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After literal months of nominating, voting, and eliminating, we’ve finally whittled down our bracket of 68 goals down to two. It’s time, at long last, to choose the greatest goal in the history of the Brazil national football team.
Let’s meet our contestants, and relive the path each took on its way to the final.
Continue readingIn 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…
In the last round of voting…
Kaká’s solo goal against Argentina in 2006 beat out Ronaldo’s U-23 goal against Denmark with 83% of the vote:
Also with 83% of the vote was Adriano’s second goal against Argentina in the 2005 Confederations Cup final, which beat Roberto Carlos’ goal in a 1999 friendly against the Netherlands…
With 71% of the votes, Zico’s scissor kick against New Zealand in 1982 upset Gabriel Jesus’ opener against Argentina in last summer’s Copa América semifinal…
And with, you guessed it, 83% of the vote, David Luiz’ free kick against Colombia in the 2014 World Cup quarterfinal beat Willian’s volley against them in a 2017 World Cup qualifier.
Now for…
I noted earlier that in the process of compiling this bracket I gained a newfound appreciation for Romário’s incredible talents. With so many of his goals making the bracket, I’m taking this opportunity to present four matchups that each include a goal from O Baixinho, each showing a different facet of his remarkable abilities.
All these matchups begin with the higher-seeded goal, so Romário Appreciation Day in fact begins with Nelinho’s famous goal from the 1978 World Cup third-place game against Italy—fittingly for the day’s theme, scored with the outside of his boot.
It faces this elaborate team goal from a 4-0 friendly win over Brazil. There’s a lot to like here—Josimar’s dribble out from the back, Edu’s first-time outside-of-the-boot pass to Müller, Romário’s elegant takedown, slalom, and finish.
Our next matchup features Pelé’s free kick goal against Romania from the group stage of the 1970 World Cup.
This Romário goal is a stellar volley from a 1997 friendly against Mexico.
This time, the World Cup goal is against France—Careca finishing an elegantly constructed move in what ultimately ended up being a quarterfinal loss on penalties.
Romário’s contribution this time is a flying backheel that tied up a 2001 friendly against Mexico with almost the last kick of the game.
We finish off with a late Romário equalizer against Italy in the 1997 Le Tournoi, the same friendly tournament where Roberto Carlos scored his legendary free kick.
It’s up against a goal from one of Marta’s most iconic performances, a hat-trick on home soil in a come-from-behind 3-2 win against the USA in the 2014 International Women’s Football Tournament in Brasília. The goal in question is the solo run that leveled the scores:
This is also a great time to re-up this great SBNation video about how institutional sexism and apathy within Brazil’s football infrastructure killed Marta’s chances of winning the Women’s World Cup.
Let’s see if we can’t get this round of voting done by Tuesday night. After this, just one more round of voting before we move on to the round of 32!
The last block of voting saw several upset winners beating goals much higher-seeded in the bracket:
But one of those upset winners was not Paulinho’s winner against Germany in the 2017 U-17 World Cup quarterfinals, as Ronaldinho’s first goal for Brazil very comfortably beat it out with 75% of the vote.
Josimar’s goal against Poland in the 1986 World Cup round of 16 was a different story, earning 61% of the vote against Júnior’s higher-seeded strike against Argentina in the 1982 World Cup:
Less of a surprise was Adriano’s insanely clutch last-minute tying goal in the 2004 Copa América final beating out Rivaldo’s long-range strike in a 2000 friendly against Thailand with 69% of the vote.
And in the biggest upset so far, Pelé’s goal against Mexico in the 1962 World Cup group stage beat Romário’s opener against the Netherlands in 1994 with an impressive 78% of the vote:
And now…
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