Earlier this year, Bebeto and Romario reunited on Globo Esporte to watch the moment of victory again, and as they relive the joy, everyone shed tears. Different people from the same world come together because of a special kind of love. And in July, 442 magazine also brought fans back to the summer of 1994 when the two worked together.
26 years ago, during the 1994 World Cup, samba's "devil duo" had been reported as nemesis by the media, but their devastating performances on the pitch confirmed that they were the best unusual combination in football history.
As far as trivial behavior is concerned, refusing to sit next to your two teammates on a plane to the World Cup is enough. If Bebeto and Muller didn't know Romario as well, they might be offended.
After all, the guy once married his 17-year-old girlfriend on the football pitch for live television and was recently banned four times for punching Sevilla midfielder Diego Simeone in a match for Barcelona.
Before the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the free-scoring striker also asked head coach Carlos Alberto Pereira to give up Muller and let his old friend Edmundo play, but all were rejected. But Romario's own memory needs to be restored: his own situation is like walking on thin ice.
In December 1992, Pereira called him up for a friendly match against Germany, but left him on the bench. "If I knew I wasn't going to play, I wouldn't have come," Romario said, which led to him being excluded from the Samba Legion squad for more than nine months. When he returned in September 1993, Brazil needed him. Pereira had vowed not to summon Romario to their qualifying match at home against Uruguay, a match they had to win, but at the last minute, the injury crisis forced him to summon Romario. The hosts won 2-0 at the Maracanã Stadium 101533 fans, guess who scored the two goals?
"It was the most important day of my entire career," the striker admitted years later.
Assisting him in his first goal that night was José Roberto Gama de Oliveira , aka Bebeto – whose distinctive personality was set apart from the party boys he partnered in the front for the first time at the 1988 Olympics. For Brazil, however, this antagonism is fascinating.
In 1989, Brazil won the Copa America, and Romario and Bebeto joined forces in the senior team match, the latter wearing small sneakers (his shoes were only 36 sizes) to score the most goals in the tournament. But the fiasco at the 1990 World Cup in Italy meant that the two played only 75 minutes in the World Cup together before heading to the 1994 World Cup in the United States, while Bebeto played only 8 minutes.
There are other unfortunate similarities. In June 1994, a few days before brazil's first World Cup match, Bebeto's pregnant wife was robbed at gunpoint, while a month earlier, Romario's father had been kidnapped for almost a week (but gave him a TV to watch his son play football). Police allegedly got information from an accomplice who was worried about the future of the Samba Corps in the United States.
Brazil haven't won a World Cup since Mexico 70 years ago, but the eyes are still on the tensions between their strikers.
In 1992/93, Bebeto scored 29 goals for Deportivo, topping la Liga goals, but the following season ended in despair. Not only did Barcelona's new player Romario take the Picci Prize, but Bebeto was reluctant to take the penalty himself near the end of the final round of the league, and eventually his teammate Djukic lost it, and Lacco, who won the championship, missed the league title. That means Barca have taken away the accolade. After the plane seat incident, the media smelled the tense atmosphere between the two.
"People always let me compete with Romario, even before 1994," Bebeto told 442. "But we've always been friends – the lifestyles are very different, but we're friends. On the eve of the World Cup, he said he should put his hand on my shoulder and we walked into the pitch together so they wouldn't say anything bad about us anymore. We did. ”
However, when Brazil began its World Cup journey at Stamford Stadium, there was no need to stage unnecessary farces. Romario scored a corner kick from Bebeto in the middle of the first half, then he won a penalty and had Rajay score to help the team win 2-0. The Samba Legion was on its way forward, and there was no stop.
Cameroon were beaten 3-0 in the second match, with Romario and Bebeto scoring a goal both before Romario continued his good momentum in the group stage to draw 1-1 with Sweden.
"I felt like I had to run a little bit more for Roma Rio, but he was a genius inside the box so I didn't mind," Bebeto explained. His strike partner later said: "Whenever Brazil practices tactics in training, Bebeto and I don't have to get involved too much – we already know each other very well. ”
This was followed by a round-16 showdown with the hosts. The situation was very bad, and Leonardo was even worse off by being sent off with a red card for elbowing Tabu Ramos in the 43rd minute. Bebeto assured the heartbroken Brazilian left-back at half-time that he would score the winning goal for him. He did it – in the 72nd minute Romario broke free from the opponent's envelopment and sent a clever pass, and Bebeto calmly scored the ball. The two embraced each other, and Babito said affectionately to his teammates, "I love you." The New York Times licked the wounds of the home team's elimination while hailing the samba legion's devastating duo as "the first and second lethal weapons."
The Netherlands showed much more tenacious than expected in the quarter-finals, with Brazil taking a 2-0 lead in the 63rd minute, one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history. Bebeto crossed from the left to get Romario to open the record, then dodged the anti-offside trap and clicked through the door. This was followed by the famous celebration of the birth of Bebeto's third child, with player Mazinjo joining Romario and Bebeto in the celebration. "It was something I thought about before the game," Bebeto told 442. "Wherever I go, all over the world, fans want to talk about it."
But the Dutch did not lack courage. After 120 seconds, they pulled a goal back and equalized in the 76th minute, but eventually Blanco's free-kick drove the score back.
Romario joked: "I hope Bebeto has another baby this week so we can continue to win." "Through the semi-finals and a second meeting with Sweden, both Samba Team forwards appeared in the pre-match press conference.
"The only thing we have in common is that we can all score," Romario shrugged. "Bebeto is a more free player than I am. For 90 minutes, he was always focused on what was going on – my advantage was that a lot of people thought I was asleep on the court. ”
"We are different people. Bebeto is a family type of person who likes to stay at home. I am a stray cat. I respect him and he knows how much I like him. What the outside world says doesn't affect anything we do on the pitch. ”
He's right. The Swedes were weakened in previous matches and their captain Jonas Zen was sent off with a red card in the second half. Brazil's pressure was finally released as the game approached 80 minutes — though not unexpectedly, when the 5-foot-6 Romario received a pass from Jurkinghoe and broke the goal to help Brazil advance to the final.
The Blues — whose World Cup, which ended in the semi-finals on their doorstep four years ago — stumbled into the knockout stages after losing to Ireland and then narrowly beat Nigeria, Spain and Bulgaria on their way to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. In a discreet final, Bebeto and Romario wasted their chances, and Mauro Silva's powerful shot was blocked by the goalpost, which meant the two sides entered the penalty shootout. Coach Pereira asked who would take the penalty and Romario stepped forward.
"I was nervous just because I had never played a penalty in a national team match," he admitted to 442. "I've never practiced penalties. But after Baresi and Santos missed each other's shots, Romario scored a penalty after Albertini. Ivani and Blanco also scored, 2-2; then Dunga scored while Mazarro was saved by Tafarell. When Robert Baggio needed to score, Bebeto's head was spinning.
"I didn't notice his penalty – I was just thinking about how to score the last goal," he revealed. To his delight, he didn't have to: Baggio's penalty flew in. Brazil's first World Cup triumph in 24 years was led by Ballon d'Or winner Romario and his "perfect partner". Romario will soon be FIFA Player of the Year. (Supine Braces: Zhou Shuren Shu Zhou)