INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL
Brazil are a team to admire, not worship — England can beat them, says Simon Barnes
When it comes to men’s football, there are two Brazils. One is a group of talented individuals made from flesh and blood who often win, but sometimes lose. The other has propelled them to five World Cup wins while playing the game the angels play in their lunch hour.
It’s this second team that we know and love – the teams of Pelé, Socrates, Rivaldo and co. And even though Brazil have so often been a thorn in England’s side – winning five of their six World Cup meetings – it’s the brilliant Brazil that we hope to see on Saturday as the “Seleção”, the special ones, visit Wembley for a friendly.
It comes as something of a shock, then, to read the current Fifa rankings. Brazil are fifth and England are third, behind only Argentina and France. I don’t suppose the Brazilians look on England with misty-eyed reverence as the heirs of Bobbies Charlton and Moore, but Gareth Southgate’s team need not tremble; the past five meetings between the two nations have produced three draws and a win a piece.
All the same, for the English at least, this is a fixture rich in history – and in wonder, fantasy and a million vain hopes. Brazil handed England the two greatest disappointments of their footballing history. The f irst was in 1970, when Brazil beat England at the World Cup, despite Gordon Banks’s save from Pelé, and went on to win what England might have won.
The second was at the World Cup in 2002, when England, with David Beckham, Michael Owen and Rio Ferdinand, beat Argentina in the group stage and went one-up against Brazil in the quarter-finals. I was there for that one, and what occurred was what always happens when a failure of nerve meets an outbreak of brilliance. Thanks to Ronaldinho, England lost 2–1 and Brazil ended up winning the World Cup… again.
But at least we’ ll always have John Barnes. It was in 1984 that the then Watford winger scored what’s sometimes referred to as England’s best goal ever – one that gains lustre from the fact it was against Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium.
Barnes beat five players in a high-speed dribble and scored. He described it later as “like an out-of-body experience”. Barnes out-Brazilled Brazil – he out-flew the angels themselves. For England fans, it was just like watching Brazil.
But that was then and this is now. The current Brazil squad is captained by Casemiro of Manchester United, a player of power and energy, but clearly a man of the Earth rather than the heavens. Mystery is a thing of the past: these days the Premier League is full of damn good Brazilian players, including Arsenal’s trio of Gabriels in Magalhaes, Martinelli and Jesus, Ric
