The Tragedy of Maracanã Stadium in World Cup 1950

The tragedy of Maracanã represents a pivotal moment in the history of the World Cup and football in general, in which the dream of millions of Brazilians died, and a black jewel named Pele was born from the womb of the disaster.

Brazil prepared itself well to celebrate its first title in the 1950 World Cup, as it only had to avoid losing to Uruguay to win the title, with two landslide victories over Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1 in the final stage (which was playing in the group stage of four teams at the time), while Uruguay must win against its big neighbor in its field because of its difficult victory over Sweden 3-2 after it was late 2-1, and its hard-earned draw with Spain, who was also ahead 2-1.

Brazil did not include the word loss in its dictionary, so the governor of Rio de Janeiro addressed the Brazilian people as world champions, and the city over-prepared for the greatest carnival in the country's history,

And the Maracanã Stadium, as they thought, would be a suitable place for this, as Brazil on this stadium pitch scored 13 goals in the final against two teams that caused big suffering to Uruguay.

On July 16, 1950, more than 200,000 spectators gathered at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

The clamor of the masses was loud, and the celebrations pervaded all over Brazil, and the sound of the radio broadcasting the match’s events resounded in the alleys of the slums whose residents gathered around it, and as soon as the English referee Rider blew the whistle, Brazil announced its intention to shake the guest net, so the hosts launched attacks that put terrible pressure Uruguay's defenses.

Despite 17 attempts by the Brazilians against the visitors' goal, the first half ended in a goalless draw.

With the start of the second half, the Brazilian fans became anxious, yet their throats never held back in their encouragement, and it was only two minutes until the Brazilian striker Friaca was able to decode the Uruguayan defenses with a powerful shot that cheered more than 50 million Brazilians, and here the stadium fans celebrated the victory as if The match ended, but the players of Uruguayan coach Ivan Lopez bared their fangs and showed their skills, which they hide in the first half.

Then, Uruguay captain Abdolio Valera quickly dribbled past Brazil's defenses and passed a superb pass to striker Chiaviño, who scored the equalizer for Uruguay.

This equalizer upset the Brazilian fans, but the result still means that Brazil is the world champion.

Brazil increased its attacks, hoping to settle things, but 11 minutes before the end of that match the disaster happened, the Uruguayan team managed to score the goal to make the score 2-1, taking advantage of a fatal mistake by the Brazilian goalkeeper Barbosa.

A terrible silence fell on the stadium of the match, everyone was astonished by the horror of the disaster, Luis Mendes, the match commentator on the radio, did not believe what was happening in front of him, he said 9 times the phrase “Goal for Uruguay” in nine different ways.

The fans held their breath and tears for the remaining minutes, hoping that their team would save them from this nightmare, but Uruguay's defenses had a different opinion, and the final whistle blew the tears of millions of Brazilians in the 1950 World Cup final.

In one of the alleys of Brazil, there was a child playing with his friends, and he felt a strange silence in the neighborhood, and returned home to know what was going on, to be surprised by a scene he had not familiar with in his life, as he found his father crying bitterly, and he asked him, "Why are you crying, Dad?" His father replied, "Brazil lost the World Cup”, little Pele replied innocently, "Don't cry, Dad I will win the World Cup for you one day."