If you look at that squad, there`s an awesome amount of talent - some of the greatest players of the 1958 & 1962 Brazil World Champions plus some of the finest (yet rising) stars of the legendary 1970 team. On paper, this squad should have meant serious business ... Check it out (Greats highlighted): Gilmar Dejalma Santos Fidelis Bellini Brito Altair Orlando Paulo Henrique Rildo Pele Gerson Manga Denilson Lima Zito Garrincha Jairzinho Alcindo Silva Tostao Parana Edu An awe-inspiring ensemble actually, kinda like a "best of 1962 and 1970" team, sans the great inspirator Didi. Is there a Brazil squad that rivals this in terms of World Cup star power? Was it all due to Pelé`s injury that this team failed so miserably, or were there other reasons?
Have a look at their opponents and the results they got: First match, 12 July 1966, Liverpool: Brazil 2 Bulgaria 0 Brazil: Gilmar - D.Santos, Bellini, Altair, Paulo Henrique - Denilson, Lima - Garrincha [1], Alcindo, Pelé [1], Jairzinho. Bulgaria: Naidenov - Shalamanov, Penev, Vutzov, Gaganelov - Kitov, Yetshev - Dermendjiev, Asparouchov, Yakimov, Kolev. Second match, 15 July 1966, Liverpool: Hungary 3 Brazil 1 Hungary: Gelei - Matrei, Kaposzta, Meszöly [1], Sipos - Szepesi, Mathesz - Rakosi, Bene [1], Albert, Farkas [1]. Brazil: Gilmar - D.Santos, Bellini, Altair, Paulo Henrique - Gerson, Lima - Garrincha, Alcindo, Tostao [1], Jairzinho. Third match, 19 July 1966, Liverpool: Portugal 3 Brazil 1 Portugal: Pereira - Morais, Baptista, Lucas, Conceicao - Coluna, Graca - Augusto, Eusebio [2], Torres, Simoes [1]. Brazil: Manga - Fidelis, Brito, Orlando, Rildo [1] - Denilson, Lima - Jairzinho, Silva, Pelé, Parana. Final Table Group 3: 1. Portugal 6-0 9:2 2. Hungary 4-2 7:5 3. Brazil 2-4 4:6 4. Bulgaria 0-6 1:8
It’s an interesting question, in the future when people look at France’s roster at Japan/Korea the same questions will be posed. Here are some of the ingredients that came together and led to the debacle. a)Poor Planning. The Selecao was subject to local club politics, as each team wanted to get players in to a tournament they felt certain to win. Forty-four players (44) players were called-up for the pre-tournament camp! A full half were then discarded before embarking for England. b)Many of the players were close to their sell-by date. Garrincha for example no longer had the explosion in the first step that made his moves so unstoppable. He could still do it in spurts, but was a shadow of his former self. The back line was very old with D.Santos (still a class player) and Bellini, though they still had some life in them. c)It was a squad in transition. A winning generation was beginning to make way for a new generation that included Gerson (though already a veteran player), Edu, Tostao, Jairzinho et al. Historically these types of transitional teams don’t triumph at WC’s unless played at home. d)They went up against some quality opposition. Both Hungary and Portugal had stellar squads. Everyone knows of Portugal’s Benfica laden squad with Eusebio and Coluna. Hungary had probably their last great team with a Albert and Bene. Though not often mentioned in discussions, Albert was one of the great players of the decade, and of the last half of the century. e)For the final game against Portugal the coaching staff panicked and aligned a still injured Pele, and made wholesale changes from the first two games. Basically, a whole new team played the most important do-or-die game. In the three games played in the first round 21 of the 22 players on the squad saw playing time! Only Edu, at 16 years of age, didn’t see action. f)Finally, and most importantly, Pele’s injury from the first game unbalanced the team. He was the best player in the world at the time (my apologies to those who think it was Best) and the team counted on his ability to create and score goals. Not only were they deprived of his services after game one (the only game they won), but in game three, after he was hacked, they effectively played down one man (no substitutions). Tostao wrote a great article awhile back about the impact of playing with Pele for the whole tournament in '70 that is worth searching. Thank goodness for WC'70...it removed the bitter taste.
