In 1963, one year after Brazil won its second World Cup, the man who led them to their very first in Sweden five years earlier wrote of their success, ‘There is a simple answer to it all: we were indivisible.’

Togetherness. Teamwork. Spirit. Solidarity. Vicente Feola valued these attributes above all else. Brazil already believed it had the most talented footballers in the world, the key, insisted Feola, was to make them a team. ‘We wanted each one of them to feel a part of the machine; we wanted everyone to work together, and not separately – however great an individual contribution might prove.’

‘This spirit took hold of us all,’ he said, ‘so that a unique spirit of community became the root strength of our Brazilian football efforts.’ Instilling that ethic into a single group of men is probably the toughest task a football manager has to face.

In August of last year, one coach managed it, but did so inadvertently, in bizarre, and so very nearly tragic, circumstances. Vasco da Gama coach Ricardo Gomes was sitting in the dugout watching his team face Flamengo one afternoon when he started to feel unwell. He quickly felt worse. Then worse still. Moments later he was rushed away in an Ambulance. Gomes had suffered a stroke. Vasco had won the Copa do Brasil a month earlier, assuring their place in the 2012 Copa Libertadores, and were expected to take their foot of the gas and cruise to a mid-table finish as is the norm in Brazil (a Robinho-inspired Santos won the 2010 trophy and finished and finished 8th; Corinthians in 10th having won the 2009 edition; Sport Recife and Flamengo 11th having lifted the 2008 and 2006 trophies respectively).

With Gomes seriously ill, assistant Cristovao Borges was forced to take temporary charge. ‘It was terrible,’ Borges told Marca Brasil this week, thinking back to that fateful period. ‘We are friends and there was a real danger he could die.’ Veteran midfielder Juninho Pernambucano, who had recently returned to the club he left a decade previously, would later admit that Gomes’ stroke made him question the futility of the game. ‘It made me think a lot about football and of all stress that we live with every day due to the need for results… I was upset and wondering if it is really worth all this dedication.’

It was. Vasco were expected to tail off into mid-table obscurity, but did they the opposite – winning four of their next seven league games, including emphatic victories over Gremio and Cruzeiro. Borges’ biggest decision as coach was to ‘change nothing,’ keeping faith with every one of Gomes’ methods and hoping the team would respond. ‘What made me more comfortable [with this] was the knowledge that I could count on the group,’ he said.

That group, led by Juninho, came together in the way that Feola maintained was so vital to the nation’s first world title. Vasco would eventually fall short of a first league championship in eleven years, denied a fairytale ending on the final day of the season by Corinthians while Universidad de Chile ended their Copa Sudamericana campaign at the semi-final stage. But in the face of adversity, they had come together in a way few thought possible. ‘Vasco is not the hottest team, but we are more competitive than many of the teams with the most talked about players,’ believes midfielder Diego Souza. ‘We are a group willing to win.’

And it’s that will that has led many to count Vasco amongst the favourites for this year’s Copa Libertadores. They kick off their campaign tonight at home to Alvaro Recoba’s Nacional and, despite Diego Souza’s comments suggesting the contrary, they have in their ranks those capable of the ‘individual contribution’ Feola spoke of: Dede is likely the finest central defender on the continent, and was the heart of the third-meanest defence in Brazil last season; defensive midfielder Romulo has rapidly matured into one of the finest young players in his position; Eder Luis and Diego Souza himself were imaginative and dynamic coming in from the flanks; and for with Juninho in your team, free-kicks within 30 yards of goal are almost as good as penalties.

While he’s yet to return to hi seat in the dugout, Gomes’ position as coach was reaffirmed last week as Juninho and co. begin their hunt for that fairytale ending that eluded them last year. ‘For me [the Libertadores] means everything because I was lucky enough to have taken part in Vasco’s only triumph so far,’ said 37 year-old, who has just renewed his contract for a further six months. ‘I will never forget it – it was a glorious day for the club… I am dreaming of winning one more title with Vasco before finishing my career.’ It’s a dream shared by the group.

‘What helped us in 2011 we are bringing to this year,’ insists Borges. That indivisible spirit could yet prove enough to take them one step further in 2012.