Tuesday 7 June 2023 marks the 53rd anniversary of arguably the most-iconic performance of the late, great Bobby Moore’s illustrious career.
The West Ham United captain put on an imperious display as England faced Brazil at the 1970 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico, producing a series of perfectly-timed tackles to halt Pelé and Jairzinho, among others. Jairzinho's goal won the game 1-0 for the eventual champions, but it was Moore whose quiet domination won the widest acclaim.
Filmed in glorious colour, Moore’s masterpiece was watched eagerly on television by a then-teenage Ken Dyer, the childhood Hammers fan who went on to spend four decades reporting on the Club for the London Evening Standard...
England versus Brazil was a group-stage match at the 1970 World Cup finals. Both teams had won their opening fixtures, against Romania and Czechoslovakia respectively, and would go on to qualify for the knockout stages.
In the build-up to the game, the main thing I can remember is that it was thought England had a better squad than they were in 1966, when they won the tournament, and that England and Brazil were the two best teams in the world at the time.
The game was played in Guadalajara and, even watching on TV, you could feel that it was really hot with the temperature in the high eighties, which probably favoured Brazil.
But while some of the England players appeared to wilt in the heat, Bobby Moore produced one of the finest performances, if not THE finest performance, of his career. He was the one who seemed to be stemming the tide each time Brazil came forward – and they came forward in waves with the great Pelé, Rivelino, Jairzinho and Tostão.
The outstanding moments were undoubtedly Bobby coming up one-on-one against Pelé, who was in the pomp at his time and was the best player I’ve ever seen, and Jairzinho.
Bobby Moore was also at his best at that time and what stuck in my mind was how he marshalled the defence, and how he made those tackles that were not really tackles, but more kind of interceptions.
The most famous of all came when Jairzinho was coming forward down the right-hand side and Bobby just held off and held off, then turned his body so he was almost sideways on then, at almost exactly the right time, stuck his leg out and took the ball off him. It was the best tackle, or interception, that you will ever see.
As I recall, Mooro always had his eyes on the ball. He wasn’t looking at the player, because that was how you can be bamboozled by a dummy. He just waited and waited until the perfect time, took the ball off him and Jairzinho probably thought ‘What’s happened there? Where’s the ball gone?’. It was great.
The other moment I remember was Gordon Banks’ save from Pelé. He did everything you are supposed to with his header, directing it downwards with power, but didn’t score a goal. You wondered ‘How did he keep that out?’ because the ball was almost behind him. Somehow, he got it up and over the bar.
I remember looking at Mooro, who was never demonstrative, but even he clapped Banks for that save.
Finally, there was the iconic moment when Mooro and Pelé swapped shirts. I have that image on the wall of my little office at home.
They are looking at each other, Pelé is tapping Bobby on the back of his head and Mooro is standing there and both are showing huge respect for one another. It’s one of the great football pictures at the end of a great game.
