Uruguay v Brazil (1950 FIFA World Cup)

Maracanazo (Template:Lang-pt) is a term which is used to refer to the famous final group match of the 1950 FIFA World Cup, that took place in Brazil, when the Uruguayan team beat, against all odds, their Brazilian counterpart at the Maracanã stadium (therefore the term Maracanazo). It is considered to be one of the biggest upsets in football history, and one of the most incredible matches of all time.

Prologue

Positions before the final round

Pos.	Team	Points	Won	Drew	Lost	GDif	GFor
1	Template:BRAf	4	2	0	0	+11	13
2	Template:URUf	3	1	1	0	+1	5
3	Template:ESPf	1	0	1	1	−5	3
4	Template:SWEf	0	0	0	2	−7	3

The road to the title in the 1950 World Cup was sui generis: instead of a knockout elimination round (which is commonly used today in all competitions, not only football), the method to determine the champion was via a round-robin group. The final four teams were: Brazil (host country and big favorite), Uruguay (who only needed to win one match to access the final round, squashing Bolivia 8-0), Spain (who had left behind England in its group), and Sweden (who won the pass over the defending world champion, Italy).

The beginning of the final round was more than promising for the ravaging Brazilian crowd and press, as Brazil won heavily lopsided matches against Sweden (7-1) and Spain (6-1). Brazil scored 4 points, and was at the top of the group, followed by Uruguay, who had barely drawn against Spain (2-2) and managed to inch a victory over Sweden (3-2). Uruguay had 3 points by the final fixture. Even though it wasn't structured to be that way, the final fixture had the Spain-Sweden match with the characteristic of a "third place match", although a draw would be enough to give Spain third place while Sweden needed to win, while the Brazil-Uruguay match was the Championship decider. Even so, a draw would have granted Brazil the title, due to the number of points, whereas Uruguay had to win the match in order to win the championship.

Anticipated celebration

The specialized press and the general public had already started claiming Brazil as the new world champions for days prior to the final, and they had reasons to do so. Brazil had won their last 2 matches with a very offensive-minded style of gameplay against which all efforts had proved fruitless. On the other hand, Uruguay had encountered extreme difficulties in their matches with Spain and Sweden, managing only a draw against Spain and a narrow victory over Sweden. When those results were compared, it was pretty obvious to everyone that Brazil were set to defeat Uruguay as easily as they had dispensed with Spain and Sweden.

On the morning of July 16, 1950, the streets of Rio de Janeiro were bustling with activity. An improvised carnival was organized, with thousands of signs celebrating the world title, and chants of "Brazil must win!". This encouraging spirit never ceased, right up until the kickoff of the final match, which filled the legendary stadium of 'Maracanã' with an audience of approximately 200,000 people, a record for a football match that remains unbeaten till this day.

How Uruguay prepared

In Uruguay's locker room in the moments prior to the match, coach Juan López informed his team that their best chance of surviving the powerful offensive line of Brazil would come through adopting a defensive strategy. After he left, Obdulio Varela, captain of the team, stood up and addressed the team himself, saying "Juancito is a good man, but today, he is wrong. If we play defensively against Brazil, our fate will be no different from Spain or Sweden." Varela then delivered an emotional speech about how they must face all the odds and not to be intimidated by the fans or the opposing team. The speech, as was later confirmed, played a huge part in the final outcome of the game. In response to his squad's underdog status, the captain delivered the memorable line, "[Muchachos, los de afuera son de palo. Que comience la función] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)", which could be translated as "Boys, outsiders don't play. Let the show begin."

The Match

Squads

Country	Players
Template:BRAf	Barbosa (GK) - Augusto - Juvenal - Bauer - Danilo - Bigode - Friaca - Zizinho - Ademir - Jair - Chico
Template:URUf	Maspoli (GK) - Matias González - Tejera - Gambetta - Varela - Rodríguez Andrade - Ghiggia - Julio Pérez - Miguez - Schiaffino - Morán
Referee: George Reader (England)

The game began like most people had already foreseen: an avalanche of Brazilian attacks against the defensive line of Uruguay. Unlike Spain and Sweden, however, the defensive line of Uruguay managed to withstand the barrage of shots launched against their goal by the Brazilian strikers. The first half ended scoreless, and even though the result still favored Brazil, Uruguay's strategy managed to decrease the intensity of the crowd.

Brazil scored the first goal of the match only two minutes after the start of the second half, which ignited the crowd's reaction. Once again, Varela played a big role when he took the ball and disputed the validity of the goal to the referee (arguing that the player was offside). Varela was finally subdued, then took the ball to the center of the field, and shouted to his team, "Now, it's time to win!".

Then, Uruguay actually managed to turn the tide on Brazil. Faced with a capable offensive, Brazil showed their defensive faults, and Juan Alberto Schiaffino scored the equalizer in the 66^th minute. The crowd died down a bit, before erupting into cheers for their local team again shortly after (since the draw still favored Brazil). Later, Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia, running down the right side of the field, scored another goal, with only 11 minutes remaining on the clock. The crowd was now dead quiet and remained so until English referee George Reader signaled the end of the match. Former FIFA president and mastermind of the World Cup, Jules Rimet, would then comment about what happened, "The silence was morbid, sometimes too difficult to bear". The once roaring crowd of two hundred thousand people stood in disbelief as they were being "stripped" of a title they had already considered rightfully theirs.

Jules Rimet had already prepared a speech in Portuguese to congratulate the winners, whom he expected to be Brazil. Also, the federation of Brazil had made 22 gold medals with the names of the players imprinted on them (at that time, FIFA did not present medals to the winning team), which also were never used.

Aftermath

Final positions

Pos.	Team	Points	Won	Drew	Lost	GDif	GFor
1	Template:URUf	5	2	1	0	+2	7
2	Template:BRAf	4	2	0	1	+10	14
3	Template:SWEf	2	1	0	2	−5	6
4	Template:ESPf	1	0	1	2	−7	4

With their result and celebration trounced, the organizers of the World Cup left Jules Rimet alone on the field, holding the cup in his hands. Without any fancy ceremony backing him up, Rimet had to actually call out for Varela in order to present him with the cup. As of 2006, this was the second and last title so far for Uruguay, and they have endured the longest title drought of all former World Cup winners clocking up to 60 years by the 2010 World Cup.

Brazilian society was in utter shock after the event. Many newspapers refused to accept the fact that they had been defeated, a famous radio journalist retired (briefly), and some fans even went so far as to commit suicide. The players of the time were all but crucified by the fans. Many went silently into retirement, while some others were never considered for the national team again.

File:Brazil-CBF.gif Brazilian outfit before the Maracanazo

Brazil decided to change the design of their national uniforms after the defeat since they considered it to be a jinx. Before the Maracanazo, Brazil's home shirt was white with a blue neckline along with white shorts, and this is when they changed it for what they use today, yellow shirt with a green neckline along with blue shorts.

External links

• 1950 - the greatest World Cup surprise so far
• Maracanã at the official FIFA World Cup website