than anticipated.

47


We did not do as well near goal as I had anticipated; that is until the game

against West Germany. I have still not recovered from the disappointment

of that defeat in Leon. It was, of course, a huge blow when Gordon

Banks was taken ill at the last minute. Peter Bonetti willingly took on the

responsibility of going in goal for a crucial match. It was very difficult for

him, and I am not going to dwell on his performance. Nobody deliberately

lets in or misses a goal. These things happen. It is why football is such a

compelling and unpredictable game.

Even when Germany pulled back to 2-1, I was convinced we were going

to win. For 75 minutes we played the sort of football of which champions

are made. There is not a team in the tournament that would have been able

to match us on that form. And that includes Brazil, the team I expect to

win the title.

Finally, we paid for our own mistakes. It hurt deeply but it is over now.

West Germany have my best wishes. They are, as we know full well, great

competitors who never know when they are beaten. I congratulated Helmut

Schoen. He is a fine manager and we have had some wonderful duels.

We must now look ahead to the next World Cup in Munich where the

chances of us winning I would say at this distance are very good indeed.

Now please don’t misinterpret that to make it seem that I have said we will

win the championship in 1974. I had enough carrying that sort of statement

on my back in England in 1966. What I am saying is that our chances are

very good because we have some fine young players coming through and

the conditions in Germany will suit us.

Please don’t try to pin me down to individual names. That would not be

fair on the players. I just know that the future is bright provided everybody

is ready to pull together. It’s all about team work.

A lot of the players in this squad in Mexico could also be challenging

hard for places in the Munich team. I know each and everyone of them

well enough to be able to say that they are proud to pull on the shirt of

England.

The 1974 World Cup could be very interesting as a new structure may

be in operation with 24 teams competing in the finals.

I know what you are going to ask now – will I be in charge of the team

in Munich? I have been saying for a year now that after Mexico there is

always Munich. And that is the way I am thinking at this moment. But who

knows what is going to happen? We shall just have to wait and see.❜

48


The knives were out for Ramsey, but it took three years before the little men of

the Football Association could plunge them into the back of a cold, calculating

and superbly organised professional who treated some of the amateurs with the

contempt they deserved. England’s failure to qualify for the Munich World Cup

of 1974 gave them the excuse they had been seeking to get rid of Sir Alf, and he

departed with a tissue handshake of £6,500.

His World Cup triumph had generated millions for the FA. The Sweet FA.

What a way to treat a hero.

You had to serve an apprenticeship with Alf before you could gain his trust,

but once you had found a way through his shield of suspicion there was a

warm, welcoming man who was at his most comfortable when talking football.

I burrowed my way into his confidence by letting him know I had watched

him as a schoolboy when he was The General of the Push-and-Run Spurs that

famously won back-to-back promotion and the League championship between

1949 and 1951. He was one of the big brains of the team think tank that included

footballing gurus Bill Nicholson, Eddie Baily and their quiet genius of a

manager, Arthur Rowe.

There was a lot of the Push and Run purity about the way Ramsey’s England

played, with the emphasis on team discipline, atomic energy and, above all else,

accuracy. A major difference was that Tottenham leant heavily on flying wingers

Sonny Walters and Les Medley, while Alf devised a revolutionary system honed

in his days as title-winning manager at Ipswich that did away with wingers

altogether.

Ramsey, a cultured and when necessary Neanderthal right-back in the days of

physical contact, hated being known as ‘the man who got rid of wingers.’ Take it

from me, if George Best and Cliff Jones had been born on English soil, England

would have had two wingers in the 1966 World Cup final. He simply played to

his strength and the players at his disposal. So a 4-3-3 formation was born.

A couple of Alf anecdotes before I get us back on track with the story of the

1970 World Cup finals ...

We need to go back to the days when I was in partnership in a sports agency

business with fondly remembered journalist and entrepreneur Peter Lorenzo.

The two of us were closer than most to Sir Alf, and when he got the sack as

England manager in the spring of 1974, we put him under lock and key.

First, we put out a smokescreen that he had gone off to Spain to consider his

future, while all the time he was tending his beloved garden at his modest home

in Valley Road, Ipswich.

49


Then Peter and I sat with him for hours, tape recording his memories of

managing England and his running battle with the frugal FA. We assured Alf

that we would get him four times what they had given him as a pay-off for the

newspaper serialisation of his story, this at a time when £25,000 could buy you

a decent semi-detached house.

I burned the midnight oil to get Alf’s memories down into three parts, 4,000

words each chapter. Then I packaged it in those pre-computer days to look as

professional and as appealing as possible.

I talked Peter into letting the Sunday Mirror have first bite. I thought I owed it

to their sports editor Tony Smith, who was first to give me freelance work when

I quit my job as chief football reporter of the Daily Express to – yes, I was this

pompous – ‘make something of myself.’ (The jury is still out).

The excitable Smithy, a Max Wall lookalike Cockney, was all but dancing

on his desk when we gave him – in signed-for confidence – a look at the bullet

points.

He went “upstairs” and 10 minutes later came down with an opening bid of

£20,000. We told him that we had promised Alf four times his redundancy payoff.

Tony went back “upstairs”, and returned with a £25,000 offer, which we

finally pushed up to £26,500, to include our own £1,500 fee.

Once we had agreed the deal with Smithy, we let him read the full serialisation.

I sat facing him as he went through it with an excitement that could be measured

on the Richter scale. At the end of every page he said, ‘This is fuckin’ brilliant,

Norm … fuckin’ brilliant …’

As he reached the end of part two, he called in his gifted and trusted No 2,

Dave Ellis, and said in his Cockney tones: ‘Get a smudger down here to take

a picture of Norm. We’re going to put his mush on the back page this Sunday.

We’ll knock spots off the opposition…’

The words were hardly out of his mouth when he was summoned back

“upstairs”.

Ten minutes later he came back ashen faced and looking like a man who had

been hit by a bus. ‘The fuckin’ bastards have taken it away from us,’ he said

quietly, struggling to get the words out. ‘They’ve got a circulation push on for

the People and they’ve got to take it.’

The story was serialised by the Mirror‘s stablemate and run under the byline

“Exclusive by Mike Langley”. Mike was one of the finest football writers of his

generation, but he had as much to do with that story as I had in helping Germany

knock England out of the 1970 World Cup.

50


And I never did get my picture on the back page of the Sunday Mirror.

Tiny Tony Smith was not down for long. ‘Come on darling,’ he said. ‘Let’s go

to the Stab and have a pint. Fuck Alf Ramsey!’ (The Stab was shorthand for the

local Mirror pub, where people were verbally stabbed in the back).

A few months later, Peter Lorenzo and I organised a testimonial dinner for

Sir Alf at London’s Café Royal to try to make up for the fact that the Football

Association had kicked out England’s World Cup-winning manager with such

a pathetic pay-off. We turned it into a ‘British Trade and Industry Salutes Sir

Alf’ night to attract the wealthy businessmen whose work force had been given

a lift in tough economic times thanks to England’s morale-boosting World Cup

triumph.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson was the main speaker, and during the course

of his speech a mouse ran the length of the top table. Its Speedy Gonzales sprint

was cut off by Henry Cooper, who caught it in his hammer of a left fist.

Henry handed it to the chef, who in full view of everybody stamped on it.

Wilson had no idea this was all going on, and as the audience roared, he thought

his speech was going down a bomb.

How do you follow that? Only Geoffrey Green could. One of the most

entertaining after-dinner speakers in the land, the wonderfully eccentric man

from The Times was next to pay tribute to Sir Alf. He announced that he would

now play the mouse organ. I have often wondered if he released the mouse so

that he could use that ‘joke.’

He turned to Sir Alf and said: ‘As you are now out of work, perhaps you

would like to join me in a street busking team?’

Geoffrey then produced a harmonica and proceeded to play Moon River. I

don’t know who was the more surprised and amused, Sir Alf or the PM. It ranks

with the funniest after-dinner speeches I have ever heard.

Even the usually sombre and serious Sir Alf Ramsey doubled over in laughter.

Happy days.

But now back to the main course ...

Host nation Mexico and Russia (the Soviet Union) finished deadlocked at the

top of Group 1 with identical points, goals scored and goal difference. After a

drawing of lots, the Russians went through as top team to meet Uruguay for a

place in the semi-finals.

Their quarter-final was viciously contested, with more than 70 fouls

committed. The referee was the busiest man on the pitch and it’s a wonder

51


Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4k

52


he did not produce the first red card of the tournament as players kicked and

charged each other off the ball.

The one goal of a mauling match came five minutes from the end of extratime

when Uruguayan striker Victor Esparrago headed in from close range. The

Russians angrily surrounded the referee claiming the ball had gone out of play

before being crossed, but television replays proved that the linesman (Scotland’s

Bobby Davidson) was right not to have waved his flag.

Mexico’s spirited campaign ended at the feet of an Italian team that flourished

the skill that had many good judges tipping them for the title. You could have

heard the cheers on the Moon when Mexico took a shock lead through local

hero José Luis Gonzalez in the 12th minute, but an own goal by Javier Guzman

cancelled it out before half-time. The gifted Gianni Rivera came on as a secondhalf

substitute and gave the Italians midfield control, creating openings for the

powerful Luigi Riva to score twice and finding the net himself to lift Italy to a

comfortable 4-1 victory.

The all-South American showdown between Brazil and Peru in Guadalajara

was a goal feast that finished with the Brazilians winning an exhilarating game

4-2. It all seemed over as a contest within the first 15 minutes when Rivelino

and Tostao put the Brazilians two goals clear.

But Peru were determined not to just roll over as they battled to lift their

nation, mourning the 70,000 casualties in the recent earthquake. Gallardo pulled

a goal back after 28 minus before Tostao scored his second and Brazil’s third

goal. Still the Peruvians would not give in and the hugely talented Cubillas

made it 3-2 in the 70th minute. It was Jazizinho who settled it five minutes

later, scoring Brazil’s fourth goal to finally extinguish the spirit of a Peru team

that had won the hearts of the world with their World Cup performances in the

shadow of a great tragedy.

The match stats were remarkable, showing that Brazil had 27 shots to 22 by

Peru. You could say that it was an open game,

At the final whistle the two coaches, Zagallo and Didi – both Brazlian and

team-mates in the championship-winning sides of 1958 and 1962 – hugged each

other to show the best face of world soccer.

So the four semi-finalist were all former champions, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy

and, of course, England’s conquerors West Germany, with two-time winners

Brazil and Uruguay going for third victories that would give them the Jules

Rimet Trophy outright.

Yes, the Beautiful Game was alive and kicking down in old Mexico.

53


7. Revenge for Brazil

YOU needed to be South American to fully understand the significance

of the 1970 World Cup semi-final showdown between Brazil and

Uruguay. We neutrals looked forward to it as a battle of the irresistible

force (Brazil) against the immoveable object (Uruguay), and as the old song

goes ‘something’s gotta give.’

But to Brazilians this was the chance to avenge the most painful defeat in

their history. Uruguay ruined Brazil’s party in 1950 when – on the hallowed turf

of the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro – they beat the host nation 2-1 in an

unforgettable final watched by an all-time record crowd of more than 200,000.

Football-mad Brazil went into mourning, and there were reports of suicides

and self-harming by fans who just could not stomach defeat by a small

neighbouring country with a tiny fraction of their vast population.

Now here they were face to face again on the World Cup stage and both teams

fully aware that a victory in the final would make them outright winners of the

coveted Jules Rimet Trophy.

There was a row before a ball was kicked over the choice of venue. Fifa

decided the game should be played at the cramped Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara

that the Brazilians protested would not be nearly big enough to cater for the huge

army of yellow-shirted Brazil fans who had invaded Mexico for the tournament.

But the organisers stayed firm and 52,000 spectators were shoe horned into the

ground, with thousands reduced to watching it on pub and hotel television sets..

The Brazilian team had built such a huge reputation on their way to this

semi-final that the players knew they dare not go home if they lost. Uruguay

meantime had slogged their way to within shooting distance of the final without

winning many friends with their dour but effective defensive tactics.

Brazil, parading their traditional bold 4-2-4 formation, had played with fire

and flair when accounting for Czechoslovakia, Romania and – need I remind

you? – England in the group stage matches. Then in the quarter-final they had

54


Uruguay and Brazil line up before the kick-off to their World Cup semi-final

Playmaker Gerson in a blur of action against Uruguay in the World Cup semi-final

‘See you later’...Pele sells his audacious dummy to the stranded Mazurkiewicz

55


overcome Peru 4-2 in a match that was hailed as the most entertaining of the

tournament (until the game you will read about soon!).

Uruguay were complete opposites in style and approach. They were a

cautious, miserly side, who hid behind a defensive wall but could be dangerous

and dynamic on the counter attack. They sneaked through from their group in

second place to Italy after defeating Israel, suffocating the Italians in a drawn

match and going down to a 1-0 defeat against Sweden when they hardly left

their half. If they had lost 2-0 to the Swedes they would have been on the next

flight home.

In the quarter-final Uruguay had squeezed to an 1-0 extra-time victory over

the Soviet Union in which their winning goal had been angrily disputed by the

Russians, who went back to the Soviet Union in a red rage.

On paper, few could see Uruguay winning. But on the pitch, manager Juan

Hohberg thought it could be a different story. The Argentinian-born, former

Uruguayan international striker predicted: ‘We will surprise a lot of people.

Brazil have been getting all the headlines, but we have a team that is very

resilient and I am confident they are going to rise to the occasion. I promise our

supporters here and at home that we will give them a performance of which we

can all be proud.’

Mario Zagallo, Brazil manager, had seen it all and done it all as a two-times

winner with Brazil when a jet-paced left winger in the World Cup winning

teams of 1958 and 1962. ‘I know how sweet reaching a final can be and even

sweeter to go on and win it,’ he said. ‘We have all the ingredients to go all the

way, exceptional individual players who are always ready to put the needs of the

team first and a work ethic that is vital in what are energy-sapping conditions.

We are quietly confident that we can overcome what we know will be a strong

physical challenge from Uruguay. I never make silly boasts, but I will be very

disappointed if we do not reach the final. We can – we will – do it.’

Uruguay had an ace in the pack in their agile goalkeeper Ladislao

Mazurkiewicz, reckoned by many to be the best last line of defence in the world

and voted the Goalkeeper of the Tournament. The son of a Polish immigrant, he

said before the semi-final: ‘I will need the hands of God against this outstanding

Brazilian team. But we have big hearts and all the pressure is on Brazil, because

they are the favourites. We have nothing to lose. The belief – or the joke –

among us is that Uruguay win the World Cup every twenty years ... 1930, 1950

and now 1970! Now is our time.’

There are those who wondered if Ladislao was a prophet when Uruguay took

56


Scanned from my Fifa press pack

the lead in a 19th minute counter attack through Nacional winger Luis Cubilla

The Uruguayans were striking quickly from a springboard of deep defence,

and you could almost hear Brazilian nerves rattling before Clodoaldo came

striding smoothly through from his midfield command post to equalise a minute

before half-time.

