| The Maracanã Smash (O Maracanaço) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Uruguay team | |||||||
| Event | 1950 FIFA World Cup | ||||||
| |||||||
| Date | 16 July 1950 | ||||||
| Venue | Maracanã Stadium,Rio de Janeiro | ||||||
| Referee | George Reader (England) | ||||||
| Attendance | 173,850 (officially)[1] | ||||||
←1938 1954 → | |||||||
The match betweenUruguay andBrazil was the decisive match of the final stage at the1950 FIFA World Cup. It was played at theMaracanã Stadium in the then-capital of Brazil,Rio de Janeiro, on 16 July 1950.
Unlike in other editions of the tournament, which conclude with a one-offfinal, the 1950 winner was determined bya final group stage, where four teams played in around-robin format. With Brazil topping the group, one point ahead of Uruguay going into the final round of matches, Uruguay needed a win while Brazil needed only to avoid defeat to become the world champions; neither of the other two teams, Spain and Sweden, could finish first. Thus, the match is often regarded as thede facto final of the 1950 World Cup.
Uruguay won 2–1; Brazil took the lead shortly after half-time thanks to a goal byFriaça, butJuan Alberto Schiaffino equalised midway through the second half, andAlcides Ghiggia completed the comeback with 11 minutes remaining. A victory of an underdog over a heavily favoured side, the result is considered one of the biggest upsets in the history offootball.[2] The termMaracanaço (in Portuguese) orMaracanazo (in Spanish), roughly translated as "The Maracanã Smash", became synonymous with the match.
Spectated officially by 173,850 people and possibly by over 200,000, theMaracanazo may have been the most highly attended football match ever played, challenged only by the1923 FA Cup final.
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 4 |
 Uruguay | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
 Spain | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
 Sweden | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| Opponent | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mexico | 4–0 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 2–2 |
| 3 | Yugoslavia | 2–0 |
| F1 | Sweden | 7–1 |
| F2 | Spain | 6–1 |
| Opponent | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bolivia | 8–0 |
| F1 | Spain | 2–2 |
| F2 | Sweden | 3–2 |
The road to the title in the 1950 World Cup was unique; instead of a knockout stage, the preliminary group stage was followed by anotherround-robin group. Of the 16 teams slated to compete, only 13 arrived.[3] The final four teams wereBrazil (the host country and joint-top scorers from the group stage, coming from wins overMexico andYugoslavia and a draw againstSwitzerland),Uruguay (who only had to play one match in their group, an 8–0 win overBolivia),Spain (who won all three of their group matches, againstEngland,Chile and theUnited States), andSweden (who qualified ahead ofParaguay and the defending world champions,Italy).
Brazil won both of their first two matches convincingly, beating Sweden 7–1 and Spain 6–1 to go top of the group with four points going into the final match. With three points, Uruguay were close behind in second place, although they had to come back from 2–1 down to draw 2–2 with Spain and beat Sweden 3–2, the winning goal coming just five minutes before the end of the game. The match between Brazil and Uruguay, on the other hand, would decide the title; a victory or a draw would grant Brazil the title, whereas Uruguay had to win the match in order to win the championship. Brazil had scored 21 goals in five games before the match with Uruguay, and had defeated both Spain and Sweden with larger margins than the Uruguayans had. As a result, Brazil was extremely confident of victory in the deciding match, with newspapers and politicians declaring victory before the game even began.[3]
The1950 FIFA World Cup was the only version of the tournament to be played with around-robin final round, and as such is the only FIFA World Cup to date to not have adeciding knock-out final. However, as the result of the match directly determined the champions, the match has come to be commonly referred to as the final, including by FIFA itself.[3][4]
The specialised press and the general public were so confident of victory, based on Brazil's almost indomitable form, that they had already started declaring Brazil the new world champions for days prior to the match. Newspapers such as theGazeta Esportiva inSão Paulo andO Mundo in Rio de Janeiro proclaimed victory the day before the game.[3] Brazil had won their last two matches (Spain and Sweden) with a very successful attack-minded style of play. Uruguay, however, had encountered difficulties, managing only a draw against Spain and a narrow victory over Sweden. The comparison of those results seemed to show that the Brazilians were set to defeat Uruguay as easily as they had defeated Spain and Sweden.
