Well now that the all the hullabaloo around the euro has died out, meaning people have stopped pledging how they were Spain supporters all along, i came across certain headlines question whether this Spanish side was the best to have graced the national form of the game. I didn't give it much of a thought until Pele responded to it saying he thought his side of the 1970 world cup ranked better, but only just. From experience we've learned not to give Pele's opinions/predictions too much of a thought (see here), but then again he is probably the greatest player to have ever played the beautiful game, so i decided to actually find out what it was that made them to be rated as one of the best sides, not just by him but by a considerable number of other people.
My first task was to find these matches, because i believe in watching a whole match rather than highlights or stats to decide on how a team fared. I looked up and the found that the highest rated teams in world cup history were the Brazilian squads of 1970 and 1982 and the Dutch squad of 1974, but since i started this search based on the Brazilian sides, i'll restrict myself to them. While searching for the matches i wondered if there were others who shared my enthusiasm for things of the past when it came to football, because spending large amounts of money for this didn't appeal to me. And i did find them, some harder than the others, all the way back to the footage from the 1938 World Cup finals. For a person who's always loved history this was joy unbounded, but how was i to choose among these games ? I did eventually plan to have all of them, but for now a few select games would suffice. There again the internet came to my rescue and both, the Brazil vs Italy 1970 and another involving the same teams in 1982 featured in multiple "Greatest World Cup Games" lists, and there was the answer. These games i found with much ease and despite one of them being in Spanish could hardly find myself being disappointed.
I started with the final of the 1970 World Cup where the Brazilian team led by Carlos Alberto boasted of the likes of Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson and Rivelino faced an Italian side led by Facchetti and had in their ranks Gianni Rivera (then European Footballer of the year) , Luigi Riva, Sandro Mazzola and even had Dino Zoff on the bench. It was by no means a mismatch of teams, the Italians had in the defence what the Brazilians offered up front. But then coach Ferruccio Valcareggi decided to leave out Gianni Rivera from the starting lineup because he believed the Rivera could not play together with Sandro Mazzola. And despite Rivera being a hero for his national team in the semi final against Germany could only find himself a place on the bench. The Italians had Mario Bertini mark Pele to stop him from exerting any influence on the game, and thus began on the wet turf of Azteca stadium what by many is considered the best game in World Cup history.
Italians relied on a strong defence and a quick counter to penetrate a shaky opposition defence while the Brazilians were more than happy to sit back and wait for the opening to come. Both teams started brightly with Bertini keeping a strong hold on Pele allowing Gerson the freedom to orchestrate the game, also Rivelino failed to find his footing on many an occasion and that famed left foot of his rarely troubled the keeper. But the goal eventually came in the 18th minute from a throw to Rivelino who under pressure crossed into the box to be met wonderfully by Pele into the bottom corner. The Italians who until now had relied on defence realised they needed a goal quick and found it eventually in the 37th minute through Roberto Boninsegna after a defensively lapse had put him through on goal. The Italians went into the break strongly believing they could keep the Brazilians at bay for the next forty five minutes, but what came next produced possibly the best half of football played by Brazil. The Italians held firm for the first 20 minutes with Mazzola showing why he was so highly rated with some dazzling footwork, but then the Brazilians took over, first with Gerson scoring a powerful long range effort with his left foot from outside the box. With the Italians looking to find a second goal Brazil struck again, with a long freekick by Gerson towards Pele who headed the ball towards Jairzinho to walk into the net. There seemed little italy could do at this stage to claw back into the game and Brazil's third by their captain Carlos Alberto is possibly the greatest goal scored in the World Cup. I won't do injustice to it by attempting to describe it, instead here is the description from wikipedia,
And if you still don't get the picture, there's a video of the goal. A brilliant Brazilian performance indeed but little Italy did to hinder them during the game and the Brazilians at time played at walking pace. Was this really one of the greatest game of the World Cup ? Was this the best team ever ?
For the second question i would need to watch more games of this team as a single game doesn't tell the story of a team. They certainly didn't lack the talent to be one, but on that day not all of them got to their best but as a team they still performed.
And with that done, i moved on to my next game, the final game of the 1982 second round group stages. Both teams having seen of Diego Maradona's Argentina in the previous game, knew that a win would take them through, but a draw would suffice for Brazil owing to their better goal difference. Brazil were by far the favourites having won all of their group games and were playing free flowing football while Italy in their groups could only manage three draws. Brazil were now led by Sócrates and their talents included Falcao, Zico, Junior and Eder. Italy were captained by goalkeeper Dino Zoff who was an unused substitute at the 1970s final and had Paolo Rossi, Tardelli and Gentile in their team. What proceeded in the Estadi de Sarrià (then espanyol's stadium) was a match between perhaps the most tactically and technically gifted Italian side and the most free flowing Brazilian football. I will not proceed to describe each goal but the game had what Italy lacked in the 1970 final, a striker, and not just any striker but a gifted one at that. He made that World Cup truly his. If the 82 World Cup were to be remembered for anything, then it would be for the Brazilian squad and for Paolo Rossi. The Italians relied on man marking, but instead of relying solely on defence they pushed up enough and often left the Brazilian defence open. In terms of flair, there was no comparison as Socrates and his men put on display what is called Joga Bonito, beautiful football. For every goal but the last that Italy scored, the Brazilians seemed to have an answer, but in the end the tactical genius of the Italian team prevailed and when through 3-2 winners on the day. The reason i didn't describe the goals being, this game despite having the same number of goals as the other thrilled in another sense, a sense which people who can appreciate a game without goals can understand, football at it's best. Maybe it was because there were such contrasting football cultures on the pitch, each rich in it's own way, and each with the singular goal of winning the game. And over these 90 minutes in my opinion, probably the greatest World Cup Game was played. My opinion may differ after I've seen more, but i doubt there will be enough to see that will change much about my opinion of this game.
Which brings me back to my question of which team was the greatest to have ever played the national form of the game. With the evolving game and similarity in play of different countries nowadays it's difficult to say how a team today would have fared back then or the other way round for that matter, but i can say that the Brazilian team of 1970 man to man were a better side in comparison to the current Spanish side.
My first task was to find these matches, because i believe in watching a whole match rather than highlights or stats to decide on how a team fared. I looked up and the found that the highest rated teams in world cup history were the Brazilian squads of 1970 and 1982 and the Dutch squad of 1974, but since i started this search based on the Brazilian sides, i'll restrict myself to them. While searching for the matches i wondered if there were others who shared my enthusiasm for things of the past when it came to football, because spending large amounts of money for this didn't appeal to me. And i did find them, some harder than the others, all the way back to the footage from the 1938 World Cup finals. For a person who's always loved history this was joy unbounded, but how was i to choose among these games ? I did eventually plan to have all of them, but for now a few select games would suffice. There again the internet came to my rescue and both, the Brazil vs Italy 1970 and another involving the same teams in 1982 featured in multiple "Greatest World Cup Games" lists, and there was the answer. These games i found with much ease and despite one of them being in Spanish could hardly find myself being disappointed.
