Brazil loses two games in a row after more than 9 years – 11/17/2023 – The World Is a Ball

July 8, 2014. Mineirão Stadium, in Belo Horizonte. World Cup semi-final.

With a 7-1 defeat to Germany, the Brazilian team, coached by Luiz Felipe Scolari, known as Felipão, and without Neymar, injured, was experiencing the greatest humiliation in its history, which began a hundred years earlier.

July 12, 2014. Mané Garrincha Stadium, in Brasília. Dispute for third place in the World Cup.

Still shaken by the massacre against the Germans, the team led the Netherlands 3-0, with this lineup: Júlio César; Maicon, Thiago Silva, David Luiz and Maxwell; Luiz Gustavo (Fernandinho); Ramires (Hulk), Paulinho (Hernanes), Oscar and Willian; Joe.

This was the last time that Brazil suffered two consecutive defeats, whether in competitive games or in friendlies.

There was the second Dunga era (from September 2014 to June 2016), there was the Tite era (from September 2016 to December 2022), there was the interim period of Ramon Menezes (March to July this year), and the team never fell in two consecutive games, considering the results of normal time and extra time.

The “had been” had to be written because, nine years and four months after the setbacks at the World Cup in Brazil, a period in which it took to the field 115 times, the team once again succumbed in two consecutive matches.

Under the command of another interim, Fernando Diniz (also coach of Fluminense, with whom he recently became champion of the Libertadores), the national team lost to Uruguay, on October 17th (2-0 in Montevideo), and to Colombia ( 2-1, comeback, in Barranquilla), this Tuesday (16).

Brazil’s lineup on Colombian soil was this: Alisson; Emerson Royal, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães (Douglas Luiz) and Renan Lodi (Pepê); André and Bruno Guimarães; Raphinha (Endrick), Rodrygo (Paulinho), Vinicius Junior (João Pedro) and Gabriel Martinelli.

Considering that Brazil, before falling to Uruguay, a match in which Neymar suffered a serious injury, drew in Cuiabá (1-1) with Venezuela, there are three matches without a victory, something very rare for the team.

It is true that with Tite the Canarian team recorded a series of five matches without winning (three draws and two defeats, in the second half of 2019), but four of them were friendly matches – the rest, the Superclássico das Américas, against Argentina.

Diniz’s Brazil has failed to triumph in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, and the single point gained out of nine possible saw the team, which led the qualifiers, plummet to fifth place, behind Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela.

For now it is not a major problem, as the top six from South America will qualify for the World Cup (which will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico), with the seventh (out of ten competitors) still able to get the spot. in a recap.

However, if Brazil loses next Tuesday (21), at Maracanã, to Messi’s Argentina, a combination of results in the round could leave the team in seventh place.

If it happens, it won’t be the end (for the reason explained in the previous paragraph), but the photo of the table, currently already bad, will be shameful.

It could, however, be the immediate end for Diniz, whose interim period is planned to last until June 2024, when the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) expects the Italian Carlo Ancelotti to take over the selection.

The last time Brazil was defeated three times in a row dates back to mid-2001, when it suffered a sequence of four defeats – in fact, the worst series in history.

Two occurred in the Confederations Cup (France and Australia), under the command of Emerson Leão, who ended up being fired. The other two came with Felipão: one in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers (Uruguay), one in the Copa América (Mexico).

The only coach of Brazil’s main team to accumulate three consecutive defeats is Sebastião Lazaroni, who in 1989 succumbed, in a tournament in Denmark, against Sweden (2-1) and the hosts (6-0), and in a friendly against Switzerland (1 to 0).

If Diniz loses against Argentina, he will tarnish his CV by becoming the first coach to record three consecutive defeats with the Brazilian team in competition matches – in this case, the Qualifiers.