Brazil World Cup Blog

News, analysis, history, and discussion on all things Verde-Amarela

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The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time

We spent months voting, and at last we have chosen a winner. Winning 53% of the vote over that Carlos Alberto goal, Pelé’s first goal in the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden, Brazil’s third and thus decisive goal in a 5-2 win, is the greatest Seleção goal of all time.

I’ve already said everything I had to say about this goal in the last post, so let’s just take this opportunity to bask in finally having chosen a winner.

If you want to look over the bracket, that’s here; my spreadsheet with all the goals that were nominated is here. I’m thinking of creating a post listing every goal in the bracket later on, but that many videos and GIFs may take a deadly toll upon any web browser that tries to view it, so perhaps it’ll just be a YouTube playlist or something.

For now, let’s use the comments celebrate the greatest goal in the history of the Brazil national team and discuss the start of the 2020/21 club season. With Brazil back in action in October, it won’t be long until I’ll have some actual Seleção news to post, and maybe we’ll soon have a few more worthy goals to talk about.

The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time: Second Round, Part 4

In the last round of voting

Kaká’s solo goal against Argentina easily beat Ronaldinho’s solo goal against Haiti, with 79% of the vote.

Nelinho’s famous goal against Italy in 1978 thumped another Kaká goal, against Egypt in 2009, with 85% of the vote.

Despite my best efforts to convince you all to vote otherwise, Éder’s goal against the USSR in 1982 absolutely thrashed Oscar’s goal against Belarus in the 2012 Olympics, with 89% of the vote.

In a surprisingly close contest given how one-sided the other votes were this round, the team goal from the end of the 2005 Confederations Cup final beat Zico’s acrobatic goal against New Zealand in 1982 with 60% of the vote.

You can view the whole bracket here.

And now…

TODAY’S VOTING

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The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time: Second Round, Part 3

In the last round of voting

Despite a vocal showing from the Jairzinho-vs-England-in-1970 fan club, Roberto Carlos’ free kick against France won easily with 78% of the vote.

Bebeto’s goal against the Netherlands in 1994 earned 89% of the votes over Elano’s smash against Portugal in 2008.

In the closest contest of the day, Pelé’s famous goal in the 1958 World Cup final got 69% of the vote over Sócrates’ famous goal in the 1982 World Cup opener. Nice.

Lastly, Ronaldinho’s free kick against England in the 2002 World Cup beat Júlio Baptista’s bicycle kick against Catalunya in 2004 with 88% of the vote.

You can view the whole bracket here.

And now…

TODAY’S VOTING

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The Greatest Seleção Goal of All Time: Second Round, Part 2

In the first of the second-round votes

Ronaldinho’s first goal for Brazil notched a routine win over Marcelo’s 2011 goal against Mexico, garnering 72% of the vote.

In a contest that wasn’t settled until the final hours of voting, Neymar’s opening goal at the 2013 Confederations Cup beat Josimar’s long-range shot against Ireland in 1986, with 56% of the vote.

Another very close contest saw Josimar’s goal in the following game against Poland win 54% of the vote over Roberto Carlos’ forgotten “banana shot” against Jamaica, which became the highest-seeded goal to be knocked out so far.

Lastly, and to my genuine surprise, Pelé’s forgotten goal against Mexico in the 1962 World Cup completely wiped the floor with Adriano’s goal in the 2004 Copa América final, with 73% of the vote. I nominated Pelé’s goal in the first place and have long thought it deserved more attention, and even so, I went with my gut and voted for Adriano’s strike, based on the combination of technique and last-second clutch-ness. Apparently, I was fairly alone on that call, but I’m not complaining—this was just one of the most unexpected results of the whole bracket so far.

You can view the whole bracket here.

And now…

TODAY’S VOTING

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