The Weight of the World Rests on Brazil
For all their ability to excite and surprise, World Cups have a tendency to be conservative affairs. The early group matches usually fulfill the heightened expectation - allowing the minnows of the tournament to have access to a world stage usually denied them - but the knockout phases are where a certain soccer order is restored.
And within that hierarchy, while Spain may be the reigning world champion, Brazil remains the country to beat.
Brazil, whose postwar history is measured out in five World Cup wins, has no choice but to win the tournament. Not only are expectations high within the country - despite the endless news reports of civil unrest and an inability to complete its stadiums on time - but also from abroad. Brazil remains everyone's favorite. The country has become synonymous with the game.
And yet there is a potential spoiler from within Latin America. Argentina, a soccer superpower and a leading exporter of players around the world, hopes to ruin Brazil's coronation.
Brazil knows heartbreak. In the 1950 World Cup final, Uruguay dealt the knockout blow to Brazil's psyche in its 2-1 victory in the Maracanã stadium. What became known as the Maracanazo forced the country to reassess itself. Defeat proved that Brazil could not compete.
The Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues described the loss as an assault: The Uruguayan captain 'ripped the title from us. I said, 'ripped' as if I would say 'extracted' the title from us as if it were a tooth.'
Not having been subjected to the atrocities of two World Wars - though Brazil did send 25,000 troops to fight on the side of the allies after 1942 - the country expressed its suffering in hyperbole. Hiroshima, Waterloo, Götterdämmerung were the most famous epithets. The defeat transformed a simple soccer match into national history.
Uruguay may have been the catalyst that turned Brazil into the world's most successful national team, but Brazil's greatest rivalry remains with Argentina. The two nations have history. The rivalry became so problematic that between 1946 and 1956 the countries failed to play each other in a competitive match. When Brazil defeated Argentina by a single goal in the 1956 South American championship, it was the first time it had beaten its rival in formal competition since 1922. There was no love lost between the countries, either.
Despite the celebrated style of play called 'jogo bonito' - a form of marketing genius comparable to Pelé's postretirement career - the Brazilians were not afraid to employ more violent tactics when it suited them.
Since 1950, Uruguay may see itself as Brazil's grudge match, but that august position is reserved for the Argentines.
At the 1978 World Cup, fear of failure loomed large over Argentina's match with Brazil. Predictably, the match, which would become known as the Batalha de Rosário, was as ill-tempered as these encounters had become. By 1995, the Argentines, who had conveniently chosen to forget Maradona's sleight of hand against England in Mexico nine years before, were appalled by the Brazilian Túlio using his to help himself score. Robbery and outrage were the twin accusations from the Argentine federation.
Even the countries' greatest soccer stars, Maradona and Pelé, have enjoyed an uneasy relationship. At the 1982 World Cup, Pelé singled out the young Argentine for criticism: 'My main doubt is whether he has the sufficient greatness as a person to justify being honored by a worldwide audience.'
More than 25 years later, Pelé was still criticizing him as he became the coach of Argentina's national team. Maradona's riposte was succinct: Pelé 'should go back to the museum.'
For the next month the pressure will be on Brazil to perform. The world demands that this host nation reassert itself at the top of soccer's hierarchy.
Argentina, always happy to oblige where impudence is concerned, will be waiting for its neighbor, most likely in the final. But then, the soccer gods tend to have other things in mind. Will the hosts exit the competition after the first round? This remains a possibility. After all, it is a Latin American World Cup, where anything can happen.
Post a Comment for "The Weight of the World Rests on Brazil"