I was listening to an NPR piece late some weeks ago, and I will try to find it and attach a link to this blog at a later point. I tried, but could not find it anywhere earlier this morning, although I did find a somewhat similar NPR piece on it, as well as some interesting articles on the subject.
This was a piece that I had written some weeks ago, after hearing that bit on NPR. I was going to publish it either just after Brazil got eliminated, or, barring that, just before the World Cup final n Sunday, if they had qualified.
The focus was on one moment in time, in 1950, when Brazil last hosted the World Cup.
Little did I know that this was going to be a more appropriate time than ever to publish this blog entry, given the nature and uniqueness not just of their defeat yesterday, but of how they were defeated.
Amazingly, I think that it is safe to say that the tragedy of "The Maracanazo" has some company today, and Brazil now not only has that one horrific memory of a defeat after being so close to a historic victory, but they now have, ironically, a legacy of failure when the world's biggest sports tournament is hosted in their home country. Yes, they have the most successful and accomplished team in the sport, still. But now, you have to add the legacy of their failing to win when hosting it at home into account.
So, here is the original piece that I had written, but not published, some weeks ago:
For a long time, Brazilians have taken a great deal of pride in their unique brand of soccer, which always stood out for it's artistry, creativity, and success. And Brazilians felt that this helped to give them a strong identity within the world community.
We now associate top success in the sport with Brazil, of course. But this was back in 1950, and at that point, the World Cup was still very young, with only a few tournaments held before the war years, and a younger tradition in the post-war years. And as incredible as it may seem to us now, with Brazil always being held up as the model of success for this prestigious international tournament, back then they had yet to win the whole thing.
That, however, seemed about to change. Brazil was the host nation, and their success that year allowed them to reach the World Cup Final match for the first time, and the whole nation was absolutely sure that they were going to win it, too.
This was a feeling that the Brazilians had shared together for quite a while. This was, in part, why they had built a stadium in Rio de Janeiro that could hold a capacity of 200,000! And, for that matter, it was the unifying factor for a country that had been weighed down with racial tensions in it's past, and much like today, with enormous disparities between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots.
Finally, however, Brazil was not only hosting the World Cup, but the national side had reached the final, which they were favored in.
Their opponent? The national squad for tiny, neighboring Uruguay. Surely, this should be a walk over, ad Brazil would, finally, assert it's own distinctive mark and position around the world. The national team would achieve something that all Brazilians could take pride in.
Victory was assured, and everyone in the stands just took it for granted that Brazil would win. It was inconceivable that any other scenario could happen.
The capacity crowd of 200,000, most of them locals from Rio, packed the stadium, the Estádio do Maracanã, felt the same way that everyone in the country felt on that day, prior to the game. No doubt that Brazil would win, and stamp their mark in the world. Newspapers had already prepared different headlines for the next day's edition. Rio had a festive atmosphere up to the game. And the home crowd promised to be the national team's strongest, and most vocal, supporters.
People packed into the stadium early, hours before the game, which was slated to begin at 3pm. Many early goers arrived by 11am. By noon, the place was packed, and the crowd had an excited, anticipatory buzz about it. History was about to be made, and Brazil would win their first ever world championship.
When the Brazilian team finally made an appearance, the crowd roared to life.
Alcides Ghiggia, the Uruguayan standout, recalled on the NPR piece that he tried not to look at the crowd, tried not to focus on them, or anything. He just wanted to dispense with the opening ceremonies, and get focused on the game.
Eventually, the game began, and it was going exactly according to script, with an aggressive Brazilian attack. Uruguay braced itself, and did what it could to keep the Brazilian attack in check, while the assembled masses waited on the edges of their seats, anticipating the inevitable Brazilian breakthrough.
When the first half ended, Uruguay had managed to hold Brazil off, and the game stood as a scoreless tie. The Uruguayans were just happy to have held off the strong pressure that the Brazilian team had been applying enough to keep them off the scoreboard.
But when the second half started, it did not take long for that to change, as Brazil's forward Friaça scored in the 47th minute. The crowd erupted, coming to life like never before, now fully expecting the floodgates on the anticipated rout to begin, with this expected breaking of the ice.
The home crowd was loud and raucous, as the victory seemed a sure thing.
At least, that was, until Juan Alberto Schiaffino scored the equalizer in the 66th minute.
And the stadium turned dead silent when Alcides Ghiggia put Uruguay ahead in the 79th minute. A stadium of 200,000 people that had been roaring and screaming with life and joy over the inevitable Brazilian victory were suddenly shocked into silence.
