MOSCOW: As the most popular football side in
the world, Brazil always excite us.
Even the media
admire them -- more than 200 newspaper journalists and 100 photographers are
registered for tomorrow’s Brazil versus Switzerland game.
At the Rostov
Arena, children have welcomed the Brazilians to the city, with their paintings
spread around the city. Such is the love and affection that they’ve been
enjoying since ages.
Everybody
loves the Selecao, but off late Brazil doesn’t resemble the teams of 70s and
80s. The attacking flair, which won them millions of hearts across the globe,
is now a thing of the past.
The team’s current
style is not even a sequel of what Tele Santana had produced at the 1982 and
1986 World Cups and as school children, we were thrilled to watch
Socrates-Zico-Elder-Falcao indulge their love of feints, tricks and back heels.
The
free-flowing approach has been replaced by a more cautious one ever since their
players started playing in the gruelling European leagues.
No wonder their
football philosophy is in a confused state. Just like any Hollywood classics, those
golden days of Samba can’t be re-created but, at least, Brazilian coaches can draw
inspiration from Santana.
The drubbing
against Germany at home four years back is still fresh in our mind. Yet, everybody
expect them to bounce back in the World Cup and impress their fans with subtle
skills added with searing pace.
“The work we
have done elevates the expectations, but also brings us peace. I’m very happy
about the level of performance we have showed so far. I hope we can now
reproduce this under pressure,” said Brazil coach Tite on Saturday.
Sounds all
fine, but as we’ve seen, Brazil is now a shadow of their own glorious past.
The team’s
talismanic forward Neymar recently underwent a surgery and returned to action couple
of days ago in a pre-tournament friendly.
The
Paris-Saint Germain star also scored a goal, but still we aren’t convinced till
he strikes the ball hard against the Swiss.
“Neymar is
still not 100 per cent, but he is very privileged physically. The level he has
displayed in his sprints in high velocity has been impressive. But still he has
something to gain. It should happen sooner rather than later, hopefully,” added
Tite.
Back in
2013, Switzerland won 1-0 in Basel. Only four Brazilian starters from that
friendly match are here in Rostov: Thiago Silva, Marcelo, Paulinho and Neymar.
We’ll have
to wait till tomorrow to see if Neymar unleashes his power to avenge their
five-year-old defeat.
But, good
luck Selecao! www.khelupdates.com
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