By the beginning of the 1940’s, the feeling around Vasco da Gama was that the ‘Plague of Arubihna’ was being fulfilled. Word told of a frog with its mouth stitched up, buried somewhere under the turf of Vasco’s Estadio Sao Januario, that was the cause of the curse leading to their 12 year title drought. The club dug up the entire pitch in search, but such a creature was never found. Finally, Vasco’s president decided to stop looking for the frog and take his own measures to improve the team’s fortunes. What followed was a series of signings that led to formation of the team known as “Expresso da Vittoria” (The Victory Express). The first to board the Victory Express were a group of young talents: Goalkeeper Barbosa, attacker Ademir, midfielders Lele, Isaias and Jair, along with Chico, Eli, Rafanelli and new captain Augusto, also captain of the Brazilian national team. A new manager was added, Ondino Viera, who quickly applied his tactical innovations to the club, also instigating a policy of promoting players from the youth ranks every year to keep the squad fresh.

 

Vasco finally won something in the form of the Torneo Relampago and the Torneo Municipal in 1944, which were both regional tournaments. They then played their way to the final of the Rio state championship, the highest in Brazilian football at that time, and their first opportunity to finally break the curse. In that match, their opponents Flamengo took the lead through a controversial header from Valido. In Brazil, this goal is still argued about to this day. Vasco’s players swore that Valido fouled their defender as he headed the ball, yet the goal stood. In the weeks that followed, huge queues formed at a cinema in the centre of Rio, just so people could watch a few seconds of shaky, grainy and inconclusive footage to form their own opinions. Half a century later, the goals validity has still not been confirmed.  The loss was incredibly frustrating for Vasco, and they went all out the following season to make sure it didn’t happen again.

 

What followed was a series of 5 state championships in 8 years, with the help of a very aggressive 2-3-5 playing formation. Vasco won these state titles in 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950 and 1952, two of those after unbeaten seasons. They also won four more regional tournaments, but the icing on the cake was becoming the first winners of the South American Club Championship in 1948, the first continent-wide club tournament in South America.

 

The Vasco da Gama team of this era was so talented, that they formed the basis for the Brazilian national team. Even when those players got called up for Brazil, their replacements from the reserves still swept everyone aside. In 1951, Arsenal, English First Division champions, became the first professional British team to visit Brazil, beating Flamingo, Fluminense, Sao Paulo and Botafogo. It was up to Vasco to show them what Brazilian football was made of, and they beat Arsenal 1-0. 6 Vasco players featured in Brazils starting line up in the 1950 World Cup, but by 1952, Vasco made several changes to their aging squad and had one last swan song in the form of a win in the Carioca championship.

Achievements: Torneio Octogonal Rivadavia Corrêa Meyer – Winners x1
                        Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeões – Winners x1
                        Campeonato Carioca – Champions x 5
                        Toreno Inico – Winners x 3
                        Torneio Municipal do Rio de Janeiro – Winners x 3
                       Torneio Relâmpago do Rio de Janeiro – Winners x2

Star player: Barbosa DOB 27 March 1921, Rio Branco, Brazil

With a career spanning 22 years and famed for not wearing gloves because he wanted to feel the ball with his bare hands, Barbosa was one of the best goalkeepers of the era. He was highly successful with Vasco da Gama, and won the 1949 Copa America with Brazil, keeping a clean sheet in a 7-0 final victory over Peru. Even though he won many trophies, he is mostly remembered for the defeat of Brazil in the penultimate match of the 1950 World Cup against Uruguay.Barbosa copped the blame for Brazil’s 1950 World Cup defeat, suffering with ostracism and hostility against him for the rest of his life. Shortly before his death in 2000, Barbosa said, “The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment, but I have been paying for something I am not even responsible for, for 50 years.” In 1993, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation would not allow him to commentate on Brazil’s international matches. On one occasion, he was turned away from a national team training session due to fears he would be a jinx for the team. In 1963, Barbosa was presented with the old square goalposts from the Maracana as a present, which he took home and burned. After a life of anguish, he died of a heart attack aged 79.