Being coach of the Brazilian men’s soccer team is perhaps one of the most difficult occupations out there.
In (male) football, Brazilian fans demand nothing less than first place. Vice is almost as bad as being last.
Since when? I can’t say it’s always been the case, but it’s certainly been that way since Pelé, Garrincha and company triumphed in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
For more than six decades, Brazil’s coach has had the obligation to win the World Cup. Or the Copa America. Or the Olympics.
And most of the time that didn’t happen, making a part of them “geniuses” in the eyes of the fans of the canary team.
Restricting themselves to the World Cup, after 1958, when Vicente Feola was the coach, only four coaches repeated the feat: Aymoré Moreira (Chile-1962), Zagallo (Mexico-1970). Carlos Alberto Parreira (USA-1994) and Luiz Felipe Scolari (Korea/Japan-2002).
Feola (England-1966), Zagallo (West Germany-1974 and France-1998), Parreira (Germany-2006) and Felipão (Brazil-2014) had the chance to win twice and failed.
Disregarding an old saying, I believe that the last impression, not the first, is the one that really stays, so their image was scratched by these setbacks – especially that of Felipão, with the 7-1 to Germany, at home, in semifinal.
Others just lost. Telê Santana, who made the team play beautifully, twice (Spain-1982 and Mexico-1986). Cláudio Coutinho (Argentina-1978), Sebastião Lazaroni (Italy-1990) and Dunga (South Africa-2010), once each.
Tite, the team’s current commander, will have, like Telê, a second chance after a failure. He dropped out of the quarterfinals in Russia in 2018 and was kept in charge for Qatar 2022.
“It’s time to reach the final and be champions”, he sentenced in an interview with the Guardian, published on the English newspaper’s website this Sunday (19), aware that his name will only remain positively in everyone’s memory with the Fifa Cup in his hands. .
Tite shows confidence, believes he has a prepared and focused group (technical committee and players), and displays annoyance when questioned about criticisms leveled at his work.
“We have results. What are people waiting for? We broke the record [de mais pontos, 45] in the qualifiers [para a Copa no Qatar]. We have the longest unbeaten streak, 12 games [no qualificatório para o Mundial de 2018] and now 17 games without defeat [nas Eliminatórias para o Mundial deste ano, com 14 vitórias e três empates]. That is, 29 games.”
The coach continued, emphasizing the numbers and achievements that Brazil registered in his administration.
“We scored 13 more goals than Argentina [segunda colocada nas Eliminatórias sul-americanas]. We didn’t concede a goal in 13 out of 17 matches, our average goals scored was above 2.5 [na verdade, a média de gols do Brasil foi de 2,35 nas Eliminatórias do Mundial deste ano, 40 gols em 17 jogos].”
“We returned to first place in the FIFA rankings. We were champions of the Copa America [no Brasil, em 2019]. We didn’t win last time [em 2021, também no Brasil, a Argentina ganhou a final por 1 a 0]but there was a whole process, a difficult moment, a series of problems that I don’t want to go into.”
Tite refers to the coronavirus pandemic. The competition was supposed to have two hosts, Argentina and Colombia, which withdrew – Colombians were also living, in addition to the spread of the disease, with a wave of political demonstrations against President Iván Duque.
Conmebol (South American confederation) turned to Brazil, which, even with Covid still out of control, accepted to hold the competition, with the consent of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and the Bolsonaro government.
According to Tite, “nobody wanted to play in the Copa America and everyone expressed that to the president [da CBF, que à época era Rogério Caboclo]”.
I’ll make an aside: if they didn’t want to play, due to the health situation, why did they play? There was no firm pulse, there was a lack of personality. (It is for these and others that Brazil does not change as a country.)
In the interview, Tite also spoke about his human side.
He was grateful for the unrestricted support of his family, especially his wife, Rosi – with whom he likes to walk and chat-, and said he had “my fears, my nightmares, my chills”, stressing that fear should not be confused with dread.
He didn’t mention what these nightmares are, however, amidst such expressive positive results, the conclusion is that there is a single ghost that takes away your sleep or makes you wake up during the night.
His name has seven letters: Belgium.
Team whose nickname is Red Devils and which, with a 2-1 victory on July 6, 2018, in Kazan, eliminated Brazil from the Russian Cup, in the quarterfinals.
Brazil played better than Belgium, finished more than three times, had the misfortune to score an own goal (Fernandinho), a ball that landed on the post, an “impossible” defense by goalkeeper Courtois, a goal missed by Renato Augusto that would result in the tie by 2 to 2.
It wasn’t meant to be, and Tite couldn’t be blamed. I would also have nightmares about this game if I had been in it in an important role and lost.
I defended Tite’s permanence after the fall in Russia, because in my view he was the most capable, among Brazilian names, to make Brazil triumph.
The big problem, what is lacking in my assessment, is what was missing before: setting up effective plays that are capable of breaking through well-armed defensive blocks. Blocks that the team will already face in the first phase, against Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon.
It is necessary to shoot more accurately, from outside the area. There needs to be more triangulations along the sides. Finally, alternatives to bolts should be created, because without them, the chance of succumbing increases considerably.
Ultimately, as elimination for Tite’s biggest nightmare showed, you need to get your aim right.
Brazil can and should finish a lot, but it is necessary that the ball index in the net is higher than in that defeat to Lukaku, Hazard, De Bruyne and company (a measly goal in 26 attempts).
With these adjustments, and if Neymar, still the most famous player of the team, has productive performances, with goals and assists, Brazil will increase its persistent favoritism.
In an ideal campaign in Qatar, it would be better if there was a vendetta against the Belgians.
There is a chance that the two teams will meet again in the quarterfinals or in the final, depending on the classification of each in the group stage.
If the title comes, Tite will be able to sleep peacefully, with no old or new ghost to torment him.
If it’s against Belgium, then the nightmare will have turned into a good dream, for those who don’t want to wake up.
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