Football's special relationship

Always good box-office, Brazil glide into a sold-out Wembley this Wednesday to help the Football Association celebrate its 150th birthday. Good choice. Three of the distinguished visitors, guest of honour Carlos Alberto Torres, coach Luis Felipe Scolari and the recalled attacker Ronaldinho are particularly adept at blowing out England candles. Think Guadalajara 1970 and Shizuoka 2002.

If England is the mother of the game, Brazil is her most gifted, garlanded son and any meeting is bound to be special. "It's an iconic fixture,'' said John Barnes, who himself enhanced the history of this famous fixture with that memorable 1984 dribble through Brazil's defence at the Maracana.

The "iconic" nature of the fixture is confirmed in many ways, not least the listing of some of the names to grace the scoresheet in the 23 encounters: Garrincha, Pele, Tostao, Jairzinho, Zico, Bebeto, Ronaldo, Edmundo, Romario, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.

England have replied through the likes of Jimmy Greaves, Colin Bell, Kevin Keegan, Barnes, Gary Lineker and Michael Owen.

From four World Cups to 19 friendlies (including minor Tournoi-type tournaments), the teams have run into each other from Wembley to the Maracana, Gothenburg to Doha, Vina del Mar to Guadalajara, LA to Washington and Paris to Shizuoka. It reads like the itinerary of a Rolling Stones tour.

It is about the "romantic" side of sport for Barnes, of skill on parade. "I remember the Brazil team of 1982 - which is probably the best team never to win the World Cup - with Socrates, Zico and Falcao," Barnes said.

A measure of disagreement might come from admirers of the Dutch generation of Johan Cruyff, Rudi Krol, Johan Neeskens and Johnny Rep but Barnes's central point holds. That 82 team of Tele Santana's, also including Eder (noted for that volley against USSR and a chip over Scotland's Alan Rough) and the buccaneering left-back Junior, thrilled the world. "That was the Beautiful Game,'' Barnes said.

Two years later, in Rio, the England winger was himself acclaimed as one of the proponents of the Beautiful Game. "I recall getting the ball off Mark Hateley and starting to dribble,'' he reminisces. "I remember going around the keeper and putting it in. But I can't remember the bit in the middle." He kept swerving past Brazilians, including Leandro and Junior, until rounding Roberto Costa to score what one Rio newspaper hailed as "the greatest goal scored at the Maracana". Barnes will be in attendance at Wembley this week.

As excited as the English understandably become over this "iconic" fixture it also needs remembering that it is often an occasion that shines a strong, unforgiving light on English failure, including three defeats and a draw in their four World Cup games. Their competitive engagements seemed to start well. On June 11 1958, England held Brazil in the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg with Don Howe and Bill Slater adhering well to Bill Nicholson's defensive master plan to thwart Vava, Mazzola and Didi.

Garrincha, the Little Bird, missed that group-stage game in 1958 but was too good for England in the quarter-final on June 10 1962, in Vina del Mar in Chile, scoring twice in a 3-1 win.

On June 7 1970, in Guadalajara, Tostao and Pele invited Jairzinho to beat Gordon Banks. The Brazilian had no doubt his aim was true. "When I hit it, I knew," Jairzinho later recalled. "I just said 'goodbye, my job is done'." Brazil could already have been ahead. "I remember the save by Gordon Banks," Barnes recalled of the keeper's stunning stop from Pele's header earlier in the game, an iconic image from an iconic fixture. So was Bobby Moore and Pele's exchanging of shirts at the final whistle, mutual respect gleaming in their eyes.

Carlos Alberto Torres from that regal 1970 side will be at Wembley (not Carlos Alberto Perreira the former Brazil coach, according to the FA) but, unfortunately, Pele's slow recovery from a hip operation means he has had to apologise to the FA and withdraw from being a guest of honour. It is a particular frustration for Pele as he wanted to back in person the new "Make Bobby Proud" campaign by the Bobby Moore Fund, which raises money to tackle cancer. The campaign will be highlighted on hoardings and big screens at Wembley with the FA trying to break the record for most donations texted by fans at a game.

Pele surprised a few people, including Englishmen, when describing Nicky Butt as the best player of the tournament on the eve of England's World Cup quarter-final with Scolari's Brazil in the sticky climes of Shizuoka in 2002. All looked well for Butt and his team-mates after 23 minutes. Owen seized on a rare aberration by Lucio, who misjudged Emile Heskey's ball. England led. If England could hold their nerve and keep the ball, always the big "if'' questions, they could knock out the best team in a fairly average tournament. That moment, 07.53am BST, on June 21, 2002, could have been so pivotal.

Sadly it has been downhill ever since. David Beckham let Brazil gain possession, either jumping out of a tackle or because he thought the ball was running out, depending on your generosity of spirit. Rivaldo equalised and then Ronaldinho embarrassed David Seaman with that free-kick. When the law of the footballing jungle was surprisingly reversed, and Ronaldinho fouled Danny Mills and was dismissed, England had a chance, yet Brazil's calmness in possession and England's lack of ideas meant that Sven-Goran Eriksson's side went out with a whimper. England fans went back to counting the years of hurt.

Of the 14 used by Eriksson on that day of hope and dismay, only Ashley Cole will feature on Wednesday. Once berated by fans, Cole is now hugely respected for the way he keeps reporting for England duty despite all the abuse, even when nursing an ankle problem. Wednesday brings his 100th cap and Wembley will show its appreciation, rightly so. No player has matched Cole's consistency over the past decade.

Now 32, the left-back has been voted by the public on to the shortlist for 2012 Men's Player Of The Year at the FA England Awards at St George's Park tonight. Danny Welbeck, Joe Hart and Glen Johnson are also in the frame with the favourite Steven Gerrard, who will be presented before kick-off on Wednesday with his 100th cap, an honour earned in Stockholm last November.

Much to Eriksson's annoyance (and it takes a lot to get the Swede rattled), Gerrard missed 2002 because Liverpool sent him for a groin operation. That decision is still remembered at Anfield as one reason why Gerrard is playing now, 11 years on, having enjoyed a summer's rest. That thinking also shapes Liverpool concerns over Raheem Sterling representing England Under-21s this summer. It sounds like Roy Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers need a proper sit-down discussion to consider the best route for the teenager's development, be it tournament experience in Israel or cameo with the seniors in Rio on June 2.

Those England fans heading up Wembley Way may feel a pang of disappointment that neither Sterling nor Wilfried Zaha will be lining up inside. For all the celebratory air to the occasion, the game is important for Hodgson as he seeks to find the right blend capable of defeating Montenegro in Podgorica on March 26. Hodgson has opted for experience.

So has Scolari, to an extent, as he tries to turn Brazil into a force capable of flourishing on home soil next summer. Ronaldinho, now 32, and playing for Atletico Mineiro, has returned. Luis Fabiano and Julio Cesar are also in the squad. Scolari has to mix the old and new, Fabiano and Neymar, in time for 2014, making the Selecao more streetwise than the naive outfit they had been under Mano Menezes.

The last time Neymar was at Wembley, he was lying face down on the turf on Aug 11 after Menezes' side deservedly lost the Olympic final 2-1 to Mexico. Only Hulk really enhanced his reputation that afternoon. Paulinho is well known to Chelsea after his excellence with Corinthians in the Fifa Club World Cup and could work with Ramires and Oscar against Gerrard and Jack Wilshere at Wembley.

It will be a special occasion, and a poignant one: England and Brazil players will wear black armbands to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Munich air disaster and to remember all who perished in last week's nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil.