THERE is a new global signpost, 7/1, documenting the World Cup demolition of Brazil at football’s epicentre.
“Woke up to a shambles of a game. They lost heart (Thiago Silva) and soul (Neymar),” read a 5.59am social media posting on Wednesday by Aman Ali, 52.
Brazil and much of the world were numbed by the capitulation.
Context: it took Brazil 64 years to get to host the World Cup so that they could finally avenge the nightmare of not winning the 1950 chapter, only to lose the game decisively after 29 minutes.
The plethora of immediate consequences shall include Luis Suarez of Liverpool and Uruguay escaping a more biting media scrutiny, overshadowed by the Brazilians. He shall be in the news briefly, if and when, Barcelona parades him as their newest acquisition, after which he will get to recuperate from training and media glare due to the lengthy suspension.
The inquest will spread out to haunt many of the Brazilian personalities, including its footballing, even political, leadership.
Soon after this devastating defeat, coach Felipe Scolari got the culpability-apportioning sequence right by, uppermost, acknowledging his role. He was absolutely spot on.
Scolari went for cohesion, ostensibly selecting players who would click. He picked his World Cup first eleven more than a year ago, shutting the door on strikers other than the misfiring Fred and the substitute Jo. Scolari’s team lacked the intelligence range of Philippe Cautihno (of Liverpool), in case the equally slight Oscar was brutalised out of the creativity department. Lucas Moura was playing yesterday for his club PSG.
The net outcome was this — a nation so expressive and flamboyant in caressing the ball leaned disproportionately on Neymar, who dominated (almost) all the set pieces.
That Scolari was a failed Chelsea manager tantalisingly hints at Brazil needing a fusion of new (perhaps foreign) ideas in managerial and development capacity.
Beyond tactics and systems, a looming question would surely zoom into whether football had lost its soul with the collapse of the Brazilian World Cup challenge.
Most decidedly not. Will David Luiz suffer a dip in his price tag? No chance. Look at his quarter-final free-kick goal.
In fact, in the immediate aftermath, we should try to argue against hyper-dramatisation and resist attempts to offer mega 7/1 conclusions like the one preferred by a British media; the end of the Brazilian reign as football royalty.
Then on, motivated by boundless positive energy, we shall credit footballing nous, specifically for midfielder Sami Khedira of Tunisian descent playing in a more advanced role to punish the laid-back David Luiz.
Additionally, we could cite the sudden loss of imagination when Neymar was kneed out at high speed while stabiliser Thiago Silva had incurred a suspension.
History will not have the time for these seemingly justifiable causes though. History analyses eras. Fans will continue to Google visuals of 1970 to watch Pele, 1982 (Zico, Socrates, Falcao, and Brazil didn’t even win that World Cup), 1994 (Romario, now a congressman complaining about the costs of staging the World Cup) and 2002 (Ronaldo).
Ronaldo and Romario were teammates once, brandished as the Ro-Ro strikeforce. Ronaldo famously said his winning strike in the 2002 finals was a “Romario” goal. This was about a slick pass into the net. (The duo entered into a bit of an exchange in recent times).
Sensational post-modern football is about physical encounters, pace and individual brilliance of hugely talented players keeping the ball under gruelling hassling. Images of a languid Dirceu of Brazil playing in the 1978 World Cup series are archaic.
The point of writing this article is to argue that Brazil shall remain the footballing Aristocrats. A sizeable percentage of goals in the European leagues would still be scored or created by Brazilians. Scouts of leading clubs will continue to travel to Brazil to discover the newest footballing sensation.
Romario, appearing on BBC’s Hard Talk in April, did not go into the footballing aspects of the World Cup (he was a disaster as a coach). He retained his faith in the Brazilian team and predicted his national team to progress to the semi-final with Germany, Argentina and Spain. Romario the politician remains a footballing legend, increasingly articulate and confident.
On the contrary, the Neymar-dominated 2014 side is devoid of great footballers associated with the Brazilian brand.
Hulk has the muscle but was hardly getting past defenders and scoring.
Conversely, they were neither a flop of biblical proportions. They made it into the semi-final and were not the first host to be vanquished. Germany did not win the 2006 World Cup it hosted.
As for the immediate future, Brazil will elect its president in October when Dilma Rousseff will stand for a second term. Romario, the congressman, shall be eagerly pursued by the media for his views. He has consistently argued for more funding into education, health and basic amenities.
Improved living standards in a football-mad country cannot be conceivably bad for world football. There is an overwhelmingly massive talent pool in a nation of 200 million. Like Spain, the Brazilian national side will upgrade systems and tactics. Players will have to adapt to the new rigours. A physically menacing Oscar? Why not?
The next few days could prove harrowing for Brazilian fans worldwide — this reporter included — although moods could dramatically shift following this morning’s Argentina-Netherlands tie. Otherwise, just keep smiling when you spot in the social media the sale of Brazilian replica jerseys. Buy 1-7 Free.
Unlike the 9/11 episode, there were no casualties in the 7/1 chapter, apart from this near-worry of the death of beautiful football. Thankfully, chances are that is not going to happen.