Opinion – Tostão: Imagine if Brazil had a striker like Reinaldo or an independent president

Flamengo and São Paulo should have a great game this Sunday (17). These are two teams that, collectively, are evolving. São Paulo’s squad is good, with two teams almost on the same level. One or two special players are missing, as Flamengo and other great Brazilian teams have.

In Flamengo, finally, Paulo Sousa put Everton Ribeiro on the right side. Bruno Henrique is still distant from Gabigol. Bruno Henrique cannot be a winger and, at the same time, be a finishing striker, as he is. He’s confused.

São Paulo, I repeat, is an aggressive, offensive team, but divided between the team that attacks, with five players, and the team that defends, also with five. Midfield is empty. It’s confused. Individual and collective talent is to make simple what is complex.

Football often does not follow the logic of uniting programming, performance and strategy with results. Real Madrid, in the two matches against PSG and in the two against Chelsea, for the Champions League, were, for the most part, largely dominated, they were close to being eliminated, but they qualified against the two strong opponents, thanks to the shirt (the collective unconscious of the club is of victories) and the individual talent of several players, especially Benzema, Courtois and Modric.

When the striker Fred was playing for Lyon, the boy Benzema appeared. Fred was very good, but Benzema was far superior. It took a long time to become a candidate for the best player in the world. In this long period, with talent and solidarity, he was the ideal supporting player for Cristiano Ronaldo.

France are favorites at the World Cup as they currently have the two best players in the world, Benzema and Mbappé, side by side. If Benzema and Vinicius Junior combine so much, because one is very fast and dribbler and the other, very cerebral and technical, with Mbappé Benzema combines even more, since Mbappé, with the same characteristics, has much more talent than Vinicius Junior.

Modric reminds me of Didi, for the corner pass, with the outside of the foot. Unlike the Brazilian, who contoured his body to execute the pass with more elegance, Modric, without looking at the ball, erect, with the muscles of the abdomen contracted, gives passes as efficient as those of the Ethiopian Prince, nickname given by Nelson Rodrigues to Didi .

Real Madrid, in the semi-final, will face Manchester City, which, to everyone’s surprise, drew a game 0-0, without having control of the ball, in addition to being pressured throughout the second half. They should put a sign in the stadium: “Here, City, led by the daring and dreamy Guardiola, were cornered by Atlético de Madrid, commanded by the pragmatic and defensive Simeone”.

The other semifinal will be to remember the Beatles, between Liverpool, for the city and the rock’n’roll style, and the Yellow Submarine, as the good team of Villarreal is called, which, surprisingly, eliminated Bayern. There are so many surprises in football that surprises can become normal.

Imagine if Brazilian football had a better calendar and if people were more concerned with the beauty of the spectacle. Imagine if the world were more generous, if the Brazilian team had a striker like Benzema, Ronaldo, Romário or Reinaldo, if Dirceu Lopes returned to his youth and helped Cruzeiro return to Serie A, if Brazil had a president , independent, dreamy, transparent and with great and new ideas.