The loss of Raphinha is the sixth blow felt by Carlo Ancelotti to form the right side of the team. Remember that their first full-back was Vânderson, who left the squad due to injury.
Militão became an option and was injured in March, Wesley was the starter and was absent in Cleveland, against Egypt. At the top, Rodrygo was an idea and got injured. Estêvão, the team’s starter and top scorer, suffered a muscle tear in April.
Now, Raphinha, in the first match where he was a right winger. The embezzlement undermines two of Ancelotti’s assumptions. The first is that it could imitate Brazil in 1994, with nine workers for two artists to shine. The stars were Bebeto and Romário, who scored eight of the 11 goals.
Raphinha and Vini Jr are not the same, but in today’s football they can be the difference in a hard-working team. Without Raphinha, this is lost.
The second premise is more recent, created from Wesley’s cut, Ibañez’s failure as a full-back and the certainty that Danilo cannot offer the depth that Wesley would offer. Without these possibilities, Ancelotti reversed the team’s axis. He arrested Danilo on the way out with the defenders and released Douglas Santos as an offensive full-back, a winger when Brazil has the ball.
Raphinha became the winger on the right. Without him, the coach will have to find a solution in Rayan, Luiz Henrique or Martinelli.
The concept of widening the field has become more important in today’s football, because the distance between the midfield and defense lines has become 12 to 15 meters. So it is desirable to have one player always close to the touchline on the right and another on the left. The field is 68 meters wide. If the 105 meters in length shrinks by 12, using 68 is an attempt to open up spaces in the defense, which needs to spread out.
But Brazil always loses its right winger, be it a full-back, a midfielder or a striker. The function is cutting edge. The position, full-back, striker, midfielder… The role that will be given to the player who will occupy this space is much more important: opening the field for the team to play.
Raphinha will be missed, even without being the most admired of Ancelotti’s stars.
And the role is right-wing. It doesn’t matter that today they call him a winger, extreme, external, edge player. We speak Portuguese and, in the Brazilian language, this is how it is spoken.
In the late 1970s, there was a gigantic ping-pong gum. It came with a card with a player’s photo on the front and his card on the back. In Wilsinho, Vasco’s Xodó da Vovó was written right-wing. In Tita, from Flamengo, extreme right. They were synonymous.
The lack of football literature in Brazil made coaches drink from books from Spain and Portugal and, therefore, began to speak elaborate words. In English, the position/function was called “winger” and is still called “winger”. So, in Brazilian Portuguese, we say tip. Now!
I get into an Uber in New Jersey. The driver is called Lenine. He looks at my credentials and asks if I’m in the World Cup. I say I’m a journalist from Brazil. He responds, in Portuguese: “I’m from Cape Verde.” Great!
An hour in traffic talking in my language.
There are 265 million Portuguese speakers on the planet. Of these, 210 million live in Brazil. If we don’t even master our vocabulary, how are we going to master football again?
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
