June 10 – Greavsie On All Fours
THE 1962 World Cup often gets overshadowed by the events at Wembley Stadium four years later, but whether it’s fighting Italians, the silky skills of Garrincha or one of the most stylish posters ever made, the Chileans put on a heck of a good show. It was on this day back in ’62 that England took on Brazil in a quarter-final clash that provided one of the World Cup’s funniest ever moments.
England had scraped past the group stage, pipping Argentina on goal average to face an impressive looking Brazilian outfit, who topped their group despite seeing Pele hacked down in their first game against Czechoslovakia.
The coastal town of Viña del Mar was the stage for the last-16 match, and every man, and indeed his dog, were present at the Estadio Ausalito. They were treated to a master-class from Garrincha, the player of the tournament, who scored two goals as Brazil cruised past Walter Winterbottom’s side.
However, the antics of the bandy-legged womanizer they called the ‘Little Bird’ are not the enduring memories of the match. That honour falls to another animal, when a stray dog wandered onto the pitch and was trickier than an east-end car-salesman and evaded capture from officials and players with a mixture of pace and fancy footwork (or should that be paw-work?).
Obviously a fan of animal psychology, Tottenham striker Jimmy Greaves got down on all fours to meet the canine pitch-invader at his level and gave him the come hither eyes. The pooch wandered over and showing the sort of reactions that bagged him 39 goals in the previous season, Greavsie grabbed his four-legged friend by the neck, bringing cheers from the Chilean crowd.
These cheers tuned to laughter seconds later, when the crowd realised that the dog had urinated all over Greaves’ shirt. No one found it funnier than Garrincha who enjoyed the incident so much that he took the dog home with him after the match. Greavsie also managed to see the funny side of it, claiming that “I smelt so bad, but at least it meant the Brazilian defenders stayed clear of me.” Not clear enough though, as a 3-1 defeat saw England return home.
Meanwhile, there were no close shaves for the Brazilians this time as they put football’s second most famous dogging incident behind them and romped to the title. See Jimmy doing his best Dr Dolittle impression with Baddiel and Skinner below and if it’s more World Cup moments you want, it’s more you’ll get if you’re back here tomorrow.
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April 9 – The Messiah: Act One | On This Football Day on April 9th, 2009
[...] days, Shearer became the youngster ever player to score a top-flight hat-trick in England, breaking dog enthusiast Jimmy Greaves’ 30-year-old record. Not too shabby, when you remember his opposition was George Graham’s [...]