My fifth grade textbook had a story on Pele. Me, a kid growing up in a country many thousand miles away from Brazil, in another continent, knew that he was the “Black Diamond”, “The King”, and memorized his full Portuguese name. It was before social media, the internet, before even global TV channels. My dad could describe from memory Pele’s plays in 1970 WC, the first one he got to watch on TV. The power of football as art. The power to capture human imagination. No one embodied it better. Rest in peace, O Rei.

urmeek, you didn't grow up in Bangladesh by any chance, did you? I recall a similar textbook about the "Black Diamond."

I did 😊

O Rei Pele.. the GOAT has passed onto a better world. Truly inspired generations by being the best footballer the world has ever witnessed.

Brazil should retire the #10 jersey.

Really sad to hear the passing of Pele, though it was expected. He and, to a lesser extent, Maradona, are the reasons why my home country, Haiti, loves football so much. An incredibly tough year for Brazil fans all across the globe.

My favorite football highlight ever is Pele scoring that incredible header against Italy in the ‘70 final and jumping on Jairzinho—it’s @Rich ‘s profile pic.

The King has died. It hurts but he ll live in the hearts of soccer fans forever.

Pelé has died. RIP to the greatest. Should have seen one more WC trophy.

I grew up in the 80s before streaming, internet, social media, and all the entertainment options we have today. Cable wasn’t even a thing yet. VHS was the big innovation at the time.

My uncle worked for Warner Bros. Specifically, he was in charge of South American distribution. Apparently, Warner Bros had made a VHS of Pele highlights. All in portugués, most highlights in black and white. He “lent” me a promo copy when I was 6.

I didn’t watch TV as a kid. I only watched that Pele video; over and over for years. Every single day.

I can still sing the songs from that video. “Didi, Vava, Pele…”

Through that video I fell in love with Brasil futbol and many other aspects of Brasilian culture.

A beautiful sunset or a snow capped glacier are the essence of beauty for some. For me, it’s Brasil playing their best. Specifically; it’s Pele, Rivelinho, Tostao, Carlos Alberto, and Jarazinho jumping up and down in Mexico City after overpowering the world with their technique and athleticism.

RIP El Rey

I do like any comments from Black..Matt
He and Zetona were the kings of this blog .but I do like kidding on versatile Roster
Black ..Matt
My comment is just kidding
Really I do not know any thing about football
But

Brazil fan for ever what ever

Man you're starting to get annoying.

Mental fragility ..
Brazilian players were very weak mentally and indiscipline.. careless .not serious ..some have immature childish behaviour ..
1. Neymar the most talent player all over the word ..proof every now and then he has no issue in the national team
The best thing he will do for us ..should retire international football..
Red card ..if he mean to cerelebrate 2023 or not ..he is immature childish
Marquinhos ..own goal .. the best defender is menrltally weak ... like Thiago Silva
. German..quarrel with the coach in Marcellia..
.....Uglina won the cup because they have men not children ..very strong mentally and physically
The most talent Uglina 2014 did not
Win that cup because talents alone is not enough youthful have to work as ateam
And fighting ...
Antony skills Viny dancing . The pigeon Rich. ..Neymar diving ..Will never give us a cup

We should change our mentality
Yes we can .. by average coach
Nonbrazilian
.. a coach dancing with players like the Donkey ..Tite is not a coach...
Coach only dance after you won the trophy ...

Had Brazil won the WC, there eould have been very little talk about dancing ciach and players.

Thus is a non issue. We should be talking about coach's an player's abilities rather than a dance

Well said ..
We had not any brazilan coach .. we won 5 World cups by superstar .Pele Garincha .. 3 cups .
Romario .Berto 1994
4 Rs..in 2002
.....
We lost 1998 due to omission of Romario by Zagalo. Like Ben Zema and De Champ 2022
..We should win 2022 but stupid Tite .
We should win 2010 but stupid Dunga

We should not have 7 up in 2014.... but Scolari and BlackkMatt.,ha ha ha

“Scolari and BlackkMatt” lol

That’s not true…Gordon Bombay danced before he won the trophy in the mighty ducks.

https://media4.giphy.com/me...

Lol…gotta say I love that movie. I watched it before the World Cup and was pumped. If only Fred could turn into Charlie and give his shirt to a better player, turn coach and a master tactician.

That was vintage 90s man. Very nostalgic to me too 😂. Could you imagine Fred or Paqueta being like ok Bruno.. take my spot. You clearly are the better player. BUT NOOOO 😂

lol...that's a classic. Freaking Fred

Gerson quarrel with the coach in Marcellia ..
He is ready to be back to Flamengo .... indiscipline issue

Didn’t watch the game, but looking at PSG’s first game since the WC, seems like a bizarre game based on what I read:

-Neymar assisted Marquinhos for the first goal
-Marquinhos then had an own goal
-Neymar gets a yellow and then a red card
-Mbappe scores from a PK in the 96th min to win the game 2-1
-Mbappe himself got a yellow card a min later at the 97th min

What a hell happened in this game lol 😂

I did watch it. Neymar was electric.

Marquinhos' own goal was unfortunate. Also the commentator said his first ever own goal. That is impressive for a CB.

They both looked really good. Mbappe fumbled a lot of good chances.

No, this is not a Brazil fan boy comment. It is actually what happened.

Sounds like the usual PSG circus 😉

brzilians are saying neymar is secretly wanting to go to Brazil for new years party

Brazil will be in a tough group in U20 Sulamericano. They will face Colombia (host), Argentina, Paraguay, Peru.