Moreover, in theCopa América, alsoheld in Brazil the previous year, the hosts had won by scoring 46 goals in just eight matches. Ecuador was beaten 9–1, Bolivia 10–1, and runners-up Paraguay were defeated with a margin of 7–0. Further, Brazil beat Uruguay 5–1.
Twenty-two gold medals were made with each player's name imprinted on them[citation needed] and the mayor of Rio,Ângelo Mendes de Moraes [pt], delivered a speech on the day of the game with the words: "You, players, who in less than a few hours will be hailed as champions by millions of compatriots! You, who have no rivals in the entire hemisphere! You, who will overcome any other competitor! You, who I already salute as victors!"[3] A victory song, "Brasil Os Vencedores" ("Brazil the Victors"), was composed and practised, ready to be played after the final.[5]
However, Paulo Machado de Carvalho, then aSão Paulo FC leader, but later head of the Brazilian squad that won the World Cups of1958 and1962, opposed such premature claims of victory. During a visit to the training session at theEstádio São Januário on the eve of the game, Paulo found several politicians making impassioned speeches to the players, as well as journalists, photographers and others arriving to join the "future champions". When he warned coachFlávio Costa about the risk of upsetting the players' concentration, Paulo was ignored. Frustrated, he told his son Tuta, who was with him, "we are going to lose".[6]
On the morning of 16 July 1950, the streets ofRio de Janeiro were bustling with activity. An improvised carnival was organised, with thousands of signs celebrating the world title, and chants of "Brazil must win!". This spirit was maintained right up until the final minutes of the match. The officially recorded crowd of 173,850 people at theMaracanã Stadium is an all-time high in terms of number of paid spectators for a football game; the actual attendance, including the thousands who entered the stadium illegally, amounted to up to 220,000 by some estimates,[1][7] and may only have been surpassed by that of the1923 FA Cup final in England, where anywhere between 150,000 and over 300,000 people are believed to have attended. Those figures are unlikely to be approached in an era when practically all high-profile matches are held inall-seater stadiums; until its first great remodelling in 1999, the Maracanã was mostly concrete grandstands with no seats.
The Brazilian newspaperO Mundo printed an early edition on the day of the final containing a photograph of Brazil with the caption "These are the world champions". Disgusted with the premature assumption, Uruguay's captain,Obdulio Varela, bought as many copies as he could, laid them on his bathroom floor and encouraged his teammates tospit andurinate on them.[8]
In the moments prior to the match, coachJuan López informed his team in Uruguay's dressing room that their best chance of surviving the powerful offensive line of Brazil would come through adopting a defensive strategy. After he left, Varela 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."[9] Varela then delivered an emotional speech about how they should go against all odds and not be intimidated by the fans or the opposing team. The speech, as was later confirmed, played a huge part in the 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." ("Boys, outsiders are just stickdolls. Let's start the show." or "Outsiders don't play. Let the show begin.")[9][10]
The game began as predicted, with Brazil attacking against the Uruguayan defensive line for the majority of the first half. Unlike Spain and Sweden, however, the Uruguayans managed to maintain their defence and the first half ended scoreless. Brazil scored the first goal of the match only two minutes after the interval, withSão Paulo forward Friaça shooting low past goalkeeperRoque Máspoli. After the goal, Varela took the ball and disputed the validity of the goal to the referee, arguing that Friaça wasoffside. Varela drew out this argument, going so far as to demand that the referee listen to him through an interpreter.[11] By the time the conversation ended, the crowd had calmed down. Then, Varela took the ball to the center of the field, and shouted to his team, "Now, it's time to win!"[citation needed]
Uruguay managed to take control of the game. When faced with a capable Uruguayan attack, Brazil showed their frail defense, andJuan Alberto Schiaffino scored the equaliser in the 66th minute. Later,Alcides Ghiggia, running down the right side of the field, scored another goal, with a low shot that went just under goalkeeperMoacir Barbosa (who, having anticipated a cross from Ghiggia's position, dived a moment too late to stop the ball from rolling under him), with only 11 minutes remaining on the clock. The crowd went virtually silent after the second Uruguayan goal until English refereeGeorge Reader signalled the end of the match, with the final score being 2–1 to Uruguay.
