Event Type: 1001 GREATEST FOOTBALL MOMENTS - 2023

2023-06-06

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 470

MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY (1970)

It was the photograph that the footballing world had been waiting for: England’s Bobby Moore, arguably the best defender in the world, embracing Brazil legend Pelé in friendship. Two of the knights of the football world, famed for their sportsmanship, swapped shirts atter doing battle in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Victory in Guadalajara went to the Brazihan, who supphed the final assist for the winning goal. Pelé turned down swap offers from other England players so that he could exchange shirts with the man he rated «the greatest defender I ever played against».
The picture of two of the game’s legends after a bruising match remains one of the most iconic shots in World Cup history.

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2023-06-05

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 469

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE (1970)

The boos that ushered the Uruguayan and Italian teams off the Puebla pitch brought the curtain down on a dour 0-0 draw. Group B of the 1970 World Cup was the antithesis to the free-flowing football of the South Americans. Defensive Italy cancelled out negative Uruguay and the spectators were vocal in their disapproval. Italy had, in an earlier game against Sweden, scored the one goal that would put them top of their group. However, in the later rounds an Italian renaissance led to buccaneering displays against Mexico and West Germany which saw them score four times in both matches.
Italy players run to celebrate after Gianni Rivera scores the winning goal past West Germany’s Sepp Maier in their thrilling 4-3 encounter.

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2023-06-02

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 468

PELÉ’S LONG DISTANCE SHOT (1970)

Few football moments are chronicled if the player doesn’t hit the back of the net, but, although he scored one of Brazil’s goals against Czechoslovakia in their 4-1 opening match of the 1970 World Cup, it was a spectacular near miss by Pelé that grabbed the headlines. Fired up by Czech manager Joseph Marko’s pre-match comments that Pelé was a «spent force», the ‘Black Pearl’ then attempted an audacious goal. Seeing Czech goalkeeper Ivo Viktor off his line, Pelé tried a 50-yard lob from inside the Brazilian half. The shot beat Viktor, but, with the crowd gasping, went narrowly wide.
Pelé scores the second goal against Czechoslovakia, beating goalkeeper Ivo Viktor with a deft finish in the second half.

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2023-06-01

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 467

FOOTBALL ENTERS SPACE (1970)

Football fans glued, beer in hand, to England’s quarter-final defeat by West Germany could probably not have cared less that the pictures arriving on their TV screens had come via space. The 1970 World Cup was the first to be beamed from Mexico to millions of fans worldwide via satellite. It was a logistical nightmare for the TV companies, but, when Brazil hammered Italy 4-1 in the final to take the Jules Rimet trophy for the third time, it was the first time that the yellow and green strip of the World Cup victors had been seen on TV in all its colourful glory.
The dawn of satellite technology reinforced the World Cup’s reputation as a truly global event, watched in all corners of the world.

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2023-05-31

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 466

‘TELSTAR’ TAKES FLIGHT (1970)

The kick-off in the opening match of the 1970 World Cup hastened in a new era in match balls. As Mexico faced the USSR, out went the old brown and misshapen balls, which were heavy and painful to head when wet. In came the Adidas Telstar, light and almost perfectly round. The Telstar – 32 hand-stitched panels of 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons – also became the World Cup official match ball for TV reasons. Mexico 1970 was the first live televised World Cup and the revolutionary design of Telstar – the name contrived from ‘star of television’ – made the ball far more visible on screen.
Italy’s Alessandro Mazzola and Brazil’s Brito and Gerson all tangle for the new Telstar ball with it’s distinctive panels clearly visible.

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2023-05-30

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 465

RALLYING CALL FOR GREAVES (1970)

Former England gol poacher Jimmy Greaves’ first sight of World Cup host country Mexico was through the visor of a crash helmet and a cloud of dust. Greaves, his international career over and club prospects waning, was a participant in the first World Cup Rally. In the drive from London to Mexico he finished sixth in a Ford Escort. Driving on several continents, the rally was more gruelling than rallies had been up to this point and it included long, timed sections of up to 650 miles. Greaves’ verdict? «Harder than any football match.»
Jimmy Greaves tries his hand at rally driving in Surrey before setting off on his mammoth trip across six continents to Mexico City.

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2023-05-26

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 464

MOORE ESCAPES JAIL AND TACKLES DOUBTERS (1970)

A precision tackle on one of the world’s most lethal strikers showed England fans at the Mexico World Cup that captain Booby Moore was back. Only days before, the man who led England to the 1966 World Cup had been languishing in a police cell in Colombia, accused of stealing a bracelet. Freed by a judge to play pending further investigation, Moore joined up with the England squad and, looking fit despite his worries, led them to a win over Romania. The precision tackle on eventual tournament top-scorer Jairzinho proved not only his physical strength but also his mental resilience had not suffered.
Despite being embroiled in an off-pitch scandal, Bobby Moore proved his reputation as a world class defender was justified in Mexico.

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2023-05-25

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 463

MEN IN BLACK GO FOR COLOUR (1970)

Traffic lights provided the inspiration for a change in the rules that transformed football. The red and yellow card system for disciplining players was introduced at the 1970 World Cup – and all because English referee Ken Aston had been stuck at traffic lights in his car. As he waited, it dawned on him that the sequence from red to amber could be a simple way of conveying a ref’s decision to crowds. Along with allowing substitutions for the first time, the cards – yellow for a caution and red for dismissal – made their debut in Mexico and, while a few yellows were brandished, no ane was sent off.
Yellow and red cards made their debut in the 1970 World Cup tournament and quickly became a forture of the modern game.

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2023-05-24

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 462

‘TOTAL FOOTBALL’ ARRIVES (1970)

The wall of cheers that greeted a lobbed shot by Ove Kindvall into the Celtic net signalled the arrival of Dutch supremacy. ‘Total football’, the concept conceived in Holland which means all ten outfield players are comfortable in any position, was poised to revolutionise the game. Kindvall’s winning goal in extra-time on 6 May 1970 in Milan’s San Siro Stadium gave his side Feyenoord a 2-1 victory and brought the European Cup to a Dutch club for the first time. With rival Ajax waiting in the wings to win the trophy for the next three years, the future was definitely orange.
Feyenoord players celebrate with the European Cup after their 2-1 victory which proved Ajax weren’t the only top side in Holland.

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2023-05-23

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 461

WORLD CHAMPIONS BECOME CHART TOPPERS (1970)

«Back home, they’ll be thinking about us when we are far away. Back home, they’ll be really behind us in every game we play…» sang the 1970 England World Cup squad on the popular music programme Top of the Pops prior to their departure for Mexico. The squad, many of them from the side that won the World Cup in 1966, had been invited, some reluctantly, into the recording studios to record ‘Back Home’, a two minutes and two seconds song which turned into a phenomenon by becoming the first football song to make number one in the British pop charts. It stayed in the hit parade for 17 weeks.
Companion album ‘The World Beaters Sing World Beaters’ reached number 4 in the charts. It included contemporary hits like ‘Sugar Sugar’.

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2023-05-22

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 460

ITALIAN WOMEN TAKE THE LEAD (1970)

Enlightened authorities in Italy were the first to sanction women being paid to play football and it was a major landmark for the women’s game when female part-time professionals were allowed. Women’s football had been played for a long time, with records of matches in Scotland in 1892 and England in 1895, and although it was frowned upon by football associations in many countries it continued without their support. However, despite the Italian breakthrough, progress was slow for women in soccer and the USA only formed a full-time national squad in 1984, with Japan the first country to have a professional women’s league in 1992.
Women’s football has a long history in many countries but Italy was the first to allow professionalism – albeit in a part-time fashion.

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2023-05-19

By: GodMorgenFrode / Comments closed

Nr. 459

FOXED BY A DUCK (1970)

The outsize gloves of Sepp Maier grasped arguably more silverware than most goalkeepers could hope for in a playing career. Regarded by critics as clown-like with his large gloves and over-long shorts, Maier was a legend in West Germany during the 1970s, when he played 437 times for Bayern Munich and 95 for his country. He won World Cup, European Championship and three successive European Cup medals for club or country, but the giant gloves were no match for a duck which wandered onto the pitch during a Bayern game. Maier went duck-hunting, but the bird eluded the keeper’s every dive and provided some much-needed entertainment in a dull game.
Sepp Maier was a formidable and easily recognisable figure in the Bayern Munich and West Germany goalmouth during the 1970’s.

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