Since last winning the World Cup in 2002 Brazil have fallen short time and time again, but will this time prove to be different? It seems made for them…
They’re the World Cup’s biggest draw but it’s been a lean two decades for the Brazil national team. Since winning the tournament in Japan 20 years ago, not only have they failed to add to their tally of five wins, but they also failed on a monumental scale when hosting it themselves in 2014, with their catastrophic 7-1 defeat to Germany their only semi-final appearance of this lean spell.
Indeed, they have failed to beat any European team at all in the knockout stages of this competition since winning the 2002 final.
But this time around, the mood around the Brazil team camp certainly does seem to be different. The days of Neymardependência, what the Brazilian media came to describe the team’s over-reliance on the output of this one player in recent years, seem to be over, or at least diminishing. If anything, Brazil might now have an over-abundance of talented attacking players.
Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Vinicius Junior, Antony, Richarlison, Raphinha, Rodrygo, Gabriel Martinelli and Pedro is a range of attacking options unparalleled for depth elsewhere in the tournament and the defence isn’t too shabby either, with Alisson and Ederson as goalkeepers behind a defence that has only conceded three goals in eight games over the course of 2022. Elsewhere, defensive midfield anchor Casemiro has been one of the Premier League’s stand-out players this season.
But the atmosphere surrounding the Seleção hasn’t always been completely rosy this year. The politicisation of the famous yellow shirt by far-right (soon to be former) president Joao Bolsonaro during his election campaign has inevitably led to a disconnect with some Brazilians. But I should probably hush. FIFA said not to talk about the politics.
A sense of dislocation would certainly be understandable. The biggest single reason why Brazil barely even play in Brazil anymore is that the CBF long ago gave up the right to organise their own matches. These are arranged by a British company called Pitch International, and Pitch are pretty explicit on how they view the Brazil national team.
According to their own website, ‘Pitch has the rights to manage and monetise the Brazil Men’s National Football team’s friendlies, delivering all aspects of the world-renowned Brasil Global Tour’, which makes them sound like little more than…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…