Brazil vs. Chile in 2010 By Marcello Casal Jr/ABr [CC BY 3.0 br (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
From Pele to Neymar, the ingenuity and technical skill that Brazilians bring to the game is unmatched. However, that does not mean that joga bonito is a strategy conducive to bringing home trophies, especially in a modernized game with a higher emphasis on defense. In fact, a veritable joga bonito playing Brazilian team hasn’t won the Jules Rimet Trophy since 1970 (Mann). Brazil has had significant success on the international stage since then but they weren’t playing the free-flowing improvisational joga bonito of yore. After the beautiful game fell short in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, the values of Brazilian football shifted to a style called futebol força (Gorman). Futebol força calls for a more defensive and physical style that emphasizes aggression and strength in the midfield as opposed to flair and aesthetics. A major proponent of this style is Carlos “Dunga” Verri, who experienced success of conservative brand of Brazilian football both as a player in the 1994 World Cup victory and as a coach between 2006 and 2010 (Nadel 42). Coach Felipe Scolari also used this defensive style to win World Cup in 2002 (Manfred).
Despite it’s success, the use of futebol força as opposed to joga bonito angered many Brazilians. To them, the abandonment of their national style was tantamount to treason. It is even rumored that this was the reasoning behind firing Dunga in 2010, even though he was winning soccer games (Nadel 42). Nonetheless, proponents like Scolari and Dunga stick to their guns. The first priority must always be to win. A victory playing beautiful football is one of the greatest things in the world, but a beautiful defeat is still a loss.. At the end of the day, fans want championships, and Brazil would rather have a few purists complain about winning ugly than an entire nation lament a beautiful defeat. If joga bonito won’t be able to win big games in the modern-age of soccer, shouldn’t it be scrapped for something more effective?
Good Football, Better Narrative
How to Cite this page: “Brazil’s Joga Bonito: Great Teams, or Just Great Players?”, Written by Andrew Jordan(2016). Olympic Football 2016 Guide, Soccer Politics Blog, Duke University, http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/tournament-guides/olympic-football-2016-guide/team-playing-styles-in-soccer/brazils-joga-bonito/brazils-joga-bon…better-narrative/, (accessed on (date)).
