I’ve tallied all the votes from the lengthy nomination period, and I am pleased to announce the complete bracket of the greatest Brazil goals of all time, as chosen by you. (You can also check out the spreadsheet I made that lists every goal that was nominated.)

I won’t make you make any longer to start the voting: the first round of votes, to determine which four goals from youth sides are included in the main bracket, is further down the page. You can scroll straight down there if you want; otherwise, I’ve got a few bits of info about the bracket and takeaways about the goals nominated to share with you all.

It is so, so insignificantly small in the face of everything else about the COVID-19 pandemic, but the fact that there are no sports happening right now makes everything else that little bit worse. We’re all trapped inside, scared and without our usual distractions. Our options for Live Sports Things Happening Now are basically watching race car drivers (and also sometimes Thibaut Courtois, for some reason) race each other virtually, or wondering how the New York Giants are going to screw themselves over in the NFL Draft this time.

Plus, even if sports in general resume sooner, the cancellation of the Copa América means we Brazil fans won’t be able to see the Seleção resume play until September at the earliest. So to provide a little distraction and keep this site from getting too quiet while we wait for soccer to return, I thought we’d take another stab at something we tried a few years back during the long wait between Brazil games but never finished: a March Madness-style bracket to determine the greatest goal ever scored for the Brazil national team, with the contenders chosen by you, the readers.

In case you missed it, Brazil officially qualified for the men’s soccer tournament at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics after a lengthy CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament campaign that briefly looked like it was going to blow up in our faces. After a strong start in the first group stage, where we won all four games and played some very nice football, we could only draw our first two games in the four-team final round, leaving us needing a win against Argentina, to that point the only team to have won all their games, to secure qualification for the Olympics. But despite shaky performances in our previous two games, we stepped up when it mattered (and perhaps Argentina, having already secured their place in Tokyo, took it a bit easy), and we produced a stellar, completely dominant performance in a 3-0 win that could’ve been twice that big.

There’s plenty of reason to celebrate. Coach André Jardine has done a good job with this team, getting them to play attractive, winning football despite never being sure which players he’d have available (clubs aren’t obligated to release players for U-23 games), and his hard work has paid off with a trip to Tokyo. Matheus Henrique and new Lyon signing Bruno Guimarães formed a midfield duo that holds great promise for Brazil’s future. Matheus Cunha and Paulinho, both benchwarmers for their clubs, showed how good they can be when given playing time. Reinier Jesus, who only turned 18 on the day of Brazil’s first game in the competition, didn’t look at all out of place at U-23 level.

But it’s been close to a week, so now it’s time for stage 2 of the fun: baseless fantasy!

Another year, another set of Brazil games to look forward to. And we don’t have long to wait.

It’s a busy week for the various Seleções, and since it’s looking like a busy week for me too, I’m writing up a single, huge preview rather than one for both matchdays.

Let’s start with the side that’ll get the most column inches from me, the senior team.

Brazil vs. Argentina

King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 15, 2019

Kickoff: 12:00 PM EDT / 2:00 PM BRT / 5:00 PM GMT

US TV / Streaming: BeIN Sports

Likely Starting Lineup: Alisson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Alex Sandro; Casemiro, Arthur, Coutinho; Willian, Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus.

Brazil vs. South Korea

Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE, November 19, 2019

Kickoff: 8:30 AM EDT / 10:30 AM BRT / 1:30 PM GMT

US TV / Streaming: BeIN Sports

Likely Starting Lineup: Too early to say, though supposedly it will be heavily rotated