Nov 21, 2002 05:10 PM
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(Updated Nov 21, 2002 05:10 PM)
Football or soccer is the game of the people and for the people. And no team comes even close to being half as popular as the Brazilian national soccer team in team sports.
The national team as we all know has won more World Cups than any other team. Pele arguably the greatest star of all time use to wear the famous golden yellow shirt. But Brazil is different not for these facts only. It is not just a game when the national soccer team plays. They play the 'beautiful game', they invented 'futebol-arte' or art-football, they hypnotize people of all ages around the world with their flamboyant, thrilling skills. The wizards of soccer do play the game differently. They rely on individual skills of the players which defies and outshines the other team's tactics. They are the romantics on the soccer pitch and have given birth to players like Pele, Garincha, Junior, Zicco, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho - and the list goes on. People have made them their idols because they put emphasis on dribbles and flicks rather than physical challenges and long distance passes, goal mouth centers for tall center forwards. The emphasis on these crafty body movements have made people compare Brazilian soccer with Samba, a type of song and a dance. They team possess players who are not just ordinary sportsmen but artists. The skill, the flair that make this team so popular comes from the fact that most Brazilian kids learn the first lesson of soccer from informal kickabouts. They are not constrained by rules, tactics or conventions. Children in every Brazilian neighborhood learn to perform extraordinary athletic feats on sandlots, grassy fields and beaches since most of them play using bundles of socks and it is not a major surprise that their ball skills would be more highly developed and inventive.
It is a pity though in the recent past Brazilians started playing the boring European type no nonsense football. It didn't pay rich dividends though and eventually the coaches had to go back to the Brazilian style, which is like an international trademark, patented during the period 1958-70 when Brazil managed to win three World Cups, the first team to do so. The 2002 soccer world cup showed glimpses of that earlier magic from the 3 Rs; Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho and soccer gods started smiling again. Brazil won the cup for a record 5th time.
The Brazilian soccer team is special not just for its brand of soccer but for all the following reasons too:
We love Brazil because of the carnival type spectacle that is produced each time they enter the soccer field
Because of their fans - rich and poor, urban and rural, afro-brazilians and euro-brazilians -- all standing united and urging the team on
Because we treat their super stars as if they are personal friends
Because the national team conveys a utopian idea of the weak and poor prevailing over the rich and strong
Because of the symbolic golden yellow on their shirts
I and and most people around the globe love the Brazilian Soccer Team because they are from Brazil!!!!!
