Brazil national football team
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The Brazilian squad preparing for the World Cup in Weggis, Switzerland.
which literally means the selection. Brazilians call any national team from any country or sport a seleção and because of this it has become common for the national team to be referred to as the Seleção Brasileira or, more specifically in the case of the national football team, the Seleção Brasileira de Futebol. Although the Brazilian media have popularized seleção, other nicknames for the squad in Brazil include Canarinho, meaning "Little Canary", a phrase that was popularized by the late cartoonist Fernando Pieruccetti during the 1950 World Cup. Other names like Amarelinha, "Little Yellow One", Verde-amarelo, or "Green-Yellow", Pentacampeão, "Five-time Champions", and Esquadrão de Ouro (the Golden Squad), among others. It can also be noted that American and British media outlets have referred to Brazil as the Auriverde, coming from the Portuguese
words verde and amarela (or dourada) which mean green and yellow (or gold), but is not really used in Brazil. Brazil does not have a home national stadium like many other national teams and as such rotate their home World Cup qualifying matches through various venues: the Estádio do Maracanã or Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio de Janeiro, the Estádio do Morumbi in São Paulo, the Mineirão in Belo Horizonte, the Estádio Mané Garrincha in the capital Brasília and the Estádio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre. Some smaller provincial stadia were used in the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign. Since September 2006, Brazil have played many international friendlies at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in London. After their initial 3–0 win over Argentina drew a near sell-out attendance and was screened live on BBC Two, Brazil have returned to the ground regularly, facing Portugal, Sweden, Italy and lastly against the Republic of Ireland in February 2010. Brazil's first team colours were white with blue collars, but following defeat in the Maracanã at the 1950 World Cup, the colours were criticised for lacking patriotism. With permission from the Brazilian Sports Confederation, the newspaper Correio da Manhã held a competition to design a kit incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. The
Venues
Colours