Brazil's yellow shirt was born from the national trauma of 1950
Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup needing only a draw against Uruguay in the last match at the Maracanã. They lost 2-1, the country went into mourning, and the team's white kit was eventually retired. Its replacement, yellow shirts with green trim, is now the most famous in football.
The Seleção, nicknamed Canarinho, joined FIFA in 1923 and helped found South America's confederation in 1916. Its first recorded game, in 1914, was a Rio and São Paulo select side against the English club Exeter City at Fluminense's ground, usually recorded as a 2-0 win though some claim a 3-3 draw. Led by the scorer Arthur Friedenreich, Brazil won the South American Championship at home in 1919 and again in 1922.
World Cup glory took time. Brazil went out early in 1930 and 1934 and took third in 1938. Then came 1950, a tournament awarded without opposition because Europe lay in ruins. Brazil crushed Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 in the final group, only to lose to Uruguay in the match remembered as the Maracanazo. At the 1954 World Cup a new uniform designed by Aldyr Schlee appeared, pairing a yellow, green-trimmed shirt with blue shorts and white socks, and it is still worn today.
The golden era began in Sweden in 1958, when coach Vicente Feola brought Zito, Garrincha and the teenage Pelé into the side against the Soviet Union; Garrincha's biographer Ruy Castro called the opening minutes the greatest three minutes in football history. Brazil won that tournament and retained the title in Chile in 1962 despite losing an injured Pelé. The 1970 side in Mexico, with Pelé beside Rivellino, Gérson, Tostão, Jairzinho and the captain Carlos Alberto Torres, won every match and is widely rated the finest team ever assembled.
Brazil has since added titles in 1994 and 2002, for five in all, the most of any nation, and is the only team to have played at every World Cup and to have won on four continents. Its record reads 79 wins in 119 World Cup matches. Not every great side triumphed: the favoured 1982 team fell 3-2 to Italy in Barcelona, a defeat Brazilians still call Sarriá's Tragedy.
Source: Brazil national football team
