For a team who have won soccer’s greatest prize — the FIFA World Cup — more than any other nation, Brazil have a surprising habit of holding on to painful memories with almost masochistic insistence.
Five times the Selecao have lifted the World Cup and eight times they have been champions of South America.
They have even won the secondary FIFA Confederations Cup as many times as everyone else put together: four.
However, Brazil cannot shake their sporting failures, one of which they put to bed for good on Thursday night in ousting Paraguay on penalties from the Copa America to reach the semi-finals, where they are to face bitter rivals Argentina.
“You have to get over life’s traumas. Today we deservedly rid ourselves of this trauma from two knock-out stages where this team sent us home,” Brazil veteran fullback Dani Alves said after Thursday night’s match in Porto Alegre’s Arena do Gremio.
Following a scoreless 90 minutes, Brazil goalkeeper Alisson saved a penalty from Gustavo Gomez while Derlis Gonzalez hit his effort wide, allowing Gabriel Jesus to score the winning spot-kick and send the hosts into the final four.
Yet, even the idea of arriving at penalties was cause for panic among Brazilians prior to the match, as Paraguay had twice before eliminated the Selecao that way from the Copa America — in 2011 and 2015 — and both times at that stage of the competition.
If Brazil are to lift a ninth Copa crown, they might yet have to exorcise two more demons to do so, starting with Tuesday’s semi-final at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte.
That was the site of one of Brazil’s most harrowing experiences on a soccer field, which came just two months before the centenary of the Selecao’s first-ever match.
Playing in their home World Cup semi-final in 2014, Brazil were humiliated 7-1 by a rampant Germany, who would go on to lift a fourth world title.
This is to be their first return to the Mineirao in a major competition since that day, almost five years ago.
“With regards to memories of the 7-1, we’re very calm about that, it’s in the past, it was a long time ago,” said Chelsea winger Willian, who came on as a substitute in that match with Brazil already 6-0 down.
“Now we’re leaving here really strengthened by the way the match went, by the way we qualified,” the 30-year-old added about Brazil’s victory over Paraguay.
Waiting for Brazil at the Mineirao are to be perennial rivals Argentina, whom they beat there 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in November 2016.
Should Brazil overcome Lionel Messi and his teammates, they could potentially face a third demon in the space of a little more than a week in the final at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Estadio do Maracana.
That was the site of the infamous “Maracanazo,” an event so painful it led to a period of national mourning.
Brazil had just emerged onto the international stage as a major force, winning the 1949 Copa America on home soil in stunning fashion: thrashing Paraguay 7-0 in the final and scoring a remarkable 46 goals in just eight matches.
Free-scoring Brazil then hosted the 1950 World Cup, which was decided by a final round-robin.
In what turned out effectively to be the equivalent of a final, Brazil played Uruguay — the first-ever world champions in 1930 — needing only a draw to win the World Cup, having just thrashed Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1.
However, after Friaca gave Brazil the lead early in the second half, Uruguay hit back with goals from Juan Alberto Schiaffino and legendary Alcides Ghiggia to win the title.
A deathly silence came over the Maracana and several people even reportedly committed suicide after the game.
It gave rise to the “Phantom of 50,” a concept that comes up every time Brazil play Uruguay, particularly at the Maracana.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier