This may be an audacious claim but after last Thursday’s World Cup opener, it is probably unlikely that Brazil will win the World Cup.
Some may consider it unfair to judge Brazil after only one game, but this team just does not look suited to the occasion. The overall performance of the team was quite poor, and they relied heavily on the terrible officiating that marred what was a surprisingly even contest against Croatia.
It took two very good goals, one each from Neymar and Oscar, a dodgy penalty decision, a questionable Croatian goal ruled out and a yellow card that should have been a red for Neymar to overcome a supposedly inferior opposition. If you were to place a virgin to the beautiful game, one without any knowledge, in front of a television, they would be shocked to hear that Brazil were one of the best sides in the world.
However, do not mistake this article as a complete slating of the Brazilian squad. There were some very good moments that Brazil can take from their game against Croatia and use that going forward. Neymar who should not have been on the pitch) was pretty electrifying with the odd slip now and again after his first goal. Oscar deserved his goal too, as he put on a fine performance in the centre of midfield.
But it is clear that there are significant holes in Brazil’s team, where some players should not be in the starting XI, either due to a poor season or a lack of game time.
The central midfielder Paulinho is one such player that was seemingly overrun by the creativity of Modric and Rakitic. While Wolfsburg’s Luiz Gustavo was worthy of praise, Paulinho managed to drag his underwhelming club form from Tottenham on to the international scene, as his passing looked inaccurate and he was slow to helping out the defence.
The entire back four should be held accountable for a dismal performance too. It’s clear why David Luiz was dropped from Chelsea as he looked incredibly shaky at the back, leaving gaps for the likes of Ivica Olic to take advantage of. As I said in my previous article, Scolari really should have selected Dante to partner Thiago Silva.
The full backs of Marcelo and Dani Alves were not exactly brilliant either. Marcelo’s goal aside, it is clear that defending is not their strong point as they allowed the Croatians to get a few crosses too many coming into the box for Julio Cesar’s liking. A better team would have scored more than two (Croatia was robbed of a goal).
The goalkeeper, Julio Cesar, was as uncomfortable as the defence too, allowing a goal that was wrongly disallowed into the back of the net. It is pretty clear that playing for Toronto FC has not benefitted him one bit.
In summation, Brazil do not look good enough to win the World Cup. Undoubtedly, they will look pretty good in the next two matches against Mexico and Cameroon—two considerably weaker opposition. And without question, Brazil will definitely top the group. But when they reach the Last 16, then that is where problems could arise.
At the moment, it appears that we could be seeing the hosts face off against the world champions, Spain, in the next round (providing there are no more shock results in either Group A or B). It would be silly to rule out the Spain after yesterday’s freakish 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands, and facing them could prove very problematic.
Yet, this could be a tournament for the conspiracy theorists. After the employment of dirty tactics and some horrific officiating, nobody could be blamed for drawing parallels between Thursday’s game and a dodgy game between South Korea and Italy in 2002.
However, unless you are a conspiracy theorist Brazil might not win the World Cup this time round.
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