         Uruguay |     Brazil |
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Assistant referees: | Match rules
|
| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uruguay | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Brazil | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 4 |
| Sweden | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 2 |
| Spain | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 1 |
When the match ended, the stadium was filled with "disturbing and traumatic absolute silence,"[12][13] and famous radio journalistAry Barroso (briefly) retired after the match.[citation needed] A group of Brazilian fans started a fight with Uruguayans in a hotel lobby,[14] and eight Uruguayans died as a result of celebrations in Uruguay.[15] However, the players and most Brazilian fans behaved well in defeat; the Uruguayan newspaperEl Dia declared Brazil "the other winner" and said "if before the match we respected the Brazilian sporting power, after the encounter our respect grew and we even more profoundly admired the great spirit demonstrated by the Brazilians in adversity."[16]
Brazil did later rebound and win back-to-back World Cups in1958 and1962. Two unused squad members of the 1950 team,Nílton Santos andCarlos Castilho, were also members of the victorious Brazil squads that were to come. Santos played in both finals whereas Castilho only played in the 1954 FIFA World Cup and in 2007 was posthumously awarded the 1958 and 1962 winning medals as a squad member, having beenGilmar's reserve in both tournaments. Four members of the 1950 team—the captainAugusto,Juvenal,Bigode andChico—never played for Brazil again.
Brazil's white shirts with blue collars that were worn in the final game were, in the wake of the defeat, subject to criticism by the country's sports federation for being "unpatriotic", with pressure mounting to change the colours.[17] In 1953 and with the support of theBrazilian Sports Confederation,[18] a competition was held by the newspaperCorreio da Manhã to design a new outfit,[19] with the rule being that it must incorporate the colours of thenational flag. Eventually, the competition was won by newspaper illustratorAldyr Garcia Schlee,[20] who came up with the design of a yellow shirt with a green trim, blue shorts with white trim, and white socks.[19] Schlee had initially been deterred from using all four colours, believing that yellow and white was too similar to theHoly See.[18]
The new kit was first used in March 1954 againstChile, and has been used ever since.[21] The runner-up design was a green shirt, white shorts, and yellow socks.[20] When Brazil first won the World Cup in 1958, they wore an improvised blue kit as the new colours clashed with those of hosts Sweden.[18]
The term "Phantom of '50" was later used to refer to the fear that Brazilians andBrazil national football team feel of theUruguay national football team due to this loss. Each time Brazil and Uruguay play at Maracanã Stadium, the theme resurfaces.[22][23][24]
In 1993, after losing points in important matches (two draws withEcuador and Uruguay themselves, and a loss toBolivia in first round of the qualifiers), Brazil was struggling toqualify for the1994 FIFA World Cup. The final match of the qualifying South American group between Brazil and Uruguay was tense, surrounded by fear, as Brazil needed to win the game to qualify. Brazil beat and eliminated Uruguay by 2–0, with two goals byRomário at the end of the second half, who had been ignored in the tournament and was urgently called in to save Brazil.[25]
The theme reappeared in the Brazilian press as Uruguay qualified for the2014 FIFA World Cup.[26] Uruguay often emphasized the theme, giving the team motivation and encouragement in matches against Brazil.[27] Ironically, however, Uruguay lost 2–0 and were eliminated byColombia at the very same Maracanã Stadium in theround of 16 of the tournament.[28] When Brazil hosted the 2014 World Cup and again had a hard defeat, this time a 1–7 humiliation in the semi-final withGermany inBelo Horizonte, the game was subsequently known as "Mineirazo", given it took place at theMineirão stadium and echoed the same sense of defeat as in 1950.[29][30] Tereza Borba, adoptive daughter of goalkeeperMoacir Barbosa, who was scapegoated for the defeat for years, said the 2014 loss was enough to redeem her father's legacy, and most of the Brazilian media took the opportunity to contrast the 2014 semi-final as an embarrassment compared to the close defeat in the Maracanazo.[31][32] Ghiggia himself stated that while both games were traumatic, they could not be compared as the 1950 game had more at stake.[33]
Ghiggia was the last surviving player from the game; he died on 16 July 2015, exactly 65 years after scoring the decisive goal, at the age of 88.[34] Schlee died on 17 November 2018, aged 83.[35][36]
1950 FIFA World Cup finalists | |
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| Third place | |
| Fourth place | |
| Group stage | |
Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA) | |
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