Brazil: The rubbish tip
By Jeff Powell, the Daily Mail's Chief Sports Feature Writer
Monday, May 4, 1998
The World Cup, the greatest soccer show on earth, will explode on to the international stage in France on June 10 when the mighty Brazilians, champions for record fourth time four years ago, open their defence of the title.
The Finals involve a record 32 countries, bringing together very different soccer cultures . . . from South Korea and Iran to the giants of Germany and Argentina. Over five weeks, the Daily Mail brings you an intriguing insight into each of the 30 countries competing with England and Scotland. We kick off our series with . . . Brazil.
Road To France: Qualified automatically as champions.
World Cup Record: 1930 1st round; 1934 1st round; 1938 Semi-finalists/3rd place; 1954 Quarterfinalists; 1958 Winners; 1962 Winners; 1966 1st round; 1970 Winners; 1974 2nd round/4th place; 1978 2nd round/3rd place; 1982 2nd round; 1986 Quarterfinalists; 1990 2nd round; 1994 Winners.
Star Players: Ronaldo, Romario, Denilson, Roberto Carlos.
Coach: Mario Zagallo.
FIFA Ranking: 1.
William Hill World Cup Odds: 11/4 favourites.
Everybody's World Cup favourites are sailing for France on a tidal wave of accusations that right now they would have enormous difficulty beating the dustbins.
Now, while there is an awful lot of rubbish in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, it has not previously been said to include the Brazilian football team.
This rattling of the lids has come to a deafening crescendo since that night last week when the boys from the beaches slunk out of the Maracana, beaten 1-0 by Argentina.
Remember that this old stadium, crumbling as it is, remains the shrine of all shrines in a land where football surpasses even Catholicism and Macumba as the national religion. Brazil simply don't lose there. Have hardly done so since John Barnes scored his wonder goal there for Bobby Robson's England 14 years ago. Had never lost there to the hated Argentines.
Picture, if we must, Scotland winning at Wembley then multiply the chagrin a thousand times over. Imagine this result as the last cartload of straw coming on the back of defeat by the USA and a draw against Jamaica.
Now you're getting the idea. Although it is never easy to put into words the overwhelming importance of football and the World Cup in particular - to the people of Brazil.
While France dreams, Argentina presumes, Italy believes, Germany expects and England bravely hopes, Brazil knows it will win the World Cup. The Cariocans have their own name for France 98.
It is Penta, in anticipation that the only country to have won the Coupe de Monde four times is about to make it five. Or at least that was the Portuguese word for it . . . until last week when Brazil's World Cup talisman lost another layer of his shine and found himself revealed to serious doubt about his ability to deliver the golden prize one more time.
Mario Zagallo boasts the extraordinary record of having been actively engaged in all four of Brazil's World Cup glories.
From being a mesmerising winger in 1958 and '62 he graduated to managing Pele's great team in Mexico '70 and was Carlos Alberto Parreira's supervisory assistant when they won at USA 94.
Now, at 65, Zagallo takes not only his unique accumulation of World Cup wisdom to France but travels also in enforced harness with a younger hero in the pantheon of the beautiful game, the hugely popular Zico, who has been inflicted on him as a technical adviser. The federation made that appointment after the Americans and Jamaicans heaped all that humiliation on Zagallo's galaxy of stars.
Not even Ronaldo the wonder-boy, Romario the everlasting, Roberto Carlos the wall-bender, Rivaldo the nearly-ready or Denilson the expensive could save the boss from the embarrassment of being teamed with an unwanted partner in Brazil's management.
Ronaldo, at 21 the first young man to be elected World Footballer of the Year twice in succession, is also, at ú19.5million to Inter Milan, the dearest player on the planet. Until after France 98, that is, when Denilson will transfer from Sao Paulo to Spain's Real Betis in a package worth ú23m.
Calculate ú11m for Rivaldo taking Ronaldo's place at Barcelona, toss in Romario going home to Flamengo for ú3.6m, add up the others and the team which is about to defend the World Cup as supreme champions is the most expensive assembled, anywhere, ever.
Ironically, Ronaldo's childhood idol was Zico, who is now his World Cup manager's bugbear.
Disarmingly, the fast, powerful and deadly young charmer who is regarded as the best footballer on earth, still refers that accolade to his older sidekick Romario. Worryingly, for all the
pretenders to Brazil's throne, Ronaldo has announced his intention of establishing his right to the succession by breaking French legend Juste Fontaine's World Cup record of 13 goals in one Final tournament. Since Brazil have long since staked their irrefutable emotional claim to the heart, soul and spiritual home of football, they might as well pile up the statistics to prove it. There is no football team more dangerous than these boys when they are talking themselves down.
Brazil grow footballers like the Irish grow potatoes. They hold a majority of the best players on earth. Yet it was the same on the eve of America four years ago.
Forget Brazil,we were told. We're past it. No chance. Some hope. The samba drums never stopped beating.
We should close our English ears and remember the final match of Le Tournoi, last summer's full dress rehearsal for France 98, when England were dismissively beaten 1-0.
Colour them yellow and blue, wait for them to play it for real on the night and sit back and marvel at the spectacle.
They invariably rubbish themselves.
All too often that means that the World Cup is in the can, not Brazilian football in the dustbin.
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