Brynn Barineau

Tag: world cup

  • Brazil’s Hiroshima

    Brazil’s Hiroshima

    In his book, , British journalist Alex Bellos quotes the Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues, “Everywhere has its irremediable national catastrophe, something like a Hiroshima.  Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima, was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950.”

    Rodrigues isn’t talking about a war. Uruguay beat Brazil in the final match of the 1950 World Cup.

    Yes, a Brazilian compared losing a soccer game to having an atomic bomb land on your head.  I might find this comparison less disturbing if Brazil had lost to Uruguay in a border skirmish or some type of military engagement. Comparing the decimation of a city to the loss of a sporting event lacks just a little perspective.

    Or does it?

    Bellos devotes an entire chapter to recounting this single match.  He interviews everyone involved, from the Uruguayan who scored the winning goal to contemporary football anthropologists who study the match.  The resulting picture is that of a nation which was ready to announce its global presence and the dawning of a new era in Brazil.  Winning their first World Cup, at home in Brazil, would be the grand opening of modern Brazil.

    As a showcase of the big future in store for the country, Brazilians built the largest stadium in the world.  In 2 years.  One reporter said the stadium gave the nation “a new soul.”

    The Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro, is the most iconic stadium in the world. On July 16, 1950, it set a record for the largest sports crowd ever.  173,850 fans entered with paid tickets.  Combined with the dignitaries, journalists and special guests in attendance the crowd was estimated to be over 200,000 people.  Approximately, 199,999 of those people were cheering for Brazil.  One Uruguayan player brought his mother.

    By 1950 soccer, or futebol, had become a core piece of Brazilian identity.  A love of soccer was one of the few truly unifying traits of a diverse and expectant country.   Brazil had crushed, decimated, humiliated Spain (6-1) and Sweden (7-1) in the preceding final matches.  Rio’s O Mundo had already printed its front page: “These are the World Champions” alongside a picture of the Brazilian team. It was destiny for Brazil to win its first Cup on home turf in the greatest stadium in the world.

    Then they lost.  The final score was 2-1.

    Destiny, it seemed, had it in for Brazil.  At least, that’s what one Brazilian writer, José Lins do Rego, thought.  After watching people leave the stadium in tears, Rego wrote, “it stuck in my head that we really were a luckless people, a nation deprived of the great joys of victory, always pursued by bad luck, by the meanness of destiny.” The loss plunged the entire population into a crisis of self doubt.

    That game was wrapped up in nationhood and identity.  The loss was taken as a reflection on the nation.  Brazil lost because Brazilians are losers.  They are a “luckless people.”  I still sense a hint of this fatalist attitude in many aspects of Brazilian culture today. So maybe it’s a fair comparison, hiroshima and the 1950 World Cup.  Both impacted an entire nation.  The consequences can still be felt…

    You know what?  Bullshit. Who am I kidding?  You can’t compare a soccer game to the devastation of an atom bomb. You just can’t.  There is no comparison.  What can be said is that no single sporting event has impacted a country the way the 1950 final shaped Brazil and that you can’t know Brazil without knowing soccer.

    All of the information for this post came from Alex Bellos’ book Futebol The Brazilian Way of Life.  It is a great read.  Fun, informative, surprising.  Bellos uses soccer as a means of analyses for the country as a whole.  Anyone interested in Brazil or soccer should buy it immediately.

  • Great Expectations

    Great Expectations

    The World Cup ended last Sunday when Spain finally, after 116 minutes of play, managed to score.  For me there was one important lesson to be learned from the Cup. If people expected the same level of performance from their governments as they do from their soccer teams, the world would be a better place.

    Last week, O Globo reported that 13 coaches had lost their jobs in the wake of unsatisfactory performances.  13 coaches out of 32 teams. Some resigned with their dignity intact but disappointed at having fallen short of their goal like Argentina’s Maradona.  Some, like Italy’s coach, resigned out of shame.  France’s coach resigned and then found himself the object of federal investigation led by the president and a mob of angry peasants with a guillotine.

    And some were fired.  No face saving letters of resignation.  Goodbye and good riddance. This was the fate of Dunga, the Brazilian coach who committed the unspeakable crime of focusing on defense and only getting Brazil to the top 8.  The general consensus in Brazil seems to be that Dunga single handedly killed the beautiful game Brazilians have always played and for what?  To make it only as far as the quarterfinals?

    I have been amazed at how swift and harsh the condemnation of Dunga has been here.  He did get Brazil to the final 8, right?  The top eight in the world is not a bad place to be.  Only 32 countries out of the entire world even make it to the Cup.  Just being there is a big deal isn’t it?

    Nope, not for Brazil, Cameroon, Greece, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, or South Africa.  None were satisfied with a top 32 finish and the coaches lost their jobs within days of their team’s elimination.

    Now, imagine all that energy, passion and sky-high expectations directed at government officials.  Moody’s downgrades your country’s credit rating?  The finance minister and chairman of the federal reserve immediately submit their resignation. Massive corruption is revealed in the police department?  All captains resign, every officer does community service and a national debate ensues over the “values” the police should embody. Unemployment over 20%?  The entire legislature has to issue a formal apology to the country, resigns and call for new elections.

    The human development index ranks the country 153 (cough, Cameroon, cough) out of 182 countries?  Then the president, prime minister, all cabinet officials, the head of every regulatory agency and the post master general all resign in disgrace.  The country is in an uproar and no one can talk about anything except these humiliating results. Every newspaper, radio, and television news programs is asking how this could happen and what can be done to prevent this kind of embarrassment in the future.

    Of course, this will never happen.  Soccer coaches answer to a higher authority.  Politicians would have to follow the example of Italy’s coach, accept full responsibility and resign of their own accord.  I can’t ever remember an elected official accepting full responsibility for failure.  And public outrage will never force them from office. Everyone is too busy watching soccer.

  • World Cup Trivia

    World Cup Trivia

    Americans are embracing soccer as never before.  According to FIFA, Americans bought more tickets to the World Cup than any nation other than South Africa.  Last Saturday, more than 17 million Americans watched the US play England, a larger audience than the first 4 NBA playoff games and twice the size of the audience for the Stanley Cup final. (Apparently, the Stanley Cup is a championship for some weird ice-soccer game.)

    While Americans are watching more soccer, by Brazilian standards we’re still novice fans.  If we want to call ourselves true fans,  than we need to have an appreciation of the history of the Cup. Here are some facts you can use to impress any Brazilian you might run into during the World Cup.  Toss a few of these out in conversation and you’re sure to earn his or her respect as a fellow soccer fan.

    Very Important World Cup Trivia
    1. Brazil has won more World Cups than any other country.  They are penta-champions, hence the five stars around the logo on their jerseys.

    2.  Brazil is the only country to have qualified for every World Cup.  That’s 19 Cups if you want to sound extra impressive.

    3.  Brazil holds the record for most consecutive wins in World Cup play.  They won 11 straight games from 2002 – 2006.

    4.  Brazil also holds the record for most games without a loss, 13 from 1958 – 1966.

    5.  Pelé has an accent at the end of his name which puts the stress on the second syllable.  His name is correctly pronounced pay-LAY, similar to the word touche. And he’s the greatest soccer player to have ever lived. (Maradona is from Argentina and therefore not eligible for consideration.)

    6.  Maracanã, the world’s largest soccer stadium, was built for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.  173,000 ticket holders came to Maracanã to watch the final between Brazil and Uruguay but officials estimate there were actually more than 200,000 people in the stadium.  (Btw, Brazil lost that final, a fact you might want to avoid in conversation.)

    7.  Brazil will once again host the World Cup in 2014.

    8.  Brazilians call soccer the jogo bonito, beautiful game, and superior skill on the field is futbol-arte, football art.

    9.  Brazil has been, is and will be the best soccer team in the world.  Forever and ever.  Amen.

    You probably only need to use that last fact to impress the Brazilian.  That plus a joke about Argentina and you’ll be embraced as a fellow soccer lover in no time.

  • The World Cup aka The Single, Most Exciting & Greatest Event Ever

    The World Cup aka The Single, Most Exciting & Greatest Event Ever

    In case you’ve recently emerged from a cave or live in the United States, the World Cup, the global soccer tournament which occurs once every four years, began last Friday.  Well, it technically began last Friday.  As far as Brazil is concerned the World Cup truly begins today.  Today, Brazil plays it opening game against North Korea.

    I grew up playing soccer but being a soccer fan in the US is tough.  In terms of media hype, international soccer ranks above curling and below high school football championships.  That trend is changing but, Americans have, at most, a passing interest in it.  Brazilians, on the other hand, have a fanatical obsession that if directed at any other object would require medical treatment.

    Every building I’ve walked into over the last week, from banks to grocery stores to juice bars, is decorated with Brazilian flags.  Green and yellow streamers hang over the streets.  Walking in Leblon, I came across an intersection that had been repainted as the Brazilian flag.  While I’m writing this, I can hear Brazil’s version of the vuvuzela being blown and the game doesn’t start for 6 hours.

    The World Cup is everywhere.  In the grocery store, all soda, candy and chips have soccer themed packaging. The tournament is on the front page of every newspaper and covered in every broadcast.  Every commercial features groups of green and yellow clad fans having what is clearly the best time of their lives.   I can only imagine how lonely a non-fan must feel right now because the media’s message is pretty clear.  If you are not watching the World Cup, then you are an eccentric and probably dangerous recluse who is missing the greatest party and most thrilling display of human athleticism ever.

    So as not to miss out on the party, I’m going to put on my Brazil jersey and watch what the commercials promise to be the most exciting sporting of my life or at least of the next four years.

    Don’t miss it!  Brazil v. North Korea  2:30pm EST