Opinion – Tostão: Brazil needs to debunk some myths that arose in past World Cups

The World Cup in Qatar begins this Sunday (20), with many protests against the rigid and reactionary laws, against behavior, against the restriction of freedom and against violations of human rights. Congratulations to the Dutch players, who will raffle the game shirts for the immigrants and workers who built the very rich stadiums.

At home, I will watch all the matches. Despite the heat, even in winter, we should have a Cup with a lot of intensity, emotions, with many stars, with a lot of pressing to recover the ball and varied strategies. Players move around so much that there is no longer any reason to obsess over tactical designs, whether it is a line of three or four in defense, whether there are three or four forwards and so many other details.

The tactical design changes every minute. It is important, both as a reference and when the players are positioned in their seats, before the game starts. It also serves for televisions to show, before the matches, the drawing on the drawing board, although, frequently, they are different from what is seen on the field.

Football is best played where there are better financial conditions. With this, they improve the physical structure of training, the training of professionals and scientific knowledge. This is the case with all activities. Hence the worldwide trend, as in Brazil, of few teams dominating the championships. Between selections, it’s different. There is more balance between many teams.

In this week’s news, the highlight of the selection was the presence of nine forwards, the highest number among all countries, as if they all entered the field at the same time and as if this were a direct demonstration of playing very offensive football. Tite is a balanced coach and knows the importance of defending and attacking well. In these four years of preparation for the selection, the biggest highlight was the defensive system, which conceded very few goals.

If Tite goes up against Serbia, as they say, Paquetá in Fred’s place, with two more strikers on the sides with Neymar and Richarlison in the center, it doesn’t mean that he will be much more offensive than usual. When the team doesn’t score due to pressure, Paquetá will be a second midfielder, alongside Casemiro, and the two wingers will step back to score, forming a line of four with the two midfielders. This happens frequently all over the world. In France, Mbappé, on the left, attacks and defends. In the 1970 World Cup, Jairzinho did it on the right.

The rout and vibrant performance of Argentina, days ago, in the friendly against the United Arab Emirates, reaffirms the fact that Argentina and Brazil act, in these matches, as if it were a World Cup. This can create the illusion that both are doing very well and Europeans are doing very poorly.

Brazil needs to debunk some myths that emerged in the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups, that it is the country of football, as if it were the only one, that only here great stars appear on every corner, so many dribblers, and that Europeans are just disciplined and hard-hitting.

It’s not like that and it never was. After the 1970 World Cup, filmmaker and writer Pasolini wrote that Brazilian poetry had won over Italian prose. Brazil was poetry and prose, as it had a lot of individual talent and tactical discipline.

Narratives are often more interesting than reality. Writing and speaking is easier than doing, even more so when done in silence, without gestures or media discourse.