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21 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 28 MAY 2014 Brazil 1950: Obdulio Varela: 'We won with our minds, not based on skill' Uruguay won the 1950 World Cup with a 2-1 victory over Brazil in a memorable decisive game, with goals from Alcides Ghiggia and Juan Alberto Schiaffino, but the hero of the feat was the captain of the light blues, Obdulio Jacinto Varela CARLOS CASTILLOS THE man whom team-mates nick- named "The Black Chief " was a holding midfielder who imposed his iron will and personality on the hosts at the brand new, gigantic Ma- racana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. A draw would have been enough for Brazil to lift the Jules Rimet tro- phy, but Friaca appeared to secure a win with a goal early in the sec- ond half, despite being apparently offside. That was when Obdulio surprised most by picking up the ball and putting it under his arm to argue with the referee. "You want the truth? I had seen the linesman with his f lag up. Of course, the man put it down im- mediately, lest he might get killed," Obdulio told Uruguayan journalist Antonio Pippo in the book Desde el Alma (From the Soul), which was published in 2000, four years after the death of the former Uruguay captain. "The whole stadium was insulting me, but I did not fear... I had en- dured all those struggles on pitches without a fence, where it was kill or die, so I was not going to get scared there, with full guarantees! I knew what I was doing," he said. When he finished his speech, pos- sibly the longest in the life of the laconic Obdulio, "The Black Chief " returned the ball to the pitch and told his team-mates in a tone that did not seem to leave room for re- plies. "Good, that's it. Now we're go- ing to beat these 'Japanese'," he said, using a term he frequently used to refer to any foreigner. "It was just chance. We might have played them 99 more times and we would have lost every match. That's the thing with football. Sometimes the unexpected plays a role, things that are beyond all reason, beyond all logic," Uruguay's 1950 captain admitted. And he revealed the problems the squad faced ahead of its trip to Bra- zil. "We came close to not going at all. There was great confusion. Most people thought that we were done for, that we did not stand a chance. Thinking back, I am not even sure that was the best squad one could make up at the time." Obdulio Varela was known for talking a lot on the pitch, to position and encourage his team-mates, and while he was not one to pick fights, he did indeed intimidate rivals. "That is why I talked to the lads quite a lot in the changing rooms (before the decisive match). And later, inside the tunnel, I told them: 'Go out calmly, do not look up. Nev- er look at the stands. The match is played below'." "The more I think about all that, the more I am sure that it was a match that we won with our minds, not based on skill. We choked them from the start, we made them feel our strength in the middle and at the back. And when we had the ball we made the most of the speed of (Alcides) Ghiggia on the right, the resources of Julio (Perez), the skill of (Omar) Miguez to drag off rivals, and the serenity of (Juan Alberto) Schiaffino... And it gradually hap- pened as I expected, it was neck and neck." The rest of the story is well-known. The Uruguayans were staying at the modest hotel Paysandu in Rio de Janeiro, and "The Black Chief " said that after the match "the guys went out to have fun on Copacabana" - all of them except himself. "I was sad about the suffering of that people with that defeat they did not deserve," he recalled. "I sat at a bar and I started to drink sugarcane (liquor) hoping that no one would recognize me, because I thought that if they did they would kill me. But they rec- ognized me straight away and, to my surprise, they congratulated me, they hugged me and many of them stayed to drink with me into the night," Obdulio told dpa in an interview in 1993. Obdulio remembered that night until his death in 1996. "Brazilians are the kindest people in the world," insisted the man who caused Brazil its greatest sadness. Obdulio Varela, the man whom team-mates nicknamed "The Black Chief", was a holding midfi elder who imposed his iron will and personality on the hosts at the brand new, gigantic Maracana stadium. Photo by: Schirner Sportfoto Archiv 1950 World Cup fi nal at Maracaná – an exceptional result for Uruguay

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