Russian city targets a late winner SAMARA SEEKS SOME SAMBA SALVATION DURING MEXICO CLASH
The Brazilian national team have a lot in common with Samara, the sprawling city of 1.2 million where they will play in the knockout round of the World Cup tomorrow. Both the team and the city were once great, but now find themselves trying to rekindle past glories.
Brazil won two World Cups between 1994 and 2002, giving them a record five championships overall. But they haven’t been back to a final since. And if they don’t win this year, the 16-year drought will be their second-longest since the Second World War.
Samara, meanwhile, was once the second capital of the Soviet Union and a place so sensitive to the nation’s military and aerospace industries it was closed to most foreigners. Then it largely collapsed with the Soviet Union, and its tired and weathered historic district, overlooking the east bank of the Volga River, speaks more to the past than the present.
“Yeah, there are similarities,” Flavio Silva, a Brazilian fan out sightseeing in Samara on Friday, agreed.
They don’t end there. Because both Brazil and Samara are gearing up for a comeback and each is relying on the other for a helping hand.
The football team, who have overcome a slow start to their World Cup to reach the knockout round, will need a big effort in Samara to get past a stubborn and talented Mexican team and continue their push toward a title.
And the city, known as Kuybyshev during the Soviet era, is counting on the World Cup to raise its profile and reignite a revitalisation process that seems to have stalled.
The pressure of the World Cup’s knockout round and Brazil’s own lofty goals crushed the team four years ago when they stumbled into the semi-finals, only to get hammered by Germany, 7-1. Tite, Brazil’s colourful new coach, said that won’t happen this time.
“Expectations? We don’t live ■ by expectations, we live by reality,” he said. “(We live by) a team that mentally deals with the pressure, is balanced, that has replacement parts for important moments.
“You have to have a strong team. If the players didn’t have all this preparation, then we’d surely not see this kind of performance.”
This was to be Neymar’s tournament, the coming-out party that would see him grab his place alongside Pele, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho in the pantheon of Brazilian greats. The other three all won World Cups, though, so Neymar, 26, needed one of his own to be considered their equal.
Rapid rehabilitation
However, history’s most expensive player — Paris SaintGermain agreed to a deal worth more than $500 million to acquire him from Spanish club Barcelona last summer — almost didn’t make it to the World Cup after breaking a bone in his right foot in February.
And the stress of his rapid rehabilitation and the weight of expectations once he reached Russia have clearly weighed on him. He was fouled 10 times in Brazil’s opener, a disappointing 1-1 draw with Switzerland that raised alarms among the Selecao’s supporters. Those concerns were then heightened when an emotionally fragile Neymar broke down in tears after two stoppage-time goals gave Brazil a surprisingly difficult win over Costa Rica.
The team and their star didn’t really hit stride until the closing minutes of that game, but since then Brazil have outscored opponents 4-0 and Neymar has picked up a goal and an assist, giving him 10 goals and nine assists in his 18 games with the national team.
“There is an excessive responsibility on Neymar in terms of success and that is not the way to go,” Tite said. “Each one of us has our own responsibility. We should not place it all on his shoulders; the whole group will solve it.
“Can he do it? Of course he can, in some circumstances, yes.”