The goal settled Brazil down and in the second-half they started to unleash the

glorious football that had made them the talk of the tournament. The Uruguayan

defence buckled and bent and final broke under an avalanche of attacks when

Jairzinho ran on to a precise pass from Tostao to make it 2-1 in the 76th minute.

Uruguay abandoned their ‘thou shalt not pass’ doctrine in a panic-propelled

bid to snatch an equaliser, and this time they were the ones caught on the counter

as Rivelino accepted a pass from Pelé to score a victory-clinching goal in the

last minute.

The memory everybody took from the game is of an audacious moment of

magic from Pelé. He and goalkeeper Mazurkiewicz were in a chase for a Gerson

through ball when the Brazilian master completely baffled the Uruguayan by

making a pretence at playing the ball but instead running off to his right without

touching it, while the ball continued on its merry uninterrupted way.

Mazurkiewicz dived to save a shot that never was and Pelé continued on

57


his travels to collect the ball with the goalkeeper diving after a disappearing

ghost. Unfortunately for the spectators roaring at this extraordinary exhibition

of hocus pocus, an unbalanced Pelé put the ball inches wide of the empty net.

It would have been one of the all-time great goals, and to this day is a favourite

action replay on YouTube. ... right up there with his 45 yard chip against the

Czechs in the first group match.

‘They would have been two goals to remember if the ball had gone into the

net,’ Pelé said in a great understatement. ‘But they didn’t go in, so have to go

down as misses.’

When you’ve scored more than 1,000 goals, you can be that clinical in your

assessments.

The Brazilian players and fans celebrated at the final whistle as if they had

won the World Cup. Important for all of them, they had laid to rest the nightmare

of 20 years earlier when Uruguay had beaten them in their own back yard.

‘Perhaps now people will stop mentioning the 1950 World Cup final defeat,’ a

relieved Mario Zagolla said. ‘It has haunted me since I was a young professional

just starting out in the game. I remember the country being plunged into a black

mood by that loss to Uruguay. That is how important football is in Brazil. For

many millions, it is a religion,’

As he spoke, hundreds of Brazlian fans were samba dancing across the pitch.

Five hundred and fifty miles away at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the

‘Greatest Game of the Century’ was being decided.

58


8. ‘Game of the Century’

IF you ever visit the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, you will find a bronze

commemorative plaque to the 1970 World Cup semi-final between Italy and

West Germany. It is engraved with the following legend: El Estadio Azteca

rinde homenaje a las selecciones de: Italia (4) y Alemania (3) protagonistas en

el Mundial de 1970, del “Partido del Siglo” 17 de junio de 1970.

That translates as: The Azteca Stadium pays homage to the National Teams

of Italy (4) and Germany (3), protagonists in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, the

“Game of the Century”. June 17 1970.

(Nearby, there is another plaque ... to Diego Maradona’s ‘Goal of the Century’

against England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final, but nothing for his ‘Hand

of God’ goal!).

In the interests of accuracy, the game should have been celebrated as the

‘Greatest Extra-Time of the Century’, because all the excitement was packed

into the added 30 minutes after the teams had battled to a 1-1 draw at 90 minutes.

Watched in searing heat by a crowd of 102,000, the Italians had taken the lead

in the eighth minute when the energetic Roberto Boninsegna played a one-two

wall pass with Gigi Riva and crashed an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Sepp

Maier from just inside the penalty area.

Following their tradition, Italy fell back into deep defence as they protected

their precious lead. They knew Gerd’ Der Bomber’ Müller was the dangerman

following his two hat-tricks in the group stages, and he could not move a metre

without running into an Italian bodyguard.

He managed to break free to fire in one first-half shot that was comfortably

collected by goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi, who immediately after tipped a

wicked deflection over the bar.

Germany stepped up the pressure in the second-half, and skipper Uwe Seeler

went close with a spectacular scissors kick The elegant Wolfgang Overath hit

the bar with a rising left foot drive, and Italy’s defence was starting to wobble

and wilt under the prolonged pressure.

59


Gerd ‘Der Bomber’

Müller on the run (top),

Italy celebrate their

winner (above) ... and

the plaque (right) that

commemorates their

‘Game of the Century’

60


Beckenbauer started to dominate the pace and pattern of the game from

midfield and was powering towards the box in the 67th minute when cynically

sent flying by Pierluigi Cera. Mexican referee Arturo Yamakasi controversially

judged the contact to have come just before ‘Der Kaiser’ reached the box. There

were furious protests from all the German players except Beckenbauer, who

was writhing in agony with a dislocated shoulder.

German manager Helmut Schoen had used up his allocation of two substitutes

and Beckenbauer bravely elected to play on with his arm and shoulder in a sling.

The Germans never know when they are beaten and – as in the 1966 World

Cup final against England – forced a last-minute equaliser through, of all

people, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, who had never scored before in his previous

47 international appearances. The AC Milan defender met a cross from Jurgen

Grabowski and cracked it wide of the despairing Albertosi.

Yet again, as in the quarter-final against England, the Germans had come

back from the dead.

And so began arguably the most momentous and memorable period of extratime

in footballing history. Beckenbauer, chalk white with pain, galvanised his

team-mates by charging towards goal whenever he got the ball. Goals came

raining in ...

94 minutes: Müller shook off his markers when he intercepted a Poletti back

pass and forced the ball past Albertosi. Germany 2, Italy 1.

98 minutes: Gianni Rivera, the Golden boy from AC Milan and once again

sent on as a substitute, floated over a free-kick which was cleared by Held into

the path of the advancing Tarcisio Burgnich, who beat Maier from close range.

Germany 2, Italy 2.

104 minutes: Angelo Domenghini crossed from the left for Luigi Riva to run

in and steer the ball wide of Maier. It was Gigi’s 22nd goal in 21 internationals.

Germany 2, Italy 3.

110 minutes: Every attack threatened to produce a goal as exhausted players

struggled to run in scorching conditions, and – inevitably – it was the one-man

scoring machine Müller who banged in his 10th goal of the tournament after a

Seeler header had given him a sniff of the target. Germany 3, Italy 3.

111 minutes: It was the Golden Boy Rivera who struck gold, with the winning

goal when he guided home a pass from the persistent Boninsegna. Final score:

Germany 3, Italy 4, with five of the goals coming in that mad but marvellous 30

minutes of extra-time.

As the final whistle blew, the players collapsed into each other’s arms,

61


Scanned from my Fifa press pack

knowing there had been no losers in this match in a million.

‘Even though we lost,’ German skipper Uwe Seeler said, ‘we felt privileged

to be part of it. Add this to the England game and it is no wonder we were

exhausted at the finish. An unforgettable game.’

For Italy, it was a third final after winning the title in 1934 and 1938.The

players could now look their fans in the face after the humiliation of their

departure in 1966 at the hands of North Korea. Then they went home to be met

by a barrage of rotten tomatoes at the airport.

Now, regardless of the result in the final against Brazil, they would come

home as heroes.

Skipper Giacinto Facchetti said: ‘That has to be one of the most amazing

games of all time. We had to show great character after Germany equalised in

the very last minute of the 90 minutes. Then many teams would have folded

when they took the lead early in extra-time. But we proved we have huge hearts

and I don’t think the Germans could believe it the way we kept coming back

at them. Now for Brazil. They will start favourites but we are the European

champions and fear no team.’

62


9. The Final

AFTER the ‘Game of the Century’ came the ‘Final of Finals’. Brazil and

Italy served up a sumptuous banquet that provided the perfect climax

to a tournament that would live on in the memory (and you are reading

my 50th anniversary recollections to prove it!).

Following their classic semi-final helter skelter of a match with West

Germany, the Italians had only two full days in which to recover before taking

on Brazil in front of a global audience estimated at close to the 650 million TV

audience that watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969.

To this day I meet people convinced they watched the final in colour, but for

most it was still in black and white because the vast majority of television sets

had not been adjusted for the newly created 625-lines colour transmission.

In the UK, the final was broadcast live on the Sunday just three days after

Harold Wilson pipped Edward Heath in the General Election, and on the same

afternoon Tony Jacklin won the US Open in America. But for many there was

only one major talking point: the World Cup final.

There were Machiavellian dramas going on behind the scenes at the BBC

over who would be their television commentator for the final. David Coleman

was the rising star, but he was forced to give way to the veteran Kenneth ‘They

Think It’s All Over’ Wolstenholme, who waved a contract proving he had the

legal rights to be at the microphone. It was soon to be all over for him.

For once, ITV whipped the BBC with their imaginative coverage. In the

studio they had ‘The Four Musketeers’ of pundits, Jimmy Hill, Derek Dougan,

Paddy Crerand and Malcolm ‘The Mouth’ Allison, under the baton of the

balanced Brian Moore, and with Bob McNab joining them fresh off the plane

from Mexico. Over at the Azteca they had Welsh bard commentator Hugh Johns

and alongside him, their ace in the pack, England skipper Bobby Moore.

ITV’s winning team was put together by ace producer/director Bob Gardam

and Head of Sport John Bromley, who had come from the same local paper

stable as me. Brommers, Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill. What a trio!

63


From my ©Fifa press pack

There was concern in the 48 hours leading up to the final whether the match

was going to need to be postponed. Mexico City had suffered a series of violent

thunderstorms, and it wasn’t until lunchtime on the Sunday that the torrential

rain finally eased and stopped. The sky was leaden and the humidity stifling, not

as hot as it had been but still making breathing a challenge in a city 7,350 feet

above sea level.

The rain-sodden Azteca pitch was a lush green with grass that many players

had complained was too long for accurate passing. That was made to seem

nonsense as the yellow-shirted Brazilians and immaculate blue-shirted Italians

rolled out their supreme skills for the world to admire. It was as if a beautiful

oil painting had come to life before our eyes. Sadly, in black and white for most

UK television viewers despite what your memory might tell you.

Italy had parked the catenaccio (door bolt) defence system of their group

64


phase and were now encouraged to play with relative freedom, although coach

Ferruccio Valcareggi could still not bring himself to allow the luxury of playing

both Sandro Mazzola and Gianni Rivera as twin pistons in midfield. Once again,

Golden Boy Rivera was saved for a substitute entrance. It was like keeping

Luciano Pavarotti in the wings to be a backing singer.

In an unashamed attempt to win over neutrals in a 107,00 crowd largely

on Brazil’s side, the Italians had joyously tossed bouquets of flowers to the

spectators. But once East German referee Rudi Glöckner blew the first whistle

it was Brazil who produced most of the flowery football.

The game was 20 minutes old when Brazil scored the first goal they had been

promising from the opening moves, and from who else but Pelé. The thick-set,

moustachioed Rivelino fired over a meticulous cross from the left and Pele - El

Rey - rose majestically to head the ball firmly down and wide of the grasping

fingers of Italian goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi. No Gordon Banks moment for

him.

It was a goal that went straight into the record books in gold lettering. Never

before had a player scored in finals 12 years apart (remember the 17-year-old

prodigy’s remarkable goal against Sweden in the 1958 final?), and it was also

the 100th goal Brazil had scored in the World Cup. What a difference four years

make, particularly for those still affected by seeing Pelé brutally kicked out of

the 1966 finals in England.

Italy could have caved in at this point following their exertions in the semifinal

against West Germany. But no, they reached down to the soles of their boots

and into their footballing souls and battled back to equalise eight minutes before

half-time. The goal was partly manufactured by the Brazilians themselves.

The usually reliable midfield maestro Clodoaldo decided to try a too-clever

back-heel flick to Everaldo on the rain-soaked surface. It was suicidal. The ball

mis-screwed into the path of Boninsegna, who sprinted for goal. Goalkeeper

Felix, not noted for his calm demeanour, came dashing off his line in a panicpropelled

attempt to gather the ball. He and two of his defenders collided just

outside the area, and as the ball broke free Boninsegna gleefully turned it into an

unguarded net to make it 1-1, with Felix looking on helplessly and hopelessly.

There was just one moment in the match shortly before half-time that

threatened to put a scar on the face of this Beautiful Game.

Off the ball, Rivelino angrily kicked his ever-present marker Bertini in

retaliation. While the Italian defender was being treated for a bruised thigh, the

referee waved a fistful of cards at the Brazilian. The first a yellow, the second a

65


Panicsville as goalkeeper Felix races into no man’s land 20 metres from his goal as

Boninsegna prepares to steer the ball into an unguarded Brazilian net..

Jairzinho celebrates his walk-in goal that makes it 3-1 and gives him a place in the

record books as a goal scorer in every round in the finals.

66


red which we later learned was a warning that any repeat and he would be off.

Like all referees, Herr Glöckner was still getting used to the new card system.

It was the only sour moment in the match. The Italians were elated going into

the half-time break, the Brazilians briefly deflated.

Brazil were soon back in command of themselves and in control of the match

in the second-half and ‘General’ Gerson the play maker became goal taker in

the 66th minute with a glorious 20 yard shot out of nowhere from his cultured

left foot. Poor Albertosi could only wave at the ball as it passed him on the way

into the net.

Five minutes later Gerson was back to his scheming duties (just as well he

did not play against England!). He helped furnish Brazil’s third goal, finding

Pelé with a perfect pass. The King headed the ball on to Jairzinho, who almost

casually walked the ball – even including an air shot – into the net to make it 3-1

and complete his full set of scoring in every round of the tournament.

If the game had finished here we spectators would have been fully sated, but

the best was yet to come.

Just four minutes remained of the feast when Clodoaldo set off on an almost

demented dribble in midfield, waltzing past four Italians before delivering the

ball to Jairzinho, who transferred it to Pelé.

With his in-born radar, the King knew that skipper Carlos Alberto was coming

through on a right wing run like an unstoppable express train. Almost casually,

Pelé rolled the ball into his captain’s path and he smashed the ball with his right

foot low into the side-net with Albertosi as much a spectator as the rest of us.

This was a magical moment that deserved to be captured in oils rather

than just by photographers gathered behind the goal. Several of the Brazlian

cameramen came running on to the pitch, not to take pictures but to join in the

wild celebrations.

What a way to end the feast, with a gourmet goal that announced to the

global audience of millions that Brazil were once again campeões do mundo.

Champions of the world.

Just a year earlier, man had stepped foot on the Moon for the first time.

These Brazilians played football from another planet.

There were thirty minutes of happy pandemonium before the Jules Rimet

trophy could be handed over to captain Carlos Alberto, who then became

engulfed in a mass invasion of the pitch. Not for the first time on this sultry

Sunday afternoon, Brazilians had taken over the Azteca.

67


10. Whatever Happened

to the Boys from Brazil?

EVERY proper football fan who was around in 1970 will – at the drop of

a ball – be able to trot off the names of the ‘Boys from Brazil’ who won

the World Cup with such flair and flamboyance. Whatever happened to

those heroes after they had captured the Jules Rimet trophy outright?

As it was half a century ago, there are inevitably some sad facts coming your

way as I track what fate had in store for those masters of football who thrilled

the world in Mexico.

First of all, an interview I was privileged to get with their magnificent skipper

Carlos Alberto after he had joined the exodus to the North American Soccer

League with New York Cosmos, the club then under the general management

baton of my old Daily Express team-mate, Clive Toye.

Here’s what the charming Carlos – ‘O Capitão’ to everybody in Brazil – had

to say about being captain of that great World Cup winning team:

❛It was an honour to captain that team, and I used to feel ten metres

tall when I led them out on to the pitch. Let me tell you where that 1970

World Cup was won ... in England in 1966. I did not make that squad, but

I burned with anger and pain at the way Brazil were kicked out of it. I was

with Santos and when my team-mate and close friend Pelé returned from

the finals he told us tales of how the referees let opponents get away with

murder with their physical challenges. Pelé still had the bruises to prove it.

It was then we started to plan what would happen in Mexico. Pelé at

first wanted no part of it because he was so disillusioned, but gradually we

got him to come round to our way of thinking. We would regain the Jules

Rimet trophy with football from the heart and soul. It was essential that we

had Pelé, a true God of the game, on our side.

At first we were inspired by the brilliant but often – how do I say – loco

68


coach João Saldanha. He filled us with the desire to win with style and

pride, but took his ideas to such extremes that the authorities felt he was

out of control. It was when Mario (Zagallo) – the Professor – joined us

three months before the finals that everything started to fall into place.

Mario had been there, done that having twice been a key player in a World

Cup winning team. He had everybody’s respect and he kept Saldanha’s

win-with-style philosophy but added the discipline that had been lacking.

Everybody talks about how wonderful we were as an attacking side, but

we got it right at the back, too. Our goalkeeper Felix was a little excitable,

but he had wonderful reflexes and when concentrating fully could produce

brilliant saves. If we’d had your Gordon Banks in our team, goodness I

don’t think we would ever have conceded a goal! His save against Pelé in

our group match was just astonishing.

Everywhere I go, including here in New York, people want to talk to me

about our fourth and last goal in the final against Italy. It looked off the cuff

but it was planned on the training ground.

The Professor told us that we should take every opportunity to drag

the Italians to the left side of the field, and my instructions were to then

quickly get forward. I was more a winger than a right-back in these

circumstances. Mario would send his assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira,

[manager of Brazil’s 1994 world champions] to watch opposition matches

and take photos with a telephoto lens. He’d then give us a slide show on his

projector. Mario pointed out with a ruler on the screen how I could get into

a scoring position once the Italians had been made to send their covering

players to the left.

Pelé and I could have done it blindfolded. When he let that final pass go

into my path he knew exactly where I would be without needing to look.

Often in training I would blast the ball wide, but here in Stadio Azteca

when it really mattered I hit it perfectly. What a way to end a fantastic

tournament. Our anger at what happened in England had finally been

buried. We were campeões do mundo.❜

Carlos continued playing in the United States until 1982, and then held a

staggering seventeen managerial and coaching posts over the next twenty two

years before lending his name to a sports marketing company and working as a

TV football pundit. A twin, he died of a heart attack on 25 October 2016 just a

few weeks after his brother passed on. They were 72.

69


Goalkeeper Felix Mielli Venerando was at 32 the oldest member of the

Brazilian squad. He spent most of his career with Portuguesa, with whom he

won the first of his ‘official’ 38 caps with Brazil in 1965. But it was not until

he moved to leading Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense in 1968 that he became

established as the regular last line of defence. Often pilloried for his positioning

and sometimes eccentric antics, the 5ft 9in tall goalie silenced his critics with

a series of crucial saves during the run to the World Cup triumph in Mexico.

Mario Zagallo kept faith in him despite a media campaign to get him replaced.

He later briefly managed Botafogo and Aval before becoming a businessman

who retained his interest in football by coaching under-privileged children. A

heavy smoker even when playing, he died of emphysema in his hometown of

Sao Paula aged 74 in August 2012.

Centre-back Hércules Brito Ruas played for a dozen clubs in Brazil, but is

best remembered for his peak performances with Vasco de Gama, with whom

he won the first of his 45 international caps. He played in the 1966 World Cup

in England, and was a key man in the middle of the Brazil defence when they

won the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1970. By then he had joined Flamengo in Rio,

where he was born on August 9 1939. Tough and uncompromising, he had a

brittle temper that he kept in check in Mexico. He became a youth coach in Rio

de Janeiro after retiring in 1979 aged 40, and told people hunting him down for

his memoirs, ‘I just want the quiet life. Fishing is the most competitive thing

I do now. I am happy with my memories of winning the World Cup with a

wonderful team.’

Wilson da Silva Piazza was Brito’s partner at the heart of the Brazilian

defence who made more than 500 club appearances for Cruzeiro. He was a

versatile, smooth-moving defender who in emergency often played at left-back

during his 45-cap career. He could also function as a dependable defensive

anchorman in midfield, and was captain of the defending champions’ squad

in the 1974 finals in Germany. Born in Ribeirão das Neves on February 25

1943, he started out as a bank clerk, while playing part-time for Renascença.

He was carried off with a broken leg in a 1968 match against Uruguay but had

the character to battle back and become an established member of the Brazilian

rearguard. Following retirement in 1979, he became a business man, and owned

several petrol stations. He got involved in local politics and was an outspoken

official for the players’ union in Belo Horizonte.

70


Wilson Piazza the player, (top left),

the local politician (above) and the

captain of Brazil with Scotland’s

Billy Bremner before their goalless

group match in the 1974 finals

in West Germany. Brazil finished

fourth, losing in a third-place playoff

against Poland. West Germany

were the champions, beating

Holland in the final.

71


Tragically, left-back Everaldo was the first of the Brazilian heroes of World

Cup ‘70 to die. He, along with his wife and daughter, were killed in a car crash

near Sanat Cruz do Sul in October 1974. He had retired earlier that year at the age

of 30 to enter the hotbed of Brazilian politics. Everaldo went to Mexico in 1970

as an understudy to the hugely acclaimed Marco Antonio, but Mario Zagallo

decided the teenager was drawing too much publicity with his flamboyance

and switched his allegiance to the more stable player from Gremio. In his 26

appearances for Brazil, Everaldo only once experienced defeat. He excelled in

overlapping play from his base at left-back and was always constructive and

cool with his deliveries out of defence. When he died in the car crash, Pelé said:

‘The team in Heaven has got one of the finest left backs that ever played the

Beautiful Game.’

Clodoaldo had to live in the shadow of the Fabulous Five – Jairzinho,

Gerson, Toastao, Pele and Rivelino – but to many good judges he was the man

who really made the team tick with his powerful and cerebral contribution

from his midfield command post. You only have to look at his part in Brazil’s

magical fourth goal in the 1970 final – dribbling past four Italians – to know

that he was a class act. He was Pelé’s pal and team-mate in the stupendous

Santos side and followed his master to the United States, briefly playing for

Tampa Bay Rowdies and New York United. Born in Aracaju on 25 September

1949, he retired from football in 1981 and went into the real estate business.

He was appointed a director of his beloved Santos, the club he played for

from 1966 until 1979. Clodoaldo said after retiring: ‘I consider myself one

of the luckiest men alive to have played for that fantastic team of 1970.’

Gerson, who had a left foot like a magic wand, was nicknamed ‘The Parrot’

because he never stopped talking on the pitch or in the dressing-room, but

always with good, intelligent sense. Born in the city of Niterói on January

11 1941, this hugely influential midfield marshal scored 14 international

goals while winning 70 caps. His career took him to Botafogo, Sao Paulo,

Flamengo and Fluminense, and then to the commentary box where he proved

himself as good a reader of the game as he was a player. Always caring

and community minded, he started a charity called ‘Instituto Canhotinho de

Ouro’ (Golden Left Foot), which offers sporting, medical and educational

facilities for the children of Brazil. A gentle assassin on the pitch.

72


Jair Ventura Filho – Jairzinho – has a permanent place in football history

books for scoring in every game and every round of the 1970 finals (seven

goals in all). He appeared 81 times for Brazil, netting 33 goals, a phenomenal

return from a man who was essentially there to make chances from the wing

for the main central strikers. Born in Rio de Janeiro on Christmas Day 1944,

Jairzinho spent most of his club career with Botafogo before briefly trying

his luck in Europe with Marseille. In retirement he made a forlorn bid to

become Mayor of his hometown Rio, coached young footballers and became

an agent, finding among others a gem of a player in his own class, Ronaldo.

When he forced his way into the Brazilian team for the first of his caps, he

was having to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Garrincha. When the

shooting and the shouting was over, many consider he had made an even

bigger impact than the Little Bird.

Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade – Tostao, the player with the brain the

size of Mars – so nearly missed the 1970 World Cup party after a ball struck

him in the eye while playing for Cruzeiro against Corinthians. It was just

over a year before the finals in Mexico, and it looked as if a detached retina

was not only going to put him out of the World Cup but end his career. After

emerging as one of the mega stars of the finals, he presented his treasured

shirt to the eye surgeon who had saved the sight of his damaged eye. Three

years later he was forced to retire from football rather than risk losing the eye.

Born in Belo Horizonte on January 25 1947, he was just 26 and recognised

throughout the football world as one of the greatest forwards in the history

of the game. Rather than go into a mood of mourning, Tostao turned his

attention to becoming a medical doctor, which of course he did. Then he

switched to a third career as Brazil’s No 1 football writer and a respected

television pundit. Some life. Some man. Some footballer.

Rivelino was famous for his moustache and his dribble – the ‘elastico’,

which tied defenders into knots. His left foot shot was like something delivered

from a Kalashnikov and beat dozens of goalkeepers all ends up during a 20-

year career that included 92 internationals and almost 700 appearances for

Corinthians, Fluminense and Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. Rivelino, born in Sao

Paulo on New Year’s Day 1946, also played in the 1974 and 1978 World Cup

finals, and then became one of Brazil’s favourite football commentators

73


Rivelino, The Moustachioed Magician who inspired the author’s moustache, grown

during the World Cup. Eric Morecambe described it as an abandoned caterpillar.

74


Talking of Rivelino, he inspired me to grow a moustache. My top lip was

naked when I went to Mexico to cover the 1970 World Cup, but so macho

was the Brazlian ball master that while over there in old Mexico I grew

a drooping tash of my own. So happy half century to my moustache that

continues to adorn my aging boat race. When my good mate Eric Morecambe

saw it on my return home he described it as ‘an abandoned caterpillar.’ What

d’you think of it so far ...?

I’m sure you are glad I shared that with you.

A confession here that I have been close to tears remembering that

wonderful football festival, and realising that eleven of the England squad,

along with manager Sir Alf, have gone to the great football stadium in the

sky: Gordon Banks, Peter Bonetti, Keith Newton, Brian Labone, Alan Ball,

Emlyn Hughes, Peter Osgood, Jeff Astle, Martin Peters, Norman Hunter,

and, of course, our skipper Bobby Moore.

What a team of England angels, who gave us golden memories 50 years

ago in Mexico where the Brazilian masters reigned supreme. I’m proud to

say, I was there.

I can hear you asking, ‘but what about Pelé?’

I have saved the best until last and have given him a chapter all of his own.

Here comes the maestro, The King, El Rey ...

75


11. Pelé, the King

HOW to do Pelé, the Master justice in this look back at the finals he

graced with his power, his pace and precision? Without his colossal

contribution they would not have been nearly as memorable and –

half a century on – not so compelling for we sports historians The final tribute

had to come from somebody who had been on the pitch with him. Football

chroniclers like me can go some way to capturing the excitement of the great

man’s presences as observers sitting 30 yards away and acting as eyewitnesses

for our readers. But to really to get into the heart and soul of Pelé the footballer

we need somebody who played the game to a fairly high standard. Here comes

Greavsie

Jimmy and I were writing partners for more than thirty years and twenty

books before a stroke cruelly robbed this wittiest and wisest of men of the ability

to express himself. But in my locker I have an article Jimmy and I composed on

Pelé before he was robbed of his speech. I promise his admiration for the great

man remains.

So sit back and enjoy Greavsie on Pelé ...

❛LET me tell you about the twenty minutes I once spent in the company of

one Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known to you perhaps as Pelé. When

I say, ‘spent in his company’, it would be fairer to say, ‘spent chasing his arse’.

It was back in 1964 during a four-team tournament in Rio de Janeiro that

had been arranged to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Brazilian FA. The

other teams taking part were Argentina and Portugal. We, England that is, got

the short straw and were drawn to play reigning world champions Brazil in the

opening match in front of 150,000 steaming, screaming, swaying fans at the

magnificent Maracana Stadium.

Our manager, Alf Ramsey, came up with this cunning plan designed to

paralyse Pelé in what was his peak period as the greatest player on the planet.

76


‘We will stop the ball getting to him,’ he said simply in the pre-match tactics

talk.

Then, turning to his ‘hard-tackling’ inside-forwards, he added, ‘Jim [little

old me] and George [‘Matchstick Man’ Eastham], I want you to drop back

whenever necessary and help Gordon [Milne] and Bobby [Moore] to cut out the

passes meant for him.’

‘Anything you say, Alf,’ I agreed. It seemed a good idea on paper, but would

it work on the pitch? Stop the ball getting to Pelé. Even the Master couldn’t play

without the ball. Nice one, Alf.

The plan worked to perfection for the first forty minutes but then, just before

half-time, a frustrated Pelé at last got possession and threaded the ball through

to a young newcomer called Rinaldo, who whipped the ball first time past our

goalkeeper Tony Waiters. Brazil 1, England 0.

Despite this late set-back, we felt satisfied with our first-half performance

and Alf demanded more of the same in the second half. ‘You’re every bit as

good as they are,’ he said, with that steely eyed confidence we were to get to

know so well on the way to the 1966 World Cup finals. ‘Just keep working, and

remember – don’t let Pelé have the ball.’

This was the equivalent of saying ‘don’t let Louis Armstrong sing’ … ‘don’t

let Neil Armstrong walk on the moon’ … ‘don’t let Lance Armstrong ride his

bike.’ But it was a good plan.

It got even better early in the second half when I pounced on a loose ball in

the Brazilian penalty area and stuffed it into the back of their net. Suddenly in

the Maracana you could have heard a pin or a pun drop, and it was England who

were laughing.

Alf on the touchline bench grinned like the cat that had got the cream, and

waved his fists to call for more of the same.

The game was now more than an hour old. Brazil 1, England 1. Budgie

Byrne and I put shots inches wide, and goalkeeper Gilmar had to become an

acrobat to tip a George Eastham shot on to the bar. Pelé was nowhere to be seen.

Alf’s cunning plan was working like a dream … and it was England who were

dreaming of a victory.

Then, like a black panther coming out of a sleep, Pelé roared into the game

as if he had been deliberately sitting it out while he weighed up what we had in

our ammunition.

First, with me chasing his arse and failing to stop the ball reaching him, he

went this way, that way and then – after making a pretence at shooting – passed

77


the ball again to Rinaldo, whose whiplash left-foot shot gave Tony Waiters no

chance. Brazil 2, England 1.

‘Who the f*** is this Rinaldo?’ George Cohen gasped, doing his best to mark

and contain a player none of us had ever heard of.

Moments later I had a shot scrambled off the Brazilian goal-line. The ball

was cleared to Pelé, who set off on a magic-carpet ride through the England

defence. He ran fully 40 yards with the ball at his feet, going past tackles as

nonchalantly as if he was knocking aside daisies. He looked up and picked his

spot before beating Tony Waiters all ends up with a fiercely hit right-foot shot.

Poor old Tony, a Blackpool beach lifeguard in his spare time, was in danger of

drowning. Brazil 3, England 1.

We had forgotten Plan A. Don’t let Pelé have the ball. Alfie boy hadn’t

mentioned a Plan B.

Now the Maracana was a madhouse. Ever heard 150,000 Brazilians screeching

their heads off? It’s like standing on the runway at Heathrow. Bobby Moore,

who was in danger of getting a sunburned tongue from chasing Pelé, shouted

something to me, but all I could see was his lips moving. He later revealed he

was saying, ‘Come back and help us mark f****** Pelé.’

Within two minutes of this third goal, Tony Waiters was picking the ball

out of his net again. Pelé, of course, was the instigator. George Cohen was

protesting to the referee about two Brazilian players being in offside positions

when Pelé pushed a pass into the path of Julinho. The flag should have gone

up as he slotted the ball wide of Waiters, but perhaps the linesman didn’t fancy

upsetting the frenzied fans baying behind him. In his shoes I wouldn’t have

been brave enough to raise the offside flag. Brazil 4, England 1.

In fifteen minutes of sheer brilliance, Pelé had turned the game on its head.

And he still hadn’t finished. I was again chasing that arse of his (what muscular

buttocks, almost animal-like) when Bobby Moore ran across his path and

conceded a free-kick a yard outside the box. Pelé dummied as if to take the

free-kick, and then Dias ran in alongside him and chipped the ball wide of a

despairing dive by Waiters, who would have much preferred at that moment to

be diving off Blackpool beach. Brazil 5, England 1.

We just could not believe what had happened to us as the referee blew the

final whistle. No, that’s silly. We did know what had happened to us. Pelé had

happened to us. We had let him have the bloody ball.

I can honestly say that the football he produced in those final twenty minutes

was the greatest I had ever witnessed from an individual in my life. I knew I

78


Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Born: Tres Coracoes, Brazil, 23 October 1940

Career span: 1955–77. Clubs: Santos 1955–74 (605 league games, 589 goals); New

York Cosmos 1975–77 (64 games, 37 goals) Brazil: 92 caps, 77 goals Fifa Footballer

of the Century 2000. Simply, Pelé.

79


had seen something special that, one day, I could tell my grandchildren about.

That day is now, and the memory of it still sings in my head. While it hurt at the

time, the pain has long gone and the beauty of it is what remains. I know that

on that afternoon in the Maracana Stadium in Brazil I had been in the presence

of sheer genius.

For that twenty minutes of magic alone I would have Pelé top of my alltime

list of great footballers. But he did manage a thing or two besides, like

scoring 1,216 goals in 1,254 matches from his debut at he age of 15 until his first

retirement on 2 October 1974, 21 days short of his 34th birthday.

His peak year for goals was 1958 when he scored the little matter of 139

times, including two classic goals in the World Cup final, when we first became

aware of the developing legend that was Pelé. He went on to collect 12 goals in

four World Cup final tournaments, and he remains the only player to have been

a member of three World Cup-winning teams (1958, 1962 and 1970), although

he missed the final stages of the 1962 tournament because of a pulled muscle.

European clubs queued to try to buy him but the Brazilian government, fearing

street riots, declared him a National Treasure so that he could not be taken

abroad.

Born on the poverty line in Tres Coracoes in the same year as me, 1940,

he came under the influence of former Brazilian World Cup player Waldemar

de Brito while playing for his local team Noroeste. De Brito, realising he had

unearthed a diamond, whisked him off to Santos in Sao Paulo, where he made a

scoring first-team debut at the age of 15.

A year later he was in the Brazilian international team, and the following year

he became, at 17, the then youngest ever World Cup debutant. The rest, as they

say, is history.

Pelé was no angel, by the way, despite his carefully cultivated public persona.

There was quite a bit of devil in him. Let me tell a story to illustrate just how

competitive he could be.

After the match in which he took us apart in Rio, we flew up to Såo Paulo to

watch the second match of the ‘mini World Cup’ between Brazil and Argentina,

and I can say hand-on-heart that I have never witnessed scenes like it. Because

there were no seats left in the stand, the entire England party – including players,

journalists and officials – were assigned to touchline benches that were just two

yards from the pitch and eight or so yards from the fenced-in capacity crowd. It

was far too close for comfort.

As soon as we sat down the spectators spotted us and set up a deafening

80


chant of ‘Cinco-Uma!’ – Portuguese for five-one – and a derisive reminder of

our defeat in Rio (when we foolishly let Pelé have the ball). Born joker Budgie

Byrne could not resist the bait and stood up on the bench and started conducting

the fans like the man in the white suit before the old Wembley Cup finals. The

Brazilians loved it and started chanting in time to Budgie’s waving arms.

Budgie’s choir switched their attention to cheering the Brazilian team when

they came out on the pitch, and they lit up the night sky by firing three-stage

firework rockets high above the stadium. Then we had fireworks of a different

kind on the pitch.

Right from the first whistle, Argentinian hatchet-man defender Messiano

made it clear that his one intention was to stop Pelé from playing. He was not

only going to stop him having the ball, but was also determined to give him a

good kicking. It was a duel that underlined the naked hatred between Brazil and

Argentina. This makes the England-Scotland rivalry seem as tame as a battle for

cucumber sandwiches at a vicarage tea party.

Messiano kicked Pelé at every opportunity, tripped him, spat at him, wrestled

him to the floor and pulled his shirt any time he seemed likely to get past him.

Finally, after about thirty minutes of this almost criminal assault, the devil came

out in Pelé as he completely lost his temper. Right in front of us on the touchline

bench, he took a running jump at Messiano and butted him full in the face. It

made Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt in the 2006 World Cup final seem like a

harmless kiss.

The Argentinian was carried off with his broken nose splattered across his

face, and – incredibly – the Swiss referee allowed Pelé to play on. He knew that

if he had ordered him off there would have been crowd riots.

The calculated, cynical fouling by the Argentinians had knocked all the

rhythm and style out of the Brazlians, and the stadium became as quiet as a

morgue when two minutes from the end the player substituting for the flattened

Messiano – Roberto Telch – scored his second goal of the match to make it 3–0

to Argentina.

Budgie Byrne unwisely chose this moment to do an insane thing. He stood

on the bench again to face the fans and, holding up three fingers, invited them to

join in a chant of ‘Three-Zero’. It was the worst joke of Budgie’s life. Suddenly

bricks and fireworks rained down from the terraces as the fans turned their

disappointment on us. They would have much preferred to reach the detested

Argentinians but we were nearer targets.

The usually impassive Alf Ramsey took one look at the avalanche of rubble,

81


rubbish and rockets coming our way and gave his shortest ever tactical talk.

‘Run for it lads ...’ he said.

Luckily, the final whistle had been blown and we made a mad dash for the

safety of the centre-circle. Villain Budgie Byrne then turned hero as his quick

wits finally got us off the pitch in one piece. As the fans began to scream blue

murder, and despite the intimidating presence of armed police, Budgie shouted

the wise instruction, ‘Grab yourself a Brazilian player.’

He seized goalkeeper Gilmar lovingly by the arm and walked him off the

pitch, knowing full well that no fans would try to harm one of their idols. We

all followed Budgie’s lead and went off arm-in-arm with bewildered Brazilian

players.

You may think we were over-reacting, but uppermost in the minds of

everybody in the stadium was the fact that just ten days earlier 301 people had

been killed in a riot at the national stadium in Peru where Argentina had been

the opponents.

I think the way Argentina had played against Brazil that night – brutally and

with deliberate violence aforethought – stayed imprinted on Alf Ramsey’s mind

and was one of the reasons he made his infamous ‘animals’ outburst against

them after the 1966 World Cup quarter-final.

Pelé, of course, was mercilessly kicked out of the 1966 World Cup, but he got

his old appetite back in time to steer the greatest of all the Brazilian teams to the

1970 World Cup triumph. He played on for four more years before announcing

that his fantastic career was over.

In 1975 distinguished former Daily Express football writer Clive Toye, then

general manager of New York Cosmos, persuaded Pelé to make a comeback in

the North American Soccer League. He made a Sinatra-style final final farewell

appearance against his old club Santos in New Jersey before a sell-out 60,000

crowd on 1 October 1977. It was Pelé’s 1,363rd match and he naturally marked

it with a goal to bring his career total to 1,281.

Anybody who knows me will understand that these statistics are coming

from my writing partner, Norman ‘Boring’ Giller. I prefer to think in terms of

flesh and blood rather than facts and figures, and what I can say with complete

authority is that Pelé was the greatest footballer ever to grace a football pitch.

I know, because I once chased his arse.

82


Captains Fantastic, Carlos Alberto and Bobby Moore before the classic

confrontation between Brazil and England in Guadalajara

83


12. Mooro Ten Years On

BACK home, Bobby Moore reflected on the ‘final of finals’ that he

had watched from ITV’s commentary box. ‘As good as it gets’ was

his succinct summary, ‘and the right team won. Just wish it had been

England in the final with Brazil. I honestly believe we were the second best side

in the tournament and deserved to be in the final. There have been few teams in

history to match Brazil. They were magnificent.’

The Master had spoken, but the wounds of England’s exit and his traumatic

experiences in Bogota were still too deep for this inquisitive Fleet Street hack

to extract his true feelings. There was so much I wanted to ask him, but he had

decided that the least said the better, and he put up a barrier against the many

reporters who wanted his views on the Brazilian victory and also the Bogota

Bracelet Affair.

It was a decade down the line when I finally got Bobby to open up on the

tenth anniversary of World Cup 70.

He had become virtually anonymous in the backwoods of football, managing

Oxford City, with a chirpy Cockney called Harry Redknapp as his right hand

man. What a come down for the player we all rated one of the greatest defenders

ever to step on to a football pitch.

Bobby had applied for the job of England manager when Don Revie deserted

the post in 1977, and he did not even get the courtesy of a reply to his handwritten

letter. What a way to treat a hero.

By then I had tunnelled my way out of the Daily Express and was working in

sports PR, television as a scriptwriter and – with my left hand – writing a regular

‘Twenty Questions’ column for the late, much-mourned magazine Titbits. For

not a penny piece, I got the following interview with Bobby in which he looked

back on World Cup 70, a decade on from being the talk and the toast of the

tournament.

Here we go with his answers to my twenty questions ...

84


1. Looking back, is there anything you would have done

differently when you were arrested in Bogota?

‘Yes, not gone into the jewellery shop! I was only casually accompanying

Bobby Charlton, who was looking for a birthday present for his wife, Norma.

I walked around with my hands in my pockets, not the slightest bit interested

in the contents of the shop. I was just killing time. Next thing I know is that

just after leaving the shop this woman assistant comes out yelling in Spanish

and obviously accusing us of nicking something. Bobby and I started to giggle,

convinced our team-mates had cooked up a gag. Once I knew she was serious,

I offered for her to search us. I thought it was all sorted once we’d explained

our innocence to their armed security police. Didn’t want to fall out with them.

They looked very trigger happy.

‘Off we went to Ecuador for the final warm-up match before going on to

Mexico for the finals. Thought no more of the jewellery shop incident. Then on

the way to Mexico, we stopped off at Bogota and that was when I was arrested.

I was placed under house arrest at one of the Colombia football official’s homes,

and I had to appear in court and give my version of things, The judge ruled there

was not sufficient evidence to make a charge. The reason there was not enough

evidence is because I hadn’t done anything!

2. Did you feel abandoned when Alf took the rest of the

squad off to Mexico?

‘To be honest, I would probably have done the same thing in his shoes, but

looking back on it I think the Football Association could have stuck their heels

in and said, ‘Either you release our captain or we will not be going to Mexico.’

They knew I was innocent. Forgetting it was me involved, they should have

stood by any player being stitched up like that.

‘Alf was such a single-minded character that all he could think of was getting

to Mexico and preparing for the finals. It completely threw him when I got

arrested, and he decided – quite rightly – that the rest of the squad had to take

priority.

‘But his FA bosses could have done a lot more to get it sorted out immediately.

People wondered why I did not sue the shop, as if it was a sign of my guilt. The

only reason is that they were such a slippery lot I could not risk them producing

witnesses to stand up their case. They could have lied me into prison.’

85


3. What sort of reception did you get when you rejoined the

team in Mexico?

‘I had been cut off from the world during my five days house arrest, in the

care of two Colombian policemen who could have been doubles for Laurel and

Hardy. It would have been hilarious if it was not so bloody serious! I wondered

how everybody was reacting and found out when I flew into Mexico City that

the whole world was talking about me. As I stepped out of the plane there must

have been a couple of hundred of the world’s press and television waiting for

me on the tarmac. It was an incredible sight, and I nearly went blind from the

scores of flashing light bulbs. I looked down and among the mass I noticed the

tall, gangling figure of the great Times sports writer Geoffrey Green. I excitedly

greeted him in the usual way we always acknowledged each other, ‘Over the

rainbow, baby!’ Geoffrey later told me that the foreign press were trying to

understand what my first words were on arriving in Mexico!

‘Then I was whisked off to a British embassy hideaway while the necessary

paperwork was completed. I was minding my own business in the lounge when

suddenly the ambassador’s wife announced that I had a visitor. It was Greavsie!

He told me he had shinned over the wall and then been sent back to come in

through the front door, where they was another media mass trying to get to me.

‘Jim and I emptied the embassy cocktail cabinet as we caught up on things,

me telling him about the farce in the jewellery shop and he relating stories about

his World Cup rally drive.

‘The next day it was off to rejoin Alf and the lads. As you know, Alf never

showed his emotions but he hugged me as if I was his long-long son.’.

4. Did you have any worries about your fitness following

your house arrest?

‘I had kept in shape by running round the large garden at the house where I

was being guarded. It was like a Carry On comedy, with me doing sprints and

exercises while Laurel and Hardy looked on with their guns in their holsters.

You could say it was surreal, and not quote the way I had imagined preparing

for the defence of the World Cup. Our victory at Wembley in 1966 seemed a

lifetime ago.

‘The entire experience made me doubly determined to play to my peak once

I got to Mexico. I never had any doubts I would soon be back with the squad.’

