Beckham ties Moore
Beckham's 108th cap has led to predictable comparisons. Most have been pretty sensible. Both are absolute credits to Englsh football. Beckham is among the best to have pulled on a jersey with the three lions. Moore was simply the best defensive player to have played the game. Like Finney, he has not been given his due.
Perfection is not a human attribute. Yet I cannot imagine a way in which Moore's tackling technique could be improved. (I'm not claiming every tackle was perfect, just (!) his technique.) His stand-up tackles were things of beauty. Further, beyond technique there was his uncanny reading of the game that led him dispossess forwards at just the right moment and in such a way as to leave him immediately in possession and ready to start an attack. To make this paean worse, he also had a signature slide tackle that I have not seen reproduced. He would slide, come up on one knee as he prepared to take the ball with the other foot, complete the dispossession, clean as a whistle, and then come up to standing, moving forward, again instantly transposing defense to attack.
So yes, let's salute Becks and pull for him to break Moore's record but reflect for a moment on Moore's unsurpassed defensive greatness.