This is how Ghiggia later defined that moment (according to the article - ‘Maracanazo’ has become Brazil’s national tragedy - see link below):
“Only three people have reduced the Maracana to silence: Frank Sinatra, the pope ― and me.”
Here's another telling quote from the same article:
“When (English referee George) Reader blew the final whistle the Maracana was the setting for a huge wake,” wrote journalist Mario Filho.
Why did Brazilians take the loss so hard?
Well, they were beginning to define themselves in large part through the sport of soccer, because this was something on the international stage that the Brazilians excelled at (or assumed they did) more than anyone else. So, when they lost that final, it was a shock, to say the least.
Again, from that same article:
“It was perhaps the biggest tragedy in the contemporary history of Brazil,” says anthropologist Roberto Da Matta.
“It happened just as Brazil wanted to take its place as a nation destined for great things.”
How devastating was it?
Once again, here is a part from that same article that helps illustrate just how defining a moment this was for Brazil:
Left back Bigode, beaten twice by Ghiggia en route to the two goals, was also scapegoated by the press.
“I thought of killing myself ― that was the best (option) for me,” he said in Teixeira Helder’s book “Maracanazo.”
“Then, I told myself that even dead, the people would still have continued to hate me.”
Uruguay's Ghiggia did not himself recognize the enormity of the moment, although he would in time:
“I only realised what impact it had years later when people started writing books about the subject, when people started asking me about it,” he told AFP.
I like the two concluding paragraphs of the article by Leander Schaerlaeckens of FOX Soccer (Brazil's fixation remains on the 1950 World Cup they didn't win - see link below):
"No matter how well the national team does," writes Alex Bellos, author of Futbol (a book documenting the history of Brazilian soccer), "its contemporary history will always begin with the Defeat -- just as no amount of victories at the Maracana can mask that it started life as the stage of national humiliation."
There could be a reprieve from the trauma this summer, when another World Cup final is scheduled for the refurbished Maracana and Brazil gets a chance for vindication. A sixth World Cup title won where the very first was lost could assuage a lot of anguish, albeit probably not 64 years of it. And there may be no helping the Brazilians if they lose it.
That just might explain why, despite all of the successes that Brazil has enjoyed since "The Maracanazo”, it still seems to fixate on that one failure. And given just how the Brazilian team did lose yesterday, I suspect that Brazil now has two national tragedies to cope with, and the sting from this latest one will likely hurt for a long, long time, compounded by collective memory of that first tragedy, all of those years ago. Much like in 1950, Brazil today is facing a lot of problems, some of them compounded by the nation hosting this World Cup tournament. There is incredible poverty and staggering inequality in Brazil today. It has made moves to improve it's own standing in the world, yet it is often overlooked in that regard.
The one area that it has consistently stood out in, at least in the 20th and 21st centuries, is this sport, and especially the World Cup tournaments.
And the failure to bring that success at home, on the two occasions when it has hosted this possibly biggest and most prestigious of sports tournaments (the Olympics are probably the only other such tournament that can compare), will now likely come to define Brazil in this sport as much as their extensive success has over the last few decades, at least for Brazil's home fans.
Now, with the embarrassment of yesterday's crushing defeat to Germany in the semifinal, the nation probably wants to forget about the World Cup for a while. But the World Cup was supposed to be the distraction to take them away from all of the overbearing problems that the nation has been facing. Given the controversy generated by how much Brazil invested to make this World Cup a success, the fact that it will likely be defined by such a huge and glaring failure might be telling about the state of things in Brazil today. Far from an escape, this loss likely compounded the other problems that the nation faces, adding to it's woes in a way that most other peoples and countries cannot imagine.
Here are the articles that were instrumental in my completing this blog entry (albeit a bit late):
Brazil Has A Lot Riding On Its World Cup Team's Outcome by LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO April 17, 2014:
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/17/304041826/brazil-has-a-lot-riding-on-its-world-cup-team-s-outcome
Brazil's fixation remains on the 1950 World Cup they didn't win by Leander Schaerlaeckens of FOX Soccer May 10, 2014:
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/brazil-fixation-remains-on-the-1950-world-cup-they-did-not-win-against-uruguay-051014
Many of the quotes I used in this blog entry were taken from this article in particular:
‘Maracanazo’ has become Brazil’s national tragedy APRIL 27, 2014:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/sports/article/maracanazo-has-become-brazils-national-tragedy
Here is the Wikepedia page on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay_v_Brazil_(1950_FIFA_World_Cup)
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