WORLD CUP 2014
FEEL IT! IT'S HERE!
WITH a passionate crowd behind them, a savvy coach and a settled team enjoying a sparkling run of form, Brazil are hot favourites to lift a record sixth World Cup next month.
After their quarterfinal defeat to the Netherlands four years ago, coach Dunga was replaced by Mano Menezes, who reshaped the team and gave debuts to young, agile players such as Neymar, Oscar, Fernandinho and Paulinho.
In turn, Menezes made way for old favourite Luiz Felipe Scolari in December 2012. The man who guided Brazil to their fifth World Cup triumph, in 2002 has added steel and guile to the flair in the squad.
Crucially, he rallied fans behind the team and, in just six months, turned Menezes’s callow group of youngsters into one capable of great things.
The way they waltzed through the Confederations Cup last year, defeating Uruguay and Italy on the road to a 3-0 final drubbing of world champions Spain, was unforgettable and instilled a belief in the side missing for the best part of a decade.
Brazil have won eight games in a row and 14 of their last 15, and fans no longer wonder whether they can win the competition, they expect it.
The worry, however, is whether they have peaked too early.
No team has won the World Cup after lifting the Confederations Cup a year previously. Brazil won the dress-rehearsal tournament in 2005 and 2009 but, a year later, suffered crushing disappointment.
Another pertinent question is how will they respond to the pressure of playing the World Cup at home in front of passionate fans.
While every member of the 23-man squad has European experience, few will have encountered the expectation about to be heaped on their shoulders.
“It’s different,” said Juninho, the former Vasco da Gama, Atlético Madrid and Middlesbrough midfielder, who took home a World Cup winner’s medal in 2002. “There’s much more pressure. Representing your country is more important.”
The only other time Brazil hosted the World Cup was in 1950, when the home side lost out in the final match to Uruguay.
That defeat scarred the nation and the enormous pressure to finally lift the trophy at the Maracana could be an issue if the team start slowly in their opener against Croatia and anxious supporters get on their backs.
So far, at least, the players do not appear overawed.
The good run has left them brimming with confidence, and with good reason — they scored 29 goals in the past eight games, conceding only two. Five of the seven teams they faced had qualified for the World Cup.
“We’ve ended this preparation phase perfectly,” said defender Thiago Silva after the team’s last friendly, a 5-0 drubbing of South Africa in March.
“We were unbeaten in winning the Confederations Cup, we did what Felipe asked of us in this match and I am certain we’ll do a great job in the World Cup.”
The feeling at home is the tournament is theirs to lose.
A nation expects. —