Opinion – Tostão: Much of what happens in the field is not programmed or explained

It is worrying to live in Brazil, with so much radicalization, so much bias, so much hatred, so much physical and moral violence, so much misery, so much idiocy, so much environmental destruction, so much sexual harassment and so many racist acts, as has been frequent in stadiums.

There are also good things. On Wednesday, the Sheet published a great interview with neuroscientist Stuart Firestein, former chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University (USA). He is the author of the provocative book “Ignorance, as it Drives Science”, about the pains and uncertainties of the scientific world and the disconnect that exists between teaching and the perception of science.

This reminds me of my times as a student, doctor and professor of medicine at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Minas Gerais. I realized that many patients, even the most educated, imagined medicine as an exact science, without doubts and uncertainties.

With the progressive development of sports science and the minute strategic details, to the detriment of technique and ingenuity of athletes, something similar happens with fans, managers and analysts. Coaches’ routine behavior started to be highly praised in victories and heavily criticized in defeats, as if the game was decided almost solely by their conduct. In the future, players will be able to transform themselves into robots, into avatars, directed by the show’s owners.

Evidently, in order to achieve good performance, collective strategy and individual talent complement each other. However, the performance does not always correspond to the result, since the ball also enters by chance.

Individual talent, very important and decisive, is the union of skill with technique, inventiveness, lucidity to make the right decisions, good physical and emotional conditions and collective play. The ace needs the set to shine, but without superstars, you can’t form a great team.

In the unforgettable conquest of the 2002 World Cup, Felipão formed a good team, especially from the round of 16 onwards, but Brazil only shone because they had three great stars in attack, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, in addition to the two best full-backs in the world, Cafu and Roberto Carlos. The others were also very good.

The many goals scored by Palmeiras, by crossed balls in the area, are the result of the good positioning of the players, under the guidance of the coach, and, mainly, of the enormous individual quality of the collectors and the headers. Against Cerro Porteño, there were two more goals from crossed balls. Scarpa, once again, showed exuberant technique in the crosses.

According to neuroscientists, many players have a spatial intelligence, an ability to calculate and observe the movement and speed of teammates and the ball. For psychoanalysis, it would be the unconscious knowledge, which precedes thought, an analogical communication. Pele, before the ball arrived, told me, with bulging eyes and body movements, everything he would do. I tried to keep up with him.

Many things that happen in the field are not programmed or explained. “Those who are educated explain brightness and darkness, teach about the stars and the firmament, but they understand nothing about the universe and existence, because understanding is very different from explaining, and almost always the two walk apart.” (João Ubaldo Ribeiro – “The Blue Albatross”)