Brazil Retro Football Shirts

Brazil are the most successful national football team in World Cup history with five championships. They are the only team to have played in every World Cup to date.

However, they were not successful initially in the early World Cups. In the 1930 and 1934 tournaments, Brazil were knocked out in the first stage. In 1950, the team were one match away from lifting the trophy but lost 2-1 to Uruguay. That defeat was so devastating that Brazil turned up to the 1954 World Cup with a new group of players. However, it didn’t help them as they lost in the quarter finals to Hungary.

Nevertheless, the golden era for Brazil was just around the corner and the country won it’s first World Cup in 1958 after beating hosts Sweden 5-2 in the final with Pele and Vava impressing especially in the latter stages. The feat was repeated again four years later with a 3-1 victory in the final over the Czech Republic. Garrincha was billed as the tournament’s star player whilst Pele was injured during the first match and didn’t feature again throughout.

1966 saw Brazil fail to make any impact at all mainly due to off the field problems but the team was back to its best in time for the team to claim the 1970 World Cup. The Brazilian team at this tournament was arguably the best ever in history with names such as Pele, Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho and Gerson to boast. The team thrashed Italy 4-1 in the final and were allowed to keep the Jules Rimmet Trophy as reward.

The next phase of Brazilian history saw many great teams including players such as Socrates, Zico and Falcao fail to replicate the success of the Pele era. 1974 and 1978 saw Brazil consigned to the third place play off match in the World Cup whilst 1982 saw Italy beat Brazil in the second round 3-2 in a classic encounter. Unfortunately, 1986 and 1990 was a similar story as the team crashed out in the early knockout rounds.

As 1994 came around, it was hard to believe that it was 24 years since Brazil had last won a World Cup. Brazil face hosts Italy in the final and a dissapointing 0-0 scoreline led to Brazil eventually winning on penalties for their 4th World Cup. 1998 saw Brazil perform well but lose 3-0 to hosts France in a controversial final where star striker Ronaldo was included in the starting line up despite suffering an epileptic fit just hours earlier. However, 2002 proved to be Brazil’s year as Ronaldo dominated the tournament and scored twice in the 2-0 victory over Germany in the final giving the team their 5th World Cup success. Nevertheless, in 2006, Brazil suffered a poor 1-0 quarter final defeat to France which led to much criticism from supporters back home.

Apart from various World Cup successes, Brazil have a fantastic history in the Copa America competition as winners on eight seperate occasions. The team also has three Confederation Cup successes with the most recent coming in 2009 with a 3-2 victory over the USA in the final.