‘The final is not played, the final is won’, says Felipe Melo about Palmeiras x Flamengo

Felipe Melo cannot answer whether the current Palmeiras is better or worse than the 2020 Libertadores winner. It will only be possible to know next Saturday (27), when the team will decide the continental competition again. Face Flamengo, at 5 pm, in Montevideo.

“This is an after-game answer. Final is not played. Final is won,” he tells sheet, by phone.

The steering wheel has an aggressive way of talking, even when he’s not agitated. Perhaps because of the habit of defending and not backing down, whether on or off the field.

“The more people speak ill of me, the more I feel at ease. The other day I saw [gente] talking badly about Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo… Imagine Felipe Melo! But if they are throwing stones, it is because the tree is fruitful. The media’s silence is a compliment to me,” he sums up.

It’s hard to remain silent or on the fence when it comes to Felipe Melo. For at least 11 years, since being sent off in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals against the Netherlands, he has divided the country’s supporters. There are those who see him as intemperate, given to outbursts of violence on the lawn. But there are many who see him as one of the best midfielders in the country, even at 38 years old.

The palmeira native is still condemned for the stomp on Arjen Robben’s thigh. A bid that may have marked him more for what people think about Felipe Melo off the field than for the football itself.

Fernandinho, a player in the same position as him, is singled out for having failed two Brazilian World Cup eliminations (in 2014 and 2018), but is less remembered.

Not that the area head cares. He says that in the past he was very irritated when reading news about himself. Today he swears to shrug his shoulders. He writes posts on Twitter but guarantees not to follow reactions despite having 1.8 million followers. On Instagram, with 3.3 million, it has more interaction. But not much.

“I’m not on a leash for that. Twitter is no man’s land. Anyone there will be vilified, cursed. It’s a safety valve. [para as pessoas]. I have 3.3 million [de seguidores] on Instagram and I must have another 3 million blocked. On Twitter, I don’t even see comments”, he adds.

Melo knows that he has become a controversial character also because of his political opinions. This is a rare subject on which he becomes reticent. He has no problem acknowledging that he is a supporter of (non-party) President Jair Bolsonaro. But you don’t think you should comment on that right now. When he explains the reasons, he does not mention the Libertadores final so close. Complains about an environment of hatred against opposing opinions.

A dispute that, for him, kills more than Covid-19.

“People have limited themselves politically instead of helping themselves. These days there’s a huge political war that I think has been killing more than the pandemic. Every life is very important.”

Until 8:00 pm last Sunday (21), Brazil had 22,017,276 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 612,659 deaths.

Melo doesn’t want to speak his mind about the government, he says, because of this belligerent climate. But while he makes it clear that he intends to vote for Bolsonaro once again in 2022 –he claims there is no better option than him–, he asks that different opinions be respected.

“I’m on the right. I have no problem who voted for Bolsonaro or for [ex-presidente] Dilma [Rousseff]. It has to be respected. God, who is the creator, gave me free will. I am not going to answer [o que pensa sobre o governo]. If I have to vote for Bolsonaro, I will vote normally, but that brought us a very sad political war.”

“For me, Bolsonaro is the best he’s got. Did he do something good? Did he. Did he shit? Did he. I wouldn’t vote for another guy, but if I win another guy, will I hope to go to soccer? No. I’m Brazilian. I dropped everything in Milan, I earned in euros, to come to my country. I’m a patriot and I support whoever goes,” he says.

It’s as if what matters most to him is the end result (the best for the country, in this case), rather than the means to achieve it. It is also how he projects the Libertadores decision. The important thing is to win. If the media and other fans believe that Palmeiras are too defensive and have unattractive football, they are unlucky.

“Psychologically, we are more prepared [do que na temporada passada]. I played a lot of classics around the world. There was a derby that I played and the morale score was 8-0 for the opponent. You have 80% possession of the ball, give 50 shots on goal and lose 1-0. You will say that the team [vencedor] was it worse? No, it was more efficient. We learned to play in this competition,” he says.

The proof of that, for the defensive midfielder, is in the semifinal against Atlético-MG. Palmeiras was criticized for playing closed at home and drawing 0-0. At Mineirão, the 1-1 tie gave the São Paulo team a spot in the decision because of the goal scored away from home.

“What did people want? For us to start the game over Atlético-MG, take a counterattack and lose the game? We played close. counter-attack, it’s over. We’re not going to bring what comes from outside, because we are the ugly duckling. With the ugly duckling, we don’t have anything. We are the current champions”, he points out.

From the tone of his voice, he suggests that the question of the sheet whether Palmeiras and Flamengo represent today the biggest rivalry in the country because of their recent history. Felipe Melo assures that, for the Alviverde team, nothing compares to facing Corinthians, a match in which there is even a component of hatred. It’s as if the press doesn’t understand what goes on behind the scenes of a football team.

He credits the club’s poor campaign at the last Club World Cup, in Qatar, to the tiredness accumulated throughout the season, added to the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Palmeiras lost the semifinal to Tigres (MEX).

“They [os mexicanos] were there a week earlier. They were more adapted. On the second night, I couldn’t sleep until 5 o’clock in the morning. And taking medicine!”, he says about the tournament in which the team failed to win the title it lacks and ended up in fourth place.

There was a time when Felipe Melo would insist on making problems like this one public, complain, discuss. Not today. He constantly mentions religiosity, speaks of Jesus Christ. Once a week, for 2:40 am, he turns off his cell phone to read the Bible or listen to psalms. Every day he reads passages from the book, even if he has to wake up at 6 am.

It made him accept things as they are or understand what cannot be changed.

“The most important thing for the athlete is to get home, to be able to kiss [na esposa e filhos] and knowing you did your best. That’s it, the inner peace that I went there and did my best. They already said I have a hard foot and now [dizem que] I am the best pass in Brazil. I do the ‘sliced ​​pass’ ten times per game. if it’s another [que faz isso], is the best in the world. To tell you the truth, everyone says what they want. They’ve said so much nonsense…”

It’s not nonsense that your team needs to maintain the level of victories established last season, when they beat the Libertadores, and win again next Saturday.

“Palmeiras increased the batten.”