Pole position: 100 years of international football
Trevor Stynes charts the history of international football in Poland, a century on from their first ever fixture.
Maracanazo, The Seleção’s Original Tragedy
It’s hard to believe now following their humiliation at the hands of Germany, that many considered this was Brazil’s World Cup to lose. Arguably you have to go back as far as 1950, when Brazil last hosted the World Cup to find a squad that had been so unduly expected to win the coveted prize in living memory. The defeat in the final – which became known as the Maracanazo, the Maracana blow – has been recalled many times in recent days, with the ghosts of 64 years ago seemimgly excorcised by the current team’s shame, writes Aidan O’Sullivan.