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Brazilian Football Confederation <br />
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Carlos Alberto Parreira , 2003 -
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Pelé (77)
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Argentina 3 - 0 Brazil<br/>( Buenos Aires , Argentina August 20 , 1914 )
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Brazil 10 - 1 Bolivia <br/>( São Paulo , Brazil 10 April , 1949 )
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Uruguay 6 - 0 Brazil <br/>( Viña Del Mar , Chile 18 September , 1920 )
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Winners, 1958 , 1962 , 1970 ,</br> 1994 , 2002
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The is the most successful national
Football team in the world, with five
FIFA World Cup victories, including the most recent tournament in
2002 . A common quip about football is: "The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it."
Brazilians refer to the national football team as the "Seleção," which literally means "selection" and can be translated "the selected".
Brazil is the only nation to have qualified for every
FIFA World Cup finals tournament and the first to win it five times (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002). 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.
in 1914.]]
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. 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 , 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 , 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 favourites Hungarians beat Brazil 4-2 in one of the ugliest matches in football history, which would become infamous as the
Battle Of Berne .
Brazil's coach,
Vicente Feola imposed strict rules on the squad for the , 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 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",
Pelé 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.
In the , 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 , 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.
Brazil won its third World Cup in Mexico in the . Brazil fielded what has been considered to be the best football squad ever with
Pelé , in his last World Cup finals,
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.
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 , finishing in fourth place.
The was notoriously controversial. In the second group stage Brazil were competing with tournament hosts
Argentina for top spot and a place in the World Cup final. 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. 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, where as the Argentines had only scored 6 goals in the tournament up to that point. Both sides have always denied any wrongdoing. Because of this and the fact that Brazil were the only undefeated team of the whole cup, many Brazilians consider themselves the moral victors of this World Cup.
In the , 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.
In the , Telê and several players of 1982 returned to play in the Cup of Mexico. The players were older, and could not repeat the same enchanting performance. Brazil was eliminated in penalties shoot outs against France.
In the , Brazil was coached by
Sebastião Lazaroni , who was little known before the Cup and became even more anonymous afterwards. With a defensive scheme, whose main symbol was mid-field
Dunga , the Brazilian Team lacked creativity, and was beaten by the Argentina of
Diego Maradona .
,
Only in the , 24 years after winning the World Cup in Mexico, they were 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 , losing to
France in a problematic final game when the star player
Ronaldo suffered health problems (or, it has been speculated, a nervous breakdown) a few hours before the game. The coach of the team at the time, was
Mário Zagallo , who won the World Cups as player in 1958 and 1962, as the coach of 1970 and as assistant coach in 1994.
Fueled by the scintillating play of the "Three R's" (Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho), Brazil won its fifth championship at the held in and Brazil. Ronaldo vanquished his France ' 98 demons scoring two goals in the Brazillian triumph. Surprisingly, they had never played each other in the World Cup before (there was, however, a match between Brazil and
East Germany in the ). Brazil won 2–0.
Brazil also won the
Confederations Cup twice, in
1997 and
2005 . 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 four titles of the
World Youth Championship in
1983 ,
1985 ,
1993 , and
2003 .
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