Uruguay v Brazil (World Cup 1950)

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Uruguay vs. Brazil was a football match of the 1950 FIFA World Cup which decided the outcome of the tournament.

Strictly speaking it was not a final, but rather a deciding game in the final group stage: Brazil only needed a draw to clinch the World Cup. Uruguay beat their Brazilian counterpart 2–1 at the Maracanã stadium, and as a result, the term Maracanazo (Portuguese: 'Maracanaço', roughly translated as "The Maracaná Blow") has come to be used in reference to this game. It is considered to be one of the biggest upsets in football history.

1 Prologue
2 Anticipated celebration
3 How Uruguay prepared
4 The match
5 Aftermath
6 "Maracanazo" as a slang
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Prologue

**Positions before the final round**
Pos.	Team	Points	Won	Drew	Lost	GFor	GAg	Ave
1	Brazil	4	2	0	0	13	2	6.5
2	Uruguay	3	1	1	0	5	4	1.25
3	Spain	1	0	1	1	3	8	0.375
4	Sweden	0	0	0	2	3	10	0.3

The road to the title in the 1950 World Cup was sui generis (unique): 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 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.

[edit] Anticipated celebration

The specialized press and the general public had already started claiming Brazil as the new world champion for days prior to the match with Uruguay, and they had reasons to do so. Brazil had won their last 2 matches with a very offensive-minded style of play against which all efforts had proved fruitless. On the other hand, Uruguay had encountered 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 seemed 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 spirit never ceased, right up until the final minutes of the match, which filled the legendary stadium of 'Maracanã' with a paid attendance of 173,830 and an attendance estimated to be about 210,000 (a record for a football match that remains to this day).^[1]^[2]^[3].

[edit] 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", which could be translated as "Boys, outsiders don't play. Let the show begin".

[edit] The match

**Squads**
Country	Players
Brazil	Barbosa (GK) - Augusto - Juvenal - Bauer - Danilo -Bigode - Friaça - Zizinho - Ademir - Jair - Chico
Uruguay	Máspoli (GK) - Matías 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 with Uruguay winning 2–1. 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.

1950-07-16	Uruguay	2 – 1	Brazil	Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 180-200,000 (est) Referee: George Reader (England)
	Schiaffino 66' Ghiggia 79'	(Report)	Friaça 47'

[edit] Aftermath

**Final positions**
Pos.	Team	Points	Won	Drew	Lost	GDif	GFor
1	Uruguay	5	2	1	0	+2	7
2	Brazil	4	2	0	1	+10	14
3	Sweden	2	1	0	2	−5	6
4	Spain	1	0	1	2	−7	4

Jules Rimet had already prepared a speech in Portuguese to congratulate the winners, whom he expected to be Brazil. With their result and celebration trounced, the organizers of the World Cup left 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. The Brazilian Football Confederation 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 eventually had to be disposed of. A Brazilian victory song composed several days prior to the final was also meant to be played in anticipation of a Brazilian win. The song was never performed.

Brazilian society was in utter shock after the event. Many newspapers refused to accept the fact that they had been defeated, while famous radio journalist Ary Barroso retired (briefly), and some fans even went so far as to commit suicide.^[4] The players of the time were vilified by the fans. Many went silently into retirement, while some others were never considered for the national team again.





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.

As it transpired, the victory was a "last hurrah" for Uruguayan international football, as they have not won the title since. Conversely, Brazil would go on to win the World Cup on a record five occasions.

[edit] "Maracanazo" as a slang

The term Maracanazo is often used as a slang in Latin American football culture. It usually refers to the victory of an underdog playing in Maracana stadium either against the Brazilian National Football Team or against one of the so called quatro grandes (Portugese for the big four, refering to the four most popular teams in the city; namely Flamengo, Fluminense, Vasco da Gama and Botafogo). One example was the way the Latin American specialised media refered to the 3 x 0 victory of Club América from Mexico against local Flamengo in the 2008 edition of the Libertadores Cup^[5] which culminated in the elimination of the Carioca side from the competition. Having won the away match 4 x 2, the competition rules gave Flamengo a two goals head start being the 3 x nil achieved by Club América the minimum score for the Mexican team to go through to the following stage of the competition.