ABU DHABI: Brazil won its fourth FIFA World Cup in the United States after defeating Italy on penalties on 17th July, 1994. Romário, the best player of the 1994 World Cup, scored, alongside Branco and Dunga, while the Italians wasted three shots.
According to the New York Times, the match played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, attracted around 94,000 attendees and two billion television viewers worldwide. Both teams were competing to win the fourth World Cup title. The Brazilian Football Confederation highlights that, until then, Brazil had won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970. Italy had been the champion in 1934, 1938 and 1982.
In an interview with SBT, one of WAM’s partners in Brazil, Romário spoke about the difficulties in the World Cup and the details of the journey to victory against Italy under the guidance of coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and his technical coordinator, Zagallo, who announced Romário as part of the team at the last minute.
The former player recalled that the most challe
nging moment of the World Cup was when Brazil faced the United States on 4th July. ‘It was a historic day for them, Independence Day’, said Romário. According to the U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in all its forms in the United States, approximately 11 million Americans were tuned into the USA vs. Brazil round of 16 matches, the first time the U.S. team had advanced to this phase since 1930, which ended with the Brazilian squad winning by 1×0.
Romário, 58, also reminded that the first game, against Russia, came with great expectations and anxiety, calling it ‘very important’ for the team.
When asked when he felt Brazil would be the champion, the former player declared that he had thought of that when the squad travelled to the U.S. for the event. ‘There were some players who were fully aware that it might be their last chance to become world champions. Some of them were holdovers from the previous World Cup and already knew that everything had to go wrong, we made mistakes in 1990, so we couldn’t
bring those mistakes to 1994.’, he added.
‘In particular, I was in great shape. I wanted to play football and play in the World Cup. I was happy’, the soccer legend further added.
Romário, currently one of the Senators representing the state of Rio de Janeiro and the president of the soccer team América-RJ, also discussed the final. The former player said he did not even fear losing the title during the match. ‘Italy had two great moments to score, first with Massaro and then with Donadoni or Baggio, and they missed because Taffarel [Brazil’s goalkeeper] was there holding them back. We had much more volume than Italy, and we were prepared to win in normal time, but the team practised penalties,’ declared Romário claiming he did not.
“I never trained penalties, but at that moment, I had taken two penalties in my life. When it was time for the penalty, Parreira was writing the list of five, and I raised my finger and said: ‘Coach, I’m going to do it’. He asked: ‘Are you going to?’ I replied: ‘I’m going to! T
he great guy must appear. I had to be part of that moment of the World Cup, which was the final on penalties.”
Romário scored his penalty, helping Brazil win the World Cup for the fourth time after Roberto Baggio missed his chance by kicking the ball over Taffarel’s crossbar. The victory on 17th July 1994 sent crowds to the streets of all over Brazil to celebrate a day that, according to the Brazilian Football Confederation, would go down in history as a landmark date for Brazilian and world football.
Source: Emirates News Agency