That`s the sort of insightful reply I hoped for! Very interesting. I appreciate especially that you took that time despite being busily occupied with your job at the moment. Garrincha was 32 in 1966 and had only played in 11 matches (1 goal) from 1963 to 1966 in the Brazilian leagues - which makes one wonder why he was recalled to play for Brazil in the '66 World Cup. I think Jairzinho wasn`t too happy with suddenly having to play outside left. Why was Gerson not a regular for Brazil at that time? He was no youngster and had the right age. I didn`t know Edu was that young in 1966. You are of course right that Brazil was in the middle of a transition phase at that time. It`s just that the 1966 squad is so overlooked when it comes to Brazil`s World Cup history despite probably having the most impressive lineup of all Brazil World Cup squads ever. People talk about 1958 & 1962 and then about 1970, with only Pelé as connection between the two teams, that`s why I found it interesting that there was actually a "best of" team of 1962 and 1970 (unfortunate for them to have underperformed so badly).
I think the Brazil '66 teams could be a bit compared to the Argentine WC94 team. Even without Maradona they had great players such as Redondo and Batistuta adn amny others, but could not get very long. The other thing I would like to bring out is thatl I think an All-Star team doesn't neccessarily make a team win. I see a big reason of the failiur of the recent big tournaments by big teams, such as Italy, France, Argentina and etc..... In the past an National team was also a real team comapred to the commercially involved NTs these days. Maybe the success of the smaller football nation came from those old school team method (Coach is God), comapred to some of the All-Star teams bringing a Legend at the seat to calm the ego within the star players. One other thing, I would like to mention is that I think Argentian's best ever squad was the WC82 squad having Kempes, Passarella, Ardiles hooked up with Ramon Diaz and Maradona. People say Pele won coz he was surrounded by other greats, but hey Diego could not manage to win WITH other greats. The '82 Sqaud was...... Osvaldo Ardiles Hector Baley Juan Alberto Barbas Daniel Bertoni Gabriel Calderon Ramón Angel Diaz Ubaldo Fillol Luis Galvan Americo Gallego Diego Maradona Mario Kempes Patrício José Hernández Julio Olarticoechea Jorge Olguin Daniel Passarella Nery Pumpido Santiago Santamaria Alberto Tarantini Enzo Trossero Jorge Valdano Daniel Valencia Jose Van Tuyne Coach: Cesar Luis Menotti
My all-time greats from Brazil are (see if you guys agree): Pelé Zico Garrincha Didi Rivelino Falcão Jairzinho Ronaldinho Romário Júnior Sócrates
1982 Bazilian TEAM was the best ever NT ..not only from Brazil. It was considered and still being considered as the best ever Team.
Pele didn't play that world cup, he was taken out by a vicous tackle in one of their very first games when they played Portugal. That's basically what went wrong for Brazil. England's squad was no push over either though. Even the 1970 squad had a hard time with them and to me that was far better than team than the '66 squad.
THIS TEAM HAS POTENTIAL TO BE A ALL TIME GREAT!!!! ----------------------------------DIDA-------------------------------- --Cafu------------------Alex------------Edmilson/Lucio------------ Roberto carlos -------------------------------Emerson--------------------------------------- -------------------Kaka--------Ronaldinho-------Robinho--------------------- --------------------Ronaldo------------------Adriano--------------------------- I can hear the samba drums beating already!!!!
Looks awful on paper unless Emerson has the tournamnet of his life and Roberto Carlos and Cafu gain even more recovery speed than they have.
Which at this point in their careers looks less likely. I know Cafu is practically superhuman, but at some point he will start breaking down...........right?
U could put another tough guy in the middle with Emerson and leave out robinho but it was fun to put robinho in the mix! Brazils mentality is to score more than the opponents