Group 3
Brazil 1 England 0
It was no surprise when the second game clash
between these two formidable sides, played on 7
June 1970, was dubbed the “real final”. Unfortunately
for England, the temperature in Guadalajara reached
98 degrees Fahrenheit, a figure significantly in
excess of what could be considered prudent: the
England players took sodium tablets to ameliorate
the effects of dehydration. The one-nil score line
was in no way indicative of how exciting that match
was; for the seventy thousand plus spectators saw
treats such as the goal that never was, and this
after only ten minutes. Jairzinho, who was in top
form for this game, picked up the ball on the extreme
right, once he had shaken off his marker Tommy Cooper;
his angle was such that it was impossible to gauge
whether he would shoot at the near or far post,
moreover Pelé was superbly situated to head the
ball should Jairzinho pick him out. Gordon Banks,
still rated the world’s number one goalkeeper, moved
to cover the near post, which was the most likely
destination of any ball released by Jairzinho, while
there was every expectation that the England defenders
would prevent the ball ever reaching the far post.
In the event, Jairzinho chipped the ball very high
in the air, no England defender could reach it,
surely it would pass harmlessly by? But no, Pelé
jumped, he rose so high that it seemed impossible;
furthermore, the timings of the pass and the jump
were perfectly synchronised, almost as if they had
been choreographed; Pelé had time to divine where
Banks was, and directed a powerful header towards
the far post, furthermore the ball was directed
downwards, for it would be impossible for a goalkeeper
to rush the length of the goal, dive and prevent
the ball going in. Banks did the impossible, knocking
the ball upwards with one hand over the bar. A stunned
Pelé later recalled his thoughts: “At that time
I hated Banks more than any man in football. I just
couldn’t believe it. But when I cooled down I had
to applaud him with all my heart. It was the greatest
save I have ever seen”. Later on Geoff Hurst is
presented with a chance to put England ahead, unfortunately
he was never to possess the goal scoring instinct
of Jimmy Grieves, he paused and then shot weakly.
He should have taken the opportunity, and left the
problem of whether he was offside to the match officials.
It was a costly error. The match was goal less at
half time, but it was an evenly contested affair
with which both sides could be satisfied. The contest
between the giants resumed in the second half, could
the strongest attack in the competition, Brazil’s,
break through against the most formidable defence
available, that of England? Fourteen minutes into
the second half the answer came back in the affirmative,
although not before Francis Lee had headed a cross
straight at Felix, who was in goal for Brazil: one
needed more than that to win such a match.. Tostao
was running down the left touchline in possession
of the ball, Moore moved out of central defence
to support England right back Newton, he was followed
by Labone. Moore decided that this support, and
the danger presented by Tostao, was such that the
best option was to try and tackle the Brazilian
genius. It was a fatal error for Tostao recovered
quicker than Moore, the Brazilian swept in a quick
pass towards Pelé who was entering the penalty area,
shadowed, as he had been throughout the match, by
the superb Alan Mullery. The danger of a shot from
this position forced Terry Cooper to move towards
Pelé to block. Quick as a flash Pelé passed to his
right where Jairzinho was rushing in towards the
exposed England left; Martin Peters stormed back
in an attempt to fill the hole, while Banks rushed
out of goal to reduce the angle, but it was too
late. Jairzinho found the gap that Banks could not
cover and sent the ball thundering into the far
corner. A stunned Banks kneeled on the ground, it
was a body blow. Yet the game was not over as a
contest, England substitute Astle fluffs a chance
to equalise when his shot skids past the wrong side
of a post. Later on a header from Astle puts Ball
into a position to score, yet the Everton player,
who was soon to join the Arsenal, was unable to
do anything. Later on Ball partly redeemed himself
when his shot skimmed over the bar. But it was not
to be. Brazil had won the game that should have
been the final by the narrowest of margins. Luckily,
however, both teams were still in the competition.
Quarterfinal
Half time scores in brackets.
England 2 (1) West Germany 3 (0) After extra time.
Attendance 24,000
The game of the round was between the finalists
of 1966, England and West Germany. For England there
was a disaster when goalkeeper Gordon Banks suffered
from food poisoning. He had to be replaced at a
late stage by Chelsea’s Peter Bonetti, who was not
remotely in the same class. England were therefore
already without their best player before a ball
had been kicked. West Germany would have been further
encouraged that the venue was León where they had
played and won all their group games. West Germany
were popular with the locals, who took to hooting
the horns of their cars outside the hotel where
England were staying on the night before the match;
indeed Banks was of the opinion that the food poisoning
was not accidental: “the more I look back, the more
I believe my food could have been tampered with”.
Notwithstanding this, the start of the match was
a disaster for West Germany with Alan Mullery and
Bobby Moore in fine fettle and dictating events.
This dominance being converted into a goal for Mullery
after just over half an hour. This supremacy was
maintained all the way to half time and the beginning
of the second half. Five minutes after the interval
the match seemed to be over as a contest when Martin
Peters scored from a Newton cross. West Germany
had forty minutes to do something, so with just
over half an hour left they brought on Grabowski.
In the appalling heat of that day this fresh pair
of legs lent new impetus to West Germany, but still
they could not score. Then with twenty-two minutes
left, a catastrophic blunder from Bonetti, who dived
too late to save a shot from Beckenbauer, resulted
in the ball ending up in the right hand corner.
West Germany were undeservedly back in the game.
Nonetheless, the match should still have been won
by England; however, England manager Ramsey panicked,
taking off two world class players, Bobby Charlton
and Martin Peters, in the matter of a few minutes,
when it was obvious that the struggling Terry Cooper
should have been replaced. England’s organisation
disintegrated, thus enabling Uwe Seeler to score
from a back header after a slip by the tired Brian
Labone. The score was level now with eight minutes
of normal time left. The exhausted players fought
on until the game reached extra time. Stamina would
now be more important that footballing skill. The
fates then dealt a cruel blow to England; four years
previously in the World Cup final Geoff Hurst scored
a goal that should not have been allowed, he now
scored a perfectly legitimate goal that was disallowed,
a form of delayed justice. Finally Gerd Müller volleyed
a tremendous shot home from mid-air that signalled
the end for England, their exhaustion and loss of
two of their most creative players making any hope
of a fight back just a pipe dream. England were
left to rue what might have been, for they thrown
away a won game.
Semi Finals
West Germany 3 (0) Italy 4 (1)
Attendance 80,000
The match between Italy and West Germany, however,
was a much more absorbing contest, in stark contrast
to all of Italy’s previous games in the competition.
At first the game started in a manner highly suited
to Italian tastes, for Boninsegna had struck home
in the ninth minutes of play after two fortunate
rebounds. Entirely predictably this served as the
cue for the Italian players to withdraw and attempt
to play the remainder of the match without another
goal. This was something in which they were peerless,
having done this very thing in three of their matches
of the World Cup to date. This enabled West Germany
to dominate the field, they were able to gather
a surprisingly large number of chances, with Beckenbauer,
in particular, unlucky not to win a penalty. Nonetheless
the Italian luck held, the longer the match went
on, the more desperate the West Germans became.
A cynical tackle on Beckenbauer, with half an hour
left to play, sent the West German talisman tumbling.
Such was the force of the fall that Beckenbauer
dislocated his shoulder. Schön the West German manager
had already used one of his permitted two substitutions,
the obvious thing to do would have been to replace
the injured Beckenbauer; yet there was a genuine
dilemma, Beckenbauer was the one truly great player
in this German team, he had served as the fulcrum
of most West German attacks, to replace him would
almost have been tantamount to capitulation. The
clincher for Schön was the willingness of Beckenbauer
to continue, notwithstanding his quite useless right
arm; so Patzke was removed from the West German
defence and replaced by Held. The gamble appeared
to be in vain when a powerfully struck shot from
Held was cleared off the line, then Albertosi in
goal for Italy brilliantly saved a Seeler effort.
Ninety minutes had been played, the increasingly
frantic Germans threw every available player into
the attack, losing two-nil would have been no different
to one-nil. Finally the Italian game plan was busted
when a fast low cross from Grabowski on the left
was met by Schnellinger, who put the ball home.
West Germany would have to play their second extra-time
game in as many matches. This was much worse in
the hellishly hot conditions of the Azteca stadium
in Mexico City in front of an ecstatic crowd of
eighty thousands, than it would have been in Europe;
for the venue was at a very high altitude, and midsummer
in Mexico is far more challenging that in Europe.
