World Cup Brazil 2014

Marcos, goalkeeper of the Brazilian team who won the World Cup 2002, announced his retirement, at age 38. He retires after a career of 20 years, playing only for one team: Palmeiras; the team informed that no other player will wear jacket #12, the one Marcos used to wear; also, there plans of building an statue of Marcos to be planted at the stadium of Palmeiras.

That Brazilian team of 2002 had a few stars, mostly Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo.

However, I dare to say that Brazil would not be champion if Marcos weren’t there.

He didn’t appear much in the first games, because Brazil had a good defense (this is the specialty of the then Brazilian coach, Felipão), with Lucio and Juan in the back, Gilberto Silva, Kléberson and Edmílson in the middle defense.

However, in the tough moments, Marcos was there. Brazil won Belgium (see here and here), but when the match was 0 x 0, Marcos made spectacular defenses. And, most important, in the final match against Germany, also when the match was 0 x 0, again Marcos was there; had the Germans scored first, they would probably win.

Winning a World Cup depends on details; in 2002, the winning detail of Brazil was Marcos.

Marcos was never a media star, CBF won’t organize a farewell match, like it did for Ronaldo; but Marcos had the recognition of all Brazilians, for being a good goalkeeper with and excellent character.

Time Magazine published this article “Is China ready to host the World Cup – in 16 Years?“.

China is considering to bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026 (the bidding processes for 2018 and 2022 are under way, and biddings are closed). According to Time, so big is the presence of China in the World today (in Economy, Sports, culture, Politics, etc) that the country stands good chances to host the event in 2026.

Brazil and China have had a long, stable and peaceful relationship.

There are no precise numbers about the Chinese population in Brazil (Chinese live dispersed,  there are no Chinatowns in Brazil); in 2005, there were already more than 200,000 Chinese in Brazil (enough to fill up any of the Stadiums of the World Cup), but the number certainly has been growing fast since.

More recently, with the economic growth of both countries, the commercial trading exploded, and so did the number of travellers;  in 2010, China will be the biggest foreign investor in Brazil.

But can the China Team play in the World Cup 2014 in Brazil?

According to Time, no; football in China is incipient, is plagued by corruption and lacks attention from the Government (a tennis table team can win tens of medals in the Olympics, but a football team can win only one). The New York Times also asked where are China soccer stars?

However, it won’t be a surprise if China manages to qualify for 2014, again.  The Chinese played in the World Cup 2002, and played against Brazil; Brazil won by 4 x 0, the movie below shows the goals.

The Asia Confederation is given 4.5 slots for the World Cup (four secured slots, and a slot defined in a play-off against a team from other Confederation). In 2006, the Qualified teams were Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and  Iran (China lost to Kuwait). In 2010, the Qualified teams were Japan, Australia, South Korea and North Korea (China lost to the Australians).

So, it won’t be an easy task for China to qualify, as Japan, South Korea and Australia seem to be conquering a supremacy in that region; however, the remaining slots have been taken by underdogs (China was one, in 2002), and the Chinese Team could very well take one of them in 2014. Last June, right before the World Cup 2010, China won France by 1 x 0 (see movie).

What is certain is that if China comes to the World Cup 2014, it will only contribute to the success of the event.

Sport Club Internacional, from Porto Alegre, one of the main teams in Brazil, FIFA World Club Champion in 2006, owner of the Stadium Beira-Rio, one of the venues of the World Cup 2014, announced this week that Estádio dos Eucaliptos (Stadium of Eucalyptus) is beinf offered for sale.

Internacional hopes to get R$ 20 million (about US$ 16 million), which will be entirely directed to the renovation of Beira-Rio. Directors say that yet another R$ 20 million will be needed to put Beira-Rio in the conditions that FIFA demands for a stadium to stage important matches (Beira-Rio aspires to hosting the opening and the semi-final matches).

The tender of sale is here. Below, an image captured from the Internacional website.

Estadio dos Eucaliptos is part of the History of the World Cups.

The stadium was built in 1930. It staged two matches of the World Cup 1950: Mexico 1 x 4 Yugoslavia (11,000 attendants) and Mexico 1 x 2 Switzerland (3,500 attendants). Since Beira-Rio was opened, in 1969, the Eucaliptos has been inactive.

In 2014, it will be the second time that Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup; Brazil was also host of the 1950 World Cup (besides Brazil, only three other countries had the privilege of hosting twice the World Cup: Mexico in 1970 and 1986, France in 1938 and 1998 and Germany in 1974 and 2006).

In 2014, there will be 12 host cities; in 1950, there were only six: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Recife. Those were the six largest Brazilian cities in 1950 (Brasilia still didn’t exist; it was founded in 1960).

All these six cities will be host again in 2014. However, only one of the six stadiums used in 1950 will be used again in 2014: Maracanã; Maracanã was built for the 1950 World Cup, and staged both the opening and the final matches of that Cup.

Two of the 1950 are still in use and are regularly stage of important matches: Ilha do Retiro, in Recife, and Pacaembu, in Sao Paulo; both fit about 35,000 attendants, and with some refurbishment could reach 40,000, FIFA’s standard for a World Cup.

The other three stadia are still standing, but only stage occasional less important matches, and are too small to host a World Cup match: stadium Sete de Setembro (September 7th), in Belo Horizonte, will be replaced by Mineirão; stadium Durival de Brito, in Curitiba, will be replaced by Arena da Baixada; and stadium dos Eucaliptos, in Porto Alegre, will be replaced by Beira-Rio.

Above, a photo of the Sete de Setembro stadium  nowadays; it was in Sete de Setembro that United States beat England by 1 x 0.

The Americans would then go to Recife, where they lost to Chile by 5 x 2.  The English team played other two matches, both in Maracana. The Italians played only two matches, both in Pacaembu, São Paulo (the city outside Italy with the largest Italian community).

See details of all matches of the 1950 World Cup.

World Cup in South Africa will be the 19th of all times. Only Brazil attended all 18 Cups so far, only Brazil will have attended all 19 Cups when the South Africa event is over, and only Brazil can say for sure that will have participated in all 20 Cups until 2014.

Recently, Brazil qualified for the World Cup 2010; as Brazil is host of the 2014 World Cup, the Brazilian team has a secured presence in that tournament.

Brazil will have hosted the Cup in two occasions (1950 and 2014); Brazil was champion five times, but in only three of these occasions (1958, 1962, 1970) was the champion automatically qualified for the next Cup; in 1930, the teams were chosen by invitation. In the other 14 times that Brazil attended a World Cup, the team had to earn it in the field.

Italy (four times World Champion) was out of the 1930 Cup, but one may say that the Italians prudently didn’t want to take a long trip to play a then non-important tournament in distant Uruguay (only four European countries attended the Cup in Uruguay: Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia);  however, Italy failed to qualify for the 1958 World Cup.

Germany also declined from going to Uruguay in 1930, and were banned from the 1950 Cup, the first one after the World War II (hard to say whether the German team would qualify to the 1950 Cup, as the country was wrecked by the War; however, it must be noticed that the Germans won the next Cup, in 1954).

No other country comes close to Brazil, Italy and Germany in terms of World Cup participations.

Argentina withdrew from playing the qualifyings in 1938, 1950 and 1954; in 1970, Argentina failed to qualify to the Cup in Mexico. France did not qualify for the tournament in 1950, 1962, 1970, 1974, 1990 and 1994.

While most countries see the qualification for a World Cup as an achievement to be celebrated, Brazilians see it as an obligation of the football team.