86


Sir Alf Ramsey, feeling the heat in Mexico

87


5. Did Alf give you the option of missing the opening match

against Romania, considering your Bogota ordeal?

‘He asked me if I was in the mood to play, I simply said, “Try to stop me.”.

I never gave a second’s thought to missing that first match. Thinking of playing

was what had kept me sane during my house arrest. It was a great exercise in

mind control. I became tunnel visioned and thought only of getting back on to

the football field.

‘As I told you before the tournament, I truly believed we had a stronger squad

than the one with which we won the World Cup in 1966. We had prepared

ourselves for the challenges of the altitude and the heat, and I was positive we

could go all the way to the final.

‘There was a great spirit in the camp. The local media were giving us such a

hard time that it brought us all even closer together. They made up stories about

us hitting the bottle and ran a headline that called us “Drunks and Thieves”. All

this did was make us more determined to give a good account of ourselves on

the pitch where it mattered.’

6. What do you remember of that opening match against the

Romanians?

‘How hot it was! The tournament organisers needed shooting for asking

players to go out in the mid-day sun. They had sold their soul to television and

put the footballers on a roasting spit. Guadalajara was more than 5,000 feet

above sea level and you had to conserve your energy or risk collapsing.

‘We knew we needed to play possession football at half the pace we were

used to at home. Romania had made up their mind to go for a draw and packed

their penalty area. Their tackling was, to say the least, tough and it’s a wonder

only Keith Newton was injured. Alf sent on Tommy Wright and later saved

Bobby Charlton for the match with Brazil by sending on Colin Bell in his place.

They were Alf’s first ever substitutions in a World Cup match.

It was just like old times when Geoff (Hurst) scored the only goal of the

match. We knew we could play a lot better and agreed we had to improve if we

were going to hold Brazil in the next match.

While waiting for the match with Brazil the locals along with hundreds of

Brazilian fans did their best not to let us get any sleep. They would drive around

our hotel all night honking their horns and banging on drums.’

88


7. The classic with Brazil, first just how special was that

Gordon Banks save?

‘It was simply the greatest save I ever saw. Gordon was on the wrong side of

goal guarding his near post when Jairzinho went past Terry Cooper and lofted

his pass over all our heads. Pelé was the far side of his marker Alan Mullery and

met the ball with a bullet downward header. Mullers said later he was actually

shouting ‘Goal’ as he connected. Brian Labone and I were charging towards the

centre of the goal when there was a blur of action. Gordon somehow crossed

from one side of the goal to the other in the blinking of an eye, and managed

to push the ball up and over the bar. I had never seen anything like it. He had

become Superman!

‘I think I shouted something to Gordon like, “Next time try to catch the

bloody thing.” Pele was as stunned as the rest of us, and told me later that it

was the best save he’d ever seen. So we were all agreed on that. I am sure that

no other goalkeeper in the world could have made it. Only Banskie. That’s how

special he was.

8. And how about your tackle on Jairzinho that stopped him

in his tracks?

‘My philosophy was always to go for the ball, not the man. If you can get

the ball away from your opponent he can’t play without it. Jairzinho had been

skinning every defence he came up against with a mixture of skill and blinding

speed. He was motoring through our defence when we were suddenly in a one

on one situation five yards inside the England box. I kept my nerve and went

in for the ball, getting it with the sole of my right boot with a textbook tackle.

‘Jairzinho went tumbling over but without me touching him. His momentum

meant he lost his balance when I relieved him of the ball. I managed to keep

my balance and then pass the ball out of defence, and suddenly we were on the

counter attack.

‘For me it was just another tackle, but they made a lot of fuss about if after the

match, and I am proud that even now ten years on coaches are using film of it to

show young footballers how to tackle. I can hear my dear old friend and mentor

Malcolm Allison saying to me as a kid when I was an apprentice at West Ham,

“Remember, son, no footballers no matter how great they are can play without

the ball. So take it away from them.”’

89


9. Still with the Brazil match, have you played in a better

game of football?

‘It did have everything, and I look back on it fondly even though we lost. If

only Jeff Astle had not missed that sitter we would have come out of it with the

draw that we deserved. We got closest to mastering the Brazilians in what was

one of the greatest ever performances by an England team. That’s not just my

opinion. Everybody was lining up afterwards to tell us that we should have got

a point out of it.

‘I was choked when Jairzinho got their goal. You know me, I am never one to

complain about what goes on in a match. It’s always swings and roundabouts,

but I have to tell you that I was fouled by Tostao as he made his run to set up

the goal. He pushed me out of his way before crossing to Pelé, who laid it off for

Jaizinho to score. Anyway, it’s no good crying over what’s gone. We played our

part in a classic game, probably the best I ever played in. Bottom line, we lost.

10. Then there was that memorable moment when you and

Pelé hugged each other and swapped shirts.

‘Yes, the great Pelé came to me and suggested we swap shirts. What an

honour to have the world’s greatest player asking for my shirt. It was a privilege

to give him my England shirt in return for that wonderful and famous number

ten of his. He said to me in his heavy English, ‘Bobby. Bogota. None of us

believed it.’ I was grateful for those words of support from The Master, and

I knew he was talking on behalf of his team-mates, who all came up to me to

shake my hand. It was all very emotional.

‘There is always the argument as to who has been the world’s greatest

footballer. I never have any hesitation in naming Pelé. He has more than 1,000

goals to back his case to be called the best, although I am told there is a young

Argentinian called Maradona who could one day challenge for his crown.

‘I have been a Pelé fan since the 1958 World Cup finals when I saw him live

on television score a wonder goal in the final against Sweden. He was only 17

and I had just finished my apprenticeship with West Ham. I knew then I was

seeing a superstar in the making.

‘Then, twelve years later, we were hugging each other in the middle of the

pitch in Mexico. You could not make it up. We later played together in the

United States and became good mates. He remains a football god’

90


Alan Mullery’s view of Franz Beckenbauer, ‘Der Kaiser’, on the prowl against

England in the eventful 1970 World Cup quarter-final

91


11. Next the vital qualifying match against Czechoslovakia

that you had to win.

‘One of the most tense matches in which I ever played. We knew we could

not make any mistakes against a team that had nothing to lose, and we played

without the rhythm and understanding that we had showed in spades against

Brazil. I remember Alf pleading in the dressing-room beforehand, “Gentlemen,

please remember ... concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.”

‘Big Jack, hero of our defence in 1966, was recalled alongside me, and he

really struggled to show his old mastery in what proved to be the last game of his

distinguished England career. We were often at panic stations against ordinary

opposition, and I would say it was probably the worst England performance in

all our World Cup matches.

‘What bottle Allan Clarke showed when he volunteered to take the penalty

that won the game for us. Rather him than me. I have never been keen to take

spot-kicks. It’s all in the mind.

Anyway, we scraped through and were back to bubbling with confidence

before our quarter-final against the Germans.’

12. Okay, Bobby, what in your judgement went wrong

against West Germany?

‘Have you got half an hour? Even ten years on I find it hard to talk about

that defeat. It would be easy to blame it all on Catty Bonetti, but he had no

preparation for the biggest game of his career. Losing Gordon Banks was like

– no pun intended – losing our right hand. It was a huge blow psychologically

and you could almost hear England nerves jangling when Alf told us at the last

minute that Gordon was unwell and that Peter would be taking his place. Fancy

being in Catty’s boots. He had not played a proper game since Chelsea’s FA Cup

final replay victory over Leeds back in April.

Our football for the first hour was as good as anything we played in Mexico,

and when Mullers and Martin (Peters) scored to put us 2-0 up you would have

found few people who would have put their house on the Germans to win. In

fact Franz Beckenbauer, a good friend off the pitch, told me that his mind had

wandered to thinking about which flight they would be getting home the next

day. Then Catty let in a goal he would have saved 999 times out of a thousand,

and it all went pear shaped.’

92


13. If you are not blaming Peter Bonetti, who do you blame

for the defeat?

‘I have never liked playing the blame game. We all make mistakes, and just

have to work that bit harder to rectify them. But I have to say in all honesty

that Alf cost us that match with his substitute decisions. He got them all wrong.

As soon as Beckenbauer got that soft goal, Alf went through with substituting

Bobby Charlton with Colin Bell. Bobby was the most famous of our footballers

and the Germans had huge respect for him. As they watched him trooping off

reluctantly they all suddenly grew in confidence, and we were on the back foot.

To make matters worse Alf then took off Martin Peters and replaced him with

the destructive Norman Hunter. We had lost our two most creative midfield

players.

‘It was obvious that is was Terry Cooper who should have gone off because

Grabowski, a fresh-legged substitute, had been running him so ragged that he

had a sun burned tongue. From the moment Uwe Seeler got their equaliser with

that freak back header the odds were on the Germans to win. We were out on

our feet.

‘We had hardly allowed Gerd Müller a kick, but typical of him he came up

with the winner in extra-time. It was the sickest I have ever felt on a football

pitch. It would have been so different if Gordon had not gone done with

Montzuma’s revenge. Never had it been so cruel.’

14 Gordon has told me he thinks he was nobbled? Do you

believe that theory?

‘After what I went through in Bogota, nothing would surprise me. If you

wanted to cause problems for England who would you try to take out of the

game with a drugged drink? Your first choice would have to be our magnificent

goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who had been the rock of our defence throughout the

our greatest moments.

‘Alf and his backroom team went to enormous lengths to make sure none of

us ate or drank anything outside what we had brought with us from England. Of

all the people to go down it had to be Gordon. You have to ask yourself why.

They stitched me up in Bogota. So why not get to Gordon in Mexico? You don’t

have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce something was very suspicious.’

93


15. You stayed in Mexico for the final when you must have

been busting to get home?

‘True, I wanted to be home. I had been away for two months, and after

all I had been through I just wanted to hide away for a few weeks before the

domestic season was on us. But the professional in me told me I needed to see

this tournament through to the end, and to learn all I could from watching the

brilliant Brazilians.

‘ITV came up with an offer for me to do the co-commentary on the final with

Hugh Johns, so that made my decision to stay even easier. I wanted to keep that

date in the Azreca but so sad that it was not walking out on the pitch with the

England team.

‘The final lived up to expectations and the right team won. That last goal by

Carlos Alberto summed up what the finals had been all about and captured just

why Brazil are arguably the greatest World Cup winners of all time. I have not

seen or played against a better international team.

‘That attacking front five of Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, Pele and Rivelino are

just magical, and a joy to play against because you know you are competing with

the best footballers on earth. We may never see as good an attacking formation

again. It was a privilege to be on the same pitch as them.’

16. How are you and Alf these days, ten years after the 1970

finals?

‘We are on good terms. We were never buddy-buddies. Alf is not that sort of

person. He likes to keep people at a distance, but we got about as close as you

can get during the 1970 finals after my Bogota adventure. He continually told

people he did not believe it, and I respected him for that.

‘I thought the FA treated him shabbily after our exit from the 1974 finals

following that freak defeat by Poland. That’s why I was happy to co-operate

with you and your agency partner Peter Lorenzo in putting on a dinner at the

Café Royal to raise money for him after the FA had given him a joke of a payoff.

‘Alf didn’t suffer fools, and could be painfully blunt with people he did not

know. But there have been few better tacticians in the history of the game, and

he was always loyal to his players. You won’t hear me saying bad things about

him.’

94


17. You sat alongside him on the bench for that 1974 World

Cup qualifying match against Poland?

‘Wish you hadn’t reminded me. In the closing moments, with the score at

1-1 and England going out if they did not score, it briefly turned to a Monty

Pythonesque farce as Alf proved yet again that he was uncomfortable with the

substitute rule. He left it until the 85th minute before he decided to make a

change. I was sitting alongside Alf after being dropped and I kept nagging him

to get a sub on.

‘Finally, Alf called over his shoulder to the substitutes sitting in a row behind

him, ‘Kevin, get stripped’. It was panic stations as goalkeeper Ray Clemence

tugged at Kevin Keegan’s tracksuit bottoms to help him get ready for action.

His Liverpool team mate was so eager that he pulled down his shorts as well!

Keegan’s embarrassment was complete when Alf then made it clear that his

command had been meant for Kevin Hector, not the Liverpool Kevin! Talk

about ‘Don’t panic, Mr Mannering!”’

‘There were just 90 seconds left when the Derby Country striker at last got on

to the pitch, and with his first and only touch of the ball put the ball wide from

two yards. The game finished at 1-1, and England were out of the World Cup.

Not one of Alf’s better nights and it led to him getting the sack.’

18. What is your view of the current England team and could

they challenge for the World Cup in 1982?

‘They are in good hands with Ron Greenwood, who was my club manager

for most of my career. Ron and I had our ups and downs but there is no doubting

his great knowledge of the game. In fact I remember him being on the Fifa

technical committee for the 1970 World Cup finals and how enthusiastic he was

over what he had witnessed

England have the strength in depth to qualify for the 1982 finals in Spain, and

they will be among the favourites. But what I’ve seen of international football

recently, I would say the odds are on Italy or Germany being the strongest of

the teams from Europe and, as usual, Brazil will be the South American side to

beat. Nothing changes!

I thought it disgraceful the way Don Revie treated the job, using it as a shop

window to get a higher paid post in the Middle East. Once again, it was the

Football Association who made a mess of it.’

95


19. What are you, Bobby Moore – The Great Defender –

doing in Oxford?

‘Simple. They were willing to give me a job. We have great ambitions here to

one day in the not too distant future become a major force in football. My mate

Harry Redknapp and I are building the foundations. I did write and apply for the

England job when Don Revie deserted his country. I am still waiting for a reply.’

20. Where do you think Bobby Moore will be ten years from

now?

‘In the First Division with Oxford City, with ‘Sir’ Harry Redknapp as my

coach. We’ll be playing football the Brazilian way, and we’ll invite our mutual

mate Jimmy Greaves up to open our new all-seater, 60,000 capacity ground.’

Two years later, Bobby Moore was coaching in Hong Kong, and Harry

Redknapp managing Bournemouth. In 1984 he returned to England to take

charge at Southend United.

Tragically, in 1993 aged just 51, Bobby was beaten by bowel cancer. The

Unwanted Hero.

Since his death, he has been given the recognition he should have received

when alive, with statues built in his memory, football stands being named after

him and his reputation as The Great Defender fully intact and appreciated by

all generations.

His widow Stephanie set up a Bobby Moore Bowel Cancer Fund, and if you

have enjoyed this journey through the 1970 World Cup finals I would be greatly

obliged if you would make a donation in his memory. Details below.

Thanks to the terrifying interruption of Covid-19, I had to

abandon publishing this book in the traditional way. So I am

giving away this online book. Please, if you enjoy the journey,

pay me what you think it’s worth and I will pass any profits on to

the Bobby Moore Cancer Fund. Pay me through PayPal or to my

bank account at Barclays 00661732, sort code 20-96-96. Every

payment will be acknowledged. Thank you.