At least Beckenbauer’s right arm was now strapped,
but the odds still favoured the Italians in a game
now likely to be determined by blunders. Incredibly
the first error came from an Italian substitute,
Poletti, from which Müller was able to capitalise
after just four minutes of extra time. West Germany
were now two-one up in a match that was now both
entertaining and farcical; within minutes Italy
had scored twice, courtesy of Burgnich and Riva,
three - two, what else could happen? Surely the
drama was over? But no, just over five minutes later
Müller scored again, literally throwing his head
towards the ball. West Germany learnt that a minute
can be a long time, for that was all Boninsegna
needed to cross to Rivera from the goal line on
the left, Rivera made no mistake. West Germany had
lost, but they had given their all, they had displayed
bravery and determination when it would have been
all to easy to have sunk to an ignominious one-nil
defeat.
Final result
Mexico City 21 June 1970
Brazil: Felix, Carlos Alberto, Brito, Piaza, Everaldo,
Gerson, Clodoaldo, Jairzinho, Pelé, Tostao, Rivelino.
Italy: Albertosi, Burgnich, Cera, Rosato, Fachetti,
Bertino (74 Juliano),
Riva, Domenghini, Mazzola, De Sisti, Boninsegna
(85 Rivera).
Referee: Rudi Glockner (East Germany).
Half time scores in brackets.
Brazil 4 (1) Italy 1 (1)
Attendance: 107,000
Scorers:
Pelé (17), Gerson (65), Jairzinho (70), Carlos Alberto
(86);
Boninsegna (37).
Brazil were to face their antithesis on 20 June
1970, extravagant attacking would be met by stonewalling
and blanket defence. Exuberant ambition would challenge
cynicism. Two Latin sides would fight, one from
Europe, the other from the Americas; two countries,
who had two wins each, would battle to win the Jules
Rimet Trophy for the third time and be entitled
to keep it. Probably nearly everyone who had an
interest in the game but no Italian ties wanted
the South Americans to win. More than one hundred
thousand people crowded into the Azteca stadium
on 21 June 1970. They were rewarded with some spectacular
passing and movement from the Brazilians who dominated
right from the beginning. In the eighteenth minute
Italy’s hopes of a successful dour defence, and
a solitary successful strike, were ended when Rivelino
crossed from the left; Pelé rose majestically to
meet it and headed downwards, this time there was
no Gordon Banks to make a stupendous, impossible
save. Italy had conceded, they would have to come
out and play, which might expose them to further
damage. Yet the pattern did not alter all that much,
the Italians knew just how dangerous Brazil could
be, their hopes still rested on a lucky break, which
was precisely what happened. In the thirty-eighth
minute Clodoaldo casually back-heeled the ball.
He had not being paying attention and the Brazilian
defenders were a fraction too slow to react, instead
Boninsegna slipped in and raced for goal, the onrushing
Brazilian goalkeeper Felix tried to do what he could,
however, he was easily side-stepped; Italy were
suddenly, and completely against the run of play,
level. Brazil just carried on as they had been,
yet there were no further goals in the first half.
The pattern did not alter in the second, it took
Brazil all of twenty minutes to break through this
time; Gerson sending a thunderously powerful shot
towards the Italian goal after he had successfully
wrong footed his markers by pivoting just outside
the penalty box. This time there would be no gift
from the boys from Brazil, five minutes later a
Gerson free kick was headed by Pelé into the path
of Jairzinho, Jairzinho simply guided himself and
the ball between the goal posts past the goal line.
There could be no doubt as to the result, one met
with approval by the crowd as Brazil continued to
press. The performance was capped by yet another
goal, four minutes from the end Alberto’s charge
towards the Italian penalty area from the right
was anticipated by Pelé who expertly placed the
ball in his path, all Alberto had to do was shoot,
shoot accurately and shoot hard, he did so, the
ball accelerating towards the far post past a beaten
goalkeeper. Brazil had won, they had won possibly
the finest finals ever despite all the organisational
difficulties, the high altitude and the obscene
temperatures, they had won with one player Jairzinho
becoming the first ever to score in every game,
they had won with perhaps the finest footballing
team ever assembled by a nation contesting the World
Cup finals. Zagalo Brazil’s manager had himself
played for the successful 1958 and 1962 sides.