Brazil national football team
The
Brazilian national football team from
Brazil is the most successful national
football team in the World Cup play, with five
FIFA World Cup victories (
1958,
1962,
1970,
1994,
2002). A common quip about football is:
"The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it".
["World Cup History - The Facts and Stats", William Hill, May 28, 2006. URL accessed on 15 June 2006.] It is generally considered to be the strongest football nation in the world and is the only one that has
played in every World Cup.
Brazilians refer to national football teams (from any country) as "seleção", often capitalized when referring to the Brazilian team. The literal meaning is "selection" and can be translated as "the selected". A popular nickname is "Canarinho" (little canary), referring to the yellow shirt.
Brazil is the only nation to have competed in every
FIFA World Cup tournament and the first to win it five times. Because of this status, Brazilians often refer to the national side as the
Pentacampeão, literally meaning "five-time champion." Considering the two second places (1950 and 1998) and the two third places (1938 and 1978), as well as many other honours, it is considered the most successful national football team in the world.
Early history
The national football team of Brazil was formed in 1914, and played their first game against the
English club
Exeter City in that year, winning 2–0. In spite of the future success, however, the nation's early appearances were far from brilliant, partly due to internal strife within Brazilian football over professionalism, which made the
Brazilian Football Confederation unable to field full-strength teams.
|
Brazil's first match, at home against Exeter City in 1914. |
In particular, disputes between the
São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro state football federations meant that the team would be composed of players coming from either of the federations. In both the
1930 and
1934 tournaments, Brazil were knocked out at the very first stage. But
1938 was a sign of things to come, as Brazil finished a strong third, with
Leonidas da Silva making history and being the first player to score four goals in a World Cup match.
Brazil hosted the
1950 FIFA World Cup which was the first tournament to be held after
World War II. It was the only time Brazil hosted. The 1950 tournament was unique in not having a single final, but rather a final round-robin stage of four teams; however, to all intents and purposes the deciding game between Brazil and
Uruguay acted as that tournament's "final". The match was hosted at the
Maracanã stadium in
Rio de Janeiro, watched by 199,854 people, and Brazil only needed a draw to win, but lost the match 2-1 after being 1-0 up; this match has since been known in
South America as "
Maracanazo".
For the
1954 FIFA World Cup, in Switzerland, the Brazilian team was almost completely renovated, so as to forget the Maracanã defeat, but still had a group of good players, including Nilton Santos, Djalma Santos, and Didi. Brazil didn't go very far though. The quarterfinals saw the favorites Hungary beat Brazil 4-2 in one of the ugliest matches in football history, which would become infamous as the
Battle of Berne.
The Pelé era (1958–1970)
World Cup 1958
Brazil's coach,
Vicente Feola imposed strict rules on the squad for the
1958 FIFA World Cup, held in
Sweden. The players were given a list of 40 things that they were not allowed to do, including wearing hats or umbrellas, smoking while wearing official clothing and talking to the press outside of allocated times. They were the only team to bring a
psychologist (because the memories of 1950 still affected some players) or a
dentist (for, because of their humble origins, many players had dental problems, which caused infections and also had negative impact on performance) with them, and had sent a representative to Europe to watch the qualifying matches a year before the tournament started.
Brazil were drawn in the toughest group, with
England, the
USSR and
Austria. They beat Austria 3–0 in their first match, then drew 0–0 with England. The Brazilians had been worried about their match with the USSR who had exceptional fitness and were one of the favourites to win the tournament; their strategy was to take risks at the beginning of the match to try and score an early goal. Before the match, the leaders of the team, Bellini, Nilton Santos, and Didi, spoke to coach Feola and persuaded him to make three substitutions which were crucial for Brazil to defeat the Soviets and win the Cup: Zico,
Garrincha, and
Pelé would start playing against the USSR. From the kick off, they passed the ball to Garrincha who beat three players before hitting the post with a shot. They kept up the pressure relentlessly, and after three minutes which were later described as "the greatest three minutes in the history of football",
[Garrincha 122.] Vavá gave Brazil the lead. They won the match 2–0. Pelé scored the only goal of their quarter-final match against
Wales, and they beat
France 5–2 in the semi-final. Brazil beat the hosts
Sweden, in the final 5-2, winning their first World Cup and becoming the first nation to win a World Cup title outside of its own continent. A celebrated fact was that Feola would sometimes take naps during training sessions and would sometimes close his eyes during matches, giving the impression that he was asleep. Because of this,
Didi was sometimes said to be the real coach of the team, as he commanded the mid-field.
1962–1970
In the
1962 FIFA World Cup, Brazil got its second title with
Garrincha as the star player, especially after
Pelé was injured in the second game and unable to play for the rest of the World Cup.
In the
1966 FIFA World Cup, the preparation of the team was affected by political influences. All the major Brazilian clubs wanted their players included in the Brazilian team, to give them more exposure. In the final months of preparation, the coach
Vicente Feola was working with 46 players, of which only 22 would go to England; this caused lots of internal dispute and psychological pressure. The result was that, in 1966, Brazil had their worst performance in all World Cups. Of course, another perhaps bigger issue, was that
Pelé (who may have been at the height of his career) was chopped at seemingly every opportunity in the group matches. And even more surprisingly, while some of the fouls were brutal and seemed to cause serious pain, if not injury, none of the opposing players who chopped him were sent off or carded.
Brazil won its third World Cup in Mexico in the
1970 FIFA World Cup. Brazil fielded what has been considered to be the best football squad ever with
Pelé, in his last World Cup final,
Carlos Alberto,
Jairzinho,
Tostão,
Gérson and
Rivelino. After winning the
Jules Rimet Trophy for the third time Brazil was allowed to keep it for good. The 1970 Brazil national team is considered by many as the best national team ever.
1974–1990
After the international retirement of
Pelé and other stars, Brazil was not able to overcome
Holland's
Total Football and could not defend their title in the
1974 FIFA World Cup, finishing in fourth place.
The
1978 FIFA World Cup was notoriously controversial. In the second group stage Brazil were competing with tournament hosts
Argentina for top spot and a place in the Finals. In their last group match, Brazil defeated
Poland 3-1 to go top of the group with a
goal difference of +5. Argentina were only on a goal difference of +2, but in their last group match, they managed to defeat
Peru 6-0 and thus qualify for the final. Brazil was forced to settle for the third place match, where they defeated Italy 2-1. The controversy comes from the fact that not only was the Peruvian goalkeeper
Ramón Quiroga born in
Argentina, but had only let in 6 goals in the previous 5 matches, whereas the Argentines had only scored 6 goals in the tournament up to that point. Both Argentina and Peru have always denied any wrongdoing. Because of this and the fact that Brazil was the only undefeated team of the whole tournament, many Brazilians consider themselves the
moral victors of this World Cup.
In the
1982 FIFA World Cup, the team played beautifully, with talents such as
Zico,
Falcão and
Sócrates, under the coaching of the late
Telê Santana, considered one of the best Brazilian coaches of all time. They won their group in the first round group, then beat Argentina 3–1 in their first second-round match. The tournament favourites Brazil could make do with a draw, but a 3–2 defeat to
Italy, in one of the classic games in finals history, eliminated them from the tournament.
Paolo Rossi scored all three of Italy's goals. The football-art, was defeated in the match they still refer to as the "Sarria's Disaster", a reference at the stadium's name, and Telê would be much blamed for making an attacking system while the 2-2 drawn was enough. The 1982 squad is remembered as one of the greatest teams to be eliminated from the World Cup. After Brazil's quarter-final defeat in the 2006 World Cup, captain
Cafu compared his squad to the 1982 team.
In 1986, Telê and several players of 1982 returned to play in the
World Cup hosted by Mexico. The players were older, and could not repeat the same enchanting performance. Brazil was eliminated in a penalty shoot out against France. But when the match still was 1-1, Zico, hero of a generation, missed a penalty, what made the 'memories of an afternoon at Sarria's' came back to the crowd's mind.
In the
1990 FIFA World Cup, Brazil was coached by Sebastião Lazaroni, who was hardly known before the Cup and became even more anonymous afterwards. With a defensive scheme, whose main symbol was mid-fielder
Dunga, the Brazilian Team lacked creativity, and was beaten by the Argentina of
Diego Maradona in the second round.
