By cy.Reporter, 8 October, 2021
A week of national teams and cyNews brings to light one of the defeats that stigmatized dozens of lives in Brazil in 1950. A defeat that even resembled the Hiroshima disaster… Brazil's defeat in the World Cup final in Maracana by Uruguay with 2-1, which led to the… historic now "Marakanaso"!
Brazil 1950… More than 200,000 Brazilians - specifically 203,849 spectators - have flooded the imposing Maracana concrete stadium to watch their country's national team emerge world champions. All that remains is a draw against Uruguay - due to the different conduct of the World Cup compared to today -. More than 5,000 police officers are on foot, trying to "tame" the unrestrained crowd waiting to celebrate and reach the top of the football world. For Brazil, football is an extension of its national heritage… Local newspapers could not even wait for the match to start. Rumbled titles such as "Brazil World Champion 1950" had already been written and were released the day before the match! Rumor has it that the designer of the trophy, Jill Rime, had written in Portuguese the congratulatory speech for the 22 Brazilian footballers and an entire nation. In fact, the gold medals of Brazil already existed and the names of the footballers were engraved on them.
Shortly after 15:00 the match started and then thousands of sparklers were in the sky with people celebrating as if it were a match - fiesta. The first half ended with Brazil having tried dozens of attacks, however the Uruguayans endured and kept their home intact. However, even the white tie gave the title to Celesao. With the start of the second half, Brazil opened the scoring with Friassa defeating Roque Maspoli and the audience testing the strength of Maracana's cements with his celebrations. Now, for an entire nation, it was certain; Brazil could not lose the World Cup. However, Uruguay seems to have had different views and moods. So, instead of collapsing, he climbed "meters" on the field and in 66 'Juan Alberto Schiafino made it 1-1. The public "froze" for a moment, but did not lose their optimism, and with the draw, Brazil would celebrate the conquest of the World Cup.
However, in the 79th minute, Giza confuses the Brazilian goalkeeper Barbosa and, pretending to pass, sends the ball into the home net with a low shot! Uruguay made the upset. "Only three people, with just one move, have silenced the Maracana. "Frank Sinatra, Pope Paul II and I" is typical of the scorer's attack to show what happened in the legendary stadium. The Brazilian players tried to score the equalizer… but the final whistle of the final found Uruguay World Champion and Brazil lost… In fact, there was so much tension and pressure on the world to equalize Brazil, where many Brazilians did not have realized the end of the match and complained that the Uruguayan players had caught the ball with their hands…
The scenes that unfolded on the field and throughout the country were without exaggeration scenes that could only happen in war… Many of the crowd could not stand the defeat, as a result of which they jumped from the upper part of the field and lost the their life. Others suffered a heart attack. According to a Guardian report, the doctors of the stadium offered their services to 169 people and in recent years it has become known that the victims of the catastrophic defeat have reached 90! in the most brilliant way the situation of the country after the defeat saying "The survivors of that inhuman afternoon believed that they could never be happy again. What happened on July 16, 1950, deserves a collective memory, such as the monument to the Unknown Soldier. "These are the things that build nations, for a people to drown in its pain." While the director Nelson Rodrεςguez stressed that "Everywhere there is an irreparable national catastrophe. Something like Hiroshima. "Our catastrophe, our Hiroshima, was the defeat by Uruguay in 1950".
Things for the people of Brazil unfolded as if they were in a horror movie. The rumors want the Brazilian coach to leave the stadium dressed as a nun, in order not to be recognized by the crowd, while the goalkeeper Barbosa hid for two days in the house of an acquaintance. However, no one forgot and was "condemned" forever by the football world of the country. In fact, he was considered "cursed" and was expelled from the team's training for this reason. He himself tried to solve the curse, making a barbecue and burning the wood of the hearth that had conceded the two goals, however this defeat accompanied him until the end of his life. "The maximum sentence for a crime in Brazil is 30 years, I am sentenced to 50 years for something I never did," he said, referring to Marakanaso as "leaving" a heart attack on April 7, 2000.
Search, writing, editing: Christos Davos (cyNews sports editor)