In 1958, just as in 2014, Brazil opened the World Cup with a solid win but then turned in a flat 0-0 performance in their second group stage game, against England.
Looking to shake things up, the Brazilian coach turned to two previously unused substitutes: one a wide-eyed 17-year-old forward named Edson Arantes do Nascimento who almost failed a psychological exam administered to the team that year.
The other was a winger with badly deformed legs, Manuel Francisco dos Santos.
Then as now, both players were better known by their nicknames: "Pelé" and "Mané Garrincha."
The substitutions worked - and how. Brazil won the rest of their games in 1958 and went home with the first of their record five World Cup championships.
Pelé, of course, became arguably the best football player in history. He is rivalled in the Brazilian public's imagination only by Garrincha, whose playful style and humble roots made him a local folk hero in his own right.
Lest anyone think 1958 was a fluke, Brazil suffered yet another 0-0 draw in its second game of the next World Cup, in 1962 - this time, against Czechoslovakia.
Naturally, panic ensued.
The result: Yet another championship.
Any knowledge of such precedent seemed mostly absent from Brazilian newspapers on Wednesday, which lamented the host team's performance against Mexico and speculated that coach Luiz Felipe Scolari would make significant changes to the lineup for the next game, against Cameroon on Monday.
There is no indication that Brazil has another Pelé or Garrincha waiting in the wings this time.
But, for the superstitious sort, there is at least one hopeful omen. Monday's game will be played at a brand-new facility in Brasilia known locally as "Mané Garrincha National Stadium."
(Editing by Todd Benson and Nigel Hunt)
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