96


13. The Greenwood Report

RON GREENWOOD was world renowned for his knowledge of football

tactics, and he became a member of the prestigious Fifa Technical

committee that made a study of the 1970 World Cup finals from first

kick to last. To give you a relief from my ramblings, I am publishing here the

report that Ron gave me to show the thorough way Fifa went about their work.

I was lucky to have Ron as my guru when I first started out in sports

journalism, and I could not have had a better teacher about the way the

game could and should be played.

Ron’s report is, of course, the copyright of Fifa, who have kindly

authorised its publication provided I give them acknowledgement. Job

done. It gives a thorough overview of the finals without my hyperbole.

The report makes fascinating reading for those interested not only

in the Beautiful Game but the thinking of the World Cup organisers.

Joining Ron on the Fifa technical committee were Harry Cavan (Ireland,

chairman) Walter Winterbottom (England), Dettmar Cramer (Germany),

Sandro Puppo (Italy), and René Courte (Luxemburg),

A major worry was over the matches being played at high altitude, and

following is an absorbing breakdown of how each nation prepared for

the challenges of football in the thin air of Mexico ...

ACCLIMATISATION

It is well-known that changes of environment, which affect physiological

functions of the body, can also affect fitness and playing standards of

football teams. Medical science has done much to prevent serious

disturbances by using antidotes for virus infections, and saline intake to

counteract loss of body salt through excessive dehydration.

Experience at the time of the 1968 Olympic Games football tournament

had dispelled the exaggerated fears about the ill-effects of playing football

97


Ron Greenwood in his England

manager days, and (left) carrying

the FA Cup on the tube train on the

Monday after guiding West Ham to a

3-2 victory over Preston at Wembley,

accompanied by the handsome young

author Norman Giller. Greenwood

provided this 1970 Fifa Study report on

the World Cup nearly 50 years ago.

98


in Mexico. Nevertheless, the value of pre-acclimatisation experience and

of a period of acclimatisation immediately before the World Cup final was

accepted by most competing teams. Special acclimatisation outside their

own countries was not necessary for the teams of Mexico, El Salvador

and Peru.

Israel (Guadalajara and Leon), El Salvador (Leon), Bulgaria (Leon and

Mexico City), Czechoslovakia (Guadalajara), Brazil (Puebla) had gained

experience of match play at various stadia during the Olympic Games .

USSR, England, Germany FR and Bulgaria made special tours,

sometime before the World Cup final, to South America which included

matches in Mexico .

Special training at high attitude sometime before the assembly of the

squad for the World Cup was arranged by Romania (three weeks in the

Carpathian Mountains), Czechoslovakia (twoweeks at Font Romeu in

France), Morocco (three weeks at 3,000 feet), Israel (ten days in Addis

Ababa) and Bulgaria (Training camp in mountains).

However, the amount of acclimatisation just before the event in

order to improve the oxygen intake capacity of the blood is claimed to

be the important factor. Critical altitudes are above 2,000 metres and

acclimatisation at altitudes higher than this is said to improve oxygen

intake capacity more completely.

A comparison of the acclimatisation preparation just prior to the eight

finals shows the importance which various countries attached to this

physiological phenomenon .The lengths of the pre-competition period

of acclimatisation are shown diagrammatically, but the detail of the

programme is also of interest.

Uruguay placed great emphasis on the final spell of preparation. The

squad left Montevideo on April 16 and played matches in Lima (Peru),

then went on to special training and a match at Bogota (Colombia). From

there to Quito (Ecuador), down to sea level to Guayaquil and back for

another match on May12 at Bogota. The team arrived in Mexico on

May14 and went to their headquarters in Puebla.

Brazil and England left their countries a month before the competition

for tours and matches in Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia .USSR,

Romania and Bulgaria spent a fortnight in the mountains before flying to

Mexico to arrive on May 10,13 and16 respectively. Czechoslovakia and

99


Belgium went direct to Mexico, arriving on May 7 and 9.

Most other teams arrived ten days to a fortnight before the first match.

Germany FR arrived on May 16, going straight to Leon

They had planned to test all players for acclimatisation in a pressure

chamber in Cologne but, in the event, the congested league programme

due to bad weather prevented all players from taking these tests, and also

curtailed the programme of general training, though two international

matches were played in May before departure.

The deficiency of oxygen in the blood when performing strenuous

activity at high altitude increases respiration rate and induces feelings

of discomfort. Romania found that, whereas at home a 100 metre run

required on average two respirations, in Guadalajara an all-out sprint

over this distance demanded five respirations.

Early arrival in Mexico was necessary for two other adaptation reasons,

that of the body’s adjustment to the time change, which takes between

six to ten days to become acceptable, and that of performing strenuous

activity under strong solar radiation, which causes heavy loss of body

moisture with the discomfort of thirst.

The combined efforts of these changes caused some players to lose

normal standards of physical condition which, in turn, affected playing

standards. Reports on tests and individual case records, taken by medical

officers, afford information of value to future competitions where

environmental changes call for a period of acclimatisation, and where

it is necessary to plan a programme to obtain the optimum performance

levels.

However, football is a game of skill, and it is possible therefore to use

tactical and technical skill to control the speed of play Several teams

had developed a strategy of play which can be called ‘stop-go’ football,

where the ball is `held’ or interpassed defensively before the moment

when it is decided to make an attack.

It is possible that this kind of approach caused teams to concentrate

on conserving energy and lessened the inclination to go `all out’ to fight

for possession and counter attack. In contrast to this approach a few

teams, like Brazil, Peru and Germany FR, excelled in pressing forward

in attacking play.

The fears associated with acclimatisation seemed to disappear as teams

100


began to play and prove their stamina. Some teams grew in strength and

belief in their skill as the competition progressed, none more so than

Brazil,Italy,Germany FR and Uruguay who reached the semi-finals.

It would be wrong to discount the weakening effects of heat and high

altitude; it would be equally wrong to exaggerate them. On the whole,

full credit is due to all teams for the careful preparation and effort which

provided a tournament of many outstanding games of football .

OBSERVATIONS ON MATCHES

Before the start of the 1966 World Cup competition in England, managers

of competing teams expressed the view that the matches would confirm

the growing trend towards defensive football and there would be a

stronger emphasis on team fitness and hard tackling to win possession of

the ball.In the event they were right in their prediction.

Later some of the managers expressed regret that the high stakes of

competitive football throughout the world were compelling more use of

defensive tactics and a restriction of attacking play, giving rise to many

unattractive games .

The Technical Study Group in its report supported the opinion that the

solution to the problems of defensive play lay in the hands of players and

coaches, and that methods of attack should be developed to over-come

the stifling effects of a seven to nine player defensive screen in front of

goal.

In the last four years football in Western Europe has not seemed to

change a great deal, though Eastern European countries have tried to use

a 4-2-4 framework for basic patterns of play with at least four forwards

moving into attack and the USSR has attempted also to develop powerful

long-range shooting.

In South America, Brazil has continued with its 4-2-4 pattern and its

liking for attacking football.Peru, too, produced a national team for the

World Cup competition whose success was largely based on attacking

play

From the interviews with managers in Mexico before the World Cup

final competition began, there was still some fear that, unless the referees

were strong in their control, many games might be marred by rough play

101


Differences in habits of play and temperament were thought to be the

most likely causes of upset. To the surprise of many experts, most games

were played in a good spirit, and several of them produced a remarkable

standard of attacking football.

Some among the European managers thought that the problems of

altitude and heat had prevented teams from playing at full pace. The need

to conserve energy for a series of matches caused them to adapt their

tactic accordingly. Instead of tackling energetically, players backed away

in defence,and,when in possession of the ball, they frequently used a

’stop-go ’variety of play. Even substitution was used to give`key’ players

a rest. Club football inevitably has a strong influence on the development

of a player’s style of play, and the clubs are affected by the demands

of their home competition. In Italy players generally subordinate thei

individual abilities to club tactics, which are largely defensive in nature,

since these tactics have proved to be more successful in terms of league

positions and finance.

With 50 or more club matches in a season it is scarcely possible for the

coach of the national team to achieve a different style of team play within

the space of a few weeks.

In Europe team tactics and their adaptation have become important

features of performance. There is much `running off the ball’ – that is

where players run continuously to find new positions when they are not

in possession of the ball.

Players try to create spaces to make it easier to pass the ball, and to

draw the opposing defenders into false positions, and the gap which

frequently appears on the flank is often exploited by defenders running

forward into an advanced attacking position .

Spearhead forwards tend to be players who are quick and skilful, or else

who possess outstanding athletic ability; above all, they are courageous

in their determination to force their way past opposition and in their

readiness to shoot at the slightest opportunity.

Long through passes and high centres from the flanks are common

techniques of play. Defenders in these teams are expert in covering each

other, in interception, heading and tackling techniques, and in the use of

controlled inter-passing out of defence .

The best teams in Europe have freed themselves from rigid patterns of

102


Teofilo Cubillas, Peru’s dynamic midfield playmaker-cum-srtriker who was voted the

‘Best Young Player ‘ of the 1970 World Cup finals

103


play. Players are capable of varying their functions between defence and

attack; they adapt their play according to the strength and weaknesses of

the opposing sides.

In South America players seem to acquire an additional dimension in

standards of ball control and inter-passing skill. Speed of movement is

characteristic of most forwards enabling them to evade tackles and to run

quickly while controlling the ball Inter-passing, both at short and long

range, is very accurate. Midfield play can be quickly turned to attack

When South American players enjoy their football they seem to

develop a quicker sense of anticipation of each other’s intentions in a

variety of inter-passing movements .

It was thought to be a fitting reflection of the comparable strength of

football in South America and Europe that the semi-finals produced two

teams from each continent.

Brazil and Uruguay had made long and thorough preparation of their

teams,whereas Germany and Italy arrived in Mexico after only a short

get-together of players and with no altitude acclimatisation training or

match play at high altitude.

Both Brazil and Uruguay assert that one of the chief factors under- lying

their success was the thorough and detailed training for physical fitness.

Players performed at near the best of their ability and were unaffected

by the altitude or heat. Germany and Italy shared the feeling of several

managers that the heat and the consequent loss of body moisture turned

out to be a greater problem than altitude.

When the managers/coaches of the four semi-final teams met the Study

Group in London in August 1970, with the World Cup behind them,

they reported that, apart from essential changes of players for injury or

substitution, they had attempted to keep the same team together for all

matches.

West Germany called upon 19 players, Italy used 18, Brazil 16 and

Uruguay 15.A policy seemed to be accepted that it is essential to keep the

same players because they become attuned to match play and combine

together with more understanding as the competition proceeds. There is

always a lingering doubt about the `match fitness’ of reserves who, once

the competition starts, are prevented from having match practice outside

the competition .

104


Looking back over the whole series of matches in the 1970 tournament

in Mexico, the Study Group fel tthat five matches were unforgettable:

Brazil-Italy, Brazil-Uruguay, Italy-Germany, Brazil-England and

Germany-England .

Brazil were worthy winners of the 1970 World Cup tournament.

Excepting only the game against England, which was narrowly won by

the only goal, Brazil scored three or four goals in every match.

Many of these goals were brilliantly achieved from clever approach

play. The tally for six matches was 19 goals for Brazil and 8 against. It

was said that the defence was vulnerable, but a team which throws its

players into attack must at times weaken its defensive shield, and, in any

case, there were several games in which the Brazilian defenders played

extremely well.

Czechoslovakia, in the first match ,made many scoring openings,but

in the end they lost by the margin of 4-1, mainly due to the remarkable

individual skill of the Brazilian forwards,who together formed a versatile

and flexible striking force.

Much of the fine attacking play of Brazil is constructed on simple but

deftly performed ‘wall-passes’ between two or more players, or on long

and accurate lobs which are then skilfully and quickly controlled and

passed on to a third player who is running into a shooting position. But

each Brazilian player could also strike on his own.

Fast muscle is fundamental to shooting power . The surface area of

contact with the ball and the speed of the foot at the moment of impact

are the main ingredients of hard shooting.The Brazilians are gifted with

this quality of muscle, and, additionally, through long practice, have

become skilful in placing and swerving shots.

Though the Czechoslovakian team started well, using good technical

football, their rhythm slowed down as the game went on, and retreating

defensive play became a doubtful tactic against Brazilian forwards

renowned for their capacity for individual attack.

Brazil’s second match, which was against England, was one of the

outstanding games of the eighth finals. Each team showed respect for the

other. Throughout the game England defended resolutely and goalkeeper

Banks made one amazing save from a Pele header.

England were under severe pressure when Brazil scored the only goal.

105


Tostao, after a long weaving dribble, lobbed the ball over to Pele

who, momentarily controlling it, drew two English defenders, including

the left back, Cooper, and then coolly stroked the ball into the path of

Jairzinho, whose driving shot was unstoppable.

From then on England continually attacked the Brazilian goal, and

several long high centres put the goalkeeper and other defenders in

difficulties, but unfortunately for England, two or three good chances to

equalize were wasted.

Inevitably there were some clashes in the general keenness to win

possession of the ball, but, on the whole, play was fair and the game was

controlled well by the referee.

Brazil’s worst performance in the eighth finals was against Romania.

They started well, and scored twice in the first 20 minutes, but then they

seemed to lose their grip on the game Probably their teamwork was

disturbed by changes in midfield due to the injury to Gerson.

Romania, however, never gave up, and full credit is due to them for

this. They seemed to be determined to show that they were a force to be

reckoned with, and in this they succeeded ; in fact, but for inaccurate and

sometimes unlucky shooting, they might have shaken Brazil far more

than in the event they did.

In all games Brazil used a four man zone defence, working in line, with

the two inner defenders covering each other. These four defenders used

tactics to slow down opponents as they attacked, waiting for opportunities

to intercept or tackle as the ball was inter-passed.

Sometimes these tactics became confused against speedy attacks. The

goalkeeper, Felix, looked insecure on occasions, but the defenders in

front of him were the cause of some of his problems.

The flank defenders occasionally overlapped by running forward into

attacking positions down the touchline.

The quarter final against Peru was a match of continuous attacks at

each end of the field. Peru had something of the Brazilian style of general

play, but often their attacks were bunched in close inter-passing play on

the front edge of the penalty area.Chances to squeeze the ball through a

packed defence by such tactics are lost by the slightest wrong touch or

by an intercepting body or foot.Also, because play cannot, under these

conditions, be opened up on the flanks, the opposing defence isable to

106


concentrate its forces and blunt such attempts at penetration.

Peru dominated the game for 20 minutes at the end of the first half, and

got on top again for a short period in the second half. Eventually, however,

the Brazilian attack won the day against talented opponents. Jairzinho

was held on the right flank very effectively yet, towards the end of the

game, when he shifted his position to the left flank, he was able to score.

The semi-final match at Guadalajara between Brazil and Uruguay

produced some of the best football seen in any tournament. Uruguay

opened without any fear of the reputation of Brazil and took command

of the game early in the first half by imposing their own pace and rhythm

of play. But again, they seemed to lack goal scoring forwards, and

throughout this tournament they missed the injured Rocha sadly, and the

first goal scored by Cubilla in the eighteenth minute was more the result

of mistakes by the Brazilian defence than anything else.

At this point Brazil took over and accelerated the pace of the game

.Clodoaldo equalized in the last minute of the first half from a pass by

Tostao which took the Uruguayan defenders by surprise. This gave

Brazil a psychological uplift in their play and in the second half the

team developed combinations of inter-passing which amazed even those

experts who had seen many of the great Brazilian performances of the

past.

Some of the first-time-passing sequences in movements towards goal

were truly remarkable. The second goal was scored in the seventy-sixth

minute by Jair, and from then on Uruguay threw everything into attack,

which exposed their defence all the more and made possible the Brazilian

goal two minutes from time.

Mazurkiewiez, the Uruguayan goalkeeper is considered to be the

equal of Banks, England’s great goalkeeper, and he well justified that

estimation of him in this tournament and this game. He is athletically

daring in cutting off high centres and exceptionally accurate in throwing

the ball to start a new attack from defence.

The flair for innovation when team performance is running high is

well illustrated by two movements from Pele late in the game .First, he

quickly turned to intercept a long throw from Mazurkiewiez some 40

yards down field, and, without attempting to control the ball, volleyed a

low drive which brought a spectacular save from the goalkeeper. Then

107


Clodoaldo, singled out for praise in the Fifa technical Report on World Cup 70

108


he chased after a loose pass with Mazurkiewiez running out of goal

to intercept. Pele’s feint took the goalkeeper to the left while the ball

ran on, and then Pele veered round and, with a spin turn, placed a shot

through the recovering full backs which narrowly missed the post. Both

movements were audaciously executed and called for immense skill,

timing, judgment and speed.

The Uruguayans played extremely well, forcing the best out of every

Brazilian player. Felix made a miraculous point blank save from Cubilla.

Alberto, Brito, Piazzo and Everaldo defended supremely well, though

occasionally with desperation.

Gerson and Clodoaldo wove patterns of astonishing intricacy in the

middle of the field and cleverly prompted the spearhead forwards. Jairzino

and Tostao produced flashes of spectacular dribbling and Rivelino used

his extraordinary feint play of his left foot over the ball to great effect

and threatened repeatedly with his powerful shooting power .But above

all Brazil played well as a team to produce some wonderfully sustained

football.

In the final match against Italy, Brazil had complete confidence in their

tactical and technical superiority, and began to express themselves freely

.Italy, on the other hand, seemed a little afraid to carry on with the highly

motivated attacking play they had displayed in their brilliant encounter

with Germany in the semi-final.

They kept to their customary man-to-man marking in the final line of

their defence, and as a result no one seemed to mark Gerson, and when

Jairzinho moved over to the left flank, followed by Facchetti, skipper

Carlos Alberto was unimpeded in making attacking approaches down

the right wing. Throughout the game Gerson and Carlos Alberto were

unmarked, which tactically contributed much to Italy’s downfall.

For the first 15 minutes the Italian team held the Brazilian pressure and

were somewhat unlucky not to score from two powerful long-distance

shots by Riva and Domenghini. However, in the seventeenth minute,

from a centre by Rivelino, Pele evaded his opponent and, with perfect

timing, jumped high to head the ball powerfully downwards inside de

post .

Italy equalized as a result of over-confident play by Clodoaldo allowing

the ball to run loose to Boninsegna who, after a further mix-up between

109


Felix, Brito and Riva, recovered to shoot the ball into an empty net.

In the sixty-fifth minute, Gerson, enjoying his freedom, scored a fine

second goal with a long shot from the edge of the penalty area. Then a

free kick from the same player was headed back across the goal by Pelé

for Jairzinho to run in and score from close range.

From then on the Brazilians were in full cry and further success could

not be denied them, and when the goal came it was the best of the match.

Clodoaldo brilliantly beat five opponents in close space in midfield, and

pushed the ball ahead to Jairzinho who had crossed over from the right

flank.

Jairzinho cut inside Facchetti and passed to Pele, who nonchalantly

held the ball, and then feinted to make a break and so mesmerized three

defenders, who moved to bar his way to goal. But instead he stroked the

ball into the path of Carlos Alberto, who, running in at great speed on the

right flank, hit a fast low shot across Albertosi into the far side of the net.

At the end of the game hordes of Brazilian supporters flooded onto the

field to hail their heroes and proclaim their delirious pleasure not only for

the feat of winning the trophy for the third time, but also for the manner

in which it had been achieved.

Though this demonstration delayed the presentation ceremony the

interruption was accepted good humouredly by officials, who seemed

to feel,wit heveryone who was present, that such an outburst was well

justified and would, in any case, have been impossible to contain

.

ITALY

After two training matches in Toluca (2,680 metres), Italy picked its best

team for the first match which was against Sweden . The exclusion of

Rivera caused great controversy despite the fact that Mazzola,who had

taken his place, played extremely well in this game. Sweden’s tactical

organisation was good, but individual technical skill was not sufficient to

overcome the well-drilled man-to-man marking defensive system of the

Italians supported by a very fine goalkeeper in Albertosi.

The single goal of the match was scored by Domenghini from 20

metres distance, and when they left the field, Italy could consider

themselves fortunate winners; this was the first time in 58 years that Italy

had defeated Sweden.

110


The English referee, Jack Taylor, controlled the game well, but he

was twice unlucky in his application of the advantage rule. In the second

incident he blew instantaneously for a foul on Kindvall, the Swedish

centre-forward, just outside the penalty area, but Kindvall managed to

recover and retain the ball, and had, therefore, an excellent chance of

scoring an equalizer denied him. The direct free kick which had to be

awarded by the referee was easily cleared.

In the second match Italy played Uruguay, who had also won their first

match against Israel. It was therefore important that neither team should

lose this match, and this aim clearly decided the tactics of both teams

The resulting game obviously disappointed the spectators, for there

were very few highlights, yet the discipline of the two sets of players

in keeping to a set tactical plan was quite exceptional; both held tight

defences, crowded the midfield with close inter-passing play and made

no risky attacks.

After a victory against Sweden and a tie against Uruguay, the Italian

team required only one more point from their game against Israel to win

Group 2 and qualify for the quarter finals. Yet if they lost against Israel,

all four teams in the group would have ended up with equal points and the

Italians might have been threatened with elimination.

The humiliating defeat by North Korea in 1966 could not have been

forgotten by the Italians and they must have felt extremely nervous about

this last match. On the other hand,Israel,the outsiders in the group, had

nothing to lose and everything to gain, and they played without signs of

nervous stress. Israel began with self-confidence, showing good defence

and attacking verve .

Italy opened cautiously, and continued with a packed defence and

crowded mid-field play, using only Riva and Boninsegna as spearhead

attackers. Boninsegna is an inexhaustible fighter and Luigi Riva uses

his explosive starts and powerful sprints to try to force his way past two

or three defenders. He persists, and seizes every opening to shoot at goal.

Valcareggi, the Italian manager, brought in Rivera as a substitute for

Domenghini in the second half, but Mazzola was undoubtedly the best

player in the Italian team in this match. A draw was deserved though both

teams missed several chances .Italy thus became the winners of Group 2

having scored only one goal in three matches .

111


Luigi ‘GiGi’ Riva, idolised Italian striker who scored 22 goals in his first 21

international appearances, including the 1970 World Cup final against Brazil.

112


The game against Mexico was a further test of the mettle of the

Italians. Stimulated by 30,000 enthusiastic supporters at Toluca, the

Mexico team started with vigorous attacking play. Using a basic 4-3-

3 formation, they pressed on with continuous attacks and for the first

20 minutes their goalkeeper, Calderon, was never seriously challenged.

In the twelfth minute Gonzalez scored for Mexico . However, the selfconfidence

of the star Italian players began to return and overcome the

obvious partisanship of the spectators.

From the first few attempts to attack it was clear that the Mexican

defence was unfirm. The equalizing goal by Domenghini was rather

lucky in that it was deflected by a defender .

At half-time Mazzola was replaced by Rivera, a switch which

determined the result of the match .Rivera took the strings of midfield

approach play into a firm grasp, and his passes were so well-timed and

accurately measured that play was completely transformed.

Here was a clear illustration of how a single player by cool reading of

the game can harmonize the play of other colleagues round him .Both

goals by Riva were prepared by Rivera, and he himself scored one on his

own . The Italian team had at last shown something of their extraordinary

qualities as footballers.

The semi-final against West Germany was a most exciting and dramatic

game; it was not particularly outstanding in a technical or tactical sense,

but it was full of drama, suspense and incident which highly engaged the

emotion of the spectators.

The first half was marked by caution on both sides; both teams adopted

man-to-man marking and used a cover centre-back behind the last line

of defenders. Surprisingly, Italy scored the first goal when the ball fell to

Boninsegna from a rebound from Schnellinger’s chin. Surrounded as he

was by defenders, Boninsegna’s shot left the goalkeeper unsighted.

The Germans attacked more than Italy, but though Muller caused

several moments of anxiety the Italian defence held out until half-time.

Rivera again substituted in the second half for Mazzola, and Libuda

came on in place of Loehr of Germany. The Germans got well on top and

several times the Italian defence almost capitulated;as the game went on,

Italy seemed to grow more desperate.

The equalizer from Schnellinger in injury time was as though written

113


for a story book. A cross from Grabowski cleared all the Italian defenders

and dropped into the six-yard area, with Schnellinger running in from

deep. He made to volley with his left foot and, while in mid-air, pivoted

to volley it into goal with the inside of his right foot.

The spectators may have felt that the last 20 minutes of the second half

were excitingly tense and dramatic, but the next 30 minutes must have

seemed almost unbelievable.

Four minutes after the re-start, Seeler headed down to Muller, who beat

the goalkeeper for the ball and put it over the goal line. Four minutes later

the dispirited Italians were cheered by Burgnich seizing on a defensive

mistake by Held and volleying the ball past Maier, in the German goal

Five minutes later, Riva rounded Schnellinger to drive past the

advancing Maier to give Italy the lead once more . Then, immediately the

teams turned round for the last 15 minutes, the Germans created havoc in

the Italian defence, and Seeler headed from a corner for Muller to divert

the ball into the Italian net-a piece of sheer opportunism.

For the Germans it was a tragedy when Schultz lost a tackle on

Boninsegna who running in towards goal, then pulled a back pass or

Rivera to pick his spot, using the side of his foot, to score the winning

goal. One could ask where the discipline of tactical defence was in either

team, but the players were motivated to make every effort in attack in

a game which, in the last stages, was never allowed to settle down to

ordinary levels of football. It was a fantastic game by any standards!

Federal Republic of Germany

On all counts, Germany’s first match of the tournament against Morocco

appeared to be a foregone conclusion. Yet everyone was surprised.

Morocco made no pretence;they were going to defend at all costs.Three

players were always close to Muller and even when Morocco were taking

corners five defenders stayed upfield to keep a close eye on two German

forwards.

In the first half Germany had the clear run of three-quarters of the

field, but they did not strike a rhythm, and their over-long passes were

inaccurate, allowing the Moroccans to obtain possession of the ball, and

then hold the game in suspense with sequences of short inter- passing

which the Germans did nothing to prevent.

114


When Morocco scored their first goal Germany lost control of the

game and, indeed, Morocco almost scored again. In the second half a

good opportunist goal by Seeler brought fresh life to the German team,

and then a second goal came from a fortunate rebound from the crossbar,

but Germany had had a very disappointing game

In their second match, which was against Bulgaria, Germany looked

a different side altogether. The Bulgarians had made many changes, and

started using a 4-2-4 formation with slow build-up in midfield and long

passes to the centre-forward. Bulgaria scored the first goal from a setpiece

free kick which was cleverly executed with an attacker running in

behind the wall of defenders.

Germany equalised through Libuda, who played extremely well,

helping Muller to the second goal, and then gaining a third for Germany

when he was brought down inside the penalty area early in the second

half. Muller scored from the spot. The spirit of the Bulgarians seemed to

die with this third goal, and Seeler and Muller were able to add further

goals.

The crucial match of this particular group in Leon was between

Germany and Peru, which turned out to be an intriguing battle of

intelligence between the good defensive play of Germany matched

against the adventurous forward attack of Peru.

The deciding factor was Peru’s own weak defence, which allowed

Muller great freedom, which he gratefully used by scoring a first half hattrick.

Any other team would have collapsed completely, but Peru kept at

it and scored from a free kick just before half-time.With only 20 minutes

left, the game changed dramatically and several times Peru went near

to scoring.This was Peru playing at its best,but on the whole Germany

deserved to win.

In the quarter-finals Germany met England on a very hot day.

Throughout the first-half England dominated the play, every man working

for the other and denying Germany even a glimpse of goal. England used

a basic 4-4-2 formation and the Germans attempted to mark man-to-man,

with Schnellinger covering freely behind the defence. This meant that

the German defenders were pulled all over the place and the English fullbacks

were able to make repeated runs down the flanks where there was

ample free space.

115


The first goal to England came from a cross by Newton, the full-back,

to Mullery, who scored. Soon after half-time a second goal came from a

similar run by Newton on the right flank and Peters scored from the cross.

England then began to play the ball around in a negative but energyconserving

fashion in midfield – one sequence carried at least 18 passes.

Finally a short pass was intercepted and Beckenbauer went through to

score with a quick low shot past Bonetti’s diving body.

England were stunned, but might have scored a third time from a Hurst

header which scraped the far post..Germany then took control of the game

and, through a back header from Seeler, which he was lucky enough

to drop under the bar with Bonetti stranded,Germany were undoubtedly

fighting to come back and win.

Ironically, here were the same two teams again facing extra time as in

the World Cup final in London in 1966 .

Grabowski had been substituted for Libuda in the second half and

Bell was put on for Charlton after Germany’s first goal. In the twentieth

minute Hunter was sent on for Peters, and at this stage Newton seemed

to be injured.

Later he failed to cut out a cross from Grabowski which Loehr headed

back across the goal for Muller to make the winning score.

From their first goal German had gone from strength to strength,

whereas England seemed to be dispirited by goals which they felt came

from defensive errors. Pulling back a two-goal lead in such fashion and

then winning in extra time after a gruelling game was indeed a remarkable

achievement for the German team.

Uruguay

The match for third and fourth places in the World Cup final competition

seldom produces a great game. Maybe this is because it does not assume

anything of the importance of the final, but in this case Uruguay and

Germany were somewhat spent in body and spirit after their respective

tremendous efforts in the semi-finals.

Germany made changes, putting in Wolter for Maier as goalkeeper,

and Weber for the injured Beckenbauer.The pace of the game was slow,

but the German team did its best and in this display Overath proved that

he is one of the greatest midfield players in the world.

116


Uwe Seeler, West German skipper against England, with the despair of an extra-time

defeat in 1966 and the delight of an extra-time victory in 1970

117


The Uruguayan team were unlucky at least not to have shared honours

with Germany for they had five times as many goal chances.

In all Uruguay scored four goals in six matches, and two of these were

against Israel, a clear reflection on their limited goal scoring ability.

In the second half of this game they dominated play and, though the

West German defence was at times desperately stretched, it managed to

hold out. When all else failed,young Ancheta, one of the world’s best

defenders, went up into the Uruguayan attack, and Wolter had to make a

wonderful save from his strong header.

The single goal, by West Germany, was typical of their now basic

approach play – a cross from Libuda, which Seeler headed to Muller,

who then passed backwards into the path of Overath for him to shoot past

Mazurkiewiez.

Uruguay have individual ball control on a par in technical skill and

expression with that of other South American countries. They are masters

of slow bunched play in midfield and one wonders what greatness they

could attain if they worked at the rate of European teams and were more

precise in their shooting.

El Salvador, Morocco and Israel were thought to be out of their class

in the final of such a competition, but credit must be given to them for

their performances. Though El Salvador were soundly beaten in their

matches, they were not the easy victims one expected.

Morocco also might have made the biggest impact in the final series

of matches when they played Germany, and Israel are justifiably proud

of the matches drawn against Sweden and Italy. Sweden must have been

bitterly disappointed, for, after losing narrowly to Italy and drawing with

Israel, they had to win by at least two goals against Uruguay to qualify.

Though they won this crucial match it was by a single goal, scored in the

last moments of the game, which was not enough.

USSR, too, could feel rankled by failing in the quarter finals. They had

emerged from a difficult inaugural match against the host country and

went on to take the first place in Group 1. The win against Belgium was

their best performance when they revealed tremendous shooting power .

The quarter-final against Uruguay was spoiled by a series of fouls,

including dangerous tackles, player holding and tripping. USSR had

only themselves to blame for not taking the lead, particularly in the

118


firs-half when Kbmelnitski missed on open goal. Laurens Van Ravens

kept the game under tight control, but the Uruguayan goal by Esparrago

was contested by the USSR players who clearly thought that the ball

had already gone out of play over the goal-line before it was centred to

Esparrago .

Mexico, the host country, had prepared its team with the same

thoroughness they had given to the organization of the tournament. In

trying to fulfil the hopes of the Mexican people, the pressure on the

players could be assessed from the nights of ecstatic jubilation and

chanting demonstration seen in the streets of Mexico City following each

Mexican success.

Mexico played well enough to reach the quarter-finals for the first time

in their history but then had to concede to the greater experience and

talent of Italy.

The opening game, played before a crowd which exceeded the official

capacity of the stadium which was given as 107,000, on a day of bright

sunshine, saw the Mexican style of play, using a flexible 4-3-3 formation

in which the defence was resolute and quick in the tackle, although

occasionally it looked anxious and rather desperate. When in possession

there was a slow build up in the middle of the field, then a quick break

away, then slow interpassing again. There was no attempt at continuous

attack, perhaps out of respect for the capabilities of the USSR team.As

the game went on it became more of a stalemate, shown by the fact that

there were only four good shots at goal in the whole game.

To be certain of qualifying, Mexico had to win against Belgium. Both

teams used a six-man defensive screen,but whereas Belgium seldom

attacked with more than three forwards, Mexico often used four,five

and six players. In this respect Mexico deserved to win, for, though the

Belgian players have strength and stamina, they did not show the spirit to

develop these qualities to the degree that they usually do .

They had only two good chances to score. Mexico had few more.

Many shots were hopefully made from 25 to 30 metres. Unfortunately

the penalty from which the winning goal was scored by the Mexican

captain Pena was hotly disputed by the Belgian team.

Once again the Mexican team were inclined to pass square and

backwards when there were chances of a forward through pass. Seldom

119


A photograph scanned from the local Stratford Express newspaper where I was Sports

Editor in 1961 when Ron Greenwood, Arsenal coach, arrived at West Ham to take

over from Ted Fenton as manager. And here he is on his first day talking to the young

20-year-old Bobby Moore, the player whose potential convinced Ron he should take the

West Ham job. He first got to know Bobby two years earlier when he was coaching the

England youth and Under-23 teams. ‘I knew that Bobby had all the attributes to become

an outstanding defender,’ Ron told me. ‘I had a player around whom I could build a

team. In 1964 Bobby started a unique hat-trick, climbing the 39 steps to the Royal Box

tat Wembley to collect the FA Cup as West Ham skipper. The following year he took the

same trip to collect the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Then, on July 30 1966, he made

the same trip a third time to be presented with the World Cup by Her Majesty the Queen.

Four years later he emerged from the 1970 World Cup finals with his reputation intact

as The Great Defender..

120


did they use the long ball in attack. Towards the end of the game play

deteriorated as the Mexican team became anxious to hold on to their

slender lead and win the game. Mexico and USSR gained five points

each in their group, and leadership of the group was decided by a drawing

of lots, which fell to USSR, and Mexico had to travel to play in Toluca

for the quarter final where they were defeated by Italy.

Ron Greenwood, who passed this report on to me nearly 50 years ago

to get deserved projection for the Fifa Technical Study Group, was West

Ham manager at the time, and looked on anxiously as his club skipper

Bobby Moore went through the nightmare of the Bogota frame-up.

‘It is nonsensical to even think that Bobby would be capable of stealing

anything,’ he told me in Mexico. ‘But knowing Bobby as well as I do I

am convinced this experience will make him determined to be the best

defender in this tournament.’

Spot on!

Ron was rightly proud of his involvement with the Fifa study committee,

and told me: ‘It was a privilege to monitor the matches and the training for

Fifa and to be part of a team looking for ways to improve the game both

tactically and from a behavioural point of view. I have seen and studied

every World Cup finals of the last 20 years and this was comfortably the

best of them all. Brazil in particular set a standard of football that I hope

inspires footballers across the globe. This is the way the game should he

played, both in terms of the skill and the spirit. In the 1970 World Cup

finals football was the winner. It truly was the Beautiful Game.’

Ron, a thorough gentleman who converted me among many as to how

the game should be played, passed on in 2006 aged 84 after a long battle

with the ex-footballer’s curse of Alzheimer’s.

I am happy to have this opportunity to bow in his memory. A great

coach, a good man.

121


14. WC70 Facts and Trivia

BEFORE finishing our time travel journey back 50

years, I would like to share with you some facts and

trivia from my notebook about the 1970 World Cup

that was, for me, the most memorable event of my football

reporting career, and I say that having covered the 1966 World

Cup when Alf Ramsey’s England emerged as the winners. The

rest of the world called them the Wembley champions, because

all their games were at the national stadium.

The England victory will always stay top of my collection in

my memory bank to warm me in my old age (it’s here, folks!),

but they were winners of a tournament that often scarred and

soured the Beautiful Game. Too many matches were fought

with the boot rather than the ball, and there were too many

snarls and not enough smiles. World Cup 70 in contrast

was – thanks mainly to Brazil – about the skill, style and

sportsmanship of the game.

Who will ever forget Pelé and Bobby Moore cuddling each

other at the end of the classic Brazil-England match? That

was what World Cup 70 was all about. Friendship as well

as football. Now, if you’re sitting comfortably, here come the

facts and trivia I gathered about World Cup 70 ...

122


●West Germany beat Uruguay 1-0 in the third-place play-off match,

Wolfgang Overath scoring the only goal in the 26th minute. The game

at the Azteca Stadium on the eve of the final drew a crowd of 104,403,

but the exhausted players virtually walked through an uninspiring game

cooked up purely for the television paymasters..

❏West German striker Gerd Müller was the Golden Boot winner

with ten goals, including two hat-tricks (against Bulgaria and

Peru).

●Teofilo Cubillas, Peru’s 21-year-old attacking midfielder, was voted

Best Young Player of the tournament.

❏Peru won the Fifa Fair Play trophy for their sportsmanship and

collecting fewest disciplinary points. They went into the finals

under the shadow of a major earthquake in their homeland in

which there were 70,000 casualties.

●95 goals were scored by 55 players, and throughout the finals only one

own goal was recorded – by Javier Guzman (Mexico v. Italy ).

❏Average goals scored per match across 32 games was 2.97.

●75 nations entered the tournament, with hosts Mexico and 1966 world

champions England getting an automatic place in the finals with 14

qualifiers.

❏The total attendance for the 32 matches was 1,604,065 (an

average of 50,127 per match).

●North Korea, quarter-finalists in 1966, were disqualified during the

qualifying round after refusing to play in Israel for political reasons.

❏El Salvador qualified for the finals after beating Honduras in

a play-off match, which triggered a four-day military conflict in

July 1969 known as the Football War. The ‘100 hour war’ the

last conflict in which piston-engined fighters fought each other.

123


●WAGS – wives and girlfriends – had not yet been invented as an acronym.

Inseparable West Ham wives Kathy Peters (left) and, sitting, Tina Moore and

Judith Hurst, made the 5,500 mile trip to Mexico along with Frances Bonetti.

●My passport to paradise. There were 5,000 world-wide media personnel –

writers, reporters, TV and radio commentators and photographers – accredited

to cover the finals. I was one of the lucky ones. Thanks to the influence of

Rivelino, from here on in I had a drooping moustache. Trivial enough for you?

124


●Russian Anatoliy Puzach became the first substitute used in Fifa World

Cup history at half-time in the opening match of the finals against host

nation Mexico.

❏German referee Kurt Tschenscher flourished the first

disciplinary cards in World Cup history, four of them in the

opening match and all yellow and shown to Russian players –

with Kakhi Asatiani just beating team-mate Evgeny Lovchev as

the first recipient.

●Brazil had to play qualifying matches against Colombia, Venezuela and

Paraguay, winning all six games, scoring 23 goals and conceding only

two. When they beat Paraguay 1–0 they attracted the largest official

audience ever recorded for a non-World Cup football match, with 183,341

spectators in Brazil’s Maracanã Stadium.

❏England were the only team that shipped in their own coach

and driver, and all their food was home produced and packed

into giant refrigerators. The local press whipped it up into a

controversy, claiming it was an insult to Mexico.

●The champions Brazil changed their manager just three months before

the finals. Mario Zagolla took over from eccentric former journalist João

Saldanha, after he had brandished a pistol at one of his critics.

❏When military dictator President Médici started publicly

suggesting which players he would like to see in the team

coming up to the 1970 finals, staunch Communist Saldanha

responded, ‘Well, I also have some suggestions to give in the

President’s ministry choices.’ He was sacked shortly afterwards,

but is credited with giving Brazil their style and their smile.

●Zagallo – nicknamed The Professor – became the first footballer to win

the World Cup as a player (1958, 1962) and a coach, and at 38 he was

the second youngest coach to win a World Cup, after Uruguay’s Alberto

Suppici (32) in 1930. He was deputy manager when Brazil won for a

fourth time in 1994.

125


Juanito, the face of World Cup ‘70

126


●Pelé ended his World Cup playing career as the first (and so far only)

three-time winner.

❏This was the first World Cup to use the Telstar ball from

Adidas. It was the first World Cup ball to use the now-familiar

truncated icosahedron for its design, consisting of 12 black

pentagonal and 20 white hexagonal panels.

●Juanito, based on an 11-year-old Mexican boy, wearing a sombrero

and full football kit, was the official mascot for Mexico70. He followed

England’s 1966 World Cup Willie, the first mascot created for commercial

and publicity purposes.

❏Italian publishers Panini launched their sticker albums world

wide for the first time in 1970, and a completed album signed

by Pelé sold for a record £10,450 in 2017.

●The Jules Rimet Trophy, stolen and recovered in London in 1966,

became the outright property of Brazil after their third victory. It was

stolen again while on display in Rio in 1983 and melted down for its gold

value. A replica was presented to the Brazilians in 1984.

❏Brazil v England drew a then record television audience of 29

million viewers. David Coleman was the BBC commentator,

with Hugh Johns at the mic for ITV. It was the first World Cup

shown in colour, but most viewers watched in black and white

because their TV sets had not been converted to 625 lines.

●Before the game against England, someone sneaked into Pele’s hotel

room and stole all 14 of his shirts as souvenirs.

❏Every morning throughout the tournament the Brazlian

players gathered together and prayed, not for victory but that

there were no injuries.

●Dino Zoff was a 28-year-old non-playing understudy to Italy’s

goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi in 1970. Twelve years later he captained

Italy to the World Cup in Spain.

127


●West Germany’s skipper Uwe Seeler pipped Pele by three minutes to

become the first man to score in four different World Cups. Pele put

Brazil ahead against Czechoslovakia in their opener just before the hour

mark, but Seeler had got there just before the Brazilian against Morocco

in Leon.

❏Franz Beckenbauer dislocated a shoulder in the ‘Game of the

Century’ against Italy in the semi-final, but played on because

the two allowed substitutes had been used. Four years later he

captained West Germany to the World Cup in Munich, and then

in Rome in 1990 managed the champions.

●Leeds right-back Paul Reaney was in the original England squad to

travel to Mexico, but broke a leg in the final League match of the season

against West Ham. His place was taken by Arsenal’s Bob McNab, but he

did not make the final 22 and returned home to become an ITV World

Cup panellist.

❏The Charlton brothers both made their final international

appearances in Mexico. Bobby played what was then a record

106th match before being substituted against West Germany in

the quarter-final. Jack played his 35th and final game in the

group match against Czechoslovakia.

●Peru’s Teofilo Cubillas became the first player to score five goals in

two World Cup final tournaments when he notched another handful in the

1978 finals, including a hat-trick against Iran – a record later equalled by

German strikers Miroslav Klose and Thomas Müller.

❏During the 1970 finals, Mexico goalkeeper Ignacio Calderón

set what was then a World Cup record of 310 minutes without

conceding a goal.

●A Roman Catholic priest in Mexico City said he and his congregation

had decided to change the time of Sunday Mass from noon to 8 a.m. for

those holding tickets to games and to 10 a.m. for those watching on TV.

These finals belonged to a footballing God. And his name was Pelé.

128


My 100th book, available now post-free, at

www.normangillerbooks.com

Please support this hungry writer. Thank you.

“A remarkable book by a remarkable man”

– Professor Roy Greenslade, The Guardian

129


In memory of

Robert Frederick Moore,

The Master footballer

And Great Defender

When we old men with snow-white hair

Declare with tears and pride that we were there

Then respectfully listen when we say for sure

There’ll never be another like ‘Sir’ Bobby Moore

Thanks to the terrifying interruption of Covid-19, I had to

abandon publishing this book in the traditional way. So I am

giving away this online book. Please, if you have enjoyed the

journey, pay me what you think it’s worth and I will pass any

profits on to the Bobby Moore Cancer Fund. Pay me through

PayPal or to my bank account at Barclays 00661732, sort code

20-96-96. Every payment will be acknowledged. Thank you.

130

World Cup 70 Master Master

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?