Opinion – Tostão: Football has had positive changes in the last decade

There have been many positive changes in the way of playing around the world in the last decade, such as the pressure across the field to retrieve the ball, the reduction of spaces between sectors, the increase in the intensity of the game, the exchange of passes for keep possession of the ball and so many other details.

In Brazil, this transformation is not so common. Santos, in the goal against Flamengo, touched the ball from the goalkeeper to inside the opposing area. Flamengo players looked from a distance, like in the 1960s.

On average, there was also a technical growth in the athletes’ individual repertoire. I have the impression, and I may be mistaken, that in the past players were more inventive, fanciful, surprising and daring, and that players in the present are more technical, rational and pragmatic.

An individual evolution is the increase in the frequency of players who cross the ball very well into the area, either in motion or in set pieces, although there are still a large number of athletes who play the ball in the area to count on their luck. The crossings of Scarpa, Palmeiras, Arana, Atlético, Reinaldo, São Paulo, and others are a torment for goalkeepers and defenses. The balls come out fast and curve between the defender and the goalkeeper.

Another improvement in football today is goalkeepers. In the 2014 World Cup, Neuer, from Germany, gave a lesson on how to quickly step out of goal to cover the forward defenders. Today, more and more, there are goalkeepers who have a good pass, like Ederson, Manchester City and the Brazilian team, Ter Stegen, Barcelona and the German team, and so many others. City have already scored a few goals after Ederson’s shots over the defenders. In Brazil, Everson, from Atlético, and Weverton, from Palmeiras, made a lot of progress with their feet.

Midfielders, still little recognized in Brazil, who act from one intermediary to the other, and many players who act on the sides are capable of crossing the field in one move, disarming, building and attacking. In the past, this distance was divided between wingers and wings and between defensive midfielders and offensive midfielders.

Vinicius Junior, at Real Madrid, plays every day better, on the left, from defense to attack. In the national team’s game against Chile, Tite was criticized, without reason, because he would have chosen Vinicius just to score. That is not what happened. Chile suffocated Brazil and did not allow counterattacks.

In addition to Vinicius Junior, with increasing chances of shining in the national team, Brazil, in the last games, has won two more important players, midfielder Fabinho, from Liverpool, and defender Militão, from Real Madrid. The two are worthy reserves of the exceptional Casemiro and the two defenders, Thiago Silva and Marquinhos.

I repeat, the team still lacks a star midfielder, alongside Casemiro. Fred is good, scores and does well, but does nothing more than usual. Was I too demanding? Those who saw Didi, Gerson, Rivellino, Falcão, Cerezo, Dirceu Lopes, Ademir da Guia and others up close, got used to it.

Peladeiros

This Saturday, in Rio de Janeiro, at the Naval Sports Department (Clube Piraquê), the beautiful book “5 years in 50 – Chronicles of Dentro do Campo” will be released, written by the peladeiro Luiz Rafael Palmier (Rafa), about the former soccer team. Gerontius, the largest and longest-lived in the world. I had immense pleasure reading the book and writing the preface. I was also a soccer player.