It’s been a sad week in the Latham household following the news of the unfortunate death of the great Socrates earlier this week. When I say the Latham household, I really mean Jake, our dog, and myself as I have been telling him this week on our walks about the greatest team I ever saw-Brazil’s 1982 World Cup team.
My first love is Sheffield Wednesday, I didn’t pick them: they picked me. My grandfathers were ‘Wednesday’ and so was my father so I became ‘Wednesday’. Those of you who follow real English football will be pleased to hear that I haven’t subjected my son Oliver to being ‘Wednesday’ I just couldn’t do it to him. They are my love supreme, but many times I have tried to leave them but as the Godfather puts it, “every time I think I am out they find a way to suck me in”. They are doing it right know as they are flirting with the top of League 1, it probably won’t last, but….
Anyway back to the summer of 82. Prior to this particular World Cup the high points of my football life were: a mammoth tussle between the love supreme and some kick and run mob called Arsenal in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, when it was the best cup competition in the world. We took them to FOUR replays before they knocked us out. They had Liam Brady, we had Brian Hornsby! An unbelievable night at Blackburn in 1980 when Ian Mellor brought 9,000 grown men and boys to tears, eyes filling now as I write this, with a diving header that set us on the road back to the promised land, and a historic 4-0 humping of our dearly beloved neighbours, Sheffield United, on Boxing Day 1979. Not a lot to show for 14 years.
That summer I was looking forward to the World Cup, every football man has a World Cup and this was going to be mine. It started slowly with Belgium beating Argentina and Italy boring the pants off the world but later that night my whole life changed. I didn’t see the full game as back in 1982 there were only 4 TV channels in the UK, but in the highlight reel of the Brazil Russia game, I saw two goals that set my world on fire. It wasn’t just the goals it was the pure joy and emotion of the event that took my breath away. Socrates stepping around Russian’s and firing into the net was magnificent but Eder’s winner was a thing of beauty: Falcao lets the ball run through his legs, Eder flicks in up and volleys past the keeper whose body language tells it all. Do yourself a favour and get on you tube as word don’t do it justice. I was hooked and in love and I couldn’t wait for more. Scotland and New Zealand were brushed aside and Brazil was in the quarter finals. The team were magicians and beautiful to watch and the name still role of the tongue, Falcao, Leandro, Junior, Eder, some chap called Zico, Oscar, the great Socrates and the most un-Brazilian of players the striker Serginho, who may have struggled to get into the Sheffield Wednesday team!
They were drawn in a group with Italy, who had just woken up and the reigning world champions Argentina. Brazil destroyed Argentina and July 5th I skipped out from a work experience placement to watch Brazil play Italy in the deciding game for a place in the semi finals. Italy needed a win and Brazil only a draw, but someone forgot to tell Brazil. In undoubtedly the World Cup’s greatest game Paolo Rossi was reborn and Italy beat Brazil 3-2 and broke my heart. In Brazil this game is still referred to as the “Sarrias Disaster”. Bill Shankly once said that football was more important than life and death, well its not, but I have no words for how I felt on that Monday night.
Italy went through to face Poland and the other semi final pitted West Germany against France, a team that England had beaten in the opening round of the tournament. The Germany France game from 1982 is on par with the Brazil France game of 1986, if you saw it you remember exactly where you where during the game. Germany won on penalties and went on to face Italy who was rejuvenated by the goal scoring form of Paolo Rossi. Italy triumphed 3-1 and my lasting memory of the final was the pure ecstasy and tears of Marco Tardelli after he scored Italy’s second goal.
The 1982 World Cup was over, but I can still remember everything about my grandmother’s front room on the night I saw the Brazil Russia highlights, and I can remember the short cut I took to get home in time to see the Brazil Italy game and I remember exactly what I did after I saw Tardelli’s celebration which has its own entry on Wikipedia
In closing…
I was disappointed to see Colin Miller leave the Whitecaps, another Canadian coach out of the league. I hope it won’t be long before we see Colin back in the game at the highest level.
And finally, the last Lower Island Soccer Coaches meeting of 2011 takes place on Monday 12th December at the Lakehill Soccer Associations Braefoot Turf field from 6pm to 7.30pm, our topic for the night is “Defending in 2v2 and 3v3 situations”. I hope to see as many of you there as possible and remember to bring your boots!
