In the previous column, I wrote that in modern football it is necessary, at the same time, to run and think. Obviously, you need to know when to run forward, to press, to reach the goal, and when to run back, retreat and close the spaces in defense. That’s how it is in life. Everything has its right time, for acting and reflecting, perspiring and inspiring, accelerating and cadence.
Botafogo, of the Brazilian teams, is the best, the most compact, intense, who knows when to press and attack and defend as a block. It resembles the best European teams.
It is the Brazilian team that recently made the best signings in terms of cost-benefit ratio. Does John Textor, owner of SAF, know a lot about football or does he have an excellent team of scouts?
Botafogo is praised for playing with four attackers: Igor Jesus, Luiz Henrique, Almada and Savarino. There are not four attackers on the drawing board. There are four who are always close to the goal. Whoever attacks is an attacker. The team that plays with four in attack, far from the two in midfield, which are far from the four defenders, like several Brazilian teams and even the national team, tends to be inefficient.
If he doesn’t want to be eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup, Dorival Júnior will have to organize the team tactically to face strong teams. Beating Chile and Peru is easy.
There is no longer any point in analyzing a team’s strategy based on the tactical design on the drawing board, as the players never stop running, occupying various positions and roles on the field.
In Flamengo’s 1-0 victory over Cruzeiro, the Rio team advanced as a block most of the time to press and recover the ball, while Cruzeiro prioritized retreating to try to close the spaces in defense. Cruzeiro doesn’t look like a team led by Fernando Diniz, as they don’t even try to move from defense to attack by exchanging passes.
Filipe Luís, who begins his career as a coach, already demonstrates, as the brilliant commentator Carlos Eduardo Mansur, from SporTV said, the ability to change strategies during matches according to the moment and the opponent, a great difficulty for most coaches, accustomed to repeating what was planned and rehearsed.
He follows the model of Artur Jorge, coach of Botafogo, who manages the second team of his career, as he had only been coach of Braga, from Portugal, for two seasons. Young people, scholars, perfectionists, are the hope in football and in any activity, despite the epidemic of idiocy that is plaguing the world.
This Sunday (10), Atlético-MG and Flamengo decide the title of the Copa do Brasil. Will Filipe Luís, having the advantage of two goals, will he maintain the way he plays, pressing as a block to recover the ball, or will he retreat and attract Galo to counterattack? Will Atlético-MG, at home, try to suffocate Flamengo from the start, as the fans want, even at the risk of leaving too many spaces in defense?
We can predict and understand the coaches’ strategies, know the technical and physical characteristics of the players, but we cannot predict the details, emotions and circumstantial decisions of the athletes. Each game has its story.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