I was looking forward to watching them but now that Palmeiras has decided not to release Endrick and Giovani and Santos will do the same with Angelo and Marcos Leonardo, .....

It's quite disappointing to see clubs preventing youngsters from experiencing an international tournament. Not to mention that the top 4 team will qualify for the U20 World Cup.

So stupid and disappointing!

When we talk about Brazilian player mismanagement, it is not just the coaches but clubs have a big hand in this too.

That’s exactly what I didn’t want to hear. Was looking forward to seeing the top youngsters

What is happening with all these Zidane talks? Read somewhere that Ronaldo is strongly backing him.

Zidane may be a good option. Most of us i think will not like Jose Murinho. He has been in a declining trend probably during last 8 to 10 years.

Vehemently against Zidane as coach. Nothing short of ridiculous and embarrassing.

Yeah I agree on that front.

probably just a lot of rumor mongering to generate clicks

I'm planning on writing a sort of "end-of-cycle awards" piece recapping the best and worst of the last four and a half years, but I'd like some help filling out some of the nominees. So give me some of your suggestions on the following categories for any Seleção player or game since the 2018 World Cup ended:

- Best goal
- Best performance as a team
- Worst performance as a team
- Best single game performance from an individual player
- Worst single game performance from an individual player

And any other categories you think might be good (I'm also doing best/worst player, best newcomer, etc.)

Too soon for me. Still hurts to look back because, every time I do, I'm reminded that Brazil had a championship-quality team and didn't even make the semis.

It's time to let go irmao. Like I said before, we had every tool to go all the way but we had an incompetent mechanic leading the project.

Don't stay in the what if scenario or the we could've and should've won this cup mental state of mind. Grow out of it and look forward towards a Tite-Less Selecao.

It's the one thing I've been looking forward to for years now.

Best Performance as a team - Korea at WC22 or Argentina at CA19

Worst Performance - Every game between WC18 and CA19 were terribly uninspiring.

Best Individual Performance - I’m sure Neymar had a few during quals, or Vini vs S Korea; but my vote (given the stakes) goes to either GJ or Alves vs Argentina in CA19

**Alves “rainbow” assist/goal in same game should be mentioned along with beauties of WC22.

Worst Performance - Who was it that earned two yellows within minutes? He deserves this award.

How about an award for maybe the only thing this blog has gotten right award? We’ve called for many players that never panned out. However, the ONE thing we all agreed on and were unfortunately proven correct; Fred would haunt Brasil. There can be no doubt that we were all prophetic with this.

when Fred lost his starting position i wrote that he was a bit like Gollum and would still play an unforeseeable role before the end ...and in fact snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

of course Brazil82 was the longest and loudest Cassandra

Best goal? The one from Neymar against Croatia. I have always felt, 2022 was not destined to be the hexa tournament but a world cup for learning and winning sympathies back. I am a football romantic through and through, but regarding Qatar I was probably more realistic and sober than the majority of bloggers, who overrated the skill level of the squad.

All the more I consider this goal as a good omen for years to come. It personified everything that made Brazil likeable, but has been criminally neglected for too long: the rediscovery of combination football as a tool to unlock defenses: A double one-two, integrated in a great run into the box by the best Brazilian of this generation, not with the head through the wall, but with skill, brain and composure in front of the keeper.

Yes, I like that

I second that. It was the most “Brazilian” of goals that I can remember in many years, and it came at such a crucial moment. The purest “joga bonito under pressure” moment.

Such a shame of what happened after that.

I'm not watching the games because I really don't feel like, but it actually hurts to see people tweet about Brazilians doing well in the EPL. With every goal scored it pains even more, and brings back in want memory. My relationship with football is not okay at the moment, anyone can relate?

I can understand. As luck would have it, my club team, after being in total shambles in recent years, have finally started to play some decent football, so I am using that to cheer myself up.

So another mixed emotion day with Brazilians at Man United. Antony had a lively game, made good runs and movements, but then mostly messed up his final passes and missed a golden chance at goal ☹️Then Fred comes in to defend a 2-0, gives the ball away 3 times in 5 minutes, and then runs into the box and scores a goal with a really good finish 🙈 Casemiro of course had his usual impeccable day in office 😊

I don’t think Antony had a good game at all. Keeps teasing to dribble then passes backwards. If doesn’t improve ETH is going to bench him.

Honestly going by how he's playing he deserves to be benched. Man Ajax is surely a genius for getting 100Mil for him 😅😂

His off-the-ball movements I thought was good. But yes, something needs to be unlocked in his brain with the ball at his feet. I am hoping if anyone can do that it would be ETH.

That's the thing tho, he's been under ETH for a couple years now. I honestly believe he would benefit way more from a different coach with a different approach. But going by how Antony plays he certainly suits Guardiola's style of play and truthfully if this is how Antony will play for the remainder of his career (constant cutting into the left being as predictable as can be) I'd say go to City. (Eventho I don't want that since Guardiola will find a way to ruin him as he does with every Brazilian.)

But that's just my view on his current gamestyle. I don't see how ETH is going to unlock more out of him if this is how Antony has been playing for the past 3 years.

Well, the problems I saw yesterday was in his placement snd weighting of final passes; he did a lot more associative movement to combine with his teammates than I saw him doing for Brazil at the WC.

Well fingers crossed. Eitherway he has the world at his feet. Hope the attitude doesn't go against him.