More than half of Brazilians believe the team will win this year’s World Cup, to be played between November and December. According to a Datafolha survey, 54% believe that the team led by Tite will lift the trophy in Qatar.
The survey was carried out on the 27th and 28th of July. A total of 2,556 people aged 16 and over were interviewed in 183 municipalities. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points within the 95% confidence level.
The number represents an increase from what was observed in similar research conducted before the 2018 World Cup in Russia. At the time, 48% bet that the team, already commanded by Tite, would take the title. Brazil fell in the quarterfinals, against Belgium, and France was champion.
However, the level shown on the eve of the 2014 World Cup has not yet recovered. 68% were betting on the men under Luiz Felipe Scolari, the coach who had led the national team to the cup in 2002 and had morale for winning the Confederations Cup , in 2013.
Brazil’s home campaign ended disastrously. Between good and bad games, the selection managed to reach the semifinals. Then, in a historic afternoon at Mineirão, in Belo Horizonte, Germany won 7-1, which would be four days later.
The green-yellow team still lost the dispute for third place, in a quiet triumph for the Netherlands by 3 to 0. Since then, the level of confidence of Brazilians in the team has never been recovered, even with a dominant campaign in the qualifiers for the next World Cup.
The optimism, today, is greater than that observed in the cycle after the 7-1. Since the 2018 World Cup, Brazil has achieved relevant results, such as the triumph in the 2019 Copa América. In the most recent edition of the tournament, in 2021, lost the final to Argentina.
“The answer has to do with trust and ignorance together. If you ask what Germany has done in the last five years, someone will say 7-1, eight years ago”, said journalist Paulo Vinicius Coelho, columnist for Sheet, by observing the guesses recorded by Datafolha. “The most honest answer seems to be ‘I don’t know’.”
Author of the recently released book “5 Stars – the Conquest of Penta”, the journalist recalled that not always the predictions of football analysts are echoed in popular expression. He recalled precisely the expectations surrounding the campaign of the penta do Brasil, in 2002, after a trajectory suffered in the Qualifiers, with crises and three coaches.
“It was crazy that 64% believed in the national team, which lost to Honduras in the Copa America a year earlier. Critics doubted it, and public opinion believed it. There is often this distortion,” PVC said.
Now, those who put more faith in Tite’s team are the youngsters. In the 16-24 age group, with a margin of error of five percentage points, 63% are betting on victory in Qatar. The 35 to 44 age bracket, with a margin of error of four percentage points, is the most skeptical: 50% believe in a title at the end of the year.
There is no significant difference between those who declare their vote for Lula (PT) and those who want the reelection of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the October presidential election. The numbers are similar, with distance within the margin of error.
58% of those who intend to vote for Lula bet on the selection, with a margin of error of three percentage points. Among Bolsonaro’s supporters, with a margin of error of four percentage points, 53% believe in a green-yellow party in the final, in the city of Lusail.
Since assuming the presidency in 2019, Bolsonaro has made several attempts to link his image to that of the national team. That year, he paraded through the Copa América fields and celebrated the conquest with the players on the Maracanã lawn.
In 2021, when the president articulated to hold the competition again in Brazil, at a critical moment of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were athletes who spoke out against it. Coach Tite, in particular, won the dislike of Bolsonaristas.
Regardless of the political field, in addition to Brazil, the teams most cited in the latest survey are the last two world champions. Germany, which won in 2014, and France, who won in 2018, appear with 5% each.
Argentina was the guess of 2% of respondents. Spain registered 1%. A total of 2% mentioned other selections. The remaining 31% said they did not know and preferred not to name any of the teams that will be in Qatar.
“People don’t seem to realize how football has become stronger in more nations. If Mané is Senegalese and plays for Senegal, can Senegal be world champions? It’s difficult. But De Bruyne’s Belgium can. And few people care about De Bruyne.” to Belgium that eliminated Brazil [na última Copa]”, said PVC.
The way is to wait. If 54% of Brazilians believe that the selection will start 2023 with a new star on their shirt, optimism has already been greater and followed by disappointment. This time, Brazil seems to be on the favorites list, but it is not the big favorite, as it has been on previous occasions.
“In 1982, I bought an official shirt for the Brazilian national team, I came home and said to my father: ‘It’s a pity that after the World Cup it won’t be official anymore, because there will be four stars. My father asked for calm. In 2005, at Christmas, I gave an official national team shirt to my son João Pedro. I swear to God, he said: ‘Dad, it’s a pity that after the World Cup it won’t be official, because it will have six stars’. I told my father’s story and asked for calm. “, recalled PVC.
“The Cup is won in December. Champion in February only samba school.”
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