Method meets madness
It will be the best in the world against the best in history as Spain & Brazil clash in tonight’s Confederations Cup final
A nd then there were two. The final game in the Confederations Cup on Sunday comes down to Spain, the best team in the world, against Brazil, the best in history, in the Maracanã, unquestionably one of the most evocative football stadiums on earth. Even if we separate the sport from the uprising in the streets, this World Cup rehearsal has been a tough tournament. And, as host nations invariably do in modern times, Brazil has made sure its most feared opponent took the longest and most tortuous road to the final. The semifinals — Brazil versus Uruguay, and Spain versus Italy — looked almost like exercises in organized exhaustion. Brazil’s winning goal came very late, from the head of Paulinho following a corner kick in the final moments. The wily Uruguayan coach Óscar Tabárez said he had listened some months ago to the Brazilian director of coaching, Carlos Alberto Parreira, lecturing on how to frustrate the flow of Barcelona’s tika taka game by outnumbering its pass masters in midfield. So Uruguay applied that pres- sure to Brazil in Belo Horizonte on Wednesday evening.
Then on Thursday, Italy switched its formation to three at the back, five in midfield, and not only did it deny Xavi Hernandez, Andrés Iniesta and company the freedom to express themselves, it was often Italy that sprang, and alas spurned, the greater scoring opportunities.
SHOOTOUT LOTTERY
On and on it went, this second semifinal. Italy’s game plan might well have broken the Spaniards’ world record run of 29 competitive matches without defeat. But Italy, without the injured Mario Balotelli, ran out of steam in the equatorial heat and humidity up in Fortaleza. Italy gave everything, the team running itself to a standstill in a scoreless two hours that, finally, had to be settled by the excruciating penalty shootout lottery.
Exhausted players stepping up one by one, holding nerve and sinew together for one last shot. Goalkeepers who could be hero or fall guy or, in this instance, simply unable to reach any of the first dozen kicks that were planted with remarkable consistency too high or too low to be saved.
And then poor Leonardo Bonucci, a defender whose pri- mary purpose is to keep the ball out of his net, had the misfortune to be 13th in line. His nerve failed, his aim was high and woeful and over the bar. After him, Jesús Navas stepped up with a forward’s aim to slot the ball low inside the post — game and semifinal to the Spaniards.
From that, we learned that despite all it has won being world and European champion, Spain still has the deep desire to go all the way even in a hot climate in effectively a mere warmup for next year’s World Cup. Brazilian fans jeered the Spanish on every field, which smacks of envy.
The Spanish team under its experienced coach, Vicente Del Bosque, is not noted for seeking excuses. Indeed, it is so long now, three years and counting, that Spain has lost a meaningful contest that it would be ludicrous to complain. Nevertheless, its journey to Sunday’s last game puts it at a disadvantage. Spain played its semifinal in Fortaleza, in the north of the country, a 2,200-kilometer, or 1,400-mile, flight to Rio, where the final is scheduled.
Brazil’s match against Uruguay in Belo Horizonte was about a sixth of the distance away, and played 24 hours earlier, giving the host a full day extra to rest and recuperate. And time is of the essence, as everyone who plays in the real thing next year will appreciate and learn. Howard Webb, the English referee for the Spain vs. Italy match, had shed three kilograms, or nearly seven pounds, in weight per game keeping up with the players.
Weight loss and proper scientific recovery is obviously part and parcel of a top sportsman’s lot. The teams are prepared for every eventuality, and, in Brazil’s case, this rehearsal is the closest thing to competitive circumstances that the players will experience between now and their World Cup.
“This team has to face a lot of difficulties,” said Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil’s head coach. “We achieved our goal of getting to the final and giving the players a sense of unity. We have one more objective now, to win this final and to show the fans that we have a good team for the World Cup.”
UNIFYING FACTOR
Scolari is as pragmatic now as he was back in 2002, when he took Brazil to the winning post at the World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
He fostered then a unity, a hard core of reliable competi- tors, some of whom he gradually allowed to express their individuality. His star then was Ronaldo. It looks now as if Neymar, the 21-year-old who has just been sold by Santos to Barcelona, is his match winner. But Scolari, who resumed as coach of the national team is no fool.
A month ago, Scolari suffered the taunts of Brazilian fans calling him “donkey, donkey.”
“We are young,” the coach said before this final. “We struggle a little when it’s a different game. The 2002 team was much more prepared, we had six players who had been to the previous World Cup. “Today, we have two or three from the last World Cup. We have a lot to learn about playing with calm.
There is nothing like a match to help you mature.” A match in a final, against the team no one in the world has figured out how to beat over the past three years.