La Maquina" River Plate team of the 1940s famously played with a philosophy of "ganar, gustar y golear" or "to win, to please and to score goals."
Furthermore, the seedbeds of South American football—the streets of Bogota, the beaches of Brazil and the muddy "potrero" playgrounds of Montevideo—are not places where rigid defending is valued.
The kids who can dribble, swivel, flick and score goals get the glory on those playgrounds.
The BBC's South American expert, Tim Vickery, in this article, quotes one of that country's great strikers who believes that goals should trump all else. Vickery goes on to explain that Brazilians often laud creative geniuses more than the goal sneaks, but a production line of both types of players has traditionally served the national football team very well: