Don’t Knock the Yanks for Winning 14 – 0. Brazil did it too.

Some of the criticism that has fallen onto the US Womens team following their 14- 0 demolition of the Dominican Republic may have been over the top.

If the women have been a little upset at having the finger pointed at them merely for doing their job, and doing it rather well, this may make them feel better.

Amy Rodriguez is in good company

They are not alone. None other than the Brazilian men did the exact same thing, and in fact, did it more needlessly and more cruelly.

In 1975, the Pan American Games were held in Mexico.

Drawn in Group D of the football tournament were Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Brazil were the hot favourites and lowly Nicaragua the rank outsiders. Nicaragua was in the middle of a turbulent civil war and military dictator General Anastasio Somoza had imposed a state of siege, interning and torturing opponents. The Sandinista rebels seeking to overthrow him, were gaining in strength, and the country was to a certain extent already lawless. In the circumstances, it was an achievement to put together a team at all.

Brazil duly dispatched Costa Rica and El Salvador 3-1 and 2-0. Nicaragua lost to them both 4-1 and 5-1.

So by the time they met at the Stadio Azteca on October 17th, Brazil had qualifed comfortably and Nicaragua were enjoying one last outing before their young squad was forced to head back to the chaos in their own country.

With a plentiful squad to choose from, Brazilian manager Thomaz Soares da Silva ‘Zizinho’ made nine changes from the side that had beaten El Salvador. With fewer to choose from, most of the Nicaraguans had already played two games in the previous three days.

Brazil’s second string were merciless. They were 3-0 up in five minutes and 9-0 up at half time.

In the end it finished 14 – 0, the same fate that befell the Dominican ladies on Friday night.

Eight Different Brazilians scored including João Batista da Silva who went on to play every minute of all seven of Brazil’s matches in the 1978 World Cup, three years later.

Nicaragua returned home and Brazil went on to share the Cup with hosts Mexico.

Those Nicaraguan players would be in their 50s now. Since that time, they have seen the 1979 overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, a cultural revolution, the Contras try to plunge the country back into Civil War, the advent of democracy, and the Sandinistas defeated in the 1990 election.

On the pitch, they qualified for the Pan American games final again in 1991 and their national side finally qualified for something this century with the Gold Cup in 2009 where they lost all three games, only conceding eight goals though.

The 14 – 0 loss remains their biggest loss and Brazil’s record win in all football though.

The American women are not in bad company.

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Full Details of the Match in 1975

17/10/75, Brazil 14-0 Nicaragua (HT 9-0)
Goals : Luís Alberto 1′ 3′ 16′ 32′, Santos 5′ 34′, Rosemiro 21′, Eudes 24′, Erivélton 30′,
Chico Fraga 59′, Batista 67′ 74′, Marcelo 72′ ??’
[Note: the goal at 32′ is also attributed to Eudes]

Brazil: José Carlos Pessanha ‘Zé Carlos’, Mauro de Campos Júnior, Carlos Bianchi da Silva,
Edino Nazareth Filho ‘Edinho’, Francisco Fraga da Silva ‘Chico Fraga’, Alberto Raimundo Marques ‘Leguelé’
(João Batista da Silva), Eudes Lacerda Medeiros, Rosemiro Corrêa de Souza, Luís Alberto Pirola
(Marcelo de Oliveira Santos), Erivélton Martins, João José dos Santos.

Nicaragua: Salvador Dubois; Silvio Aguirre, Francisco Hernández, Ricardo Fernández,
Édgar Flores; Víctor Granja, Mario Cruz, Armando Cuadra; Rodolfo Acevedo (Marcio Rivas),
Francisco Romero, Gustavo Segura.

Referee: Ramón Calderón (Cuba)

Linesmen: Alfonso González Archundia (Mexico), Fitz Brown (Trinidad/Tobago)