An ongoing BBC Four series, Brasil, Brasil ^[1], tracks the evolution of Brazilian music, from samba to forró to bossa nova to tropicalia to AfroReggae. Almost all of these traditions intersect with football: samba is the celebration dance, “a body unselfconsciously flowing in response to a syncopated beat, melding curious indolence and sexual charge, form and spontaneity,” writes Rowan Ireland in the current dance-themed issue of ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America ^[2] (fall 07).

Poet-musician Chico Buarque ^[3] has composed football songs, such as “O Futebol” (“Para estufar esse filó / Como eu sonhei / Só / Se eu fosse o Rei,” or “To hit the net / As I dreamed / Only / If I were Pelé the King,” in Alex Bellos‘s translation), and tropicalia innovator Caetano Veloso ^[4] has recorded the anthem “Hino da Bahia” for his home team in Salvador, especially appropriate this week. Both tracks are available on the CD Música de Futebol ^[5] (Mr Bongo, 2004).