As samba rhythms evolve, so has Brazilian football

	Brazil's 1982 World Cup team, with stars that included Falcão, is considered one of the most elegant sides ever assembled. Manny Millan/SI

The Carnival drums are reverberating in my ears. What better time to examine the importance of music and rhythm to soccer in Brazil?

It's often cliché -- part of the mythology that so often cloaks this giant country in half-truths and downright lies -- but there can be no denying the contribution of samba to Brazilian football. Its joyous rhythm has helped frame the way the game is played and watched.

It's almost impossible to quantify how important soccer is in South America, but we can boil it down to three steps. It was first introduced by the English in the 19th century arrived full of First World prestige. Second, in an era of rapid urbanization, it was taken over and reinterpreted by the masses. Third, it became a symbol of international triumphs and recognition for a region starved of both.

In the case of Brazil, samba was crucial to the way that soccer was reinterpreted. Both soccer and samba were products of new urban environments. When Brazil finally freed its slaves near the end of the 19th century, they gravitated towards the cities.

In Rio de Janeiro in particular, their African rhythmic heritage blended with influence of European immigrants to form samba. Like so much African-based music, samba was a form of social celebration, whose hypnotic rhythm enabled the dancer to transcend the difficulties of everyday reality and experience a sense of freedom.

It's no surprise, then, that this rhythm took control of Brazilian soccer as the game, initially restricted to the elite, became the passion of the poor. The people found a form of freedom in football, first as a source of pleasure, and then as professionalism took hold, as a possible escape from a life of limited prospects.

In place of the hard-running, muscular Christian approach of the English, the Brazilians developed a more sinuous way of playing the game, full of twists and turns and pirouettes. Samba formed part of the aesthetics of Brazilian football. To this day, the crowd's favorite moment is when a feint or a shimmy of a player causes his opponent to fall over.

Even if the defender is instantly back on his feet, he has been made to look ridiculous and inelegant. To be accused of having an inflexible waist is one of the worst insults a Brazilian player can hear.