At the beginning of each World Cup, Brazil is included in the shortlist of favorites, if not pointed out as the team to beat. Spagna ’82 is no exception and there are a number of valid reasons: Arthur Antunes Coimbra known as Zico , absolute star of Flamengo who is tempting many Italian clubs; Paulo Roberto Falcao , who played last season in Italy, making Liedholm’s already competitive Roma make a further leap forward in terms of quality; Socrates , the Doctor, leader of Corinthians who is experimenting with a democratic management of the locker room in a period in which Brazil is still in the hands of the military; Leo Junior, who in Turin will be the defensive playmaker with excellent feet, but who at Flamengo plays on the wing for his ability in crosses; Eder , Atletico Mineiro player a little less imaginative than the four teammates mentioned above, but in possession of a very powerful left foot.
The debut of the green-gold is scheduled at the Sanchez Pizjuan in Seville on 14 June. Oleg Blokhin’s opponent and the Soviet Union, Golden Ball in 1975, the year in which he triumphed in the Cup Winners ‘Cup and in the Uefa Super Cup with Dynamo Kiev, and the Georgian block of Dinamo Tbilisi, who won the Cup Winners’ Cup he won instead in 1981: there are the defenders Sulakvelidze and Chivadze, the latter also captain, the attacking midfielder Daraselja, who in December 1982 finds his death in a car accident, and Ramaz Shengelja, a striker with not great physical skills but with a good nose for goals.
Ready go and Zico produces a nice central percussion. Galinho pulls and Rinat Dasaev, Spartak Moscow goalkeeper, responds without fear: the impression is that it will be a good match, but that in the end Selecao will have no difficulty in winning. Perhaps a sort of re-edition of Brazil against Jasin from 1958.
In fact, for Dasaev it will be an evening to remember, his “debut” on the international scene, the beginning of a career whose profile will follow in all respects rise and fall of the national team with the wording CCCP on the shirt. But, to tell the truth, in the rest of the first half the goalkeeper does not have to make very difficult saves, he is always well placed and then he is lucky that as the end of the great game ground by the Brazilians he always finds himself Serginho, authentic wrath of God at home – and credited with 242 goals in 399 appearances with San Paolo between 1973 and 1982 -, but decidedly inaccurate in the Sevillian evening. And not only that…
Things for the green-golds get decidedly worse when the Soviets start to stick their heads out. A penalty foul on Shengelija is blissfully ignored by the Spanish referee Lamo Castillo, then at 34 ‘a harmless shot by Bal is not held back by Valdir Peres and ends up inside.
Those present at the stadium and the opponents on TV understand at that precise moment the bug of that Selecaoworld-wide: that if you have an attacker who does not score but many classy men, then sooner or later you throw her into the same; but if you have an extreme defender who doesn’t give you confidence, you will always need a lot of goals to win by goals. See Sarria a few weeks later…
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