More success (1994–Present)
Only in the
1994 FIFA World Cup, 24 years after winning the World Cup in Mexico, were they able to win another title. The struggles ended in World Cup USA with a final against 1970 opponents
Italy. A dour and defensive final finished 0–0 after
extra time, so Brazil and Italy competed in the first
penalty shootout for a World Cup in the history of the tournament, and Brazil won when
Roberto Baggio missed the final penalty.
Brazil finished as runner-up in the
1998 FIFA World Cup. After a very respectable campaign, the team lost to
France 3-0 in a problematic final game, with
Zinedine Zidane scoring two headed goals. Before the match started, star player
Ronaldo suffered health problems (or, it has been speculated, a nervous breakdown or an epileptic seizure, a few hours before the game. Football fans still hold uneasy feelings about that game, and many criticized the decision to reinstate Ronaldo into the starting lineup as he put in a poor performance. The coach of the team at the time was
Mário Zagallo, who won the World Cup as a player in 1958 and 1962, as the coach in 1970 and as assistant coach in 1994.
Fuelled by the scintillating play of the "Three R's" (
Ronaldo,
Rivaldo, and
Ronaldinho), Brazil won its fifth championship at the
2002 FIFA World Cup held in
South Korea and
Japan. The final was between the two most successful teams in the competition's history:
Germany and Brazil. German goalkeeper
Oliver Kahn had been the tournament's best keeper, but could not maintain that level of play, as Ronaldo vanquished his France '98 demons, scoring two goals in the Brazilian 2-0 triumph. These teams had never played each other in the World Cup before; there was however a match between Brazil and
East Germany in the
1974 FIFA World Cup. Brazil won 1–0.
|
Ronaldinho's goal in a friendly match against Haiti: 2004-08-19. |
World Cup 2006
Entering the
2006 FIFA World Cup in
Germany, Brazil was seen as heavy favorites to repeat their success at the previous cup. Brazil beat
Croatia 1-0,
Australia 2-0,
Japan 4-1, the first two being hard-fought matches, to come out at the top of their group. However, Ronaldo was heavily criticized by the press for being overweight and did not find his scoring form until the match against Japan. During the second round, they defeated
Ghana 3-0. However, Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals by
France by a score of 1-0. France was led by a rejuvenated
Zinedine Zidane who setup his team's winning goal, and Brazil managed just one shot at French goalkeeper
Fabien Barthez due to the heavy marking of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. The game was also notable for being the first time that the Brazil team had been shut out in consecutive matches against a particular team. France now has a 2-1-1 all-time record against Brazil in World Cup finals play. The 1986 draw ended in a penalty shootout victory for the French.
After the result of 2006, the team was criticized by many Brazilians. Some, such as
Pelé, blamed coach
Parreira and Ronaldinho for the team's early elimination.
[ is the most successful team in World Cup history.]]]
* Brazil remains the most successful team in terms of World Cup wins, with 5 from 10 semifinal appearances. It is the only team to participate in every single of the 18 World Cups since they began in 1930. Germany could not enter twice (1930 and 1950), yet had 11 semifinal appearances, and 3 wins. Brazil has played 92 matches (a record, along with Germany), won 64, draw 14 and lost 14. The team scored 201 goals (a record) and conceded 84, for a positive goal differential of 117 and a 2.18 goal average.
* Brazil have also won the Confederations Cup twice; in 1997 and 2005.
* The Olympic football tournament is the only global international competition in football that Brazil has never won. Although they have never won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, they won two silver medals (1984 and 1988) and a bronze medal (1996).
* The Brazilian youth team (formed by players under the age of 20) also won the World Youth Championship four times; in 1983, 1985, 1993, and 2003.By Year
| Year | Round | Position | Games | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals Scored | Goals Against | bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1930Round 16210152| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1934Round 114100113| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1938Semi-finals353111411| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1950Final26411226| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1954Quarter-finals5311185| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1958Final16510164| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1962Final16510145| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1966Round 111310246| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1970Final16600197| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1974Semi-finals4732264| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1978Semi-finals37430103| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1982Round 255401156| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1986Quarter-finals55410101| bgcolor=#f5f5dc | 1990Round 294| 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|
