Opinion – Sandro Macedo: Abel against everything and against everyone (the coaches)

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the foreign coaches in this recent visit to terra brasilis is the post-game press conferences. It’s not just the crossed answers, with the right to a bank account statement, that draw attention. The gringos talk about the game as we never heard before —I put Rogério Ceni in that group.

But with championships tapering off, press conferences are getting more tense, especially as many are embarking on the “fifth grade behavior,” the one we had in high school, provoked by the cordless phone in post-game conversations — the most Young people will say that all phones are cordless and that comment is meaningless, but their parents know what I’m talking about.

It works like this (completely hypothetical situation): a defeated coach says in the interview, for example, that his team had difficulty scoring a goal because the little friend’s team defended well and reduced the field. The journalist (?) runs to the interview with the other friend and says, “oh, the teacher said you only know how to play behind… and that you’re lucky”. Okay, the victorious little friend gets upset and gives a cross answer, saying that it was the other one who didn’t know how to attack properly. And here come replicas, rejoinders and more sequels than “Friday the 13th”.

We had some “true crimes” in this year’s press conferences, such as the duels Abel Ferreira x Rogério Ceni and Abel Ferreira x Cuca. Abel is usually involved. It’s because? Because he is the leader of the Brasileiro, because he is the two-time champion of Libertadores, because success bothers — as Tom Jobim would say, success in Brazil is a personal offense.

The problem with Abel is that it’s over the top. His confrontation with Cuca should only concern Abel and Cuca. But the coaches – coincidentally Brazilians – decided to take sides.

First it was Mano Menezes, from Internacional, who said, without mentioning Abel, that the Portuguese wanted to teach and teach how to play.

Then came Jorginho, from Atlético-GO. The coach who was Dunga’s assistant in the 2010 Cup has already twice appealed to false patriotism and is dangerously flirting with xenophobia when referring to the mister. In the last one, he said that “we are not at the time when Portuguese are coming here and discovering football”.

Two months earlier, when he lost to Palmeiras, he complained about Abel’s behavior again using “the homeland”, when he said that Abel “comes to our country and is disrespecting our country, our referees”. Abel is not Mother Teresa, but Jorginho is not a teacher of etiquette.

Last year, Abel adopted a new motto at Palmeiras. He changed the “we are all one” to a “against all and against all” in which he can fit all the claims he makes (often with exaggeration) against arbitration.

This new union of coaches against Abel will probably only make the “against everything and against everyone” boil in the Palmeiras locker room. Soon someone else is making a T-shirt with the slogan. And maybe it’s the final fuel for the team’s sprint in the Brazilian against Flamengo, the only pursuer.

Round 38 – Update

Ceará and Coritiba were the last to fire coaches in the Serie A carnage. This columnist confesses that he has already lost count of how many coaches have lost their minds, but he believes that we will reach the goal of 20 necks before round 38. Among the survivors, we are facing an exciting draw after the dismissal of the Paraguayan Gustavo Morínigo: Foreigners 4 x 4 Brazilians (counting Dorival Júnior, who changed toys, but did not lose any round).