Nearly 200,000 spectators packed the Maracanã Stadium expecting Brazil to claim its first World Cup title, needing only a draw against Uruguay. Instead Uruguay scored twice in the second half to win 2-1, a result so shocking it became known in Brazil as the Maracanazo. The defeat left a scar on Brazilian football and national identity that lasted generations.
Brazil had thrashed opponents throughout the tournament, scoring 21 goals in five matches, and newspapers had already printed premature victory headlines and medals inscribed with Brazil's name. The stadium, built specifically for the tournament, held a crowd that some estimates put close to 200,000, still among the largest ever to watch a sporting event in person.
Uruguay's Alcides Ghiggia scored the decisive second goal in the 79th minute, later remarking that only three people had ever silenced the Maracanã with a single act: Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II, and himself. The loss triggered a period of national soul-searching in Brazil, including a widely discussed theory blaming the all-white kit for bad luck, prompting the adoption of the now-iconic yellow jersey. Goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa was scapegoated for decades, dying in poverty and once remarking that in Brazil the maximum sentence for any crime was thirty years, but he had been paying for his 'crime' for fifty.
Key people: Alcides Ghiggia, Moacir Barbosa, Obdulio Varela