Neymar inspires Brazil squad
Daily Dispatch
@Dispatch_DD
NEYMAR inspired Brazil to a 3-0 win over Japan on Saturday as the five-time world champions made a perfect start to their bid to clinch a third successive Confederations Cup title.
Brazil won the competition in 1997, as well as the 2005 and 2009 editions, although their ensuing World Cup performances left much to be desired.
With next year’s World Cup on home soil for the first time since 1950, this year’s vintage are bent on winning both tournaments, if only to send a message out to Pele, who said before Saturday’s game the current squad are not good enough.
Neymar, who has just in the past month switched to Pele’s famous but historically onerous number 10 shirt, lived entirely up to the hype as he scored a brilliant opening goal after just three minutes.
He went on to lead the Japanese defence a merry dance before Paulinho and Jo made the points safe after the break.
“Neymar is a great player, a real star who is going to make the difference,” said Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Neymar added: “Fred collected the ball and laid it off, I connected full on, and happily the ball found the target.”
Japan skipper Makoto Hasebe earned a booking from Portuguese referee Pedro Proenca for fouling his rival in the first-half injury-time.
A 67 400 crowd, who roundly booed Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff beforehand following protests at the amount of money being spent on sports events, were entranced by Neymar’s stunning opener.
The new Barcelona star hit a thunderbolt past Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima after Real Madrid defender Marcelo had crossed languidly from the left.
Bustling centre forward Fred chested down for Neymar to drill in from 20 metres into the top corner and leave the Asian champions stunned.
Buoyed by that, Brazil started to boss the show against a Japanese side they had thrashed 4-0 in their last meeting, an October friendly in Poland.
Hulk, marauding in a threepronged attack with Neymar and Fred, almost made it 2-0 four minutes before the break but his shot found only the side netting.
But if Alberto Zaccheroni’s Japanese hoped they had weathered the storm in limiting the damage to one goal at the break, they were soon to be disabused. There were three minutes on the second-half clock when attacking full-back Dani Alves slung over a perfectly weighted pass for Paulinho to hit a low drive that Kawashima could only help into the roof of his net.
Japan desperately sought to respond, with Shinji Okazaki of Stuttgart firing wide before Zaccheroni made his first change on 50 minutes. He sent on Ryoichi Maeda in place of Hiroshi Kiyotake, moving Okazaki out to the right with Maeda in a more central role.
He did not move Europe-based talents Manchester United star Shinji Kagawa or CSKA Moscow’s Keisuke Honda.
Maeda brought a smart stop from Julio Cesar in the Brazil goal on entering the fray.
He then tried a left-footer which the Queens Park Rangers shotstopper smothered well after Honda had a free kick charged down.
It was Honda who scored the penalty against Australia that saw Japan become the first country to seal World Cup qualification just prior to coming to Brazil.
Kagawa was despondent as Japan struggled to find their feet having only been in the country barely three days after completing their successful World Cup qualifying programme in Doha last Tuesday with a win over Iraq.
“I don’t think we can use the travelling as an excuse.
“We didn’t find our game. It’s very disappointing. We had the chance to play Brazil but we couldn’t reach our level,” Kagawa said.
Zaccheroni echoed that sentiment, saying: “We are not the team we saw tonight – we can do so much better. Now I must talk to the team and see if it was the early goal that sank us.”
Scolari eventually decided Neymar had done enough work and withdrew the starlet with 20 minutes remaining for Paris Saint Germain winger Lucas. He also withdrew Hulk for Lazio midfielder Hernanes.
There was still time for substitute Jo of Atletico Mineiro to hit the third through the goalkeeper’s legs after running onto Oscar’s superb through ball in the third minute of injurytime. — Sapa-AFP