Soccer in Sun and Shadow

Goal by Zarra

It was at the World Cup in 1950. Spain was all over England, which only managed to shoot from afar.

Gaínza, on the wing, gobbled up the left side of the field, left half the defense sprawled on the ground, and lobbed a cross toward the English goal. Ramsey the fullback was turned around, his back to the ball, off balance, yet he managed to reach it. Then Zarra stampeded in and rammed it home off the left post.

Telmo Zarra, leading scorer in six Spanish championships, had inherited the adulation formerly bestowed on Manolete, the bullfighter. He played on three legs, the third being his devastating head. His best-known goals were headers. In 1950 Zarra did not score that winning goal with his head, but he certainly used it to celebrate loudly, while squeezing the little medal of the Immaculate Virgin that hung on his chest.

Top Spanish soccer official Armando Muñoz Calero, who had taken part in the Nazi invasion of Russia, sent a radio message to Generalissimo Franco: “Excellency: we have vanquished the perfidious Albion.” Thus Spain finally got even for the defeat of the Invincible Armada in the waters of the English Channel in 1588.

Muñoz Calero dedicated the match “to the greatest Caudillo in the world.” He didn’t dedicate the next one to anyone. Spain faced Brazil and had to eat six goals.