Joga Bonito

Yesterday, Brazil beat Scotland 2-0. Ignoring the fact that in just one match we’ve witnessed the 1,624^th “next Pele”, controversial banana throwing and one of the worst haircuts ever – why are Brazil so good? If you asked people which the best footballing country is, there will almost always only be one answer....Brazil. But why?

Yes, the game was invented in England so surely by some kind of divine right we should be the best, or at least up there with the best. On paper, England probably does have one of the best teams but why our national team is so unsuccessful is a question for another day. The following article desperately searches for the reason why the Brazilians are so good. Any mention of Brazil’s success on the world stage would be unnecessary; everyone knows how good they have been in the past and how good they continue to be but above all it won’t help answer the question.

A quick Google search for “why are Brazilians so good at football” won’t tell you much. You’ll just get lost in the copious amount of comments from people suggesting that all young Brazilians play football in the hope of escaping the favelas. This assumption may be true to a certain extent but it certainly isn’t the reason why Brazil has such a strong national football team. If escaping a life of poverty was the reason then surely a lot of other countries which have just as much if not more poverty than Brazil, would be producing world class talent year in year out as Brazil has done so well and for so long. If you don’t believe us at the Hand of Blog then listen to former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira;

“There are no more players from the beach or from the street - this is a myth, a legend”

Brazilians refer to their country as “o País do Futebol” (the country of football) and they really are obsessed with the game. Carlos Alberto Torres, who captained the victorious Brazilian 1970 World Cup team, has said in the past that football is like a religion in his country, that quote comes with the other standard statements about living and breathing football etc etc. Maybe this goes someway to explain the Brazilians success but I don’t think it does. Football is also quite a big deal in England. Sadly for England fans this alone proves that football fanaticism throughout the country as a whole has no relation to on-pitch success.

Admittedly Brazil, in terms of population, is a huge country with roughly 190,000,000 inhabitants and as it is a country in which “everyone plays football” they do have a lot of people to choose from when picking their best team. There it is, I’ve mentioned it. They have about the three times the amount of footballers to choose from than we do in the UK but it would be lazy and somewhat crass to say that this is the reason why they are so good. It helps but it just isn’t a good enough argument and I hope you’ll agree that 5 World Cup wins wasn’t just down to a large population.

One thing that is rarely focussed on when searching for Brazil’s secret is that as children they are generally not given specific positions when they play football. In part this is due to the absence of leagues and competitive fixtures for young children in comparison to the European system. To a certain extent, they can do what they want on the pitch from a young age which is invaluable for all footballers. They aren’t taught within rigidly structured coaching guidelines, there is no right way to pass nor is there a wrong way to dribble with the ball. They just do what comes naturally to them but more importantly they do without a fear of getting anything wrong.  Following guidelines and rules brings with it the pressure to succeed, without instructions things can flow, there is room for flair and you can be more relaxed. Those are three things that feature in all Brazilian teams and the way in which young children are taught (or not as the case may be) can go some way in telling us how Brazil always seem to do well.

After all that and still not much further towards answering the question, one thing sticks out for me in terms of the difference between football in the UK and in Brazil. They enjoy it, we don’t. When the next World Cup begins in Brazil, you’ll see the whole of Brazil come together for one enormous party. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s because they are hosting it, they do it for every World Cup. Of course, the whole of England will be excited as well, finally ready to win the World Cup for the first time since ’66, having overcome the inevitable heartbreak of Euro 2012 and a nervy qualifying round. The difference is that for our preparation we will be picking holes in the squad, discussing who shouldn’t be there, talking about what the manager is doing wrong and avidly reading the tabloid headlines. So, in actual fact we won’t be enjoying it at all, but the Brazilians will be.