The legendary Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues infamously opined, “In every single place has its irremediable nationwide disaster, one thing like a Hiroshima. Our disaster, our Hiroshima, was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950.”
It was an offensively hyperbolic assertion however one which offers an perception into the impact ‘Maracanazo’ (‘The Maracana Blow’) had on the nationwide psyche.
Brazilians had been supremely assured that the Selecao would win the World Cup on house soil.
A celebratory track had been ready, whereas one newspaper proclaimed the Selecao ‘champions of the world’ on the morning of their assembly with Uruguay, which was successfully the ultimate, given solely the Celeste might overtake Brazil with a victory within the final match of the round-robin mini-league which concluded the 1950 World Cup.
Brazil, who had overwhelmed Uruguay 5-1 throughout their Copa America triumph the earlier 12 months, solely wanted a draw to assert the trophy for the primary time, and took the lead within the forty seventh minute by Friaca.
Nevertheless, Juan Alberto Schiaffino levelled halfway by the second half earlier than Alcides Ghiggia scored probably the most notorious objective in Brazilian soccer historical past to win the World Cup for Uruguay.
There have been roughly 220,000 individuals contained in the Maracana that day and but, on the full-time whistle, solely the victors’ joyous shouts and screams might be heard on the full-time whistle.
Brazil, as a nation, went right into a state of shock. A minimum of two individuals on the floor took their very own lives, whereas there have been a spate of reported suicides throughout the nation.
The Selecao successfully began over, even altering the color of their package to the well-known yellow shirt and blue shorts combo which we all know immediately.
The ache of the ‘Maracanazo’ by no means actually went away, although. Definitely, some gamers by no means recovered.
Augusto, Juvenal, Bigode and Chico by no means performed for the nationwide group once more, whereas Brazil goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa was made a scapegoat for the defeat, because the press felt he ought to have stored out Ghiggia’s decisive strike.
Zizinho even blamed the media’s incessant criticism and ongoing obsession with Maracanazo for his team-mate’s loss of life from a coronary heart assault 50 years later.