I started with the final of the 1970 World Cup where the Brazilian team led by Carlos Alberto boasted of the likes of Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson and Rivelino faced an Italian side led by Facchetti and had in their ranks Gianni Rivera (then European Footballer of the year) , Luigi Riva, Sandro Mazzola and even had Dino Zoff on the bench. It was by no means a mismatch of teams, the Italians had in the defence what the Brazilians offered up front. But then coach Ferruccio Valcareggi decided to leave out Gianni Rivera from the starting lineup because he believed the Rivera could not play together with Sandro Mazzola. And despite Rivera being a hero for his national team in the semi final against Germany could only find himself a place on the bench. The Italians had Mario Bertini mark Pele to stop him from exerting any influence on the game, and thus began on the wet turf of Azteca stadium what by many is considered the best game in World Cup history.Italians relied on a strong defence and a quick counter to penetrate a shaky opposition defence while the Brazilians were more than happy to sit back and wait for the opening to come. Both teams started brightly with Bertini keeping a strong hold on Pele allowing Gerson the freedom to orchestrate the game, also Rivelino failed to find his footing on many an occasion and that famed left foot of his rarely troubled the keeper. But the goal eventually came in the 18th minute from a throw to Rivelino who under pressure crossed into the box to be met wonderfully by Pele into the bottom corner. The Italians who until now had relied on defence realised they needed a goal quick and found it eventually in the 37th minute through Roberto Boninsegna after a defensively lapse had put him through on goal. The Italians went into the break strongly believing they could keep the Brazilians at bay for the next forty five minutes, but what came next produced possibly the best half of football played by Brazil. The Italians held firm for the first 20 minutes with Mazzola showing why he was so highly rated with some dazzling footwork, but then the Brazilians took over, first with Gerson scoring a powerful long range effort with his left foot from outside the box. With the Italians looking to find a second goal Brazil struck again, with a long freekick by Gerson towards Pele who headed the ball towards Jairzinho to walk into the net. There seemed little italy could do at this stage to claw back into the game and Brazil's third by their captain Carlos Alberto is possibly the greatest goal scored in the World Cup. I won't do injustice to it by attempting to describe it, instead here is the description from wikipedia,
A total of 8 outfield players from Brazil passed the ball until Captain Carlos Alberto hammered the ball into the corner of the Italian goal following an inch perfect pass across the Italian 18 yard box from Pelé, prompted by the intelligent Tostão, who, with his back to the goal, told Pelé that Alberto was steaming in on the right flank. Tostão started the move 5 yards from the left of the Brazilian 18 yard box, then ran the length of the field to the Italian box without touching the ball again to tell Pelé to lay it off for Alberto. The players involved in the passes in order were Tostão, Brito, Clodoaldo, Pelé, Gérson, defender Clodoaldo beat 4 Italian players in his own half before passing to Rivelino who hit a perfect pass down the wing to Jairzinho. Jairzinho crossed from the wing to the centre of the box to Pelé who held the ball up to play a pass for Alberto to smash it home.
For the second question i would need to watch more games of this team as a single game doesn't tell the story of a team. They certainly didn't lack the talent to be one, but on that day not all of them got to their best but as a team they still performed.
And with that done, i moved on to my next game, the final game of the 1982 second round group stages. Both teams having seen of Diego Maradona's Argentina in the previous game, knew that a win would take them through, but a draw would suffice for Brazil owing to their better goal difference. Brazil were by far the favourites having won all of their group games and were playing free flowing football while Italy in their groups could only manage three draws. Brazil were now led by Sócrates and their talents included Falcao, Zico, Junior and Eder. Italy were captained by goalkeeper Dino Zoff who was an unused substitute at the 1970s final and had Paolo Rossi, Tardelli and Gentile in their team. What proceeded in the Estadi de Sarrià (then espanyol's stadium) was a match between perhaps the most tactically and technically gifted Italian side and the most free flowing Brazilian football. I will not proceed to describe each goal but the game had what Italy lacked in the 1970 final, a striker, and not just any striker but a gifted one at that. He made that World Cup truly his. If the 82 World Cup were to be remembered for anything, then it would be for the Brazilian squad and for Paolo Rossi. The Italians relied on man marking, but instead of relying solely on defence they pushed up enough and often left the Brazilian defence open. In terms of flair, there was no comparison as Socrates and his men put on display what is called Joga Bonito, beautiful football. For every goal but the last that Italy scored, the Brazilians seemed to have an answer, but in the end the tactical genius of the Italian team prevailed and when through 3-2 winners on the day. The reason i didn't describe the goals being, this game despite having the same number of goals as the other thrilled in another sense, a sense which people who can appreciate a game without goals can understand, football at it's best. Maybe it was because there were such contrasting football cultures on the pitch, each rich in it's own way, and each with the singular goal of winning the game. And over these 90 minutes in my opinion, probably the greatest World Cup Game was played. My opinion may differ after I've seen more, but i doubt there will be enough to see that will change much about my opinion of this game.Which brings me back to my question of which team was the greatest to have ever played the national form of the game. With the evolving game and similarity in play of different countries nowadays it's difficult to say how a team today would have fared back then or the other way round for that matter, but i can say that the Brazilian team of 1970 man to man were a better side in comparison to the current Spanish side.
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