The yellow shirt of the Brazilian team completes 90 World Cup games this Saturday (13), against Morocco.
With this uniform, the team won 61 victories and had only 12 defeats — 67% success rate according to the “Almanac do Brasil nas Copas”, by Celso Unzelte and Gustavo Carvalho.
The shirt that scares rivals did not produce that feeling in Morocco coach, Mohammed Ouahbi. “We have respect.”
This yellow doesn’t belong to anyone, it belongs to everyone. It belongs to the country and Brazilians, it is not from any political current.
It was the color of Diretas Já.
From the Diretas, not from the right.
National symbols are stolen by populist politicians around the world. The party of the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, is called Fratelli D’Italia.
It is the first verse of the country’s anthem, officially called “Il Canto Dell’Italiani”.
In other words, it belongs to the Italians.
Italian Carlo Ancelotti knows this well and also knows the value of the yellow shirt. “It’s a pride to defend this country.”
He refers to the Brazilian team as the greatest in history. He said this in an exclusive interview with Sportsweek magazine, from Gazzetta Dello Sport.
He spoke about the coincidence of having to end a title drought that began in 2002, the same year that Real Madrid’s Champions League streak began, which ended in 2014, with him in charge of the Spanish team. “It was the biggest pressure and it didn’t hurt.”
Ancelotti’s size is what seems to take some of the pressure off, at least until the first defeat.
Defeat? Like this?
Yes, they even happen to world champions. Even though Brazil doesn’t know what that is… It won the five World Cups without losing in the campaigns. And he won all six matches in the 1970 World Cup and all seven in the 2002 World Cup.
Argentina won three World Cups, losing matches in two of them. Spain lost a game in 2010 (0-1 against Switzerland), being the first champion with a defeat in their debut — the second was Lionel Messi’s team, four years ago, in the defeat to Saudi Arabia.
West Germany lost to East Germany in the 1974 World Cup and drew with Colombia in the 1990 World Cup.
Italy drew their first three matches in 1982, drew with the United States in 2006 and debuted with a defeat to Ireland in 1994, the year in which they only lost the title on penalties.
Carlo Ancelotti was an assistant coach for that team.
That campaign convinced him of two things.
The first is that it is not always essential to start well, to be brilliant at your debut. Especially because this is the debut of the closest rankings in history, with Brazil in sixth and Morocco in seventh — partly because the Moroccans have risen, partly because Brazil has fallen in recent years.
The second thing, which he felt firsthand in that 1994 World Cup, he is now trying to pass on to his players.
That the yellow shirt still commands respect.
Which is a source of pride for someone who can wear it.
And that everyone looks different when it appears.
It’s part of the reason they try to kidnap her at other times, outside of the World Cup.
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