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Brazilian football (futebol)
is revered the world over and it is a privilege to experience it at
first hand. Games are usually enthralling: the mixture of
intoxicating attack and clumsy defense which has traditionally
marked Brazilian international sides is to be found at all levels of
the game in Brazil, which makes for plenty of goals and
entertainment. The stadiums are often spectacular sights in their
own right, and Brazilian crowds are fantastic: wildly enthusiastic,
and bringing along their own excellent live music - a packed
Maracanã has more drummers than the largest samba schools. The only
downside is a recent upsurge of crowd violence, provoked by small
but highly organized hooligan groups. It is not a good idea to wear
a local team shirt to a match, although foreign team shirts will
guarantee you a friendly conversation with curious fans.
Football was introduced into Brazil by Scottish railway engineers in
the 1890s, and Brazilians took to it like a duck to water. By the
1920s the Rio and São Paulo leagues which dominate Brazilian
football had been founded, and Brazil became the first South
American country to compete in the World Cup ( Copas) in Europe,
sending a squad to France in 1938. Brazil is the only country in the
world to have participated in every Copa. Getúlio Vargas was the
first in a long line of Brazilian presidents to make political
capital out of the game, building the beautiful Pacaembú Stadium in
São Paulo and then the world's largest stadium, the Maracanã in Rio,
for the 1950 World Cup , which Brazil hosted.
In that competition they had what many older Brazilians still think
was the greatest Brazilian side ever, which hammered everybody, and
then in the final, with the whole country already celebrating, came
up against Uruguay. Unfortunately the Uruguayans hadn't read the
script and won 2-1, a national trauma that still haunts popular
memory nearly fifty years on.
Yet success was not long in coming. A series of great teams, all
with Pelé as playmaker, won the World Cup in Stockholm in 1958 (the
only World Cup won by a South American team in Europe), Chile in
1962 and, most memorably of all, 1970 in Mexico . Mexico saw the
side that is now widely regarded as the greatest in football
history, with Pelé playing alongside such great names as Jairzinho,
Rivelino, Carlos Alberto, Gerson and Tostão. As three-time winners,
Brazil also got to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy, the original World
Cup. Most also agree that the 1982 Brazilian team built around
Socrates, Falcão, Eder and Cerezo was extraordinary, although they
lost 3-2 to the eventual winners, Italy, in one of the greatest
matches in football history.
It took Brazil until 1994 to reclaim the World Cup, deservedly
beating Italy on penalties in a dramatic climax to what had been an
occasionally dull final. It touched off enormous popular rejoicing,
as Brazil became the first country to win the World Cup for the
fourth time. This was a triumph built on such un-Brazilian virtues
as a combative rather than a creative midfield, and a solid defense.
Only in attack, where the genius of Romário found the perfect foil
in Bebeto, was the 1994 side truly Brazilian.
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Four years later, Brazil looked well placed to defend their crown in
France, but despite the galaxy of stars they had lined up -
including the prodigy Ronaldo - they had an unconvincing campaign,
were slightly lucky to get to the final, and then lost to a good but
not great French side to whom they were clearly superior on paper.
This loss crystallized a feeling of unease at home about the
direction of the national side, which was widely felt to have sold
out to commercial interests, with stars making their living in
Europe and forgetting their roots.
There is something to this: the 1990s did see an unprecedented
amount of money pouring into Brazilian football, and the fact that
the national side did not manage to score a single goal in open play
in two World Cup finals would have been unthinkable to the 1970 and
1982 sides. But the favelas and small towns, to whom football offers
a glittering exit route, are a permanent conveyor belt of talent,
and Brazil will always be a contender at the highest level.
The 2002
campaign, when the team was built around Ronaldo up
front, Rivaldo in midfield, Roberto Carlos at the back and A.N.
Brazil won for the fifth time the
World Cup.
The 2006 campaign is
built again around another Ronaldo. He is "Ronaldo Gaucho", AKA "The
Phenomena" among the press.
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Brazil football - soccer
