Brazil and France face each other this Thursday (26) in a friendly that lost, with each new cut, its role as a “level test” for the World Cup.
For Brazil, preparation for the World Cup came to practically nothing, with a change of coach with a year to go before the World Cup. The game against the French should be relevant to measure our strengths against a good team, but it will only be used to observe players who are still looking for a place among the 26 names that will be announced in May.
If Carlo Ancelotti’s work had been beginning-middle-end, the Italian would have had four years to test some names while shaping a way of playing. Four attackers? Defensive backs? High markup? With a center forward or without? During the Qualifiers, the coach would ask himself these questions and get answers.
We would have had tough tests to evaluate the maturity of the game idea and the pieces put together. Games with Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay, in Brazil or neighboring countries, would show whether the path was being well taken.
However, Ancelotti arrived and found nothing pre-built. A cycle of three coach changes, no game ideas and an infinite wait for Neymar.
Therefore, facing France just over two months before our World Cup debut would be a Brazilian way of leaving everything to the last minute and seeing if it would be enough for us to feel ready. Then came injuries to Alisson, Militão, Marquinhos, Gabriel Magalhães, Alex Sandro, Bruno Guimarães, Estêvão and Rodrygo. There are seven or eight starters imagined by the coach who will not be able to play.
Douglas Santos, Casemiro, Vini Jr, Raphinha and Matheus Cunha guarantee some collective basis for a game that will serve to hastily conclude who the reserve defenders should be, if we have any reliable right-backs and what are the best options to change the game in attack.
The team will be merely occasional and it may even be worth it for the coaching staff to make individual assessments, but the game will not be used to give us any idea whether we are at the level of the best teams in the world.
The World Cup hasn’t even started yet and the weight of the bad choices made since 2022 by the CBF are already taking a high toll. The other favorites are tightening screws and polishing details, while we are still imagining how we will play.
The World Cup is a tournament lasting just over a month, in which reducing the margin of error is essential. Avoiding surprises and knowing what each option, each player and each substitution can entail is essential to being one step ahead of the opponent.
There are several ways to win in football. Tite was extremely pragmatic in previous cycles and lost two World Cups. Now Brazil is betting on the opposite. We will arrive in the middle of chaos. Not knowing if we played well, if we were prepared or if we should be pessimistic.
The team’s new shirt should have a random drawing somewhere representing improvisation and the Brazilian way of trying to make things work without any kind of plan.
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