Incredible Brazil in World Cup history and their current struggles for the 2026 World Cup.
Brazil is the unrivaled kings of the FIFA World Cup with five titles to their name and as it stands, they remain football royalty. The Seleção has won five times in the World Cup and this is out of any other nation including Germany and Italy who have won the trophy four times each and the current champions Argentina who have three titles to their name. Other greats include players like Pelé, Ronaldo, and Neymar – all players that have continued to bring some fantastic Brazilian footballing shows on the international podiums.
However, history has not been kind to Brazil because they occupy the fifth position on the FIFA World Cup qualifying table of the CONMEBOL 2026. This is rather ironic given that for long they have been topping not only South American football but football, in general, around the globe. But ever since FIFA began to increase the number of teams in a World Cup to 48, CONMEBOL has been guaranteed 6 spots and a 7th through a playoff between the best teams of two confederations of the entire South American qualification, which makes Brazil’s journey to Russia even easier than before.
What Has Brazil Done When It Failed to Qualify for a World Cup?
As for now, Brazil has never missed a World Cup tournament. They are the only nation that has competed in all the 22 versions of the event since its 1930 start. Germany has featured in World Cups 20 times while Argentina, Italy, and Mexico have been 18 times.
Two of the appearances involve the fact that Brazil has acted as the host nation for the World Cup twice in 1950 and 2014 to qualify for it. Also, the fact that Brazil was the defending champion made them eligible for the 1962,1966 and 1998 championships. They have otherwise qualified through competitive CONMEBOL qualification nearly every time finishing top of their group.
Brazil in actual season ladies qualification to control 2020.
Until the qualification of the 1998 FIFA World Cup Brazil was almost impeccable in the CONMEBOL qualification zone where the 10 nations were divided into two groups after a 2-0 defeat to Bolivia in 1993. Since the format change of the qualifying rounds of the World Cup starting with the cycle of 2002, Brazil has played each other nation of South America twice with a total of 18 games in each round of qualification.
Here is a summary of Brazil's World Cup qualifying performances over the years:
World Cup Cycle | Qualifying Matches | W-D-L | GF-GA | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | 4 | 4-0-0 | 8-1 | 1st, Group 11 |
| 1958 | 2 | 1-1-0 | 2-1 | 1st, Group 1 |
| 1970 | 6 | 6-0-0 | 23-2 | 1st, Group 2 |
| 1978 | 6 | 4-2-0 | 17-1 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1982 | 4 | 4-0-0 | 11-2 | 1st, Group 1 |
| 1986 | 4 | 2-2-0 | 6-2 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1990 | 4 | 3-1-0 | 13-1 | 1st, Group 3 |
| 1994 | 8 | 5-2-1 | 20-4 | 1st, Group B |
| 2002 | 18 | 9-3-6 | 31-17 | 3rd |
| 2006 | 18 | 9-7-2 | 35-17 | 1st |
| 2010 | 18 | 9-7-2 | 33-11 | 1st |
| 2018 | 18 | 12-5-1 | 41-11 | 1st |
| 2022 | 17 | 14-3-0 | 40-5 | 1st |
State of Affairs Today In 2026 World Cup Qualifying
This is not the case today since Brazil is worse off than some of the South American rivals in the current qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. Nonetheless, due to the expanded format, it is somewhat easier to do so; six teams qualify automatically, and there is one more playoff position. Nonetheless, due to the improvements of the teams internationally and perhaps some unusual performances of this Brazilian team in a few of the initial games, Brazil would have to come up with their best form to get back to the top and complete in the higher-order in the league tables.
However, even in light of this worrisome outset, few people would bet against Brazil failing to qualify, although the circumstances surely prompted many raised eyebrows.
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