Brazil may be the most decorated team in the tournament’s history, but after topping their group yet again, the Seleção are now tasked with reimposing themselves as a true knockout-stage force in the men’s World Cup.

From knockout kings to knockout calamity

Having won Group C in North America, edging out Morocco on goal difference, the Brazilians move on to a matchup with Japan in the last 32, in Houston this afternoon. Although the Japanese are a team that beat Brazil in a friendly last October, they’re also a nation that has never won a knockout game at a men’s World Cup. In four attempts since 2002, the Samurai Blue have always been eliminated.

Certainly, Japan’s knockout record bears little comparison to a Brazilian team which, in the 96 years since the World Cup’s inception, has accumulated 31 wins in single-elimination games in the competition.

However, while Brazil have remained utterly consistent group-stage performers into the present day - they last failed to top their opening section in 1978 - recent World Cups have seen the South Americans become a far, far shakier proposition in knockout play.

The clearest illustration of this is, of course, the fact that Brazil haven’t won a men’s World Cup in just under a quarter of a century: not since Ronaldo Nazário’s eight goals propelled the Canarinha to their fifth global crown in 2002.

In the 24 years since, Brazil have played 12 knockout games at men’s World Cups, losing half of them. Compare that win rate to the period encompassing their first title triumph, in 1958, and the addition of their fifth star. Over those 44 years, the Brazilians played 26 men’s World Cup knockout games, and were victorious in all but four of them.

On their current run, Brazil have managed consecutive knockout-stage wins only once: as tournament hosts in 2014, when they defeated Chile and Colombia in the last 16 and the quarterfinals, respectively. When they reached the semifinals 12 years ago, it was the closest they’ve come to a sixth global crown; yet it also brought the absolute, unequivocal nadir of the team’s recent knockout-stage struggles.

Shocked Seleção given German gubbing

Having advanced to the last four in 2014, a side coached by Luiz Felipe Scolari faced Germany in Belo Horizonte - and were forced to do so without two pivotal players. Neymar, their star striker, was injured; Thiago Silva, their captain and defensive rock, was suspended. But those key absences can’t come close to explaining what happened next at the Estádio Mineirão.

After 11 minutes, the hosts fell behind: from a German corner, sloppy Brazil defending allowed Thomas Müller to volley home unmarked. A significant early blow, sure - but still a recoverable situation for the home team, even if Germany’s defense had given up an average of well below a goal per game at the 2014 finals. So how would Brazil respond to going behind?

By conceding another four well before the break, that’s how.

Time after time, the Germans sauntered through a catastrophic Brazil backline in Belo Horizonte. Between the 23rd and the 29th minute, Die Mannschaft stretched their lead to a scarcely credible 5-0, Toni Kroos’ double sandwiched by goals for Miroslav Klose and Sami Khedira. Klose’s was the 16th of his World Cup career: a tournament record that has only just been broken.

After the break, substitute André Schürrle fired in two more for Germany, before Oscar netted for Brazil at the death. The rules of soccer parlance typically dictate that Oscar’s strike be described as a “consolation goal”, but one look at his face made it clear how much solace he derived from it. Brazil had lost 7-1.

“The worst day of my life”

Describing the reaction inside the stadium, Jonathan Wilson wrote in The Power and the Glory: A History of the World Cup: “The fevered pre-match mood had turned to shock […]. There were tears, one fan was pictured apparently eating his shirt and, in response to isolated incidents of violence, the military police sent twelve officers to the stadium. Mostly, though, there was stunned silence.”

“Everything was organized, everything was calm until the goal was scored,” Scolari said postgame. “Then everything became disorganized, everything was panicked.” The coach, who had masterminded Brazil’s World Cup win in 2002, added: “Yes, it is the worst day of my life. I will be remembered as the man who lost 7-1 in Brazil in a World Cup semifinal.”

It was such a disastrous defeat that - for this writer, at least - it has been easy to forget that Brazil were also thumped in the third-place playoff four days later, admittedly by a scoreline that is tame in comparison. In Brasilia, the Netherlands eased to a 3-0 victory, taking Brazil’s goals-against tally to 14 for the tournament. That’s a record for a men’s World Cup host.

Dubbed the ‘Mineirazo’, Brazil’s 7-1 rout by Germany is the biggest defeat ever suffered by a host in a men’s World Cup game. Not even Qatar, who were quite comfortably the worst ever team to host the tournament, came close to such a shellacking in 2022. Indeed, no host nation other than Brazil has lost a game by more than three goals.

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“A national trauma”

In terms of the nationwide heartache it caused, Brazil’s 2014 elimination is comparable only to a World Cup defeat suffered six decades earlier, also on home soil. At the 1950 finals in Brazil, the Seleção were chasing their first ever global crown - and when they met Uruguay in the title decider at Rio de Janeiro’s Estádio do Maracanã, they appeared all set to claim it.

Needing just a draw to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy, the hosts took the lead through Friaça early in the second half... yet Uruguay came roaring back to cause a stunning upset. Pepe Schiaffino levelled shortly after the hour mark, before Alcides Ghiggia secured an against-the-odds, come-from-behind win for Los Charrúas.

“The mayor of Rio proclaimed [Brazil] as champions before the kick off,” Brazilian soccer expert Tim Vickery wrote in ESPN in 2020. But “the gods of football have a habit of punishing such hubris”, he added. “And, in what remains the most famous game ever played in the stadium, the Uruguayans […] set off a national trauma known today as the ‘Maracanazo’.”

Brazil’s post-2002 World Cup knockout-stage record (defeats in bold):

2006:

• Round of 16: Brazil 3-0 Ghana
• Quarterfinals: Brazil 0-1 France

2010:

• Round of 16: Brazil 3-0 Chile
• Quarterfinals: Netherlands 2-1 Brazil

2014:

• Round of 16: Brazil 1-1 Chile (3-2 on pens)
• Quarterfinals: Brazil 2-1 Colombia
• Semifinals: Brazil 1-7 Germany
• Third-place playoff: Brazil 0-3 Netherlands

2018:

• Round of 16: Brazil 2-0 Mexico
• Quarterfinals: Brazil 1-2 Belgium

2022:

• Round of 16: Brazil 4-1 South Korea
• Quarterfinals: Croatia 1-1 Brazil (4-2 on pens)

Brazil vs Japan: kickoff times, how to watch in the U.S.

In the 2026 World Cup round of 32, Brazil and Japan meet today, Monday, June 29, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT. Viewers in the U.S. can watch the game on FOX Network, Telemundo, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, FOX One and fubo.

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