Football, historically, has been very bad at understanding whether a bloom of brilliance is the beginning of a new age or the end of an old one. It’s tempting always to take the optimistic line and believe that this is how it will be from now on, but it’s also the case that what is celebrated is what we understand; the revolutionary often provokes unease. The tendency is always to believe each achievement is another step on a staircase of progress when just as often it is the culmination of a process coming to its end. Perhaps no event stands so obviously on a fault line as Mexico's 1970 World Cup, arguably the greatest international tournament there has ever been, won by arguably the greatest team there has ever been.
The 50-Year Legacy of the 1970 World Cup and Brazil's Historic Triumph
