Cover of a souvenir brochure produced to celebrate Uruguay's 1950 World Cup success

On 16 July 1950 Dondinho invited to his house in Bauru (Sau Paulo) a group of friends to listen to a football match on the radio. There, among snacks and beer, everyone was waiting for the World Cup final between Brazil and Uruguay, which was supposed to be the first for the record book of the Brazilians. Meanwhile, Dondinho’s 9-year-old son was more occupied with scoring goals in the street than listening, being in and out of the house.

This event had a program of celebrations on the site. There were two contracting parties, a parish priest, the guests, the godfather and the sacristy, which was called Maracana. It was an ant hill of 173,850 people, according to FIFA statistics. Though according to hearsays, there were more than 210,000 fans appealed by music and goals.

The chosen manner of the World Cup competition wasn’t as elegant as it should have been. It was the last match of the group, where 4 best countries were competing (the two leaders, Spain and Sweden). For Brazil it was enough to start a festival in case of a tie. Since then everything that had happened in that mass of 465,650 tons of concrete became rhymes and legends.

The leader Obdulio Varela

The statistics says that Brazil after skinning Spain (6-1) and Sweden (7-1) were up courtesy of a goal by Friaca. It was made in a manner to defuse the motivating words of the Uruguayan captain, Obdulio Varela, addressed to his teammates: ”Outsiders don't play”.

Varela himself, took the ball after the Brazilian goal and spent a “month” in the centre circle trying to keep it. But it was enough for the crowd of 173,850 to calm down.

That’s what Ghiggia said

What happened next, flipped the history of football. Uruguay, the team, that according to one of the slogans, was playing “with an egg in each boot”, rebelled. After a while, a local anchor reported only three words: “Brazil has died”.

That was the post mortem report: the victim, Brazil, was represented by two goals in its heart. The first one was made by Schiaffino, who equalized assisted by Ghiggia. The silence was heard in all parts of the country.

The second goal for Uruguay, the ultimate one occured on the 79th minute. It was Alcides Ghiggia again to score the most famous goal of the first epoch of football history. He told Marca: ”I was playing on the right wing and was close to the side line. Then I caught the ball and rapidly ran away from Bigode, who was the defender marking me. I was so fast when I paced forward faster than ever running like nobody could stop me. Upon entering the area I did it like I was going to throw it backwards, but I played it and found a space between the central midfielder and the Brazilian goalkeeper. So I crammed the ball into”.

Ghiggia scores the winning goal past the dive of Brazilian goakeeper Barbosa

The cage of Barbosa

The name of that goalkeeper was Moacir Barbosa, but that day he lost his name in the public eye of the whole country. He started the match at the goalposts and ended it like they were a cage. In his defense of the goal he said shocking words: ”When I realized that the ball was inside, a paralyzing chill went through my body and I immediately felt that the whole stadium was looking at me”. But Brazil had already turned its head away. A superb football was played on that day. The Maracanazo was born.

Ghiggia and Barbosa rivalled in judgements that travelled from generation to generation, from dinner talks to dinner talks. The bullet of the Uruguayan forward did amaze everyone. “Only three people managed to silence the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, the Pope and me”, Ghiggia said afterwards.

The White Shirt

Deprived of the prestige since that day, Barbosa was reflecting about it on one of the thousands of days that were hurting him with memories: “The maximum sentence for a crime committed is 30 in Brazil. But I bear 50 years of condemnation”.

For disgrace and bad luck the Brazilian Football Confederation prohibited him to visit the matches until the World Cup in 1994 in the USA.

The match ended and the president of FIFA Jules Rimet crumpled the paper with the speech that had previously been written to congratulate Brazil. Instead, there were written a few words dedicated to Uruguay. That was the end of the celebration, which since those times is known in Brazil as the Day of the Defeat or the Day of the Disgrace. Along with other names for it this day became a caution. Anyway, Uruguay didn’t come back to win the World Cup. And Brazil never wore a white uniform.

The house of Dondihno

After the total loss urban legends sprouted away. One of them said that the Brazilians decided to end their lives committing numerous suicides, which were off the official statistics. The other told that Obdulio Varela, almost with a victory in his pocket, left to hang out on his own at night in Rio. It’s proven that the Uruguayan captain went off to bars in which made friends with the losers.

At the time, Dondinho’s radio had already been turned off in his house in Bauru. His son saw him crying for the first time in his life. In a fit of boldness he promised his father that one day he would win the World Cup for him. This boy was called Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who afterwards became Pele.

Source: Marca

Soccer / barbosa

The Heroes of Silence

The Heroes of Silence

The Heroes of Silence