World Cup 1994 wasn’t a truly outstanding tournament, but it did serve up its fair share of memorable moments.
Saudi Arabia’s Saeed Al-Owairan scoring a legendary goal against Belgium. Diego Maradona’s celebration and subsequent drugs ban. Oleg Salenko’s five-goal haul against Cameroon. Yordan Letchkov’s headed winner for Bulgaria against Germany. Diana Ross’ penalty miss in the opening ceremony. Roberto Baggio’s penalty miss in the final.
The curious thing is that none of these involve much Brazilian brilliance. Why?
Carlos Alberto Parreira is a legendary World Cup coach because of the longevity and diversity of his career as much as this success in the United States. He was in charge of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa at other World Cups, in addition to leading Brazil in both 1994 and, less successfully, in 2006.
Parreira spent his career mixing those experiences with jobs in — and for — Brazil. He had a role on the coaching staff when they won World Cup 1970, and an interim spell as manager in 1983. When he was appointed in 1991, Brazil hadn’t won the World Cup for over two decades, and the public demanded success. They also demanded entertaining football, which Parreira wasn’t always able to provide. This generation of Brazilian players lacked guile, and Parreira himself favoured a more cautious style. When his name was read out as part of pre-match team announcements, many Brazilians booed. One newspaper interviewed his mother, and even she had criticisms of his team selection.
Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was criticised for his selections and pragmatic approach (Lutz Bongarts/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Brazil had struggled to reach World Cup 1994.
In their five-team qualification group, a strange fixture list meant they started with four away games — winning only one — and then had four home matches in a row, and therefore were always playing catch-up. Their 2-0 loss to Bolivia in La Paz, a tough away venue because of its altitude, came courtesy of two goals in the final three minutes and was considered a disaster back home, because it was Brazil’s first-ever World Cup qualification loss. They eventually squeezed through to the tournament — but went into it in a state of uncertainty, amid federation involvement in selection decisions, squabbling players and inevitable disputes about bonus payments.
Above all else, Parreira was an organiser. Brazil’s preparation for this World Cup was excellent. They had by far the most extensive backroom staff at the competition, a big emphasis on video analysis, and Parreira imposed strict discipline, particularly in terms of timekeeping. Even after Brazil had won the final, the players were still ordered to be back in their rooms by 11pm.
Parreira found the experience of being in charge of Brazil very difficult, and had already agreed to join Spanish club Valencia going into the tournament.
“There was unbearable, almost inhuman pressure bearing down on me because Brazil had not won the World Cup since 1970,” he said in Chris Jones’ book World Cup Stories. “That was mentally and physically exhausting for years, even during the qualifiers.” Indeed, even when Brazil won a qualifier 6-0 against Bolivia, he received criticism for his system being too rigid.
Tactics
This was not the free-flowing, gloriously fluid Brazil who won World Cup 1970. But Brazil’s subsequent failures, particularly in 1982, had demonstrated that approach was no longer viable.
Instead, Parreira turned to a system which was generally considered more ‘European’ than many Brazilians wanted, although he abandoned the disastrous use of a sweeper at World Cup 1990 and returned to a back four, the structure Brazil had popularised at World Cup 1958. Mario Santos played alongside Aldair, who came in for the injured Ricardo Rocha midway through the first game, a 2-0 win against Russia.
There were changes in both full-back positions. The elegant Leonardo, more of a midfielder than a pure full-back, started the tournament at left-back but was dismissed in the round-of-16 victory over the United States for elbowing Tab Ramos, after which Branco came into the side. Right-back Jorginho was excellent throughout the tournament, keeping Cafu on the bench, but an early injury in the final meant Cafu played the majority of the game, the first of his three straight World Cup final appearances.
This was a 4-4-2, sometimes considered a 4-2-2-2 because the wide players drifted inside — and also because the two holding midfielders never ventured forward. Many considered it overkill to field both Dunga and Mauro Silva but both performed their defensive jobs excellently and Dunga attempted more forward passes than is often implied, including a lovely outside-of-the-foot through ball for a Romario goal against Cameroon.
Dunga and Mauro Silva gave this Brazil team a very solid base (Billy Stickland/ALLSPORT)
The real interest came out wide.
In a side short on midfield creativity, much of the focus going into the tournament was about whether Parreira would field Rai, brother of the legendary Socrates, and captain of the side. Rai could provide moments of magic but was inconsistent and had been in poor form for Paris Saint-Germain. Parreira defended Rai and started him in the three group games — but then dropped him for the knockout stage, bringing in Mazinho instead, and giving the armband to Dunga.
“I feel Mazinho has played well in this World Cup, and I want to take advantage of his good form,” Parreira said before the 1-0 win over the Americans. “He has good pace and will do well on the right of midfield.” But Mazinho had previously been introduced in place of either holding midfielder. He was not a proper wide midfielder; more of a Ramires figure, to provide a modern equivalent. This was Parreira shoring up the side.
On the left was Zinho, who wore the No 9 shirt but was anything but one of those. He was merely a useful midfielder who started all seven games without providing a goal or an assist, and was arguably most notable for helping Branco cope with Marc Overmars in the thrilling 3-2 quarter-final win over the Netherlands.
Then, up front, Brazil pretty much left Romario and Bebeto to do their own thing.
Star player
Romario. After a relatively fallow period for genuine world-class Brazilian attackers, there was no question Romario was a truly exceptional goalscorer. He was unusually short for a striker (167cm/5ft 6in) and spent long periods of games looking completely disinterested, but he was a brilliant penalty-box player. And he knew it. “Romario is short on humility, long on talent,” as a New York Times headline read in the build-up to this World Cup.
He had badly fallen out with Parreira a couple of years beforehand, after an incident when Romario was convinced to fly back to Brazil for a friendly despite being unfit, but then didn’t play in the game. He was then absent from the national side for a year, before Parreira panicked that Brazil might not make it to the World Cup ahead of a literal must-win final qualification match against Uruguay. Parreira recalled Romario, who scored both goals in a 2-0 win, and from then on his place in the side was assured.
It’s also worth considering that this World Cup started just over a month after the tragic passing of Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, at that point Brazil’s national hero. “With Senna’s death, Brazil has been left with a void,” Romario said going into the tournament. “If I can lead Brazil to a fourth World Cup title, I will definitely be a possible replacement.”
He was electric throughout the competition. In an opening 2-0 win against Russia, he scored, then won the penalty for the second goal. In a 3-0 defeat of Cameroon, he produced a calm one-on-one finish to make it 1-0, and in the final group game, he produced a dribble and toe-poke to catch out the Sweden ’keeper, a goal reminiscent of Ronaldo’s semi-final winner against Turkey eight years later.
Romario was outstanding throughout the World Cup (Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images)
In the knockout stage, he converted against the Netherlands from Bebeto’s cross in the quarter-final, then scored a far-post header for the only goal in a rematch with the Swedes in the semi-final. All five of his goals were openers. He won the tournament’s Golden Ball award for best player, then FIFA’s World Player of the Year award for this year.
You might be surprised to learn…
If Brazil’s approach was largely about defending with eight players and attacking with two, the problem was that the two seemed to hate each other.
Romario and Bebeto didn’t get along. Romario had spent much of the previous year opining on what starting XI Parreira should pick, and this usually involved selecting his friend Edmundo. He and Bebeto had history. When Romario left Vasco da Gama and moved to Europe with PSV of the Netherlands, Bebeto was his replacement, making a highly controversial move from Rio de Janeiro rivals Flamengo. Bebeto helped Vasco to their first title in 15 years and was named South American Player of the Year, which annoyed Romario. They were then cast as rivals for a Brazil starting spot.
Later, they were rivals in Spain: Bebeto moved to Deportivo La Coruna, while Romario joined Barcelona. They won the top goalscorer award in 1992-93 and 1993-94, respectively. In the latter season, Romario — always rattled by any kind of comparison to anyone — started calling Bebeto ‘crybaby’ for his habit of complaining to referees. Barcelona snatched the title from Depor on the final day of the season, when the latter’s Miroslav Dukic missed a late penalty, and they could only draw 0-0 with Valencia. Many felt Bebeto should have stepped up to take it.
Still, they worked brilliantly on the pitch, and when Romario was enduring his estrangement from the national side, Bebeto surprisingly lobbied for his return. This clearly wasn’t fully appreciated by Romario, who continued to be irritated by Bebeto. Shortly before the Selecao left for the United States, Romario announced at a press conference that he would refuse to sit next to Bebeto on the plane. This didn’t stop them repeatedly teeing up one another in matches.
With so much media speculation about their relationship, Brazil held a special press conference the day before the semi-final with both players, to try to show they were now on good terms.
