Product Description

Mexico, the summer of 1970: Pele, Brazil 4 Italy 1 in the Final, Gordon Banks' save against Brazil, Bobby Moore and the Bogota bracelet, Bobby Charlton's substitution, televised match action (in colour), the single 'Back Home', the Esso coin collection . . . all this and more, the familiar and the not-so-well-known, feature in Jeff Dawson's account of the 1970 World Cup, the sexiest World Cup of all time. Where the events of 1966 have been well documented, any books dedicated to the 1970 tournament have been long out of print. Using interviews with players involved and personal childhood recollections, and having studied hours of videotape, Jeff Dawson, acclaimed author Tarantino: the Inside Story, pieces together the events of Mexico 70, inviting the reader to 'taste the Brooke Bond, smell the B & H and feel what it was like that English summer, switching on Good Morning Mexico with Frank Bough' - and also to remember what it was like when England had a decent international side.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51871 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-27
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Back Home recalls the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico as the zenith of the beautiful game; when the great Brazilian team of all time showed the world how football could and should be played; when Pele, Jairzinho, Rivelino and company produced perhaps the most dazzling football ever played on the world stage. For the English, however, the 1970 finals will always be remembered at least as well as the tournament when England's reign as World champions was brought to an end and when West Germany took their revenge for the events of four years before in the dramatic quarter-final in Leon.

This is why Jeff Dawson's book works. Brazil may have been the eventual champions, but the English provided equally good headlines: Bobby Moore, England's captain and the stolen jewellery in Bogota, the save of the century that keeper Gordon Bank made from Pele, manager Ramsay's fateful decision to substitute the talismanic Bobby Charlton in the quarter-final versus West Germany, and the absence of Banks from that decisive game due to a mysterious stomach bug, leaving Bonetti to falter as English custodian. With such material, Dawson has a real tale to tell, and he does so admirably conveying the feeling that surrounded the tournament; colour TV pictures, a carnival atmosphere and those Brazilians provided something seemingly more exotic than standard football fare. And that's not to mention the final itself, or the Brazil-England game, or the pulsating semi-final between Italy and West Germany. Unlike England in 1970, this blow-by-blow account of the events surrounding the games in Mexico is a winner. --Trevor Crowe

Synopsis
Mexico, the summer of 1970: Pele, Brazil 4 Italy 1 in the Final, Gordon Banks' save against Brazil, Bobby Moore and the Bogota bracelet, Bobby Charlton's substitution, televised match action (in colour), the single "Back Home", the Esso coin collection...all this and more, the familiar and the not-so-well-known, feature in Jeff Dawson's account of the 1970 World Cup, the sexiest World Cup of all time. Where the events of 1966 have been well documented, any books dedicated to the 1970 tournament have been long out of print. Using interviews with players involved and personal childhood recollections, and having studied hours of videotape, Jeff Dawson pieces together the events of Mexico 70, inviting the reader to "taste the Brooke Bond, smell the B&H and feel what it was like that English summer, switching on Good morning Mexico with Frank Bough" - and also to remember what it was like when England international side.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful
The 1970 World Cup is one of my first football memories and this was an excellent chance to re-live probably the best ever competition. The author describes the build up and the tournament in a wonderfully enjoyable way and it was a real pleasure to read.

Back Home : England and the 1970 World Cup
This is a book with everything; devastating pace, wonderful flair, superb organisation, impeccable poise, and faultless technical ability. Like its subjects, Moore, Charlton, Pele and Beckenbauer, it has a timeless quality and may well become the definitive work on the 1970 World Cup, probably the greatest World Cup tournament played so far.

Written, naturally, from an English point of view (and why not, we were the World Champions) the book catalogues the series of events both before and during the tournament which culminated in the cruel dashing of English hopes of remaining the dominant power in world football. All Englishmen should read this book to remind themselves of how good our football teams were both at club and international level, how we were feared by other European nations, and seen as being the only country which could seriously challenge Brasil.

The goal by the “small hairy German” Gerd Muller in Leon on 14 June 1970 changed the course of English football for the next thirty years and arguably started the development of a footballing inferiority complex from which we as a nation have never recovered.

Jeff Dawson writes with an obvious passion and love for the game. Whilst he details the undoubted injustices in some of the refereeing decisions, the calculated fouling of top class players by other top class players, and the obvious bias of the Mexican population towards the Brazilians and against the gringos - particularly the English who, worried about food poisoning, had brought their own fish fingers with them (in those days your average Englishman thought a tortilla was a cross between a tortoise and small dog) – the overwhelming message of the book is that football is a beautiful game and human frailties and imperfections are a vital part of the beauty, drama, and magic.

If you were around at the time and can remember the 1970 World Cup then this book will rekindle and restore many wonderful memories. If you weren’t around then enjoy it just as a brilliant potted history of a fantastic event.

The Ultimate Story Of A World Cup
Anybody who wants to read about the up's and down's of a World Cup campaign should definitely read this book.It tells the tale of the epic battle against Brazil and also tells the story about that bracelet incident in Colombia.
It tells how the team was relaxing in an hotel when the Colombian police came and took Bobby Moore away for questioning with regards to the bracelet and it tells how Bobby was set up by the Colombians and how he has never had his name cleared or how the Colombians have never apologised to either Bobby,his family or the England team.
It also tells how once the World Cup was over it was back to normal ie:mowing the lawn and Wimbledon was on the telly.
Definitely a book for Football lovers of all ages.