Brazil

1974–1990

After the international retirement of Pelé and other stars, Brazil were not able to overcome Holland's Total Football and could not defend its 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 were forced to settle for the third place match, where they defeated Italy 2-1. The controversy stemmed 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 seleção was defeated in the match they still refer to as the "Sarrias Disaster", a reference to the stadium's name, and Telê would be much blamed for using an attacking system while a 2-2 draw 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 but still capable of an enchanting performance. They were troubled, however, by an injury Zico picked up before the World Cup. Incessant questions about whether and when he could play undoubtedly had some negative effect on the team. Brazil met France in the quarter-finals and the match is considered an absolute classic of "total football". Neither side deserved to lose but when Zico finally came on in the second half (with the score 1-1), and Brazil were awarded a penalty late in the game, Brazil seemed set to win. But Zico, the hero of a whole generation of Brazilian football fans, missed the penalty - and after a goalless but thoroughly exciting extra time it all came down to a penalty shoot out. There Zico managed to score from his penalty but Júlio César da Silva and Sócrates missed, and Brazil was out. Memories of the afternoon at Sarria's came back to haunt the crowd.

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, and three full-backs, the team lacked creativity but made it to the second round. Against a weaker Argentinian side, the Brazilians applied heavy pressure and had numerous chances to score, but it was Claudio Caniggia who managed to find Brazil's net and eliminate them.

[edit] More successes (1994–2002)

[edit] World Cup 1994

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. Romário was acknowledged as the most important player of this Cup who lead Brazil to a record fourth World Cup title, scoring five goals including the game-winning header against Sweden in the semifinals. The Brazilians refer to this cup as the Cup that Romário won for Brazil.

[edit] World Cup 1998

Brazil finished as runner-up in the 1998 FIFA World Cup. After a very respectable campaign, the team lost to hosts France 3-0 in a problematic final game. Brazilian marking at defensive set pieces was poor, and Zinedine Zidane was able to score two headed goals from France's corner kicks. Also, Brazilian star Ronaldo suffered a nervous breakdown or an epileptic seizure a few hours before the match. 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.

[edit] World Cup 2002

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. When the groups were drawn, Brazil seemed to have been lucky; Brazil's adversaries would be Turkey, China and Costa Rica. At the end, it turned out that Turkey finished the tournament in third place, showing that indeed Brazil's group was stronger than most had expected. Brazil went on beating all three opponents, scoring 11 goals and conceding only three, and topping the group.

Next they defeated Belgium 2-0. Against England in the quarter finals, Brazil won 2-1, which had been the most difficult match till then. Ronaldinho scored a remarkable goal and assisted teammate Rivaldo for the victory goal, but was then sent off. The semifinal was against Turkey, which Brazil had faced in their group. Again, this match was difficult, as Brazil won 1–0 with a goal by Ronaldo. Rivaldo had scored one goal each in all five game up to this one but did not manage to hit the target in the sixth. He had seemed all set to repeat Jairzinho´s great achievement in 1970 when he scored in every game of the World Cup.

The final was between two of the most successful teams in the competition's history: GermanyWest Germany) or Brazil had played in all World Cup finals since 1950 - except 1978 (If the last game of 1950 is considered to be a proper final). 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 both goals in the Brazilian 2-0 triumph. and Brazil. Either Germany (or

Incredibly, 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: 19-8-2004.

[edit] 2002–2005

On June 29, 2005 Brazil won the Confederations Cup for the second time with an emphatic 4-1 victory over arch-rivals Argentina in Frankfurt, Germany. They also won another championship, the 2004 Copa América in which Brazil defeated Argentina in a penalty shootout. Argentina had defeated Peru in the quarterfinals, and Colombia in the semifinals.

[edit] World Cup 2006

Main article: Brazil at the 2006 FIFA World Cup

Entering the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Brazil were 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 in poor fitness 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 against France by a score of 1-0 whom Thierry Henry scored the winning goal. France was led by a rejuvenated Zinedine Zidane and by a strong defense which kept the Brazilian strikers under check for the duration of the game, Brazil were shut out, attempting just one shot at French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. 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 play.

