Today I'm going back 27 years to 1995 and another game from that summer's Umbro Cup: the decisive game between England and Brazil, played at Wembley Stadium in front of 67,318.
The programme cover carries a wonderful photograph taken following England's narrow 1-0 defeat to Brazil in Guadalajara during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The photo shows two giants of the game and their mutual respect in Pele and Bobby Moore. If you ever want to capture a moment in time that irritates the racists that often attach themselves to England then this it that moment. What a truly iconic picture!
England versus Brazil fixtures have always had an extra buzz about them. Possibly that's due, in part, to that game in Mexico in 1970. Possibly it dates back even further to when England gave the game to the world and were felt, at the time, to be the best in the world before the upstarts and newcomers (especially Brazil) came along and upset things by beating the Mother Country of Soccer at their own game. Certainly Brazil are one of the few teams who can boast a better record against England than England can against them. Over the years the two countries have played each other on 26 occasions with Brazil recording 11 victories to England's paltry total of 4. England have never beaten Brazil at a World Cup with just one draw and three defeats to show for their efforts. So the featured game in 1995 against the previous year's World Cup winners was certainly a game of interest to the English footballing public.
The game was England's 713th International fixture and was Terry Venables' 11th match in charge. England gave their public a lot to be hopeful about by matching Brazil for about an hour and, indeed, actually took the lead in the first half thanks to a looping volley that found the top corner, scored by Graeme le Saux, his first goal for England. Brazil's equaliser came from a direct free kick in the 54th minute via the boot of Juninho, a player who was later to engrave his name onto the hearts of all Middlesbrough supporters when he played for the club in three separate spells between 1995-2004. It was Juninho's first ever goal for Brazil and he would go on to make 49 appearances for the Selecao scoring 5 goals. Brazil's second goal came in the 61st minute and was scored by their 18 year old number 9 Ronaldo who would go on to become one of the most celebrated footballers of all time. It was only Ronaldo's second ever goal for Brazil and, across his career in total, Ronaldo made 98 appearances for Brazil scoring 62 goals. He will forever be remembered for his (lack of) impact on the 1998 World Cup Final in France following a seizure the night before the Final but Ronaldo was actually a World Cup winner twice in 1994 and 2002. Brazil's third and final goal in their 3-1 victory was scored by Edmundo who was inadvertently put through by Stuart Pearce before slotting the ball past Tim Flowers.
In the England team that day was Colin Cooper making his second and final appearance for his country. It won't have helped his case for selection that he was outpaced by Edmundo for Brazil's third goal. Appearing for only the second time in an England shirt was Manchester United's Right back Gary Neville who would go on to make 85 appearances in total for England. He never did score a goal for his country. Also making a second appearance for England that day was Nottingham Forest's Stan Collymore. Frequently a controversial character both on and off the field, Collymore would make just one further appearance for England.
The match concluded the Umbro Cup tournament and left Brazil unbeaten at the top of the table. England finished second with Sweden third and Japan clinching the wooden spoon. England would go on to put on a good showing at the following Summer's Euro96 European Championships eventually losing to Germany on penalties in the Semi-Final. World Champions Brazil followed up their World Cup win at USA94 with another appearance in the Final in France98 and yet another win in South Korea / Japan in 2002. It was truly a Brazilian Golden Age!
CRB Match No. 977
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