The players of the USSR national team still consider the matches with the legendary Brazilian to be the brightest in their careers.
Memories of the greatest Brazilian footballer who passed away on New Year’s Eve will be at the center of sports news for a long time to come. It is difficult to imagine another athlete who, throughout his career and life, would be treated with such reverence and respect as Pele.
However, at the dawn of his football life, he seemed to be the weakest player in the great Brazilian team. At least for the defenders of our team.
Oh, what a painful disappointment the Soviet football players experienced.
Debut World Cup
It so happened that at their first World Cup in 1958, which was the first victorious for Brazil, the Latin Americans played the most important match with the USSR national team.
Our name team looked powerful, and in terms of tournament prospects, the management was counting on a high result. True, both Brazil and strong England were in the group, which greatly complicated the task of reaching the playoffs.
By the third round, the USSR and Brazil came up with an equal number of points, and the founders of football who were chasing us were only one point behind. The face-to-face meeting with Selesao was decisive for the team of Gavriil Kachalin.
Victor Tsarev, the defender of the national team at that tournament, recalls how the coaching staff tried to find out the nuances of the preparation of the Latin Americans, and the players themselves wanted to find out which of the opponents posed the greatest danger
– In the meantime, we were looking closely – against whom to play. Defenders to forwards, forwards to defenders. And all Brazilians are so good, powerful that there is nothing to choose from. Only one boy did not make an impression: he always walks alone, frail, modest. I remember thinking: “Oh, that’s who to play against! It’s a lot easier to deal with someone like him than with thugs like Nilton Santos. And now the players took their places before the match. I look: my opponent is Pele. He was delighted: “It will be easier,” the defender recalled.
We lost that match 0:2, both goals were scored by Vava, but one of them came from Pele’s pass. The 17-year-old debutant of the Brazilian national team hit the post one more time, and after the game he recalled:
– The Soviet players seemed terribly gigantic to me.
Against the background of Pele’s 172 cm, this was true, but due to his jump, the shortcomings of short stature were leveled. Our team eventually made it to the playoffs due to an additional game with England (1:0), but in the quarterfinals they lost to the Swedes, whom Pelé would later smash in the final (5:2) and make all of Brazil cry with happiness.
Tour of Brazil
Four years later, the USSR Olympic team went on a tour to Brazil, where our guys were to meet with the Santos club, in which Pele spent most of his football career.
An interesting fact is that at that time the coaches with the players studied the opponent’s game from the chronicles in cinemas. Gennady Logofet recalls that before meeting with Pele, together with coach Vyacheslav Solovyov, they watched the match between Santos and Benfica (5:1), Pele made poker in that game:
– What, guys, maybe, well, to hell with them? Shall we not be embarrassed? – made an ironic conclusion based on the results of that viewing, the coach of the national team.
Our lost 1:2, and Pele took part in both balls.
“Anzorik, show them”
The most memorable games happened, perhaps, in 1965. First, the Brazilians came to Luzhniki and tore apart ours in a friendly match with a score of 3:0. Then in the autumn we visited the two-time world champions at that time in their homeland. 132,000 spectators came to watch the match at the Maracana. It was not possible to take revenge in Brazil, but ours gave a decent game and equalized the score, losing 0:2 during the meeting.
Anzor Kavazashvili / Photo: ©
RIA Novosti / Dmitry DonskoyBut the highlight for our fans was, of course, the first match in Moscow, which was attended by 102,000 people. The memory of that meeting is shared by Anzor Kavazashvili, the reserve goalkeeper of the national team and the future star of the 1970 team.
– I appeared on the field already with the score 0:2. Coach Nikolai Morozov said during the break: “Come on, Anzorik, show them!” The goalkeeper recalls with a smile.
As a result, Pele scored the third goal in that game already against Kavazashvili, scoring a double. After that, the goalkeeper, when asked when he became famous, answered with self-irony:
– When in 1965 Pele himself scored against me.
There are no better words to describe the status and importance of the legendary Brazilian for the world of football. When the defeat from Pele was perceived as a reward, then this is the main characteristic of the incredible greatness of the three-time world champion.
