Opinion – Tostão: Brazil and Argentina play modern football, with different characteristics

Brazil played an excellent match, individually and collectively, in the 5-1 rout, facilitated by technical deficiencies and the passivity and kindness of South Korea, who watched Brazil play. Neymar, free, showed a wide repertoire. I prefer, against strong opponents, who score a lot and who make a lot of fouls, to see him play further forward, closer to the goal.

Argentina, in the 3-0 victory over Italy, also had an excellent performance, individually and collectively. Contrary to what happened for a long time, Messi today plays much better for the national team than for the club. His teammates, through their behavior on and off the field and the affection and admiration they have for Messi, demonstrate a veiled and silent commitment to helping him win titles, especially the World Cup.

Argentina and Brazil are among about eight teams competing for the title. The two, when they lose the ball and are unable to press, retreat and score with two lines of four, with the players on the sides close to the defensive midfielders. The difference is that the Brazilian wingers are fast, dribblers and open, while in Argentina the two players on the sides, Di Maria and Lo Celso, are midfielders who approach Messi and his teammates, to exchange passes and involve the opponent.

Brazil has more tactical and individual options than Argentina. The two play modern, compact, intense football, different from the football of the past. This is a fact. On the other hand, many youngsters, out of ignorance, based on an image of Gerson walking with the ball in midfield, in the 1970 World Cup, exaggerate and think that this occurred during most of the game. Inferior opponents, as is also the case in modern football, used to retreat to close spaces and, with that, leave the other team’s midfielders free with the ball.

In the past, exceptional midfielders also played from one intermediate to another, according to their own characteristics and those of the time, such as Gerson, Rivellino, Ademir da Guia, Dirceu Lopes, Toninho Cerezo, Falcão and others. Subsequently, the Brazilian coaches divided the midfield between the defensive midfielders who score and the attacking midfielders who attack, which ended with the great midfielders. That slowly started to change.

Gerson returned to receive the ball from the goalkeeper, as is often the case, he played, advanced, received, until he reached the opponent’s field, as in the goal against Italy, in the 1970 World Cup final. Ademir da Guia, with his long strides, glided from one area to another. It was the fake slow. Dirceu Lopes was everywhere on the pitch. Falcão and Cerezo were midfielders and midfielders.

In the 1970 World Cup, Jairzinho returned to his own field to tackle, played and received the ball in the other team’s middle, as in the second goal against Uruguay. That’s what Vinicius Junior and Mbappé usually do.

Goose has become the symbol of the player of the past, slow and without intensity. If he had been trained at another time, he would have had a chance to become a great midfielder, to play from one area to another.

In the past, football was slow, but not so much. We shouldn’t be nostalgic, think that everything was better and that the current solution would be to return to grassroots football or be like a modern, who thinks that everything that happened before is outdated, that life and football started with the internet and that saying modern words and expressions is a testament to knowledge and wisdom.