Opinion – Tostão: Football has surprising facts and can make leaps

The world, life and football change over time, little by little, progressively, without taking leaps, although sometimes something unusual and remarkable happens suddenly. Other times, we don’t notice the changes that occur slowly and we get scared.

Cruzeiro, under new management, begins a good path, with a great chance of succeeding.

Football has surprising facts. Fluminense, knocked down by the elimination in Libertadores and the defeat to Botafogo, got bigger and took down the powerful Flamengo, lost, with the players not knowing the place on the field.

Everyone looks for their way. Palmeiras, before the 4-0 victory over São Paulo, already showed signs that the team had evolved, with the exception of the 3-1 defeat in the first game of the Paulista final. The team can still improve. He needs to have a good striker option. I also think that the team, in the Brasileirão, with many games, may miss a good replacement for Danilo and Zé Rafael, at the level of Patrick de Paula, negotiated with Botafogo.

São Paulo didn’t know how to play a final or use the two-goal advantage. Rogério Ceni’s self-sufficiency, shared with the players, made the coach think that the team would not need to change its way of acting, even against strong pressure from the Palmeiras fans. São Paulo didn’t need to play in defense, to counterattack, but it was essential to reinforce the marking from the left, Palmeiras’ strong point, with the trio formed by Dudu, Raphael Veiga and Roni, in addition to the support of Marcos Rocha. Bragantino, in the defeat to Palmeiras in the semifinal, made the same mistake.

After the match between Palmeiras and São Paulo, I watched another excellent game, the tape of Barcelona’s 1-0 victory over Sevilla. The Catalan team, thanks to the guidance of coach Xavi, the signing of some players and the evolution of several young , went on to play at a high level and went from ninth place to second in the Spanish Championship. 19-year-old Pedri, already a member of the Spain national team, has a great chance of being a star at the World Cup.

Xavi drank from the fountain of Guardiola, who was apprenticed to Cruyff, who learned from Rinus Michels, coach of the Netherlands national team in the 1974 World Cup.

Football has evolved a lot in the last decade, with many ways to win and play well. On Sunday, we will have the confrontation for the leadership of the English Championship, between Manchester City and Liverpool, representatives of the two most celebrated and victorious styles, that of City, of possession of the ball, of exchange of passes and of triangulations until the goal, and of the Liverpool, more vibrant, rock’n’roll, quick transitions, long passes and game turns from one side to the other. The two have something in common, the reduction of spaces between sectors and the pressure to recover the ball across the field, two pillars of modern football, which has not yet become frequent in Brazilian teams.

Where is football heading? There are several directions. The future is uncertain. One way is to unite, in the same team, different styles of play, according to the opponent and the moment of the match. Abel Ferreira and other coaches follow this challenge.

Knowledge should be passed on to everyone, although there are more and more people who do not want to learn. They prefer repetition, polarization and the narrow vision of only seeing and hearing what is in line with their convictions.