Brazil National Football Team

The Little Canary or the Samba Kings as the Brazil national football team is popularly known as represents Brazil and is governed by Brazilian Football Confederation. The Brazilian’s have near perfected the sport and quoted as “The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it.” Brazil is the only national team who has played in every world cup tournament. Brazil won the world cup title on five occasions, making it the most successful national team in the world. Brazil’s national team played their first match back in 1914 against Exter City club.

The 1958–1970 periods is considered to the Golden Era of the Brazilian national team. They won three world cups during this period. Pele who is regarded as the best player of the century was part of the squad in the Golden Era. After winning 1970 world cup the team had a very difficult time defending their world cup title as the majority of key players like Pele, Carlos Alberto Torres, Jairzinho and others retired from the game. To everyone’s surprise Brazil was not able to regain the world cup title nor was able to reach the finals for 24 years. The title drought ended in the 1994 world cup series when Rosario captained the team to victory, they won against Italy in the final.

Brazil enters this world cup without Adriano and Ronaldinho, but Dunga’s men are in high on confidence and looking forward to lift the cup for the sixth time. In defense department, Lucio and Maicon are in good form and Julio Cesar is one of the best goalkeepers of the tournament. Though attacking midfielder Kaka had been inconsistent with his form but it would be a mistake to underestimate his talent. Felipe Melo and Gilberto Silva are likely to be Dunga’s choice for playing in midfield.

The Brazil is not the favorites for the cup which will take pressure off the team and Dunga’s young guns can play their natural game. Though the team lacks the star power it usually used to have but Brazil is known to pull out miracles.

Major Achievements

Brazil was the winner of world cup titles on five occasions (1958 Sweden, 1962 Chile, 1970 Mexico, 1994 USA, and 2002 S. Korea-Japan). Brazil has been consistently rated as the strongest football nations by Elo Ratings. Brazil’s biggest win came as a 14-0 win over Nicaragua in 1914.