Analysis: Football has gained a new face since Brazil’s penta, 20 years ago

Felipão asked in all training sessions for Ronaldo to surround the opponent’s exit. “You don’t have to take the ball, but it gets in the way.” The tone was this and repeated more than once per training session.

In the 22nd minute of the second half of the decision against Germany, Ronaldo managed the ball and was disarmed by Hamann. He got up, ran two steps towards the defense, stretched out his right leg and took the ball from the German midfielder. He handed it to Rivaldo, who kicked it from outside the area.

Oliver Kahn hit back, and Ronaldo had time to reach the small area to finish.

The opening goal of the final against Germany had some of what football has asked for most in the next 20 years: pressure and intensity.

The only team in history to win seven matches to be world champion was not a symbol of planning. Of all 21 World Cups, only seven have been won by coaches with less than three years in office: Alberto Supicci (1930), Marcello Lippi (2006), Vicente Del Bosque (2010) and four Brazilians.

Felipão followed the path of Vicente Feola (1958), Aymoré Moreira (1962) and Zagallo (1970). Only in the tetra the team reached the Cup with a work of three seasons, consolidated by Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Asia gave the signal that the Cup would be won by the best team that month. The last three champions show something different. You have to organize the selection month by month, be aware of the names that come up. You can’t win without organization.

Felipão debuted on July 1, 2001 and lifted the trophy on June 30, 2002, exactly 364 days later. Croatia reached the 2018 decision with a manager who had been in charge for 17 matches. The Netherlands will arrive in Qatar led by Louis van Gaal for 15 months. Perhaps only the Dutch can deny the sense of organization and take the title.

The penta coach says: “We set up the team in Catalonia, in the final phase of preparation, thanks to Edmílson’s tactical understanding”. He means that he closed the system of three defenders with the support of his libero, able to understand the movements of the game. To advance to form the midfield or retreat to be the libero.

Football has changed in these 20 years.

One of the issues was to abandon once and for all the idea that you are more defensive when you play with more defenders or more offensive with more attackers.

One thing has nothing to do with the other.

In the last two decades, the game has gotten faster and played in a smaller space. At the beginning of the 21st century, Arrigo Sacchi’s logic still prevailed, of lowering the attack line to the middle, raising the defense and forcing the opponent to play in a third of the field.

In these 20 years, you often see a distance of 15 meters between the first defender and the last striker.

Hence the need for more rehearsal and more collective play.

Also more coordinated exits from defense to offense. Liverpool’s German coach Jürgen Klopp helps to understand the evolution. His Borussia Dortmund, nine years ago, put less pressure on the ball out and bet more on long balls.

Liverpool, runners-up in the Champions League, press closer to the opposing goal, work on the inversions of the sides of the plays. That doesn’t stop him from being beaten by a more conventional team, like Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.

A supporter of Arrigo Sacchi, Ancelotti uses zone marking and adopts the postures of teams from 20 years ago.

Another major change is the increasingly early exodus. Brazil has never been world champion having more players called abroad than inside the country. In 2002, Marcos, Kleberson and Gilberto Silva were the only holders who played in the Brazilian Championship. But 13 of the 23 registered played in the country.

The only team in the history of champions with the most players called abroad was France, both in 1998 and in 2018. Tite’s Brazil can only have Weverton and Arana, from Palmeiras and Atlético, outside the European axis.