You, who will overcome any other competitor! You, who I already salute as victors!" A victory song, "Brasil Os Vencedores" ("Brazil The Victors"), was composed and practised, ready to be played after the final. However, Paulo Machado de Carvalho, then a São Paulo FC leader, but later head of the Brazilian squad that won the World Cups of 1958 and 1962, opposed such premature claims of victory. During a visit to the training session at the Estádio São Januário on the eve of the game, Paulo found several politicians making impassioned speeches to the players, as well as journalists, photographers and others arriving to join the "future champions". When he warned coach Flávio Costa about the risk of upsetting the players' concentration, Paulo was ignored. Frustrated, he told his son Tuta, who was with him, "we are going to lose". On the morning of 16 July 1950, the streets of Rio de Janeiro were bustling with activity. An improvised carnival was organised, with thousands of signs celebrating the world title, and chants of "Brazil must win!". This spirit was maintained right up until the final minutes of the match, which filled the Maracanã Stadium with a paid attendance of 173,850 and an actual attendance of up to 220,000 by some estimates, including thousands who entered the stadium illegally. This is an all-time record attendance for a football match that is unlikely to be broken in an era when practically all high-profile matches are held in all-seater stadiums; until its first great remodelling in 1999, the Maracanã was mostly concrete grandstands with no seats. Uruguay's preparation The Brazilian newspaper O Mundo printed an early edition on the day of the final containing a photograph of Brazil with the caption "These are the world champions". Disgusted with that, Uruguay's captain, Obdulio Varela, bought as many copies as he could, laid them on his bathroom floor and encouraged his teammates to spit and to urinate on them. In the moments prior to the match, coach Juan López informed his team in Uruguay's dressing room that their best chance of surviving the powerful offensive line of Brazil would come through adopting a defensive strategy. After he left, Varela stood up and addressed the team himself, saying "Juancito is a good man, but today, he is wrong. If we play defensively against Brazil, our fate will be no different from Spain or Sweden". Varela then