Champions of the World - sort of

Last night, the Brazilian national football team continued on their path to rebuild the reputation of decades comprehensively trashed when losing to Germany 7-1 then the Netherlands 3-0 at their own World Cup.  Japan, who were decent enough to qualify for FIFA World Cup, were taken apart 4-0 by Brazil in Singapore (Brazil doing a version of the Harlem Globetrotters).  But a far more important match took place at the weekend.
One way of looking at the unofficial world champions contention is that the first team to beat the most recent World Champions takes the crown.  Scotland claimed this in 1967 when they did one on England.  However, the Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC), another method of calculating it, goes all the way back to 1872 when Scotland and England first squared off. Thus it ding-donged back and forth around the globe, with countries like Zimbabwe (much of 2005) and North Korea (2012-13) wielding 'the belt'.  Going into the 2014 World Cup, Uruguay held the honour, but lost in their first match to Costa Rica.  Unbeaten all the way to the quarter-finals, they lost to the Netherlands, who subsequently lost to Argentina, who themselves lost to Germany in the final in a 'unification' of the official and unofficial world cups.  In a rematch in Germany in September, the World Champions/world champions were thrashed by Argentina, who took the unofficial crown.  They held it until they faced Brazil last Saturday in Beijing.
Despite Brazil's players complaining that the Chinese capital's smog was akin to standing next to a bonfire, they sunk Argentina 2-0, both goals coming from Diego Tardelli (overlooked at the World Cup).  So a kind of pride has been restored to the Verde-Amarela, as they can cavort as the unofficial world champions.  Not as good as the official crown but a consolation prize all the same.