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.^[5] The night after Brazil's defeat, vandals burned and destroyed a 7-meter tall fiberglass and resin statue of Ronaldinho in the Brazilian city of Chapecó, which had been erected in 2004 to celebrate Ronaldinho's first election as FIFA World Player of the Year.^[6] Roberto Carlos^[7] and Juninho Pernambucano each announced their retirement from the team and Juninho asserted that it was time for the players over 30 to retire from the team.^[8] Cafu, the Brazilian captain, made an infamous comparison between the team of 2006 and the team at 1982 World Cup, one that is remembered as one of the greatest teams that lost a World Cup.^[9] Two days after the loss, Ronaldinho and Adriano^[10] This reaction contrasted with other players such as Rogerio Ceni, who was ashamed of the game and said "some defeats are marked by struggle, but we lost in an infelicitous way, that wasn't what we had hoped for",^[11] and Zé Roberto, who cried and said that "the unity that we had outside the pitch, was lacking inside it".^[12] On July 19, Parreira resigned as the team coach. partied through the night in Barcelona, increasing the feeling of the Brazilians that they were betrayed by their national team.

[edit] After the 2006 World Cup

1994 World Cup champion Dunga was hired as Brazil's new team coach on July 24. His first match in charge was against Norway which was played in Oslo on August 16, ended in a 1-1 draw. His second match was held against arch rivals Argentina on September 3 in Arsenal F.C.'s new Emirates Stadium in London, in which Brazil defeated Argentina by a 3-0 scoreline. On 5 September they defeated Wales 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur F.C.'s White Hart Lane ground. They later defeated Kuwait club, Al-Kuwait 4-0, Ecuador 2-1 and had a 2-1 away win against Switzerland.

Dunga's first defeat as Brazil's coach occurred in February 2007 in a friendly match against Portugal, which is coached by former Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. In March 2007, Brazil bounced back from their first defeat under Dunga with wins in friendly matches against ChileGhana (1-0) in Sweden. (4-0) and

Unlike Parreira, Dunga has focused on the task of unemphasizing all players and treating them as equals. He did not just look for players in popular clubs such as AC Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc., but looked at the whole scope of Europe, finding individual talents such as Daniel Carvalho, Vagner Love and Dudu Cearense of Russian club CSKA Moscow and also Elano of Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk, currently now he has moved to Manchester City. Of the former Magic Quartet, Ronaldinho and Kaká were the only players who had a regular place in the Brazil squad. Adriano was called back in the squad for a friendly against Portugal in February 2007 which Brazil lost 0-2. Dunga is yet to select the last member of the Magic Quartet, Ronaldo.

[edit] 2007 Copa America

Dunga took the Brazilians to Venezuela, for the 2007 Copa America. They were placed in a group with Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile. In Group B, Brazil surprisingly lost to Mexico 2-0, then bounced back with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Chile, and suffered but won 1-0 against the Ecuadorians. They advanced to the quarter-finals, where they crushed Chile again 6-1. The Semi-Final game against Uruguay was slightly controversial. For the most part, Uruguay tackled and played violently, and the game ended 2-2, off to penalty shootouts. Brazil won 5-4. Their opponent in the final was to be Argentina. Brazil and Argentina met in the finals, and Argentina were heavy favourites. But in the 4th minute of the final, Julio Baptista dribbled past a couple of defenders, and scored an absolutely beautiful goal, surprising the Argentinian team. Then in the 45th Minute, defender Roberto Ayala scored an own goal. It was now 2-0. The first half ended 2-0. The second half began, and later in the 69th minute, Daniel Alves received the ball from a Vagner Love cross and flew off to the goal posts, shooting it into the side of the net and making it 3-0. Brazil won the 2007 Copa America, with Robinho being the top scorer.