Here we go again: international football has been pronounced dead again, with Germany versus England an apposite example of 90 minutes of pedestrian football, briefly perturbed by a magical moment from Lukas Podolski. Yet, among the purists, those of traditional and international convictions, excitement is already bubbling, because there are just 444 days left until the kick-off of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Indeed, nothing matches the build-up to the World Cup, the sacred, quadrennial high mass of the global game. It’s a slow-cook, a grandmother’s roast, but one that, golloped at the right time, allows for a profound physical joy. India of course won’t be participating, but their tale of ever-indignant stagnation and the incredulous, jingoistic hysteria over an away win against Cambodia doesn’t belong here.
Why then all this chatter about the World Cup? Well, the boys from Brazil have qualified – not mathematically, but in the past 28 points have always been enough for a place among the last 32. On Thursday, they attained 30 points in South America’s qualifying marathon after a 4-1 victory against Uruguay. All this may in itself not be momentous, but it is still a thrilling piece of information. The Brazilians tend to thrill, with their aura of a ruthlessly artistic entity, forever straddling idealism and realism.
7-1 and the aftermath
Yet, it seems but a fortnight ago when, on sweltering hot afternoon in Belo Horizonte, Germany contrived to create a morbid purgatory for Brazil. The result was biblical: 7-1 – the Mineirazo thumping the Maracanazo. Brazil were no longer masters of the beautiful game, but a measly cast of 11 overhyped Samba dancers. They had been thrillingly poor.
The sequel was as irrational: Carlos Dunga returned as the head coach of the Brazilian team. The whisky-sodden autocrats at the Brazilian FA, the CBF, wanted their little la la land, where a culture of greed and self-enrichment flourishes, intact. The profound sense of existential crisis, so tangible in all layers of the Brazilian game, hadn’t filtered through to the higher echelons of the CBF. They appointed a bedel in a parochial move of self-preservation and conservatism.
Dunga’s reappointment was proof of a football culture in denial and the new coach refused to acknowledge Brazil’s footballing fallibilities, those of an outdated ideology based on a non-existent passing game. Dunga opted for runners and battlers. His buzzwords were grit and commitment. This Brazil in the Dunga 2.0 version were not pragmatic, but expedient, bordering on the boorish. Levity, zaniness and beauty were taboos. His anti-football endangered Brazil’s rich footballing heritage, rendering it a distant memory.
The reformatting under Tite
In came Tite. He didn’t fall for the convenient lie of Brazil’s Olympic victory – the inherent, and incremental, danger of the iconic gold medal promising, amid the euphoric hullabaloo, a new, tangible, problem-free future. Tite is a realist, who didn’t consider the Olympic tournament, a glorified Under-23 competition with little importance in the global game, as a watershed moment.
He modified Dunga’s XI, pushing the entire team higher up the field, introducing Real Madrid’s Casemiro in midfield and relying, in the final third, on the pace and daring of Gabriel Jesus, who enjoyed a meteoric rise at Manchester City before that metatarsal injury.
The reformatting was successful. Brazil played expansive football in a 4-1-4-1 formation, won all their matches and topped the qualifying table. Tite was Brazil’s King Midas. It almost all went a bit too smoothly. And so, on Thursday, at the colossal and hostile Centario stadium in Montevideo, Brazil finally faced a true test against their neighbours.
First true test
After four minutes, Brazil trailed due to a moment of madness from the volatile Marcelo, who, with a casual indifference, chested the ball into the path of Edison Cavani. The PSG striker forced a penalty. But the Seleção roared back into the game with the ubiquitous presence of Neymar, who motored Brazil’s attack, and the heroic Paulinho.
It was a dream scenario for Tite – not the margin, but the manner of the win. How would his team react if they conceded first? The true test of any side is going a goal behind and Brazil hadn’t trailed under Tite yet. Remember what happened in Port Elizabeth when Brazil fell behind to Arjen Robben’s goal in the 2010 World Cup? Dunga nearly smashed the dugout and his own emotional collapse precipitated his team’s elimination.
Not so in Montevideo. Brazil were in control, even after conceding. They were calm and composed, mature and majestic, easing their way to, in the end, a simple and straightforward victory. Tite and his thrilling Brazil demonstrated how potent they can be, and, in doing so, they officiously sealed a ticket to Russia.
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