THE DAY WE RILED THE GREAT BRAZILIANS
Scots greats remember our famous ‘blast’ from the past and their thrill in Seville facing Samba stars
NI never actually got to within six feet of Zico... he was far too bright
OT for the first time, and certainly not for the last, it was the hope that killed us. The 15 minutes which separated disbelief and dizzying joy from the pain of reality biting are still to be treasured, though. They’ll never take them away from us.
It’s now 40 years since Dave Narey stirred a hornet’s nest in Seville by lashing Scotland into the lead against Brazil in the World Cup finals.
The backlash was so ferocious that the Dundee United player could have been forgiven for believing he’d committed a heinous crime in a previous life.
The replies came through Zico, Oscar, Eder and Falcao as Brazil, majestic in their canary-yellow jerseys and blue shorts, broke the hearts of the Tartan Army and left the rest of the world spellbound.
There are few compensations for the advancing years, but anyone old enough to have witnessed that Brazil team strut their stuff will always count themselves fortunate.
Also boasting the likes of Socrates, Cerezo, Leandro and Junior, Tele Santana’s side were sublimely gifted artisans whose commitment towards intuitive, beautiful football was non-negotiable.
Unarguably the most talented side in Spain that summer, they would go home early after an astonishing clash with Italy in the second phase, destined to spend the subsequent years vying with Puskas’ Hungary and Cruyff ’s Netherlands as the greatest side never to win the World Cup.
They had arrived at the finals on a 19-match unbeaten run, having scoring 46 goals and conceded just 10 in the process. That sequence included ten successive victories in which, within seven days, they beat England in London, France in Paris and West Germany in Stuttgart.
Zico, then aged 29, was at the peak of his powers. Nominally an attacking midfielder, his mesmerising gifts were seen all over the park.
‘I played against him several times for Liverpool, Sampdoria and Scotland,’ recalled Graeme Souness. ‘But never got within six feet of him, never laid a finger on him.
‘He’s the only player I played against that I never actually managed to make physical contact with. He was far too bright and he saw it coming.’
If only the-then Flamengo player had been all Jock Stein’s players had to worry about.
‘They were good, but what you don’t realise was their height and strength was incredible,’ said Souness’s midfield partner Gordon Strachan. ‘Their midfield three, Socrates, Falcao and Cerezo, were all 6ft 3in.
‘I thought I was pretty strong, and I’m eyeing up wee Junior for a challenge, maybe knock him over when I’m taking the ball off him, and bang... I went down like a cartoon character, I just crumpled.
‘They’re the best team never to have won a World Cup. Probably the best team I ever played.’
It’s unlikely Santana’s players would still be able to reel off the names of all the men they faced that day, but their opponents weren’t too bad either.
Consider that there were 10 European Cup winners’ medals, three UEFA Cup wins and four European Super Cups between them.
Within another two seasons, they’d have amassed another two European Cups, two more UEFA Cups, four Cup-Winners’ Cups and five more Super Cups.
The squad also boasted names including Willie Miller, John Robertson and Kenny Dalglish. There was Danny McGrain, Alan Hansen and Joe Jordan.
‘We have a dream’ sang BA Robertson to the nation as the days counted down. He wasn’t the only one.
A 5-2 victory over New Zealand in Malaga made for a promising start. Brazil’s 2-1 win over the Soviet Union ensured Stein’s men headed for Seville top of the group on goal difference. What could possibly go wrong?
‘The heat didn’t help,’ said midfielder John Wark. ‘During the anthems, the sweat was lashing off us, then I looked along their line. Not a single drop on a single forehead and I just thought: “Uh-oh”.’
‘The other problem was the pitch,’ Strachan (below) recalled. ‘We never had a clue what studs to wear because the grass was so long, which was the way the Brazilians liked it. There was a lot of physical engagement to their play, it wasn’t as much about moving the ball quickly as it is now.
‘In the end it didn’t matter too much — we never saw the ball when they got going anyway.’
But, before they did, it happened. The scoreboard inside the Estadio Benito Villamarin showed 18 minutes when Souness pinged a long, diagonal ball to Wark.
His headed knock-down sat up nicely for the onrushing Narey and the finish from the edge of the box was utterly exquisite.
Off the United man bounded, his arms raised in celebration. Outnumbered by the Brazilians who’d come to party, the Scotland fans in the ground reacted as if they’d won the trophy itself.
Not bad for a toe poke, as Jimmy
The touches, the onetwos, the dribbles... it was just beyond belief
Dave hardly ever scored ... he ended up running about the pitch like a wee boy who didn’t know what day it was
Hill infamously described it. Scotland were momentarily on top of the world.
‘He didn’t have a clue what to do,’ Wark recalled of Narey’s celebration. ‘He obviously hardly ever scored, so he ended up running around like a wee boy who didn’t know what day it was.
‘But it just got them annoyed. After that, it was an education.’
For those in the stadium and those watching at home, evidence that Brazil had been rattled by the unforeseen setback was thin on the ground. Years later, Socrates recalled Narey’s goal as being merely a bump on the road.
‘We weren’t preoccupied by going behind because we were very confident,’ said the all-time great, who died in 2011. ‘We were one of the best teams in the world. We were Brazil. It wasn’t a problem.’
From pretty much the minute Brazil restarted, the equaliser was coming. The award of a free-kick on the edge of the Scottish box in 33 minutes brought a sense of foreboding.
‘I was the end man in the wall and Roughie (Alan Rough) was giving it “Perfect, John” with the big thumbs up,’ Wark recalled.
‘Two seconds later, it’s round me and in the top corner. Two keepers couldn’t have stopped it.’
Scotland made it to half-time with the scores level but with hopes off a miracle fading.
If there was begrudging admiration for Zico’s equaliser, there was nothing but annoyance at the manner in which Oscar gave his side the lead four minutes after the break with a close-range header from a corner.
‘A real British goal for you, if you like,’ said BBC commentator John Motson.
The third, arriving in 65 minutes, was a work of art. Falcao, Socrates and Serginho linked the play. Eder’s outrageous chip rendered Rough a bystander. As the goalkeeper retrieved the classic Tango ball from the net for the third time, his team-mates knew the game was up.
Agonisingly, there was more to come. With three minutes left, Falcao’s smoking finish from outside the box went in off the post and proved to be the final word on a breathtaking team display.
‘The touches, the one-twos, the dribbles… they had so much class it was beyond belief,’ said Rough. ‘They never seemed to score a normal goal. I don’t know if they were the best team in history, but nobody has ever played football like they did.’
The story of Socrates arriving for the post-match drugs test accompanied by a lit cigarette and two bottles of lager has been told too often by too many witnesses not to be true.
It remains one of football’s great regrets that Brazil’s class of 1982 were not drinking champagne in celebration when the final was staged in Madrid a few weeks later.
The Italians left with the trophy that summer largely thanks to Paolo Rossi — but the memories created by Santana and his magnificent side were priceless.