Brazil national football team

Brazil national football team

Brazil is the most successful national team in the FIFA World Cup, being crowned winner five times: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. The Seleção also has the best overall performance in the World Cup competition, with a record of 73 victories in 109 matches played, 124 goal difference, 237 points, and 18 losses. Brazil is the only national team to have played in all World Cup editions without any absence nor need for playoffs. They share with France and Argentina the feat to have won the three most important men’s football titles overseen by FIFA.

About Brazil national football team in brief

Summary Brazil national football teamBrazil is the most successful national team in the FIFA World Cup, being crowned winner five times: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. The Seleção also has the best overall performance in the World Cup competition, with a record of 73 victories in 109 matches played, 124 goal difference, 237 points, and 18 losses. Brazil is the only national team to have played in all World Cup editions without any absence nor need for playoffs. In FIFA’s ranking system Brazil holds the record for most Team of the Year wins with 12. They share with France and Argentina the feat to have won the three most important men’s football titles overseen by FIFA. Brazil has also produced players considered as the best of the world at their time and among the best in history, such are the cases of Pelé, Garrincha, Rivellino, Zico, Romário, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaká and Neymar. It is generally believed that the inaugural game of the Brazil national football team was a 1914 match between a Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo select team and the English club Exeter City, held in Fluminense’s stadium. In 1930, Brazil played in the first World Cup held in Uruguay. The squad defeated Bolivia but lost to Yugoslavia, being eliminated from the competition. The last game played on Brazilian soil was the 1950 World Cup. The team went into the final round against Uruguay at Estádã do Maracanã in Rio, needing only a draw to win the match.

The match led to a period of national mourning, with the team then almost completely renovated with the colours changed from all blue and green to yellow and white. For the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, Brazil changed the team colours from all yellow and blue to white and green. They reached the quarter-final, where they were beaten 4–2 by Hungary, but still had a group of star players to forget the Maracanazo. They also reached the semi-finals in France in 1938, being defeated 2–1 by eventual winners Italy. Brazil were the only South American team to participate in this competition. In 1950, Brazil first achieved international prominence when it hosted the last game into the last World Cup played on Brazil soil, also the 1922 South American Championship, also in Brazilian soil. They were victorious at home in the South American Championships in 1919, repeating their victory, also at home, in 1922. They lost the final match of the tournament to Uruguay, however, winning the match and the match in a game known as “the Maracanazos” The match is known as the Clásico Mundial in Spanish or the World Derby in English. Brazil have a rivalry with Argentina, Italy, France, Uruguay and Portugal due to shared cultural traits and heritage, as well as the large number of Brazilian-born players in Portugal. Brazil also has notable rivalries with Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal.