Losing 2-1 to Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro’s sacred Maracanã has always been regarded as the worst day in Brazil’s sporting history.
Brazilians who weren’t even alive for that fateful FIFA World Cup final on July 16, 1950, will tell you that was the worst day of their lives.
No matter how many World Cups have come and passed, the nation still mourns its loss — one on its own home soil.
Former journalist João Luiz, who was a young boy at that final, was so haunted by the defeat that he put together his own remake of the match. In the remake, as told in Futebol by Alex Bellos, Ghiggia, Uruguay’s game-winning goal scorer, shoots the ball on target, only for the film to be rewound as if the shot bounces off the post, away from the net. That’s how one fan found a way to cope.
Whenever there was a World Cup match this June with Uruguay participating, “ghosts” dressed up in light blue bed sheets with “1950” written across their chests roamed outside of stadiums. They were attempting to bring the Brazilian nightmare back from the grave.
But 2014 was supposed to be different.
“The defeat that Brazil can’t forget” was finally going to be buried, as the nation once again would play host to the tournament and redeem itself from that insufferable 1950 loss.
After surviving a round of 16 stand off with Chile, which resembled more of an old Western-style duel than World Cup match, Brazil snuck into the quarterfinals before it glided past Colombia to advance to the semifinals.
Only this time, it would have to play arguably the best team in the world, Germany, without its captain, Thiago Silva, and without its wonder boy-turned-prophet, Neymar.
A Brazilian squad without its No. 10 is the soccer equivalent of a body after a meeting with a guillotine.
Germany thumped the hosts 7-1 in a match that looked as it was being played between world-class professionals and Sunday League middle-aged men than more than a clash of international powerhouses. From the 11th minute, the Germans outplayed Brazil in all aspects of the match, leaving the score 5-0 at halftime.
A nation was silent. Dreams were shattered. The ghost had returned.
Words will never justify how damaging of a blow Tuesday night’s loss was to Brazil. A nation, surrounded by constant headlines reminding the world how unprepared it was to host such an event, bowed out with an exit even worse than ever before imagined.
Soccer, isn’t just a game in Brazil, it’s a way of life. And Tuesday, that way of life was tossed around and left in a back alley mangled, torn and frayed.
July 16, 1950 was the defeat that Brazil would never forget. That was, until July 8, 2014.
Charlie Hatch is a sophomore at Ohio University and a staff writer for The Post. He also spent three weeks in Brazil for the World Cup. Contact him @charliehatch_or gh181212@ohiou.edu.
