Opinion – PVC: Flamengo champion is a failure of individual marking

Marking man to man and even zone by slot, as is done in Brazil, is increasingly out of use in world football. Instead, the style is zoned. To score, the reference is the ball and the defense swings according to the place and the movement produced by the opposing team, so that the ball goes from one side of the field to the other.

Felipão is an eternal disciple of individual pursuits. He made his tactics work until the 43rd minute of the first half, when defender Pedro Henrique was sent off for a foul on Ayrton Lucas. Precisely in a cover work carried out on the side, substitute Filipe Luís, pursued by the side Khelven, who had moved to mark the central lane.

Undocking a tag that tries to stay docked at all times is easy. Gentil Cardoso already said that whoever moves receives, whoever asks has preference, and this makes each opponent run after without finding his marker.

Flamengo is not the most modern team in the world. Domestic football in South America is still unable to have teams as collectively balanced as seen in Europe.

Therefore, Dorival Júnior’s team depends too much on their individual talent, lacking a little collective work. It is also the deficit of Brazilian football, which believes more in genius than in work, more in sudden genius than in long-term work.

Even so, it is almost impossible to score Gabriel, Pedro, De Arrascaeta and Éverton Ribeiro, the greatest amount of talent gathered in South America.

The 11 titleholders champions of Libertadores met at the start of the game for the 13th time. There are now nine wins, three draws and one defeat. There were four games in a row without winning, defeat to Fluminense, draws with Internacional and, twice, with Corinthians.

None of these matches with the tension of the Libertadores final. And not even Athletico had faced such a brilliant team before.

Amazing how these historic formations rarely play. The 1981 team, made up of Raul, Leandro, Marinho, Mozer and Júnior; Andrade, Adílio and Zico; Tita, Nunes and Lico, played just four games with the 11 gathered, three wins and one defeat. The team of Jorge Jesus, Diego Alves, Rafinha, Rodrigo Caio, Pablo Marí and Filipe Luís; Willian Arão, Gérson, Éverton Ribeiro and De Arrascaeta; Bruno Henrique and Gabigol, played eight games, with a draw and a setback.

The current, new Libertadores champion, met 13 times, with nine victories. It will forever enter the books, to remind us of its success, not for the collective game, but for the meeting of geniuses.

Maybe it’s easier to stop this Flamengo with zone marking, like Real Madrid, in a probable meeting in the Club World Cup. The old style of individual pursuits, pursued by Felipão, did not serve as an antidote to the incredible individual talent of the Libertadores champions, Flamengo.

Curious that the coach of the five-time world championship has not used this same system, not even scaling three defenders. Felipão was no longer modern at that time. The difficulty he found was to find another strategy to mark a team with so many stars like this Flamengo, tri from Libertadores.

IN THE END

It is a mistake for the CBF to allow the change of Palmeiras x Fortaleza to 21:30 without changing the time of América x Inter. Because of this change, Abel Ferreira’s team can enter the field already champion. On the field, it won’t be easy to beat Fortaleza, in the likely title game.

DECISION

The smile on Rogério Ceni’s face, joking with himself about having selected Luan to decide the bad performance against Atlético-GO, is a good sign for a coach who needs to take the job with joy. On Tuesday (1st), São Paulo has to play better and beat Atlético-MG.