History of North and South American Football
"Brazil will never be short of Pel s, Garrinchas and Ronaldinhos, because every Brazilian child is trying to be one."- Rivellino
Working in Brazil has given me an affinity with their people and a life-long interest in South American football. I have witnessed young kids playing football in the favelas whose only way out is to become a professional footballer. Along Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, you will see kids doing amazing things with a football every minute of the day, seven days a week.
The passion, energy and determination of Europeans is one thing but the desperation to succeed of the Brazilians is always going to make them better than anyone else and that is why in every World Cup from 1958, Brazil have been the favourite to win and they have won five times. The only disappointment for their delirious fans was when they hosted the World Cup in 1950 and 2014, and failed to win. In fact, they have never forgotten the 1950 disaster when they were beaten at the Maracan by their neighbours Uruguay. Nor will they forget the 7-1 defeat by Germany in front of their own fans at Belo Horizonte, in 2014, described by Phil McNulty as "a drama that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it."
Brazilian football was slow to develop in the early 1900s as their main source of migrants, Portugal, at that time did not have the same passion for the game but Brazilian football changed forever as soon as mixed-race players were accepted in the Brazilian leagues in the 1920s. The emergence of Uruguayan and Argentinian football was as sudden as it was surprising and they really took the world by storm in the Olympic Games in 1924 and 1928, in Paris and Amsterdam, the two teams reaching the final in 1928. Their participation, of course, required a lengthy voyage across the Atlantic Ocean for each of the tournaments. Olympic football at that time was the only international football event and would have commanded the attention of the footballing public at large.
In 1924, as a warm-up for the Olympic Games in Paris, the Uruguayan national team had arranged nine matches in Spain. They played in Vigo, Bilbao, La Coru a and Madrid and won every match so they arrived in Paris in good spirit, health and physical fitness and a reputation. In the Olympics they beat Yugoslavia 7-0, USA 3-0, France 5-1, Netherlands 2-1 and Switzerland 3-0 in the final. The world took note. The Uruguayans had arrived and had won their first Olympic gold medal. In 1928 they repeated the feat and after eliminating the hosts, Netherlands followed by Italy and Germany, they met their b te noir, Argentina in the final, and in front of large crowds, drew the first game and managed to win the replay 2-1. To cap it all, of course, Uruguay also won the 1930 World Cup.
North American football has endured a bumpy run, unlike its neighbours in the south, where football took off in the early 1920s and has never stopped. In the USA and Canada its been a stop and go since the very first football match in 1866, apparently, played under FA Rules, but the rules at that time permitted handling and running with the ball and there was therefore little distinction between soccer and rugby. The game was played between Fall River Rovers and Bethlehem Steel in Wisconsin and was certainly the earliest football match to be played in any part of the world outside Europe. The reason for the early start for football in the USA was simply because Fall River had become the centre for the textile industry in the USA and had attracted thousands of immigrant workers from the North of England textile mills, where football was first played in the UK. So, these immigrants knew about football, the rules and the skills required. Bethlehem Seel was the early center or the US steel industry and also attracted thousands of UK immigrants.
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