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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 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…
In the last set of voting…
Jairzinho’s goal against England in the 1970 World Cup group stage garnered 84% of the vote against Elivelton’s run through the Czechoslovakian defense in 1991:
Bebeto’s goal against the Netherlands in the 1994 World Cup quarterfinal beat Careca’s bicycle kick against Argentina in 1985 with 72% of the vote:
Elano’s smash against Portugal in 2008 beat out Careca’s volley against Chile in the 1993 Copa América with 64% of the vote:
And with 92% of the vote, Pelé’s juggling act in the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden trounced Formiga’s equalizer against Germany in the 2008 Olympic semifinal.
And now for
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