They are the greatest.
When you think of just how Brazil Qualified for the 2002 World Cup then eventually won it, it could be the greatest story ever told. There have always been upsets in the greatest show on earth but when the 4 times World champions stumble that is big news.

Before this tournament started lets have a look at some of the comments that were being banded around. Admittedly the comments & stats that were made, were at a time when Brazil was finding it hard to cope with pressure of expectation.

In their world cup qualifiers they played 18, winning 9, drawing 3 & loosing 3. It wasn’t the fact that they lost that shocked us, it was who they lost too. 0n the 15/08/00 they lost to bottom placed Chile who won only 3 games, drawing 3 & loosing 12. If that wasn’t met with outrage then worse was yet to come. On the 17/11/01 they lost to Bolivia who only won 4 out of 18. This made the last game on the 14/11/01 v Venezuela, the most important in Brazil’s world cup history. By this stage they had used 4 coaches & 60 players.

The job was given to “BIG PHIL” as he is affectionately known. The “BIG TASK” of bringing together the right combination was enormous. His job was difficult in that he could not decide on a starting 11.Today he says it was the worst time of his coaching career. He made the team more defensive than before, using up to 8 defensive minded players. You could see how much pressure there was to qualify when he asked the players to foul & waist time..

This prompted Brazilian, Pele, the greatest player ever to play the game, to say “The beautiful game was dead”. The flamboyant skill & creative attacking style that we had come to expect was no longer. It was replaced with ugly tackles & solid aggressive defense.

The Brazilian players were being used to promote a sponsor. They were playing with under strength teams short of stars. This compromising situation plus negative tactics prompted many to question their standing in world football.

They were beaten by some of the worlds lesser lights including our own Socceroos.

Despite all the concerns, Brazil beat Venezuela 3-0 in the last qualifier to save face & qualify, after all they are the only team to play in every world cup. The questions for Big Phil, (will Ronaldo be fit & would Rivaldo play it his best?) were answered last weekend in the world cup final v Germany. His charges shone like the stars we have come to expect. A 2-0 score line reflected how close the margin was but how far the Brazil of old had come.

Most of the world didn’t think their national team had any chance. How wrong they were.

PAUL WADE.