Taça Brasil

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The Taça Brasil (or Brazil Trophy) was a Brazilian national football competition which was contested from 1959 to 1968. It is considered by many historians the most important football tournament in Brazil at the time and can be compared, in importance level, to the current Campeonato Brasileiro.

Bahia, Cruzeiro and Botafogo were the only champions to have played all phases of the tournament, because until the 1968 edition teams from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo were already qualified to the semi-finals. Both Cruzeiro and Bahia, the only champions not from Rio or São Paulo, beat the great and world famous Santos FC of Pelé, Coutinho and Pepe.

In 1989 the Copa do Brasil was created, in the same cup-style and also qualifying to the Copa Libertadores.

[edit] Relationship with the Copa Libertadores

The Taça Brasil was founded to enable Brazil to provide contenders for the newly-created Copa Libertadores de América, an international club competition contested in South America and broadly equivalent to the European Champions Cup.

From 1959 to 1964 the winner of Taça Brasil was selected to be the sole Brazilian competitor in the next year's Copa Libertadores. In 1965 and 1966, the two finalists of the Taça Brasil were both chosen to represent Brazil in the next year's Copa Libertadores, which was expanded in 1966. In 1967 and 1968, the winner of the Taça Brasil qualified for the next year's Copa Libertadores, along with the winner of the Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa (also known as the "Taça de Prata"). 1968 was the last year the Taça Brasil was contested; in 1969 and 1970 the top two teams in the Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa became the two Brazilian entrants in the following year's Copa Libertadores, before the formation of the Campeonato Brasileiro, a Brazilian national league championship, in 1971.

[edit] Champions

Year	Final			Semifinalists
Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Semifinalists
1959 Details	EC Bahia	3 - 2 0 - 2 3 - 1	Santos FC	Vasco da Gama	Grêmio
1960 Details	Palmeiras	3 - 1 8 - 2	Fortaleza EC	Fluminense	Santa Cruz
1961 Details	Santos FC	1 - 1 5 - 1	EC Bahia	América	Náutico
1962 Details	Santos FC	4 - 3 1 - 3 5 - 0	Botafogo	Sport Recife	Internacional
1963 Details	Santos FC	6 - 0 2 - 0	EC Bahia	Grêmio	Botafogo
1964 Details	Santos FC	4 - 1 0 - 0	Flamengo	Palmeiras	Ceará SC
1965 Details	Santos FC	5 - 1 1 - 0	Vasco da Gama	Palmeiras	Náutico
1966 Details	Cruzeiro	6 - 2 3 - 2	Santos FC	Fluminense	Náutico
1967 Details	Palmeiras	3 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 0	Náutico	Grêmio	Cruzeiro
1968 Details	Botafogo	2 - 2 4 - 0	Fortaleza EC	Cruzeiro	Náutico