Neymar Back, Brazil Is A Changed Team
Then Neymar was carried from a quarterfinal victory over Colombia on a stretcher following a nasty challenge from Juan Zúñega that broke a vertebrae. And in the semifinal, it suffered the most spectacular defeat in its soccer history, a 7-1 thrashing by Germany.
“It was a tragedy, a sad moment for football, but it is in the past,” said Crizam de Oliveira Filho, an attacking midfielder known as Zinho who played on Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning team. Since then, Neymar has shined for his professional teams, powerhouses Barcelona and Paris SaintGermain, while Brazil has been roiled by repeated corruption scandals, a divisive and widely derided impeachment process, a crippling recession, record levels of violent crime, a Zika epidemic and, most recently, a 10-day truckers strike that brought South America’s biggest economy to its knees. No wonder Brazilians are angsty as the World Cup looms. Their soccer-loving nation urgently needs something to be cheerful about and the national team might just provide it. It heads to Russia with what Brazil soccer experts call a real chance of exorcising the demons of what is known here as “the seven-one” and even winning a record sixth World Cup. With the Sao Paulo club team Corinthians, he won the Brazilian championship in 2011, then the South America-wide Libertadores trophy and FIFA Club World Cup a year later, with a team famed for its robust defense. He had left the club by the time Brazil suffered its humiliating defeat to Germany, and expected to be offered the job as national team coach when Felipe Scolari quit. “When I was not selected for the job, I will be honest … I was frustrated, pissed off, very sad,” he said in a recent interview for the Players’ Tribune. Instead of mourning, Tite spent a week with Carlo Ancelotti, one of Europe’s most successful coaches, then at Real Madrid.
“He shared the data he collected on the players, the training philosophies, the strategic planning. For me, this was like going to the candy shop,” said Tite, who has filled notebooks with annotations on tactics from every match in the last three World Cups.
He also visited Carlos Bianchi at Boca Juniors, who told him how he had made Corinthians into such a mentally strong team that the Argentine club had been unable to rile them into losing their balance. Then he went back to Corinthians and created an attacking team that won another Brazilian championship, this time with flair. The beautiful game, as it is called in Brazil. When the call to manage Brazil finally came, Tite was ready. Since then, he has taught Brazil how to win again. So much so that many Brazilians would prefer he took over the country’s government from widely despised President Michel Temer — in polls, 15 percent of Brazilians said they would vote for him, though he shows no sign of standing.
“People often refer to him as a kind of messiah in Brazil. He reminds me of a US self-help guru,” Downie said. “He’s got people believing in Brazil which they had stopped doing after the seven-one.”
Some fret that Brazil suffer from what is called “Neymar dependency.” But the team won recent friendlies against World Cup host Russia and defending champion and nemesis Germany without him. “They are much less dependent on him and he’s much better,” said Tim Vickery, the Rio-based South American soccer analyst for the BBC.
“However one of the tasks will be conciliating Neymar’s individuality with the team and trying to contain Neymar’s petulance.”
Tite’s squad has only three players from Brazil’s domestic leagues — 17 play in Europe against much tougher competition. Midfielder Philippe Coutinho, now with Barcelona, was included in the English Premier League’s 2015 team of the year while at Liverpool. Just 21, Gabriel Jesus’ emergence from a community team in a underprivileged, ramshackle Sao Paulo neighborhood has already entered Brazilian soccer lore. His last-second goal from a long run and deft chip made his club team, Manchester City, the first in English Premier League history to reach 100 points in a season.
Three players on Brazil’s roster were featured in last month’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid: attacking defender Marcelo and defensive midfielder Casemiro for the Spanish team, midfielder Firmino for Liverpool. Neymar, Manchester City defender Danilo and Barcelona midfielder Paulinho are among eight players in their late 20s, “that sweet spot that means they’re at the peak of their careers,” according to Downie.
Preoccupied with their country’s economic and political problems, Brazilians are yet engage with this World Cup as they had in previous decades.
“The world changed and Brazil is changing too,” said José Roque Jr., a defender on Brazil’s 2002 world championship team. That could change when the games begin. And if Brazilian politicians were subjected to the same pressure as soccer players and coaches, he said, they might they deliver some solutions.
“If politicians were under the same demands, I don’t think the country would be in the state it is,” he said.