Brazil national football team

Brazil
Nickname(s)	Verde-Amarela (The Green and Yellow)
Association	Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF)
Confederation	CONMEBOL
FIFA code	BRA
FIFA ranking	1
Highest FIFA ranking	1
Lowest FIFA ranking	27
First international	Argentina 2–0 Brazil (Buenos Aires, Argentina; September 20, 1914)
World Cup appearances	6 (First in 1926)
Best result	Champions (1958)
Copa América appearances	10 (First in 1918)
Best result	Champions (1931)

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Bronze medal – third place	1932 Los Angeles	Team

The Brazil national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Brazil in international competition and is controlled by Confederação Brasileira de Futebol.

Brazil became the ninth nation to win the FIFA World Cup as they took out the 1958 FIFA World Cup by defeating France in the final 4-1

History

Early History

Brazil history in football started out in 1907 when a team called Exeter City headed off to Brazil in what would be a breaking news as for the team as football hadn't traveled to the country despite Argentina and Uruguay having an international friendly against each other only three years previously. With Exeter travelling the coast of the country for a month, five games were played during this period with the Brazilian teams ending up losing all of the matches.

The first taste of international football that Brazil played was held in 1914 when a team from Sao Paulo and Rio headed down to Buenos Aires to take on the fully fledge Argentina team in a game. The game which would be later described as the first game for Brazil ended up in a 2-0 victory for Argentina. Four more years after their first game, Brazil would compete in the first South American Championship at Brazil where they would join with Argentina and Chile. The team would struggle as they didn't win either of their games as they only scored one goal over the two games.

A couple of years later, they would get a couple of wins on the board with Uruguay joining the frame for the competition. After defeating Chile 3-0 in the opening game, they would once again fall short after they conced a late goal in the 85th minute to give Argentina the title. The final match showed a complete domination with a six-nil thumping over Uruguay. The following edition also saw the team win two matches against the same opposition, but they would end up in third place. This was as Paraguay had a nil all draw with Uruguay to finish ahead of Brazil.

World Cup appearances

In 1925, they received word that the South American Championship was going to be a qualifier for the 1926 FIFA World Cup which would be held in Spain. The first attempt at qualifying for a World Cup as they joined Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in competing for the two spots that were available. Brazil would qualify through to the first world after getting a win against Argentina and a draw against Paraguay. This meant that they would be of three debut nations that were going to compete in Spain.

Their first appearance in a World Cup saw them drawn with Spain, Scotland and Wales. In a shock to all of the watchers, Brazil finished top of the group with an opening win against Spain. After defeating Scotland 3-1, they went behind in the 29th minute when Ivor Jones scored the opening goal in the 26th minute. With the hope of finishing first starting to lose hope, they got the break they needed in the 84th minute when the Brazilians broke through the defence line. In the 85th minute of play, Lagarto scored his third goal of the tournament to level the tie and put Brazil on top of Group A. In the quarterfinals, they would lose in extra time with Yugoslavia player, Franjo Giller scoring the lead before it finally finished in the 103rd minute.

After skipping the 1929 edition, they got put into group 4.2 in the 1930 FIFA World Cup qualifying which was going to be held in Uruguay. They were joined by Bolivia and Peru, two new teams that were competing in qualifying for the first time. After Bolivia withdrew, Brazil only had one match to qualify and they had a convincing win over Peru as they played them all over the park for a five-nil win. This meant that they got drawn in Group C with Italy, Sweden and Egypt.

Losing their first game against the Swedes, they hit back with a two-nil victory over the Italians in the third Montevideo venue. This meant that they had to defeat Egypt in the final game of the group to qualify through to the knockout stage. Moderato scored the opening goal in the 33rd minute to give Brazil the lead and they had that all the way to halftime. In the 57th minute, Raqab Hasan scored the equaliser to level things. In the end, the result would stay the same and they qualified through to the quarterfinals. In the quarter-finals, they took on the Netherlands for a spot in the semifinals. With the game going to extra time, Jan van den Broek scored the winning goal in the 103rd minute to end the journey for Brazil.

The 1932 Summer Olympics was the next main tournament as Brazil qualified by winning the 1931 edition of the South American Championship after winning all three matches in the tournament. This meant that not only had they won the competition for the first time, but they would be entering the Olympics as well on debut. After easily getting past Mexico and Canada in the opening two rounds, they took on Argentina in the first semi-final. In what was a close affair, Brazil held the lead in the early stages of the match before Argentina replied on both occasions. As the game got close to extra time, Argentina went on the attack and it would be Guillermo Stabile that would score the winner in the 77th minute to end Brazil's chances. In the third place playoff, they would defeat the Great Britain three-nil.

Semi-finalists and failure

After they easily got through their qualifying group for the 1934 FIFA World Cup, they got drawn in Group A with Wales, Netherlands and Mexico. They comfortably finished on top of the group with five points with the only blemish being against the Welsh. This meant they were drawn to take on Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals and unlike the last two times where they lose, this time they came out on top with Leonidas and Carvalho Leite scoring to booked Brazil's spot into the semifinals for the first time. Their opponent is the Italians who only just scraped through the group stage before defeating Sweden in extra time. It didn't look they were the ones that got through easy as Italy put the pressure on Brazil from the start and with two different goal scorers in the first half, Brazil for once was in trouble. Patesko did get one back for Brazil but after Luigi Bertolini scored a third for Italy, the game was over and Brazil had been knocked out. They would later end up in third place for the tournament after defeating Wales two-one in the curtain raiser to the final.

The next major tournament for Brazil was the 1937 South American Championship where they would finish in second place behind Argentina as they lost in the final game when Enrique García scored the only goal of the game to get the title for Argentina. After the continental event, it was qualifying for the 1938 FIFA World Cup and much like last time, they only had to play the single match as they defeated Paraguay three-one to qualify as a top eight-nation.

In an unusual situation, they had to compete in a knockout style round with a lost meaning they were out. Brazil though struggled as they only just scraped through to the quarterfinals after having to defeat Denmark in a replay after Tim scored an equaliser to level the match. They would be knocked out by Portugal as they lost two-one with Soerio getting the winning goal.

After they didn't enter the 1939 or the 1941 edition of the competition, they re-entered the competition as they were joined with six other teams to compete at the 1945 South American Championship. For Brazil, they would finish in second place by goal difference after finishing one goal more than Uruguay which might help from the ten-one demolition of Ecuador. After skipping 1947, the nation would once again finish in second with this time finishing behind Paraguay after they lost in the final game of the competition by a score of two-nil. In qualifying for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, they would outplay Paraguay and finish on top of their qualifying group to make it through to the World Cup for the fifth time in a row.

In the group stage they were drawn with Costa Rica, Denmark, France and Spain. They wouldn't struggle in the group stage with a six-nil demolition of Spain and an eight-nil smashing of Costa Rica. In the end they would end on top of Group C with seven points with the only problem being a 1-1 draw against the Danes. This meant that they were drawn in the quarterfinals to take on Norway. In Helsingborg, Brazil would yet again be knocked out in the quarterfinal stage with goals coming from Ragnar Hvidsten and Villy Anderson ending the dreams yet again for Brazil.

They headed off to Finland for the 1952 Summer Olympics and with a weaker squad they got to the quarter-final stage of the competition where they would lose to West Germany. CONMEBOL would change the qualifying format for the 1954 FIFA World Cup with the 1953 South American Championship being the main qualifying section with the top two teams going through. After they smashed Bolivia 8-0 in the opening match, they battled to a nil all draw against Uruguay to lead them on three points. Then a shock to the system, Gómez Sánchez scored both goals in the two-nil victory for Peru and after adding a four-one win over Chile meant that they needed to defeat Paraguay in the final match to gain any chance of qualifying. The answer would be no as the match ended in a two-all draw and book Paraguay's spot into the finals at the expense of Brazil.

Champions of the World

Heading into the 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification, Brazil first had to compete in the 1957 South American Championship where the guidance of Mazzola and Vavá got the team to second place as they fell short as Uruguay took out the title. After they got through their qualifying group featuring Peru and Bolivia, they got drawn into Group D. With a group that had the World Cup champions (Hungary), Bulgaria and Mexico, they got through to the quarter-finals with wins over Bulgaria (3-1) and Mexico (2-0) before a slight hiccup with a 2-2 draw against Hungary. Mário Zagallo would get the winning goal over Yugoslavia as they became the number 1 ranked nation with that game. After knocking off Great Britain 3-0 in the semi-final, they would take out the 1958 FIFA World Cup with Vavá scoring a double in the 4-1 result over France to become the ninth nation to win a World Cup.

FIFA World Cup

     Gold       Silver       Bronze  

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D *	L	GF	GA
1906	Did Not Compete
1910
1914
1922
1926	Quarter Finalist	5th	4	2	2	0	6	5
1930	Quarter Finalist	8th	4	1	1	2	4	5
File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg 1934	Semi Finalist	3rd	6	3	2	1	12	6
1938	Quarter Finalist	5th	3	1	1	1	5	3
1950	Quarter Finalist	6th	5	3	1	1	18	5
1954	Did Not Qualify
1958	Champions	1st	6	5	1	0	16	5
Total	Champions	6/11	28	15	8	5	61	29

External Links

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