Heroes of 1970
Legends and team-mates recall England’s greatest save ave – and their greatest tackle
Banks’s save Alan Mullery (England midfielder who played in the game)
When he headed the ball, Pele shouted “goal”. There was no way Banksy was going to stop it, except he did a great job, which he did for years and years.
I remember it like it was yesterday. When Terry Cooper got beaten down our left, Bobby Moore moved across. It went past me but if you look at it now on an iPad, Banksy was on the other post, looking for a near-post cross or shot. What you don’t expect is a guy 10 yards out heading the ball into the ground and now it is going to go into the top corner.
He’s now got to get across eight yards of his goal. He goes through the air and gets the smallest amount of his fingers to the ball to flick it over the crossbar.
The ball goes on top of the net and it looks like it’s gone in the goal. As he’s laying on the floor, watch the No4. It’s me, patting him on the head and saying: “Why didn’t you catch it?” There were one or two words that came back at me from Banksy.
We see some wonderful saves now, but this was 50 years ago. That match is what people always ask about and you love telling people the story of the game.
Bruce Grobbelaar aar (Legendary Liverpool erpool goalkeeper)
To go from the near post to the far post is difficult enough. That the save was from a powerful downward header makes it even more difficult. So at the beginning his momentum is taking him one way and he has to move across.
What really made it extraordinary, and world class, is the position from where he flicked the ball away from the line. To make the ball go from three inches away from the line to over the crossbar, that is amazing.
In usual circumstances you would just be trying to keep the ball out, which would give the oncoming attackers the chance to pick up the rebound. So there is a different element to that save. It goes beyond keeping the ball from crossing the line, which was difficult enough. He put it out of play, so not only stopped the goal, but ensured there was no incoming danger. Then England cleared the ball from the resulting corner.
Add to the fact it was against Pele, that is why it remains one of the greatest saves the world has seen.
Moore’s tackle Mullery
To use a football phrase, I was in his [Pele’s] trousers. We thought that if we could stop
Pele we would have a chance of winning, but the Brazilians were probably the best football team you’ve ever seen.
That tackle probably summed up Bobby Moore; it was an excellent tackle for the timing. If he hadn’t got the ball, he probably would have got sent off. It was a wonderfully timed tackle, but then he got up off the floor and played this wonderful pass forward.
These moments show the ability of these players, like Gordon with the save. Now, if you’re 25 years old, your dad would talk about Bobby Moore, so it is still part of people’s lives. He was the smartest footballer I ever saw. Bobby was not quick but had a mind that could read the game before the person passing the ball knew where it was going to go.
Remember that he was once a midfielder and Ron Greenwood changed him into a central defender. Off the pitch, he would wear a shirt and tie and would just look smart. On the pitch, anyone who looked at him would want to do what he was doing.
I used to room with him and before he went to bed he would fold his underpants. Most people throw their clothes on the floor.
He was something special. Bobby read the game so well that he could conserve energy. In that Brazil game, I lost a stone in weight.
Terry Butcher (Former England captain)
Bobby wasn’t particularly quick, he wasn’t like Virgil van Dijk or Des Walker, who are fast. When you’re not quick, you have to be able to read the game and that was his greatest strength. He read the play so well and what was so important about the tackle on Jairzinho, inside his own area, was that it was clean and crisp, so well-timed. As a defender it’s all about timing: time the tackle, time the header, time the pass.
There was a lot of skill involved in that tackle. It’s hours and hours of training, with players running at you. Soon as a player touches the ball, you’ve got to time your move and get it absolutely right or they are past you. It was so clean – it was the perfect tackle, really.
He’s the greatest centre-half England have seen, making a superb tackle on one of the best players the world has ever seen on the biggest stage of all. That’s why it’s so iconic.
As a defender, that’s as good as scoring a goal. It certainly brings as much satisfaction. In those days, a lot of defenders favoured the slide tackle when you got a bit of everything, man and ball. But Bobby was never really like that. He could be hard when he wanted to be, but he was more about finesse; he had a touch of class compared to the other centre-halves at that time. That’s what people liked about him, he stood out from the crowd, on the pitch and off it, with the way he dressed and what have you.
He was a huge influence on me growing up. I wore No6 because of Bobby Moore and Kevin Beattie at Ipswich. No6 is the best number for me, a No9 upside down. The six is supposed to come out on top of the nine, that’s what you want. As a defender, there was only ever one player I wanted to be and that was Bobby Moore.