Time for Brazil to win back their worldwide fans
In the past, say last 8 to 9 years back, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Kaka were flair players who knew how to play the beautiful game in a charismatic way. Exteremly technical players with subtle touches combined with classical goals and don’t forget they knew how to baffle the opposition in more than one way. That was the Brazil, which made millions of fans worldwide. The Brazil of now has conceded nearly 100 fouls in 5 games they have played. Nearly 20 fouls per game and some of them were not fouls but were rugby tackles, I mean, taking the man out after the ball has gone. Times have changed but the fans still remember the old Brazil, the Brazil with flair, the Brazil with a samba flow, the Brazil with a grace, the Brazil with never ending attacking depth.
Hard-core will say they have reached the world cup semi-final and are still the hot favourites. Okay, point taken to an extent but not completely.
Opportunity in adversity
Now with captain, Thiago Silva suspended, and the new messiah, Neymar, injured it looks all doom and gloom for Brazil. Dante, from Bayern Munich, looks like the obvious choice for Silva and the speculation is that Chelsea’s Willian will replace Neymar. Good replacements they maybe but nowhere near to the players they are replacing. Neymar has the x-factor and the qualities which the other Brazilian legends had but he has still to prove this at the big stage on consistent level. He was on his way to do that before a vertebra fracture stopped him in the quarter-final vs Colombia.
It is now, the Brazilian football has to show its real depth. Two games away from glory and the team has to play and deliver the expected. FIFA WORLD CUP 2014. Nothing more nothing less. The real tournament for Scolari’s squad starts now. Their talisman, Neymar out for the tournament and captain, who is as solid as a rock out for the crucial game against the German team, which looks unstoppable.
Time for someone to step up and go into the folklore. Be it Oscar, Willian or Bernard in the midfield, David Luiz or Dante in the back line. Hulk and Fred are no mean poachers in the final third. They still have goals in them. We have not seen the full extent of talent, which these names have already shown for their clubs, in this world cup. This is the time to deliver.
Legacy
All the fans will be hoping to relive and enjoy the Brazil of old and not the Brazil which looks more like an English league team based near Staffordshire. Sorry to say, they have made a mockery of Brazilian football legacy and played like Stoke City, a season ago, under Tony Pulis. Holland were criticised in 2010 World Cup for their physicality, rightly so and Brazil have their chance to redeem themselves and go for glory in a right Brazilian football manner. Flair is the word here and let us hope we see it against Germans in the semi-final.
Sportsbasic.org 