Romario, right, and Bebeto, centre, had a great relationship on the pitch but a fraught one off it (Chris Cole/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
“We are different people,” Romario said. “Bebeto is a family type, stay at home. I’m a street cat. I respect Bebeto a lot. He knows how much I like him. Nothing that is said is going to affect anything we do on the field… the only thing we have in common is that we both score goals. Bebeto is a much more free-flowing player than I am. For 90 minutes, he’s always concentrating on what’s going on. My strength is, a lot of people think I’m asleep.”
Amid all this, Romario’s favourite, Edmundo, was excluded due to a lack of form and discipline, while a 17-year-old Ronaldo — who at this point had ‘Ronaldinho’ on the back of his shirt — remained an unused substitute, but would dominate the next two World Cups.
The final
Going into the final, there was little doubt that the two best attackers at the tournament had been Romario and Roberto Baggio of Italy. The problem was that there were fitness doubts about both. In the end, both were declared fit to play, but were far from their best on the day. Romario lacked his usual acceleration and Baggio’s touch was poor — he had one decent chance in the second half after a quick one-two, but scuffed his shot.
A little like the West Germany-Argentina final four years beforehand, this was a game lacking in genuine excitement and goals, but with one clearly superior side. Brazil had all the serious chances. Most notably, Mazinho could have squared to one of three team-mates for a simple tap-in after Branco’s free kick was saved, but he missed his kick completely. Later, Mauro Silva’s long-range effort was spilt onto the post by goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca.
Even when the game seemed destined for penalties, Cafu’s low, deep cross found Bebeto, but he couldn’t get the right contact on the ball — and then later on, a similar ball from Cafu took Pagliuca out of the game, but Romario could only scuff wide on the stretch.
Really, it was lacking in technical quality and tempo, not helped by the match in California’s Pasadena Rose Bowl — and, on the whole, the tournament — being played in sweltering conditions in the U.S. summer (the final kicked off at 12.30pm local time).
Brazil winger Viola offered some excitement as an extra-time substitute with some quick footwork, but his shots were terrible.
With nobody able to score in 120 minutes, penalties were required for the first time in World Cup final history. Even then, only five of the nine were converted, with Brazil’s victory sealed when Baggio, utterly exhausted, sent his over the crossbar.
Claudio Taffarel celebrates after Roberto Baggio missed his penalty (Shaun Botterill/Allsport/Getty Images)
“It was like a chess game,” said Parreira. “It was very beautiful to see people who understand football on a tactical level.” Nobody else seemed to think it was beautiful.
The defining moment
Clearly, the defining moment was Baggio’s shootout penalty. But given his attempt was a literal miss, rather than a save by Claudio Taffarel, we probably need to look elsewhere.
In pure footballing terms, it was Branco’s outstanding free kick to win the quarter-final against the Netherlands. This was probably the game of the tournament, and was settled by a genuinely outstanding strike — almost a prototype of Roberto Carlos’ Tournoi de France goal three years later — that swerved dramatically, fizzed off the far post and bounced in. Branco, of course, was only playing because of Leonardo’s suspension.
“Before hitting the ball, I looked up at the scoreboard,” he later said. “There were 10 minutes to go. And I got it into my head that it was the right moment, just the right moment.”
But perhaps the most-repeated moment came earlier in that game.
When Bebeto sneaked in behind a Dutch defence who had completely stopped playing because Romario was in an offside position — the ‘not interfering’ interpretation was relatively new — he rounded the goalkeeper, slotted into an empty net and then ran off to perform his famous ‘rocking the baby’ celebration as a tribute to his newborn baby Matheus, who was two days old. He was joined by Romario and Mazinho for a celebration which, more than most of the 1994 side’s football, was an example of the Brazilian joy the world wanted to see.
🇧🇷 #OTD in 1994, Bebeto’s iconic celebration made headlines. 👀#FIFAWorldCup
Matheus went on to have a decent career, making over 100 appearances in the Portuguese top flight — although nothing compared to Mazinho’s sons Thiago and Rafinha Alcantara, who have 15 major league titles between them.
Were they definitely the best team?
It’s difficult to make a case for anyone else.
Italy scrapped their way through to the final with an overly rigid system, thanks to the magic of Baggio. Swedish and Bulgarian players became national heroes by reaching the semi-finals, but few would make a case that those teams deserved anything more. The Dutch showed flashes of inspiration, but Brazil deservedly beat them.
Brazil’s only problem was that they were being compared to the country’s legendary sides of 1958, 1962 and, in particular, 1970. They weren’t on that level, but ultimately didn’t need to be.
