The iconic Olympic gold medal dangled around Brazil’s neck, the cervejas (beers) had been downed and a tangible future rose amid the euphoric hullabaloo, but on Monday morning after winning the Olympic final against Germany, Brazil’s new coach Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, better known as Tite, was faced with the hard reality of the Seleção: their two upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador away on Thursday (Friday morning in India) and Colombia on September 6.
Tite called up his squad, flanked by Edu Gaspar, the director of the Brazilian national team and a former Arsenal player. It was a balancing act for him: the European season is beginning and key players do not have the required fitness yet. Then, there was the all-encompassing delirium of winning the Olympic gold and the temptation of including too many of the Olympic players.
Tite had drawn up the list before the Olympic semi-final against Honduras, as required by FIFA regulations. The inclusion of seven players from coach Rogerio Micale’s Rio 2016 squad – since reduced to six by an injury to centre-back Rodrigo Caio – was not a direct consequence of the final against Germany.
After all, Barcelona’s Neymar, Renato Augusto from Beijing Guoan and Marquinhos from Paris Saint-Germain were always going to be there. Goalkeeper Weverton, and strikers Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Barbosa, who went to the United States with the Copa America Centenario squad, were elevated from “junior” to senior status.
The real test starts now
The two Gabriels were instrumental in the Brazilian renaissance during the Olympics. Brazil had started slowly, with embarrassing – both in aptitude and attitude – draws against South Africa and Iraq, but as Micale switched his formation from 4-3-3 to 4-2-4 against Denmark in the last pool game, they began to flourish.
The renewed use of 4-2-4 was a whirling motion, daring and revolutionary, because, at last, Brazil, the inventor of the beautiful game, tried to play football in a modern, expansive manner. Way back in 1958, at the World Cup in Sweden, the Brazilians, with the teenage Pele and the irresistible Garrincha, had motored their way to victory courtesy a 4-2-4 formation.
In the autumn of 2012, Brazil coach Mano Menezes, a benign personality with blessed football intelligence, fielded a 4-2-4 formation in friendly matches against Japan and Iraq. Ramires and Paulinho played in front of the defence. Oscar and Kaka charged forward as Brazil scored ten goals in two games.
But playing 4-2-4 against Germany, arguably fielding a D-team, is not a benchmark. In the high altitudes of Quito against Ecuador, Brazil will encounter a real test with the hosts trying to stretch the game. Ecuadorian midfielder Christian Noboa operates from the centre of midfield to release the trickery of the exciting Jefferson Montero. Luis Antonio Valencia, though, will be suspended.
Tite will envisage neither an expansive formation, nor a broad playing style. Brazil lie in sixth place in World Cup qualifying, outside the qualification slots. There is little time to train. The players have flown directly to the Ecuadorian capital, bypassing the customary stopover in Rio. The approach will allow for more adaptation to the rarefied air in Quito.
Can Tite take Brazil towards a new dawn?
Tite’s first few matches are all about the results, not form. The 55-year-old, who won the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League, and the Club World Cup as coach of Brazilian club Corinthians in 2012, advocates eye-pleasing football, but at the moment the circumstances scarcely permit him any leeway to implement his vision.
Can Tite take Brazil in a new direction or will the Olympic laurel and his appointment become another illusion, thwarting the search for a way forward after the 7-1 purgatory at Germany's hands in the 2014 World Cup semi-final and the ensuing irrational Dunga 2.0 years?
That was my question at Tite’s press conference after the announcement of his squad. The Olympic tournament was after all a glorified Under-23 competition with little importance in the global game – symbolic for Brazil because they had never won it, symbolic because the final was against Germany.
A popular expression in Brazil goes that “7-1 foi pouco [7-1 was not enough]”. There was no project of renovation in Brazilian football after the defeat. Other big European powerhouses like Germany, France, Spain and even Belgium saw a process of innovation following soul-crushing losses. What was Tite’s long term vision for the Seleção?
“I don’t believe in singling out clichés, talking about ‘7-1 foi pouco’, and winning [the Confederations Cup] in 2013,” replied Tite. “If there is no discernment in the process, you can’t look at the result and then the process afterwards. You look at the process first and then the result. I have no problem in saying that the 7-1 was the fault of all of us involved in football, but I don’t have a mongrel complex either. It’s the past, like the Olympic gold medal…my legacy, in professional terms and the thirteen trophies that I have won, is looking at the process. That counts. I confess that I was at the Maracana [for the Olympic final], looked at the fans and thought: ‘Gosh darn…’ Our work needs improvement.”
If the Olympic Games were cathartic for Brazil, they do not blur the precarious state of the Seleção. For now, Tite will have to slay any meta-aspirations. Results against both Ecuador and Colombia are all that matter.
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