Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The 5 time World Cup winners are always among the obvious favorites in any major international tournament that they compete in. Looking back at the history of Brazil’s national team in the competition, their first major success was winning the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. This particular Mundial was special for Brazil, because it set the beginning of the so-called “Golden Era with Pele.” There were many good and even great players on the team at that time such as Nilton Santos, Bellini, Didi, Zito and even the great Garrincha, but the “Football’s King” Pele set the bar so high that no one was able to keep up with him. Brazil won the tournament due to the great quality of the team as a whole, but the two players, without whom this would have been impossible, were Pele and Garrincha. They formed such a phenomenal partnership that, throughout the 12 years they played together in the national team, when both of them were on the field Brazil never lost a single game. This speaks for itself as to how important those two players were for the team. The same but more experienced team came back strong in 1962 World Cup in Chile, to defend their title. Unfortunate the injury of Brazil’s biggest “star” Pele threatened “Selesao’s” (Brazil) hopes of defending their crown as the World Champions. This fear lasted a couple days because, in the subsequent games, Garrincha showed the world how one player can single-handedly win the World Cup, as well as the best player of the tournament award. The third and last World Cup that Pele would win was in 1970 in Mexico. The mighty Brazilians led by Pele, Jairzinho and Rivelinho never lost a single game from the group stage to the final where they beat Italy with 4:1.
“Selesao” was about to wait for 24 years before they won the trophy again. Brazil won the 1994 World Cup in the USA as well as the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. The team that won in 1994 was not the most spectacular one, but was still led by great players like Dunga, Romario and Bebeto. The Brazilians were not considered as favorites at the beginning stages of the tournament, but eventually surprising everyone they broke the awful 24 yearlong “dry period.” “Selesao” brought a star collection of players like Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Roberto Carlos, Lucio, Cafu etc. for the 2002 Mundial in South Korea and Japan. Winning every single game, Brazil’s team, led by the tournament’s top goal scorer Ronaldo, dominated the Mundial and fully deserved their 5th World Cup title by winning the final against Germany with 2:0. Brazil was unable to place in the top 4 in both of 2006 and 2010 World Cups and has been generally struggling in the tournament ever since 2002.
By winning the Confederation Cup this year as spectacularly as they did, Brazil stated clearly to the world that they intend to take over the World Cup next year. Neymar Jr., Oscar, David Luiz, Marcelo, Alexandre Pato and Paulinho are just few of the incredibly talented players that Brazil’s team currently has on their squad. The new “diamond” of Brazilian football, Neymar Jr., will have his first chance to help his country in the World Cup competition. His talent and skills are truly phenomenal, but many critics are saying that he would not be able to keep the same level of performance if he goes to Europe. Many people think that the toughness of play in the top European leagues, and having to go against the best defenders in the world, will definitely make him look worse than he does right now. FC Barcelona paid Santos 57 million euros for him this past summer, and he is currently playing for the “blaugranas” (Barcelona FC.) Neymar will have his first major chance to prove all of his critics wrong at the FIFA World Cup 2014 in his home country Brazil. All of the other Brazil’s players have a lot to prove next year, which will definitely make them one of the major contenders for the title. After all, the best place to win the World Cup is at home and the Brazilians have that chance next summer.
Keep following this rubric, for more information on some of the other big contenders in the upcoming World Cup.
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