Gordon Banks’ famous save from Pele’s header in the England v Brazil match during the 1970 World Cup.
This is probably stil the greatest televised save there has ever been. It’s written about in more detail on Gordon Banks’ Wikipedia page, but the basic points are the distance he covered across the goal, how fast he managed to get down to the ball and the fact that stopping the ball when it’s bouncing upwards is the hardest thing for a keeper to do. Any three of those aspects make a good save. All three within two seconds make it the moment of magic it is.
Here are a couple of photos to go alongside it. This classic photo shows Banks throwing himself to the ground, from the opposite angle to the TV footage, and this photo shows the action from the other end of the pitch. You can hardly see Banks, on the ground behind No. 4 (Tommy Wright), but look at Pele’s raised arms, he was so sure that he’d just scored, and look at the ball bouncing away over the crossbar.
Every time I see this, it reminds me why I like sport so much. Those little moments of magic.
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