It has become apparent to me that in several World Cups the Brazilians have appeared to dominate the competition. What makes them (and much of south america for that matter) so good? Is it merely that soccer is extermely popular over there, or is there some genetic advantage from having ancestors who kicked balls around with their feet?
Its extremely popular like football and basketball are here. Plus, they really have nothing else to do. Unless you are of the elite upper class you will have a less than great life and/or job. The middle class is extremely sparse and thin.
Soccer is the lottery ticket for those disadvantged.
WTF?
This is probably going to get moved to IMHO. The reason Brazil is good at soccer is that soccer is the main sport in Brazil. Volleyball has some fans and basketball has made some inroads, but the main sport in terms of popularity remains soccer. Most of the population that has an interest in sports is interested in soccer.
In this country, people with athletic talent have the option of a myriad of sports, most Brazilians don’t. As has been pointed out in other threads, soccer is amazingly cheap to play. All you need is a ball of some description and a flat strip of land. Just about anything can be used to mark the goal area. Also, there isn’t much exposure to other sports. Unless you have cable, the only team sport you are likely to see is soccer.
Well, there’s no factual answer to this so I guess it should be in IMHO. Anyways…
My theory:
- Football is a genuine passion and they’re obsessed. Of all the nations that might be similarly described, Brazil has the largest population (for example, more than double that of England). They have numbers on their side.
- They’ve only won the tournament once in Europe, back in1958 when things were less competitive. They tend to perform much better in the America’s, often at altitude and in humidity and/or heat.
- For, I believe, entirely different reasons to Germany, they thrive on tournament play. The longer German teams are together, the more exponentially organised they become (compared with other countries) – accepting that notion requires accepting there are such things as ‘national traits’ or national characteristics’. I can’t tell you the dynamic that transforms Brazil into a coherent unit from a bunch of extremely talented individuals scattered around several national European leagues, but they do it. Maybe it’s because they come at it from a lower base. Don’t underestimate the ability to respond to the ‘tournament play’ scenario, IMHO.
- They, of course, play with flair but they also work as hard as any team out there. IMHO, it’s easy to emphasise the flair and demote their work rate. Not a good idea.
(ps. I think I’m right on the one win in Europe. Someone will be along shortly to correct me if wrong).
Let’s also mention that not only is it an extremely popular sport in Brazil, that due to the relatively low cost of the required equipment can be played by even the relatively poor, but that Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world. Not just in acreage, but in population. Roughly 180 million people, enough to make the top five, I’m fairly sure and many times the size of even the larger European nations. That’s an awful large pool of potential talent to pick from.
- Tamerlane
Well many times the size of every European nation but Russia ( if you consider that fully European ), with about 145 million. I think Germany is next largest at around 80 million ( and it’s population is significantly older, demographically, than Brazil’s ).
- Tamerlane
Why are Brazilians good at soccer? For some of the same reasons that Americans are good at basketball? And Canadians are good at hockey?
Because a sizeable number of good athletes in that country play that sport and the country chooses to spend money to encourage that sport also.
If you look at the season point ranking of the CART & IRL racing series you’d come to the conclusion that Brazilians are born open-wheeled race car drivers too.
I lived in Brazil for two years, and I can tell you for a fact that soccer is an obsession down there. Everyone plays soccer, and that’s almost not hyperbole. They live and breathe soccer. In the school I went to there, literally every single male person there played soccer to some extent, and there weren’t that many females who abstained. In a high school setting, you usually expect there to be a certain number of people who aren’t at all interested in sports. With soccer, anyway, that simply isn’t the case there.
A lot of it is the cheapness of the sport: a ball and some room is really all you need. Most of it is that’s it’s simply part of the culture. They play soccer because they love it, and they’re good at it because they play it so much. It’s not any more complicated than that.