WILL THE REAL BRAZIL PLEASE STAND UP!

Story by Patrick Kamanga (pgkamanga73@gmail.com)

WILL THE REAL BRAZIL PLEASE STAND UP!!

 

There is an adage that says “chance favours the prepared one”. Well at the biggest stage in the World, and in front of billions of fans Brazil relied more on two lucky breaks against a resilient Croatia than their famed Samba football; Japanese referee Yuichi Nichimura and poor goalkeeping by Croatian shot stopper, Stipe Pletikosa.

After the glamour of the opening ceremony, the tournament’s curtain raiser was largely an anti-climax.

With this largely disappointing opening match in mind, I’m tempted to take back the favourite tag from Brazil because clearly if they keep up with the trend they've set in their last two matches, the world cup opener and their last friendly against Serbia, then an upset of titanic proportions is ominously coming Brazil’s way!

Brazil played their typical game as has been in the last two decades, where their full backs Marcello and Danny Alvez overlapped forward at every opportunity to support their forwards as expected, it’s the midfield that failed this team, creating a dynamo effect that had far reaching consequences on their defense. 

Against a stronger more ruthless opposition, Scolari would have been made to rue leaving out Ramirez from his starting line-up. Gifted with the pace of a sprinter and the stamina of a marathon runner what Ramirez, popularly known as the “the Blue Kenyan”, would have offered is the ability to zealously track back after forays upfront and cover an extremely cavalier Danny Alvez. Another conspicuous omission was that of Willian who would have offered thrust on the left side but most importantly as cover for left back Marcelo.

Croatia’s first goal came from such a situation where Ivica Olic’s superb run down the left found acres of empty space, a void he exploited as Captain Thiago Silva got sucked into a vortex trying to cover Alvez. Olic’s wickedly placed low cross found Marcelo in “no man’s land” as he helplessly planted the ball into his own net after a slight touch from Jelavic to a stun the maximum crowd at Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthian on the eleventh minute.

Prior to this goal, Croatia had asked questions of Brazil which their opponents seemed not to have answers to. Gustavo was another notable flop from deep as the anchorman; Fernandinho would have offered better play on transition.

The imposing Hulk was largely a hulking shadow and who along with Fred and Paulinho looked completely lost and pedestrian throughout the game. Fred’s best and only contribution to his country’s course was to tumble down like a pile of bricks from the slightest touch by Croatia’s Dejan Lovren thereby winning a controversial 70^th minute penalty!

The shining light on this Brazilian side was Neymar, as expected who was ably supported by Oscar. The two looked lively throughout and kept the Croatian defense busy that had their defensive organisation to thank for keeping the score line decent. Neymar was quite fortunate not get a red card for a vicious elbow on Luca Modric in the first half, getting off with a yellow card instead.
Julio Cesar in goal was another exception for Brazil as he he saved their blushes severally.

 Even though there was an indication of sloppy goalkeeping from Pletikosa as he failed to stop seemingly tame lobs from both Neymar for his first and Oscar for Brazil’s third goal, the two were clearly a class above the rest of the field.

Another notable feature of this match was Croatia’s well organised midfield led by Modric and Rakitic. They kept their shape and dominated play for large swaths of the game denying Brazil the possession and space they required thus affecting their fluidity.

Pletikosa was even more unfortunate not to hold on to Neymar’s hard shot from the penalty spot after diving the right direction, as the ball grazed his finger tips before hitting the back of the net.
Scolari must get his act together and put out a side that is well balanced and can retain it's shape no matter the opposition.

Well another way to deem Brazil’s shambolic showing is by looking at their display from the point of view that the mark of any great side is when they are able to win against great adversity........Maybe the “Real Brazil” will finally stand up at subsequent games!