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Italy in Mexico, World Cup 1970 - 10 December 2022
The Italians arrived in Mexico in 1970 as European champions having eventually beaten Yugoslavia 2-0 on home soil two years earlier, and after winning the semi-final against the Soviet Union by the toss of a coin. Their playing ranks included two of the best attacking midfield players in Europe in Sandro Mazzola and Gianni Rivera, rivals from the two great Milan clubs; the latter being voted the 1969 European Footballer of the Year. They had an outstanding forward in Gigi Riva: he was powerful, he was quick with a great shot, and had an eye for goal. Riva has been described as the prototype of the modern player and so far ahead of his time there still aren’t many like him. The team was captained by Giacinto Facchetti, a tall, fast, mobile, and free-ranging goalscoring defender who, like Brazil’s Carlos Alberto, was a forerunner of today’s wingback. Their defence was founded on arguably football’s most infamous tactic, the catenaccio, a system with many fathers but nurtured in Italy by some of the great managers, practised across their leagues, and first taken into Europe to win continental silverware by the Milan clubs; the blue and the red. The bulk of the Italian squad for the 1970 tournament came from just two clubs: Internazionale (known as Inter) and Calcio Cagliari (Cagliari) from the island of Sardinia, with six players each. During the 1960s, under their legendary coach Helenio Herrera, Inter became probably the greatest exponents of catenaccio. Inter
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Working in a Gold Mine in a Desert - 21 August 2022
I once worked in a gold mine in the middle of an Australian desert. To get there I flew to Adelaide from overseas with the intention of hitchhiking to Kalgoorlie, a mining town in Western Australia and base for many of the operators working in the mines that drive much of that state’s economy. I had done lots of hitchhiking before all around the
Kalgoorlie - Didyabringabeer - 29 June 2022
Once upon a time way out west, I went to Kalgoorlie by bus to work. Later I went back by rail for a visit. The town of about 30,000 is an isolated stop on the line across Western Australia where one stretch of railway runs completely straight for 478km – the longest straight stretch of rail line anywhere in the world. Kal’ to the locals, is over
Port Arthur and the Vandemonians of Tasmania - 28 May 2022
Tasmania was once called Van Diemen’s Land and is the world’s 26th largest island and Australia’s least populated state. From 1803 Britain settled the island as a penal colony, and almost wiped out the indigenous population in the process. Today Tasmania, or “Tassie” to use the colloquialism, is the most Anglophile Australian state, also having
The Great Brazilians Part 3 – Brito, Gérson, and Carlos Alberto - 30 April 2022
Back in the day before live television and videos, before satellites and the internet, before downloads and smartphones, growing up a sports fan was different. You read about it, you watched it live at the match if able, or some saw it on film at the movies or delayed on television at first in black and white, or you read about it and you
The Great Brazilians Part 2 - Tostão, Clodoaldo, Everaldo, and Wilson Piazza - 26 March 2022
Joy in football it has been said does not come from winning, but from being entertained, and from witnessing something special for at the heart of football’s great power of seduction is that there are certain sensations that are eternal. People often say that results are paramount and that ten years down the line, the only thing which will be
The Great Brazilians Part 1 - Félix, Jairzinho, Pelé and Rivellino - 19 February 2022
They say that falling in love is better than being in love as it can bring the wonder and excitement of discovery for the first time. When I was at school, I had a poster of the Brazilian football team on my wall taken in the Azteca Stadium before the 1970 World Cup final. The poster was produced by Adidas proud that most of the players chose to
Football and the Teams at Mexico 1970 - 4 December 2021
The 1970 World Cup in Mexico is widely thought of as the tournament against which all others are measured – a celebration of free-wheeling football where the winners Brazil triumphed with a team of sublime artists over the more disciplined, physically tactical Europeans who were represented in the Final by Italy with their pincer defensive
Mexico World Cup 1970 - 6 November 2021
Someone once said watching football is about bold, primary-colour emotions: the pursuit of joy and the endurance of pain. The ninth FIFA World Cup held in Mexico (31 May 1970 – 21 Jun 1970) had all these factors and is widely thought of as a seminal sporting event for lots of reasons; a World cup against which all others are measured. In many