WORLD CUP USA ’94 ROUND OF 16 : Soccer Brings Happiness to Weary Nation : World Cup: Brazil’s team provides unifying passion for country trying to re-establish itself after years of economic, political problems.
Its festive presence is merrily felt everywhere--from huge paintings on the roads and colorful decorations hanging across streets to fluttering flags in every possible place.
Turn on the TV at home, or the car radio, and it will be there, with strident and contagious enthusiasm.
The magic of soccer has put Brazil in a trance as the South American superpower toys again with the dream of winning its fourth World Cup. Its next opponent will be the host United States, on Monday--the Fourth of July--at Stanford.
It took 12 years for Brazil to win three world soccer championships: in Sweden in 1958, in Chile in 1962 and in Mexico in 1970. But the coveted trophy has eluded the South American nation since.
“One more, Brazil”--the pledge by the attacking quartet of Romario, Bebeto, Rai and Zinho from a huge poster in most Brazilian cities’ key intersections--is a national battle cry.
It may be boastful, but it seems in line with a country avidly looking to re-establish its self-confidence after years of economic and political problems.
Since 1985, when 21 years of military dictatorship came to an end, Brazilians experienced a swirling change of currencies, from cruzeiro to cruzado, to cruzado novo, to cruzeiro, to cruzeiro real.
All failed to curb chronic inflation, which over the years grew into absurd figures of seven digits or more.
In the last two years, Brazilians have seen their first democratically elected president impeached for corruption. Dozens of congressmen have been accused of corruption in a multimillion dollar federal budget scandal.
Massacres of innocent people by drug gangs and sometimes by former police agents have become commonplace in Rio and other major cities. Suspects rarely are punished.
Two months ago, Brazilian auto racer Ayrton Senna died after his car crashed into a concrete wall in San Marino. For many Brazilians, it meant the loss of a cherished hero.
Capping everything is an increasing awareness of the nation’s sheer inequalities.
Despite the rapid economic growth of the late 1960s and 1970s, official statistics show that one of five Brazilians--32 million--goes hungry. The world’s fifth-largest country ranks 63rd on the human development scale, with the 20% who are richer enjoying an income 32 times bigger than the poorest 20%.
“After many years of so-called Brazilian miraculous development, we realize Brazil is paradise for just a few, a purgatory for most and a hell for 20% of its population,” said sociologist Herbert de Souza.
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Soccer provides a unifying passion. The manager of a factory might never talk directly to his workers. But if he happens to be a fan of the same team, they may hug one another, in jubilation or in sadness, like old friends.
On June 20, as Brazil’s squad defeated Russia, 2-0, main streets and plazas across the nation became carnival fields. Mobs were even more enthusiastic the following Friday when Brazil beat Cameroon, 3-0.
The team, said political analyst Villas-Boas Correa, has the task of “bringing happiness to a people weary of deception.”
When Brazil plays, everything comes to a halt, including the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, the capital, which sent home employees two hours early on game days.
Even front-running presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arranged to watch the June 20 game on a TV set at the Brazilian Embassy during an official visit to Johannesburg.
Lula, the 46-year-old former lathe worker whose union strikes challenged the military rulers of the 1970s, knew he would draw prime interest abroad on soccer days, but not in Brazil.
With presidential elections three months ahead, Lula leads the polls with a comfortable 38%, more than doubling his main rival, former Finance Minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso, of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party. Unless dramatic changes occur, Lula could win the first-round vote Oct. 3.
Election predictions will come only after July 17, when the tournament closes. While a very few doubt the team’s performance will influence voters, determining which candidate will best profit from its victories or failures is tricky.
Lula seems to best understand Brazilian frustrations accumulated over the years, but it would be “foolish” to think he will benefit from a defeat scenario, says Jornal do Brasil’s analyst Dora Kramer.
Likewise, she said, giving Cardoso or any other candidate the benefit of a triumph would be akin to granting them the monopoly of millions of fans who, according to the polls, give politicians the lowest marks.
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The World Cup has so overshadowed other issues that many Brazilians say their “leaders” are now in the United States.
The newsweekly Veja published a cover picture of the team’s coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira with a headline “The team’s Itamar,” comparing his tasks with those of President Itamar Franco.
“Parreira has the responsibility of leading all 150 million Brazilians to a dream: the fourth championship,” said the magazine.
Romario, the opportunistic attacker, proudly admits he stirs hope among his countrymen.
“I know I am important in Brazil,” he said recently. “All Brazil is looking at the Brazilian team, at Romario. Brazil lives for soccer. It has misery, it has bad politics. Soccer is like a blanket wrapping up all that.
“In order to win a place in Brazilian history, one has to win a World Cup. I want to go down in Brazilian history.”
