Obscure football tournaments from the past

The Taca das Nacoes (“Nations' Cup” in Portuguese) was held in 1964 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Brazilian Football Confederation. To my surprise, the hosts and World Cup holders didn’t have everything their own way.

Argentina, Portugal and England joined Brazil for a series of matches held in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in late May and early June.

The tournament was played on a league basis, which meant Argentina had wrapped things up before Brazil played their last game.

Here are the results and scorers:

30th May 1964

Brazil 5 (Rinaldo 2, Pele, Julinho, Roberto Dias) England 1 (Jimmy Greaves)

31st May 1964

Argentina 2 (Alfredo Rojas, Alberto Rendo) Portugal 0

3rd June 1964

Brazil 0 Argentina 3 (Roberto Telch 2, Ermindo Onega)

4th June 1964

England 1 (Roger Hunt) Portugal 1 (Fernando Peres)

6th June 1964

Argentina 1 (Alfredo Rojas) England 0

7th June 1964

Brazil 4 (Jairzinho 2, Pele, Gerson) Portugal 1 (Mario Coluna)

So Argentina won each of their three games, didn’t concede a goal, and overcame a Brazilian side boasting the likes of Pele, Gerson and Jairzinho in its ranks. No mean feat.

What interested me most were the reports from the England games available at http://www.englandfootballonline.com/.

They’ve done an amazing job in bringing together summaries from hundreds of England games and I was captivated by reports of matches at the Taca das Nacoes.

Pele produced a masterclass to drive Brazil on to the 5-1 victory. He set up the first goal, earned two free kicks “while dancing through the England defence juggling the ball like a circus performer”, scored with a long range effort after nutmegging Bobby Moore, and then set a team mate up for the fifth goal.

Roger Hunt scored and both Jimmy Greaves and Johnny Byrne hit the woodwork in an ill-tempered match against Portugal. Each side also had a goal disallowed, with Portuguese protests ending in striker Torres being sent off for taking a swing at the ref.

England’s final game saw the Argentineans, led by skipper Antonio Rattin, play “strolling possession football to frustrate England and to clinch victory in the ‘Little World Cup’ tournament”. According to the report, England returned home believing Argentina would be the toughest team to beat at the 1966 World Cup.

The best World Cup goals

If it wasn’t for the pointless narcissism and erratic production values I’d petition the government to attach wires to the head of every adult in the UK and feed 24-hour YouTube coverage into their otherwise befuddled heads.

Obviously I can’t do this, so the next best thing to do is mention footy highlights I recently spotted on a blatantly transparent trawl. You may not agree with these choices, but here are some fantastic goals from the history of the world’s greatest sporting tournament:

Del Piero wraps up the semi against Germany with this extra time beauty in 2006. The other one wasn’t bad either.

Bergkampf’s winner against Argentina in 1998. Worth it for the commentary alone.

Owen takes his bow on the world stage.

The second one against England in 1986. The first is criminal, but this is still superb.

Gemmill for Scotland in 1978. I'll never tire seeing the locals lap this one up.

Gerd Muller and the second goal in the 74 final. Class from one of the greatest ever strikers.

Gerson’s screamer from the 1970 final. The last goal was brilliant showboating. This was genius, and looks even better from behind the goal.

1966 and all that. This one put England on the way to the final.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few, but this is all a matter of personal choice. And yes, I will get around to finding footage from earlier tournaments in Chile, Sweden, Switzerland and Brazil. Anyone looking for film from France (1938), Italy (1934) or Uruguay (1930) thinks I have too much time on my hands. Talking of which, here are some people who actually do have too much time on their hands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uD1LLAbCMw

All hail the marvellous Sean Lock.