Brazil's goalkeepers stare down a historical crisis

	Dida is Brazil's starting goalkeeper, but he has been inconsistent and plagued by injuries in recent months. Andreas Rentz/Bongarts/Getty Images
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Poor Valdir Peres. Poor Leão. Poor Ado, poor Félix, poor Carlos. Poor Joel, poor Germano. Poor, really poor, Moacir Barbosa.

Here in Brazil, there is great pain and sorrow associated with the most dramatic position in soccer. In Pelé's land, Ronaldinho's country, Zico's birthplace and where Ronaldo and Kaká have displayed their magic, once again a curse seems to darken the skies.

OK, not exactly. No need to get that dramatic. Let's just say a very black cloud floats above the box where Brazil's goalkeepers ply their trade.

On one side of the pitch, geniuses make crowds dream with their moves, while at the other end, Brazilian keepers are groggy from losing sleep because of the nightmares. After all, being a goalkeeper in Brazil was never, well, fashionable.

Even today, no player wants to play the position -- we even avoid saying the name.

Why? Picture those sandy fields where you imagine boys playing barefoot, everyone doing "Brazilian" things with the ball. Those uneven pieces of land where stones, electric posts and other obstacles challenge talented young boys to do things that will amaze the world. There, the keeper is always the worst player. You can't show off when you're in goal.

Robinho makes 65 mistakes per game, but he needs to make only one brilliant move to make the crowd swoon. Adriano just needs to lift off the ground and score a game-winner after a lousy match and everything is OK.

Now consider the reverse. Put '94 world champion Taffarel in goal. Put AC Milan's Dida, put the amazing goal-scoring Rogério Ceni in net, all creating miracles over the course of a match. But God forbid, they make a mistake and give up a goal, that's it -- they are destroyed and questioned.

An experienced Brazilian coach once said, "The goalkeeper position is so bad, so bitter, that the grass does not even grow strong at the place where he steps."

Whenever Brazil has failed to win the World Cup, the keeper is often blamed, despite his brilliant play. Take Barbosa: a wonderful person and an amazing goalkeeper, who often challenged the best players on penalty kicks, sometimes playing without gloves because he said he needed to "feel the ball."

Even after a great World Cup in 1950, Barbosa gave up a goal to Uruguay that ended up deciding the championship in front of 200,000 fans at Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã. The media blamed Barbosa, and he was forever remembered as the man responsible for "the worst loss Brazil's history."