Opinion – Tostão: There are many strategic options; the best is the best performed

On the eve of the 2002 World Cup final, German journalists in the press room told me that it was Germany’s worst team in years. This does not diminish the brilliant Brazilian achievement, but it serves to remind us that, at the time, the collective game was stagnant, boring, pragmatic and predictable.

After the World Cup, football started to change for the better, progressively. Barcelona, ​​led by Guardiola, lit up the spectacle, which spread across Europe, creating many variations in the way they played and behaved.

Some small players, midfielders, such as Xavi, Iniesta and others, were once again popular. Brazil did not follow this evolution and, only recently, after the 7 to 1 and the arrival of several coaches, foreigners and Brazilians, it started, little by little, to play a more modern and efficient football.

The game, especially in Europe, is much more intense, with less spaces between sectors, with more pressure to recover the ball, with a variation of the forward and backward marking, with more exchange of passes and triangulations and so many other details.

Individually, there was also an evolution of the technical part. Goalkeepers learned to play outside the area and, together with defenders, developed a better pass. There are more players capable of playing from one intermediary to the other. The crosses from the wings are stronger and more difficult for the defence. Goalkeepers are taller and faster, one of the reasons for the decrease in the number of free kicks.

Coaches who like to play with three defenders increasingly use skilful wingers, dribblers and speedies on the sides instead of full-backs with wing functions. The teams press, leave four players on the field (three defenders and a defensive midfielder) and attack with six. Bayern almost always act that way. Other European clubs do the same.

Palmeiras have also used attacking midfielders, such as Scarpa, as wingers. Flamengo puts midfielder Everton Ribeiro or even a forward, like Vitinho, as a left winger. Portuguese coaches who work in Brazil are more attentive to what is happening in the world.

There are many strategic options. The best is the best executed, at the right time and according to the opponent. Among the many football stories, true or invented, a delicious one is that of Garrincha, after Vicente Feola’s lecture, before the game against Russia, in the 1958 World Cup, when Mané asked the coach: “Have you agreed with the Russians? “.

The Creator and the Creature

Galo Doido, a symbol character of Atlético’s fans, was suspended for one game because he pressured the Cruzeiro player who was celebrating the goal. The creator, the person inside the Crazy Rooster outfit, is the one who should be punished.

This reminds me that, in life, many people use the character to protect themselves from illegal, absurd, immoral attitudes, such as the deputy who offended Ukrainians and all women in the world. He justified himself by saying that it was a private audio, a conversation with friends, as if the character was responsible, not him.

In the world, it is common for people to create characters to live, to live in society, which is understandable, as long as they don’t make big mistakes. “They knew me right away for who I wasn’t and I didn’t deny it, and I lost myself. When I wanted to take off the mask, it was stuck to my face. When I took it off and saw myself in the mirror, I had already aged (Fernando Pessoa).”