After the 1970 World Cup, Italian poet and musician Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote that Brazilian poetry, beauty, improvisation and fantasy had defeated the Italian prose, organized and predictable. It was not quite like that. The Brazilian team, directed by Zagallo, was prose and poetry.
At the same time, the poet, writer and musician Chico Buarque said that Europeans were the owners of the countryside, for the distribution and occupation of the spaces, while Brazil was the owner of the ball, for the skill and the affection with which it treated it.
The world and football changed, 50 years, an eternity. After World War II, Europe, quite destroyed, began the economic and social recovery, which was reflected in football. They realized that to improve the show, attract the public and make money, needed to form more talents, improve the lawns, calendar and arbitration and reduce violence inside and outside the stadiums. This is what Brazil has not done yet.
Over time, besides this evolution, they began to hire the good players from other continents and count on the important help of migrants, who now want to decrease following the hideous model of the United States. Today, the 60’s and 70’s cliché that a star was formed each week in Brazil and Europeans were hard waist, without skill, has not existed for a long time. The stars are present in all continents.
Europeans have also taken ahead of strategic changes, especially in the last two decades, with the increase in the intensity of the game, the compaction between the sectors and the more closely marking throughout the field, since the opponent’s ball exit. Only recently, with the large increase in Portuguese and Argentine coaches, Brazilian teams adopted a more modern posture, though still shy.
Another major change in Europe was the appreciation of midfielders who play from one intermediate to another. Mark, build and advance. In Brazil, the opposite occurred by dividing the midfield between the flywheels they mark and the attacks that attack. After Falcão and Cerezo, stars of the 1982 World Cup, Brazil did not have a single world-prestigious midfielder. Meanwhile, Europeans had Zidane, Kroos, Modric, Xavi, Iniesta and so many others who enchanted the world. None was the classic shirt 10 that Brazil asks for so much.
This needs to change. I repeat, for the thousandth time, Brazil does not have a great star in midfield because it does not form. Midfielder players with great talent are shifted from the base categories to act closer to the goal, the side or the center. We must unite the midfielder’s special pass with the spectacular dribble of the most advanced socks. Just as dribbling is the symbol of individuality, skill, the pass represents the collective game. Both are essential.
Over the weekend, the Club World Cup will start for the first time with a huge number of participants from several continents. It’s too much play, another competition for FIFA, the federations of each country and investors make a lot of money. Players, especially Europeans, should at least protest, as at this time they would be on vacation after an extremely tiring season.
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