Opinion – Tostão: Brazil should treat football with care, have fun responsibly

Brazil, 32 days from now, on November 24, at 4 pm, on Thursday, will debut in the World Cup, against the good selection of Serbia.

The World Cup is the biggest party in football and also a celebration of heroes and villains and the spectacularization of good and bad things, of exaggeration in achievements and failures, compatible with the current world, of vulgarities, fake news, partialities, hatred, violence, hypocrisy and absence of projects and actions.

Brazil is one of the candidates for the world title because it has great players and for the good and efficient work of Tite and the coaching staff. However, I have fears and concerns, some predictable and others that can arise suddenly, without warning. Life is a breath, as the lyrics of an Argentine tango say.

Tite must use several options in the lineup and in the strategy, according to the moment and the opponent. There are good alternatives, and you have to use them. Against weaker teams, who will play with nine to ten players at the back and close to the area, it will be necessary to have a striker, a good header and who knows how to play in small spaces, like Pedro or Richarlison, since there will be a large number of crosses. to area. Brazil is also very strong in offensive dead balls, with Thiago Silva and Marquinhos.

The selection runs the risk, against big teams, of having difficulties in the midfield, as it will be able to play with two wingers always open, with a striker, with Neymar, in the middle, but who does not participate in the marking, and with only two players to disarm. , Casemiro and Fred or Paquetá. Several European teams stand out for approaching players in the middle, to exchange passes and involve the opponent. One option would be to not have the striker, advance Neymar and form a trio in midfield, with Casemiro, Fred and Paquetá.

The current situation is quite different, but it reminds me of the clash with Germany, 7-1, when Brazil had only two players in midfield, and the German national team, with the approach of several brilliant midfielders, took over. about the game.

Vinicius Junior, for his role at Real Madrid and for his recognition of being elected the eighth best player in the world, cannot be a reserve. Tite should take advantage of him more on the counterattacks, as Ancelotti does at Real Madrid. The Spanish team, even against inferior opponents, usually retreats the marking, attracts the other team, to recover the ball and throw it quickly to Vinicius Junior. He, with space, with his speed and with his dribbling, is unstoppable.

Regardless of the lineup and strategy, it will be necessary to have the ball, treat it with care, have fun with it, responsibly. Fantasy transits through the imaginary space, between play and seriousness.

The spherical shape of the ball fascinates children. Before liking football, they like the ball. My first ball was a sock. The ball must have appeared before the wheel. According to the Big Bang theory, life began with a fireball. British chemist Harold Kroto won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for discovering a new molecular formula for carbon, fullerene, which was shaped like a ball.

Mario Prata, in his recent and delightful book “O Dribble da Vaca”, a mixture of fiction, history, reality and humor, showed how was the creation of the shape of the ball in the beginning of football, inspired by the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, the greatest human genius. The world is a ball.