December 29, 2022
MARA-WHO?:
A GREAT REVELATION WAS AFOOT JUNE 8-29 1958 PELE MAKES HIS WORLD CUP DEBUT (IAN THOMSEN, 11/29/99, Sports Illustrated)
At 17 he was the youngest player in the tournament. At that timehis great talent was just a rumor internationally. An injury tohis right knee, suffered in a pretournament tune-up, kept him onthe bench for Brazil's first two World Cup games. The tensionwithin him grew as he waited for the chance that might not come.Then the team doctor cleared him to play, and he was insertedinto the lineup for the final game of the opening round. Withinfour minutes of his debut he was banging at the door of theSoviet goal, rattling the woodwork with a terrific shot. Peleassisted on the second goal in Brazil's 2-0 win. In thequarterfinals four days later he scored the only goal in avictory against Wales--"my most unforgettable goal," Pele wouldsay years later, because it set Brazil on a course for its firstworld title and marked his first step in becoming the world'smost famous team athlete.In the semifinal Pele unveiled all his skills. After France tiedthe game at one in the ninth minute--the first goal allowed byBrazil in the tournament--Pele grabbed the ball out of the netand sprinted back upfield for the restart. There were still 81minutes to play, and here was this teenager acting like aquarterback in a two-minute drill. "Let's go! Let's get started!Let's quit wasting time!" he shouted, waving his elder teammatesinto position. They stared at him, and then, together, theyscored the next four goals, three of them by Pele.Before he completed his hat trick, Pele was tackled viciously onhis frail right knee. "I went down, my knee hurting like thedevil, and then rolled over to glare at the player with purehatred," he would recall. No substitutions were permitted inthose days; had Pele retreated to the sideline, his team wouldhave played with 10 men and the tackler would have beenrewarded. Pele would have none of that. Minutes later, when hesaw the same defender closing in on him, Pele flipped the ballover the villain's head--a "hat" move, as the Brazilians calledit--scampered around him and blasted the ball into the netbefore it touched the ground.Over the three concluding rounds of the World Cup, culminatingin Brazil's 5-2 victory over host Sweden in the final, youngPele would score six of his country's 11 goals. After many ofthem he would sob uncontrollably: He could not quite believethat all would turn out well. To him the game moved slowly, asin a trance, and each time he achieved his objective it had theeffect of shaking awake the barefoot child from his feverishdream, which in fact was not a dream at all.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 29, 2022 6:14 PM