Why Have Brazil Stopped Winning Everything?

Brazil are the most successful and iconic national football team in the world, having won a record five FIFA World Cups in the men's game, and boasting legends of the game like Pelé, Zico, and Ronaldo.

Since winning their last World Cup in 2002 though, Brazil have reached just one semi-final on home soil in 2014, where they lost 7-1 against Germany, and have been sent packing in the quarter finals at every other tournament.

In this documentary, HITC Sevens takes a look at the demise of Brazil's national team, the state of domestic football in Brasil as a whole, and attempts to answer the question of why Brazil have stopped winning everything.

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[GermoDante]

I think Brazil has started to develop what we called "La mochila" in Argentina, essentially the players are starting to feel the pressure of not winning a World Cup for 20 years. The new generations lack the mentality to overcome that pressure and they crumble under it, even when they are technically some of the most gifted players in the world. It took 36 years for us to shake that off and finally get a generation of players that would compliment some of our more talented veterans to essentially win anything that could be won. It takes time, but Brazil, being Brazil, will win again and in some fashion, I'm sure of it.

[bangkokbaseball]

The bottom line is this, Brazil doesn’t win anymore because all their best players are being sold to European clubs at too young an age, and they end up becoming more European in their style of play than Brazilian. They’ve lost what makes the Brazilian player so special. When Brazil was most dominant, almost their entire team played on Brazilian clubs, which was more beneficial to the team.

[le_mnde]

As a Brazilian, I think that a very important aspect of the fact that we don't win anymore is that our playstyle is increasingly becoming more rigid and extremely tactical to mirror Europe playstyle, but this is something that the europeans are good at, not the brazilians. Brazil has always been strong when it had more fluidity and collective creativity and this has been controlled and discouraged by the latest coaches.

[lucasdapaz]

As a Brazilian, thank you for doing this video. It has been extremely painful to see Brazil elimination from the last couple world cups.

[bixumbi]

From a Brazilian, this is a brilliant analysis and it surprises me how much knowledge and insight you have into Brazilian football. Well done!

[micahkiyimba]

Brazil went 24 yrs between 1970 and 1994 without even making the WC Semis...so I guess they are due in 2026.
I personally don't think they are now eternally doomed to never win it again. Argentina finally broke their own drought just last year and I think soon enough, Brazil will be back.
It's just a dry spell...every great WC country has had one with even Germany finally falling into one

[pedrovassallo]

I agree that Brazil’s football is being deteriorated over the years, but I would just point out that the Brasileirão’s level is actually slowly getting better after reaching an all-time low in the mid 2010s. Now, Palmeiras and Flamengo have been able to maintain and improve very competitive teams over the last years, and a fair few very good players (Suárez, Fernandinho, Hulk and James, for exemple) have recently signed for Brazilian teams. Also, the last three Libertadores finals have been between Brazilian teams and the semifinals this year feature 3 out of 4. So, although the league’s level isn’t anywhere near as good as before, there’s still a light at the end of the tunnel

[cyrilgittens]

I’m from 48 from England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and I love Brazil 🇧🇷 I remember as a kid crying when they got knocked out of world cups especially when Argentina knocked them out in
1990, best ballers on the planet, haven’t even watched the video yet just see Romario,
What a player he was. Do Brazilian ppl just want to win, or win with a flamboyant style, I think because they come to Europe young it gets coached out of them, Neymer is a last of a dying breed.
We need the sexy in football, not the 2 minute bang on a Saturday in the missionary position.

[markos_aki]

As a Brazilian, it is surreal how in touch and on point he always is in representing the ongoing events, historical and current sentiment and mindset of a whole ass different country. Who does he talk to? Let me stress how this is far from common even in journalism, where you'd think professionals would be well informed or at least admit to their ignorance. It astonishes me. He talks about it so casually and accurately like he lived here his whole life. And the analysis in this video is more insightful, pertinent and precise than any I've seen from our own here, on a subject that lives rent-free 24/7 in the minds every Brazilian who keeps up with football (vast majority of 200 million of them). It makes me trust wholeheartedly whenever he's doing the same for a different country I have no context about.

For this and many other reasons he is easily my favorite sports journalist in the world. What a fucking spectacular video.

[nicholaspaladino]

Brazilian here: I think it’s because Brazil began imitating the European style of play, where wingers are practically full backs in large parts of the game, the original talented number 10 vanished and turned into a “modern 8” like a De Bruyne or Kroos kind of player with much more defensive obligations. The academies are focusing more in the physical aspect and winning meaningless trophies other than developing raw talent (Romário for exemple would never grow into a striker nowadays due to his height). That mentality is ruining the roots of Brazilian football who once had Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo IN THE SAME TEAM. If that happened today, they would have to came back and defend at all times while back in the day they had much more freedom to win games against for example much more tactical teams like Germany and Italy purely with their talent. Clubs are now building players to sell them to Europe and make money and not to have the best players in the world.

