The Samba Is Dead

SI: Moraes, you were in the stadium in Barcelona when Brazil lost to Italy in 1982. What do you remember?

Moraes: It was the biggest disappointment of my life. The 1982 team was the best I ever saw. The 1970 team had the best player ever [Pelé], but the whole '82 team was better for the Beautiful Game. I was thinking if Brazil scored inside 20 minutes against Italy, we would score six goals in the game. But Italy went ahead, and finally there were no more goals. It was something from God. The worst time of my life.

Melo: Recently ESPN showed the game again here. This was my father's generation. I said to him, 'They're showing Brazil-Italy '82 on TV.' And he turned on the channel to watch it. I went to my room for a while, and when I went back later to see him, he was crying.

One day last month a group of 15 Brazilians calling themselves Art Lovers of Soccer paid to have billboards erected around Santos, the seaside city where Pelé once played and where a starlet named Neymar has rekindled the national fervor for the Beautiful Game. The signs were a last-minute appeal for Dunga to call up Neymar for the World Cup, though he's only 18 and has never played for the senior national team. "Now the streets are desperate to have Neymar, because they want to see the Beautiful Game," said Motta, the Rio lawyer. "They have the ugly squad, and they need the beautiful boy. If I'm Dunga, I would bring Neymar and Ronaldinho."

Such public campaigns in the final days before a major tournament are nothing new in Brazil. "In every World Cup the people lobby for players," says Dias. "In 2002 it was for Romário to go. In 2006 it was for Robinho to be in the starting lineup. Now it's Neymar. But I don't think he'll make it. Dunga knows that whether he wins or loses, everybody will talk about Neymar, so he wants to do it his way." Indeed: Dunga left both Neymar and Ronaldinho off his 23-man roster for South Africa.

Dunga's Way has turned Brazil from fun-loving samba entertainers into all-conquering, armor-clad warriors. If that style culminates in a victory in the final in Johannesburg on July 11 and a sixth World Cup championship for Brazil, the multitudes will celebrate from Copacabana Beach to the boardrooms of São Paulo to the Amazon rain forest. Failure, on the other hand, will only add fuel to the national debate over what the term Brazilian means anymore.

Moraes: I'm telling you, this Brazil team plays ugly and wins ugly. We had only one good game in the [2009] Confederations Cup, but we won the tournament. I was there. It would have been a world crisis if the U.S. had been champion. Dunga would have lost his underwear! But I just want to win, even if it's ugly.

Melo: But what is beautiful, and what is ugly? It is a very subjective concept.

Moraes: In 2006 Brazil had the best players in the world but didn't go to the semifinals. Is that beautiful? Not winning?

Vieira: You can bring players with talent. But not overweight players!