that's very true ... in fact, besides Brazil 58, and 70 I could not dare to name any other WC winners were the "only deserved" ... there were always something "else" happening to make the winner getting there ...
I agree with 1958 but not 1970. Despite the result sealing Pele's reputation and the fact scored three goals in the second half, I believe Brazil's win in Mexico stood out more because of the manner that they won the World Cup. The simplest way to look at it is that jogo bonito triumphed over catenaccio. To me, it's not that black and white. Back to topic, I would have fancied the Dutch to win. Neeskens would have marked Rivellino and that might have given Dirceu more responsiblity to create chances. How would that Brazil defence contain Nanninga and Rensenbrink? I agree with the comparison with the 1994 team. As pragmatic as most people label them to be, at least Romario and Bebeto gave that team some spark. Aside from Rivellino and Dirceu, the 1978 team lacked the flair of Tele Santana's team four years later and Reinaldo and Zico weren't fit.
Assuming that manager Cautinho would have played him at all (which is doubtful since he had relegated him to the bench after the first two games, only to bring him back for the 3rd place match). Up until the 6th game vs Poland, Zico was fit, but then had to retire after 7 minutes when he injured himself.
Coutinho made played that team way far to the brazilian style. Their best players were benched (Rivelino & Zico), other was injured (Reinaldo). And he left out some stars like Falcao, Socrates & Junior (most notably first one). So, in the tournament the best players were Dirceu and Leao.
My mistake. Perhaps Dirceu would have been shut down instead. He still wasn't at his best though, especially in comparison to 1982.
I think I had posted a similar in Zico thread: "To replace Brandão, the Brazilian Federation invited Cláudio Coutinho. Coutinho had been a nearly anonymous member of the crew which went to the World Cup of 1970, in Mexico (he had been assistant of physical instructor Carlos Alberto Parreira). Coutinho had hardly any experience as coach of football teams. In 1975, by political reasons, João Havelange (who would be President of FIFA for decades) was substituted in the Presidency of the Brazilian Football Confederation by an Admiral, Heleno Nunes. Nunes had admiration and was personal friend of Coutinho, who was Captain of the Brazilian Army. Coutinho was a theorical of the football. Man of culture, multilingual, he had studied the History and tactics of football. He introduced new words into the rudimentary language of Brazilian soccer; expressions like "overlapping", "future point", "clear space" became common in sports news, even if few people could understand them." For a very first time, Brazil team a la "European style" (theory) were formed- Coutinho made by counting on Dirceu, Reinaldo and Dinamite. (Rivelino was selected for his talent vision and experience). Coutinho overlooked Zico and Falcao as "redundant AM" in such crowd/ but by pressure of press he just selected Zico (as bench sub for Reinaldo injured) and left out young Falcao for a Chicao (an all rounded MF). That team 78 were just so "PLAIN" in attack without much teeth
Are you talking about the incident against Turkey where the ball is kicked at him and he embellishes it? You think that a player getting sanctioned by kicking the ball directly at another player and deservedly being sanctioned helped Brazil win the 2002 WC?