Brazilian legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, passed away yesterday. He was 82 and is considered by most experts to be the greatest footballer the planet has ever produced.

His and Romania’s names are linked to the memorable match at the 1970 World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, when the “tricolour” team lost 3-2 to the most valuable team in football history. The match also featured two future Politehnica Timisoara players, teammates in the team that will eliminate Celtic Glasgow from the Cup Winners’ Cup in exactly a decade’s time: Emeric Dembroschi, who also scored a goal against Brazil, and Ion Dumitru, who, in that match, even held Pelé!

An interview given to “Regele Fotbal” magazine, over the years (in 2005), by Emeric Dembroschi (who has just been designated, this December 2022, honorary citizen of Dumbrăvița, where he settled):

<- With what thoughts did you go onto the pitch, at the Romania – Brazil World Cup in 1970, in Mexico, knowing that you were up against a force?

– Our thoughts at the start, given the “fire” group we fell into, were to make a good impression, to improve ourselves, to show that we are a team of calibre. We weren’t scared at all, especially after the two good games we’d played previously (ed. – against England and Czechoslovakia), but it was about respect, because we were playing a superior team in every respect. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Brazil in Mexico was the best Brazil team of all time, and not only that, I even consider them the best team in the world so far. I have to say that I have the Brazilian Clodoaldo’s jersey at home, and when I want to remember that match I look at it.

– And yet you held them off, losing 2-3, and you scored a superb goal yourself, with your head.

– Yes, we didn’t qualify from the ‘lion’s den’ because of a lack of experience, not that we were any worse than our opponents. We were all playing in the country, doing 2-3 international matches a year, maximum four, lacking competitive experience, not being used to high stakes matches.

– Tactically, how did you prepare for the match?

– At that time the 4-2-4 system was used. That’s how Brazil played, that’s how we played. Tactically we were well prepared, we were cerebral players, everyone knew what they had to do, even if during the game situations arose that were unforeseen compared to what our coaches had planned. We had a very good possession game, based on high technicality. If we were a bit more experienced, we could have had much better results even than the “Golden Generation”. Even the preliminaries were very tough, with only 16 teams qualifying for the World Cup. Now, not to be too harsh, you have to be a loser not to qualify.

– What was Brazil’s weakness?

– Their weakness was defence. They were an ultra-offensive team, everyone was attacking and they did it almost perfectly, they had some great personalities, Tostao, Pelé, Jairzinho, and the opponents couldn’t cope with them. But statistically, you can see that they were conceding a lot of goals as well, because by attacking all the time, they were retreating more slowly, and when they lost possession you could catch them on the counter-attack. Their motto was clear: we take two, but we give four. And they had the potential to do it!

– Pelé is considered the most fabulous player in history. How did he make you feel on the pitch?

– He’s an extraordinary man off the field, a true gentleman. On the field, however, he was a real beast. He didn’t like to lose, he had to live up to his “King” badge and so he resorted to all sorts of tricks. He swore, he spat, he was very naughty. He called Liță (n.r. – Dumitru) a “chicken whore”, because he wouldn’t let him do what he wanted, he would put the bone. We didn’t go onto the field with fear. But the Brazilians grew up on Copacabana and had a better imagination.

– What was the atmosphere like in the dressing room after the defeat?

– It was a good atmosphere. I remember a trip to Baku in the former USSR with Bacau, where some national players were playing. Our goalkeeper, Ghiță, when we came out of the dressing room, told me that if we only got three, it was as if we had been beaten. And what do you think happened? We beat them 2-1. That’s how it was against Brazil. We gave two goals to a superpower and we weren’t upset. We were upset that we lost to England because if we hadn’t lost we could have qualified further.

– How much did Dobrin’s absence matter?

– The absence of Dobrin, Raducanu and Dan Coe would have mattered if they were at full strength. Maybe we could have done even better. We went with the standard formation, but the three weeks of training and friendlies led to the formation of that “11”. That is to say, the three of them were not fit enough to be included in the first team. They simply didn’t adapt to the time zone and the very hot climate.

– Did Dobrin mean to the ’70 team what Hagi meant to the ’94 team?

– Hagi played match after match, while Dobrin did not play in the World Cup and was only seen in two qualifiers, scoring one goal against Portugal. And I hear Florin Călinescu saying that Dobrin qualified the team for Mexico! Where did Dobrin qualify the team, when he played in only two games?! In the rest of the games who played? There were six of us who led that campaign from start to finish. In terms of footballing value, I can say they were close, but in terms of performance, my opinion is that there is no comparison. Hagi was the key man in the team, whereas Dobrin only played when he wanted to. And usually only on home soil, away from home he didn’t like…

– Were you rewarded in any way?

– We were each supposed to receive $1,500 from FIFA for participating, but the money was confiscated by the party. For qualifying we got 360 lei and 15,000 lei for the Czechoslovakia game. But the whole amount was only for me, Dinu and Dumitru. The rest of us were rewarded according to the performance we each had. I was graded 9 in the England game, I got 10 against Czechoslovakia and 9 against Brazil, coming out on top, the grades were given by the coaches. To give you an idea of how ‘loved’ I was by the local (national) press, I was only 10th in the end-of-year survey, and in the international survey I was seen as first. I mean the best Romanian footballer at the World Cup in Mexico, that’s why they wanted to make a statue of me. Unfortunately, everything remained at the initiative stage.

– Why this lack of objectivity on the part of Romanian journalists?

– They didn’t like me, I didn’t really “like” the press. There were other “pupincuriști” around.