Renaissance men

Socrates, captain of the 1982 Brazilian World Cup team, died last weekend aged 57

After the death of former Brazilian footballer Socrates last weekend, I thought it would be timely to offer a video reminder of the team that played the most breathtaking brand of attacking football I’ve ever seen: the team that he captained at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Brazil didn’t win the tournament. In fact, they didn’t even reach the semi-finals. But they lit up the competition in thrilling fashion, sauntering through the group stages before brushing aside Argentina and finally losing 3-2 to eventual winners Italy in the final game of the second group stage. That contest goes down as one of the most famous in the competition’s history, in which Brazil – needing only a draw to progress to the semi-finals – steadfastly refused to compromise their attacking philosophy and ultimately paid the price. It was a victory for European pragmatism over South American flair and one that broke the hearts of the purists.

Commentators at the time accused Brazil’s coach, Tele Santana, of naivity, but to this day Santana and his class of 1982 are revered in their homeland. After a decade when the Brazilian brand of jogo bonito (the beautiful game) was abandoned by Santana’s predecessors in favour of a more tactical and physical approach, Santana vowed – win or lose – to restore it. The result was a failure of the most glorious and spectacular kind, as you will see from this video of their eleven best goals from the 1982 finals. They may not have won the trophy, but only the ‘Golden Team’ of 1970 has a higher standing on the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo. The subsequent World Cup winning teams of 1994 and 2002 don’t even come close in the affections of the Brazilian people.

The squad was packed full of wonderful players. The attacking fullback, Junior, is worthy of a place alongside the likes of Cafu, Roberto Carlos and Carlos Alberto in the pantheon of the best Brazilians ever to play in that position, while a case can be made for the midfield of Eder, Socrates, Falcao and Zico being the best ever assembled in those fabled yellow shirts.

If there was a weakness it came at centre forward, ironically a position where Brazil has traditionally gifted the world a host of great footballers from Leonidas to Ronaldo. But in 1982 they found themselves uncharacteristically short of options up front after an injury to the Atletico Mineiro striker Reinaldo, known back home as ‘The King’ and the best Brazilian striker of his generation, ruled him out of the tournament. 

This resulted in a place in the starting XI for the bruising, aerially adept, physical centre forward Serginho, who possessed a prolific goalscoring record in Brazilian domestic football but whose style of play was not suited to the swashbuckling short passing game that Santana had revived. Despite scoring two goals in the earlier matches, he missed several goalscoring opportunities in the defeat to Italy and throughout the tournament Serginho’s crudity was explicitly exposed alongside the mercuriality of his team-mates. Moreover, the pressure of being the focal point of an attacking team that was captivating the world seemed to hinder him just as much as the limitations of his talents. Unfairly, he became an easy scapegoat as a proud and fanatical nation mourned Brazil’s premature exit.

Some will say that either the Hungarian team of 1954 or the Holland team of 1974 were the best sides never to win the World Cup. Both were beaten finalists and in terms of all-round strength they are probably right. But this Brazilian team played the most beautiful football I have seen in my own lifetime and when the news of Socrates’ death filtered through it gave me the perfect excuse to revisit them.

Tele Santana restored Brazil's footballing philosophy

Santana, Socrates and Zico carried on, and all went to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where Brazil were once again eliminated in another classic encounter, this time against the great French team of Platini, Giresse, Fernandez and Tigana. Retirement from the international scene soon beckoned for all three but Santana, as much of a renaissance man as there has ever been in football coaching, enjoyed a glorious Indian summer to his managerial career, building one of Brazil’s greatest ever club sides. His Sao Paulo team won back-to-back Libertadores Cups in 1992 and 1993 and also won the Intercontinental Cup in the same years – first defeating Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ and then beating an AC Milan side managed by Fabio Capello and containing Baresi, Maldini, Desailly, Costacurta and Donadoni.

It was a fitting climax to Santana’s career, giving him the silverware and international recognition that his genius and his unswerving belief in his convictions deserved. But for all of that he is mainly remembered for that 1982 team, and as the man who gave a nation its footballing identity back.