South American nations at the FIFA World Cup

The Brazilian squad, led by Carlos Alberto, and featuring Pelé, Clodoaldo, Gérson, Jairzinho, Rivellino and Tostão, is often regarded as the greatest ever World Cup team.

[32] Brazil took third place from an enterprising Italy side with Nelinho scoring a memorable goal, and were dubbed "moral champions" by coach Cláudio Coutinho as although they did not win the tournament, they did not lose a single match.

In the second round, Italy prevailed 2–1 over Argentina, with Italian defenders Gaetano Scirea and Claudio Gentile proving themselves equal to the task of stopping the Argentine attack.

[33] This match has since then been labelled by Brazilian press as the 'Sarrià Stadium Tragedy' (br: A tragédia do Sarriá)[34] Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA, but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially resigned in 1982.

After studying video footage of the match showing that the firework had not made contact with Rojas, FIFA awarded Brazil a 2–0 win, eliminating Chile from the 1990 World Cup.

The all-South American match in the second round was won for Argentina by a goal from Claudio Caniggia with ten minutes remaining after a run through the Brazilian defence by Diego Maradona and an outstanding performance from goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea.

A second Argentine miss (by Pedro Troglio) looked to have eliminated them until goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea – playing because first choice Nery Pumpido broke his leg during the group stage – rescued his side by stopping the Yugoslavs' final two spotkicks.

Argentina's decisive penalty had been converted by Maradona, who, playing in his club "home city" of Naples, had urged locals to support him rather than their homeland, creating a more muted atmosphere than Italy's previous games in Rome.

Argentina, weakened by suspension and injury, offered little attacking threat throughout a contest dominated by the West Germans, who struggled to create many clear goalscoring opportunities.

The only goal of the contest arrived in the 84th minute when Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal awarded a penalty to West Germany, after a foul on Rudi Völler by Roberto Sensini.

In the closing moments, Argentina were reduced to nine after Gustavo Dezotti received the second red card of the game when he hauled Jürgen Kohler to the ground during a stoppage in play.

Argentina collected a maximum of six points from their opening two matches after beating Greece 4–0 in Foxboro before coming from behind to overcome the feisty Nigerians 2–1 on the same field four days later, yet still only finished third, since lost 0–2 Bulgaria.

In the other quarter-final involving a South American side, Denmark put up much more of a battle than many thought possible, but in the end, with two goals from Rivaldo, defending World Cup holders Brazil pulled out a 3–2 victory at the La Beaujoire Stadium.

The title marked Brazil's fifth World Cup championship, more than any other nation had achieved, also becoming the first team to win all seven of their games in the tournament without the need for any extra time or penalty shoot-outs.

In the round of 16, Argentina struggled to break down Mexico, but nonetheless secured a 2–1 win thanks to a Maxi Rodríguez goal in extra time to put the Albiceleste into the quarter-finals.

Brazil then doubled the lead within five minutes after a free-flowing passing movement involving Robinho and Kaká that teed up Luís Fabiano to score after taking the ball around the Chilean goalkeeper.

[61] After the game, Suárez stated, "I made the save of the tournament,"[58] and, referring to the infamous handball goal scored by Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup, claimed that "The 'Hand of God' now belongs to me."

Uruguay adopted a defensive formation early in the match, but were only able to hold their opponents scoreless for eighteen minutes, when Dutch captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst scored from 35 yards into the top right corner of the goal.

However, the Netherlands were unable to capitalise on their lead, as Diego Forlán equalised in the 41st minute after his shot from 25 yards hit squarely in the middle of the goal was misjudged by goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

The Netherlands regained the lead quickly, though, as a pass from Van der Vaart reached Sneijder who dished it into the side of the goal as Muslera dived and missed it by inches.

Diego Forlán then put Uruguay ahead six minutes into in the second half, with a strong backheel kick from the edge of the penalty area finding the net while goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt stayed rooted to the spot.

Brazil's second goal, scored by poster boy Neymar, was a controversially awarded penalty kick, which eventually led to the exclusion of Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura from the remainder of the tournament.

In Group B, Chile faced world champions Spain, 2010 runners-up the Netherlands, and AFC minnows Australia, whom they managed to defeat 3–1 in their opening game in Cuiabá.

Los Cafeteros eased through their group with maximum points, defeating Greece 3–0 in Belo Horizonte, the Ivory Coast 2–1 in Brasília and Japan 4–1 in Cuiabá, with James Rodríguez emerging as a rising star after scoring in all three of their matches.

In Group D, Uruguay, who ended fourth in South Africa, started off with a shock, as they failed to overcome an offensive second half strategy by minnows Costa Rica and eventually went down 1–3 in Fortaleza, finishing the game with ten men.

Although the referee missed the incident during the match, FIFA subsequently decided to hand Suárez a nine-month ban from all professional football, making him ineligible to compete in the rest of the tournament.

Their group stage campaign ended with a tight 3–2 defeat of African champions Nigeria, with Messi scoring twice, as La Albiceleste progressed to the knockout phase with nine points out of nine.

The Round of 16 featured two all-South American encounters, with hosts Brazil taking on Chile in Belo Horizonte and Colombia facing Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro on the same day.

The other South American team that reached the round of 16, Argentina, played three days later and needed extra time against Switzerland to secure a win in São Paulo, with their only goal being scored by Ángel Di María in the 118th minute.

The game didn't end in joy for the Brazilians, though, as top striker Neymar was ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a back injury and captain Thiago Silva was suspended.