Belo Horizonte: Luck was Brazil’s 12th man as the Selecao got through to the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup on penalties despite being second best in open play against a brave Chilean side on Saturday. On the whole, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team have not set the pulse of football-crazy Brazil racing.
Even though fans were ecstatic in pubs and public screenings after the tense shootout win, they aren’t yet convinced that the job can be done on home soil. Relief, not joy, was the predominant emotion here.
Brazil’s flaws are obvious to all. Without Neymar they are decidedly an ordinary team. The five-time world champions are so short of firepower up front that no one else apart from Neymar seems capable of finding the back of the net.
Scolari’s gamble on Fred has backfired as the Fluminense forward is woefully out of form. Hulk, another attacking player the coach has persisted with, is no better. After a bright start in the opening match against Croatia, Oscar has been anonymous on the wing.
More than anything else, Brazil lack a spark in midfield. Players with limited ability populate the crucial area where matches are won or lost at the highest level. Scolari is unable to call on creative players who can make a difference when the going isn’t great because he has none.
Luiz Gustavo, Ramires, Paulinho, Fernandinho and Willian are experts at stopping opponents’ attacking moves but they are hardly capable of threading a killer through ball. The current Brazil side are purely functional as they are packed with hard workers.
They are built to win the trophy through roughhouse tactics and not to please the eye. By dropping deep to initiate moves, Neymar is losing more energy than he can afford. His presence is a must for Scolari if his team need something out of the ordinary at the end.
Meeting Colombia in the quarter-final will help Brazil realise what they lack in the middle of the park: a player in the class of James Rodriguez. He illuminated a mundane last 16 match against Uruguay with his magical intervention. More importantly, Rodriguez has the ability to breach top-class defences with visionary passes.
Brazilians themselves would admit that the Selecao haven’t clicked into top gear at the World Cup. A lucky penalty saved them against Croatia. The last two World Cups were won by midfield players. Andrea Pirlo unlocked Germany’s defence in the semi-final of the 2006 World Cup with a reverse pass of the highest order to Fabio Grosso while the midfield mastery of Spain’s tiki-taka experts in 2010 is well documented. Brazil may realise their inadequacies when it’s too late.
