Civilização em jogo: : atraso X modernidade na Copa do Mundo de 1950 através da imprensa escrita brasileira

delay X modernity in the 1950 world cup through the brazilian written press

Abstract

Played on Brazilian soil in 1950, the IV FIFA World Cup took on, in the eyes of the Brazilian press, a set of meanings that went beyond its merely sportive aspect, being presented as a unique possibility for Brazil to show itself to the world as a civilized nation, modern, capable of great victories and achievements. However, after the unexpected defeat to Uruguay in the last match, explanation and guilty parties were looked for because of what had happened inside the four lines of Maracanã. This process would end up bringing back old perspectives on the Brazilians, depreciative self-images, inherited from the colonial period but reinforced by the intellectuality of the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, which considered the Brazilian people themselves, due to factors such as miscegenation and climate, as condemned by backwardness in face of a European model of civilization. Nevertheless, the half of the 20th century is also marked by an opposite perspective, inheritor of Modernism, that, on the other side of the traditional perspectives at the time, considered miscegenation a positive factor, spreading an image of originality for Brazilian culture and the idea of a promising future for the nation. This way, the coverage of the event by the sports media took on a sense that projected over the Brazil national football squad and its performance on the field the dispute that existed then between these two perspectives, as if the selected Brazilian had the power to embody, through their on-field performance, the essence of the Brazilian national identity itself, mimicking, according to the results, a history and a destiny condemned to failure or destined to achievement.