Opinião – The World Is a Ball: Brazil lacked knowing how to win against Croatia

Brazil needed all the normal time of the game and the entire first period of extra time to score a goal against the very tough Croatia.

That makes, not counting the additions, which have been plentiful in the Qatar Cup, one hour and 45 minutes.

The team hammered, hammered, hammered, until Neymar, after a match with Lucas Paquetá, dribbled past goalkeeper Livakovic and pierced the Croatian wall: Brazil 1 to 0. Relief.

I thought, and you, if you watched the game, possibly also thought: “It’s under control, just manage, touch the ball, make time pass. The Croats are tired, they’ve already played overtime, they won’t have the strength to react.”

Brazil had the game in its hands (or feet), it just needed to know how to win. Didn’t know.

If Tite’s selection took the eternity I mentioned (at least 105 minutes) to leak Livakovic, it took just over ten minutes to allow the draw.

One should in no way take credit for Croatia, which, despite being tired (they had played another extra time, against Japan, four days before) and even without a clear hope –because Brazil was during the game, and remained so in extra time, the controller of the actions –, never stopped believing.

But the Brazilians must be held responsible, in a very high dose, for giving the Croatians the possibility of reaching the equalizing goal – as they did, to later win on penalties, as they had already beaten the Japanese in the round of 16.

Defender and captain Thiago Silva stated the obvious after Brazil’s elimination:

“We could be a little better concentrated because we are not used to taking this type of counterattack. We are always very well organized, I think we got a little disorganized in the second ball that we lost and we gave the counter-attack, which was all they wanted at that moment”.

The move that Thiago Silva is referring to occurred almost 11 minutes into the second half of extra time. There were four to five minutes left for the English referee Michael Oliver to blow the whistle for the end of the match at the Cidade da Educação stadium and for Brazil to keep the dream of the sixth.

Brazil was in the attacking field. So far so good, better the ball away from Alisson’s goal than close. But who participated in the offensive play along with Pedro was not Neymar, or Antony, or Rodrigo, attackers like the Flamengo player.

Who participated was midfielder Fred, who Tite had put in extra time to strengthen the midfield marking, to prevent Croatia from creating any chances, to be Casemiro’s combat partner.

In the bid, after a challenge with Gvardiol (the Croatian who plays with a protective mask on his face), he advanced to almost the opponent’s bottom line.

What happened next contributed to Croatia’s equalizer less than a minute later.

Lovren arrived before Fred and took a shot, Perisic deflected it with his head, still in the Croatian defense, and Danilo did not head the ball to the side, so that the selection could recover – perhaps there was no way to do it, because the round came to him very quickly.

Danilo headed into the middle, and the ball reached Modric, the Croatia star and articulator of his moves. Casemiro was close and apparently could prevent the number 10 from starting the counterattack.

In fact, before the quarterfinal game, in an interview with Fifa, Vinicius Junior –who had left the game earlier at the coach’s option, giving way to Rodrygo– said that he trusted Casemiro to neutralize the Croatian number 10.

Only at that moment Casemiro failed. He didn’t disarm Modric, he wasn’t fouled (perhaps for fear of being expelled, as he already had a yellow card), and the counterattack was started.

The rest is history. The Brazilian defense was disorganized, Fred and Casemiro returning, knowing they would not arrive. Vlasic (substitute who entered) advanced and touched on the left to Orsic (reserve who entered), who crossed for Petkovic (replacement who entered), free, to kick.

Caught by surprise, Brazil still had the misfortune of the kick deflecting off Marquinhos and taking away Alisson’s chance to save.

In the game that lasted more than two hours, this was the only time that Croatia, in nine attempts, hit the Brazilian goal – the other eight were either blocked or out.

“We get upset because of the way it went. It was in our hand, it escaped there”, stated Casemiro, who had a good Cup.

He escaped right there. In a single move, which a team that knows how to win would have prevented it from happening.