[coelholukas]

Interesting points to make from the inside out. In 2010, 2018 and 2022, Brasil's coaches were seen as too European in nature. Tite and Dunga are seen as defensive, and rigid tactically, and often criticized as killing our way of playing.

Also interesting to note is that Brasil's league and Brasilian teams are just as the national team, extremally dominant (in the recent years) in the Continental tournaments. Argentinians, Uruguaians and others are basically begging for FFP like rules to be implemented because Brasilian teams have too much money.

Even so, I would agree with most of the video.

[YashMezzala]

After such a shit day dealing with stupid c*nts, this vid is pretty relaxing.

Thanks man, you are the GOAT of football documentaries

[Jolgeable]

Just a small correction, nobody in Brazil calls football "jogo bonito" (the "beautiful game). This comes from a Nike ad from the 2000's. The closest I know is when there was a lot of talk about "art football" in the 80's.

After the defeats in the 80s of the "art football" under the command of coach Telê Santana, the watchword became the so-called "football of results", in the world cups of 90 and 94 (which worked in 94).

By the way, a small point that may be interesting to add, beyond the fact that the players were idols of their clubs in Brazil, people fondly remember the 82 team for the group that it was, while people remember the 2002 team only for the players, individual names, not for the team in general.

At the turn of the 90s to the 2000s, I remember me saying that it was no longer a Brazilian team, but a European team of Brazilians, because the best players were in Europe. I had a problem with that because it wasn't as easy to watch European football matches as it is today, so they weren't as familiar to me as the players of the 80's were.

And last, an idea I have in my head, I think there are two forces that act on Brazilian football:

1. Football as business - the most modern football has huge investments and sponsors. The more you advance in the competition, the more the thing is profitable. Hence comes a quest for efficiency and and a different celebration for victory.

2. Football as culture - this is the source of individual talents emerging as players, and the fans' desire to see football with identity. But today it is hard to fit into football what Sócrates, captain of Brazil in 1982 said: "enjoy football, winning or losing" - which comes from a more romantic era that no longer exists in today's reality of football as a money machine.

As an old fan, I feel nostalgic, but still curious to see what paths football takes over time. After all, football is still a great excuse to get friends together, get drunk and have little heart attacks for 90 minutes. 😄🍺⚽

[waitingforapril]

It is also the same for Argentina, though now we teach more “European”. It’s is why Van Gaal got along so poorly with Riquelme, Di Maria, etc. Because he didn’t use their best points, creativity, vision, decision making and skill, and instead wanted them to stay in the position he told them to as cogs in the machine.

[lawrencenjawe]

As a long time Brazil fan (Since the 70s) I admit this video is Absolutely brilliant... Well researched, very explicit thorough materials. Thru out my years I've always pondered on every single one of your assertions..😄😄😄Honestly there's nothing else i can add to this wonderful, detailed presentation ...⚽ Thank You....!!

[zsutton]

Man I remember watching Brazil and the movement and flair as the moment I feel in love with the game. Growing up in the states football wasn't as popular as it is today. I grew up down the street from an older Greek couple id say when I was 8 they were closer to 80. He introduced me to football because we had cable and he didn't so he'd come over to watch the major tournaments like the World Cup. Seeing the style of play in those canary yellow Nike shirts I was hooked. I'm now 33 and love the game as much as I ever have. Thankful that kids state side can just flip on the TV or stream any of the major Euro leagues on the weekend. So happy to see football finally growing here. It really started to catch on in my age group to where if you took 10 kids I'd say it is now a 50/50 split between American football and Football in terms of participation.

[Alfie_]

I feel so bad for players such as Kayky, he was offered money and couldn't foresee turning it down, and then he had limited opportunities, went back to Brazil, with Bahia, scored a few phenomenal goals and demonstrated his truly immense talent, he did his ACL. Kayky is such a special player to watch, I hope he can recover.

[GullyFootTony]

Romario & Bebeto are two of the legends from my era as a kid. It’s crazy to see that raw Brazilian playing style & flair slowly diminish.
I know it’s due to a lot of Brazilian players playing in Europe but hopefully their style of football is preserved. It really was a marvel to behold.

[deniscandido]

This is something temporary. I'm 68 years old and I've seen Brazil in several phases, I saw the third championship in 1970, the 24 years without winning until winning 94 and 2022. It's certainly a phase, soon we'll see a new generation of Brazilians as talented as Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.

[alfilho]

An incredibly accurate depiction of recent Brazilian team. Perfect. The dependency of Neymar is undeniable. This generation is the most dependent of one player compared to any other Brazilian generation. Not fair on Neymar, who is undeniably one of the best players to ever come out of Brazil.
Also, as you said, the knock out nature of the World Cup also relies on good fortune. Top job!