Former Brazilian midfielder Djalminha was part of one of the most successful generations of the Spanish team Deportivo La Coruña, between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, with victories in the Spanish Championship, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup.
Among the teammates during the period were Brazilians Mauro Silva and Flávio Conceição, and Argentine Lionel Scaloni, current coach of Argentina.
Currently a commentator for CazéTV, Djalminha had a reunion with Scaloni that went viral in recent days on social media, during a training session for the Albiceleste team in Kansas City, where the current champions debut this Tuesday (16) against Algeria.
On Monday (15), during Scaloni’s press conference, Djalminha wished luck to his former La Coruña teammate, to which the Argentine responded without hiding his admiration: “that was good.”
In conversation with the Sheetthe former player praised the work carried out by Scaloni at the head of the Argentine team and also made an assessment of the Brazilian team’s performance in their debut against Morocco.
For Djalminha, Brazil’s first match at the World Cup was “disappointing”. He assesses that Carlo Ancelotti’s team needs to find a way to play to face their rivals in the next stages of the FIFA tournament.
How was the experience of playing with Scaloni? What can you notice from when you played on the same team in today’s Argentina team?
He has always been a very supportive player, always with the group. I think this is a main factor in what he achieved in this Argentina team. When he took over [em agosto de 2018, após a eliminação para a França nas oitavas de final da Copa na Rússia]the national team was going through a very turbulent time, and Scaloni managed to unite this group, putting these players to play in favor of the main player, which is Messi. I think that’s his main merit.
Do you maintain a friendship to this day, since the time you played together? We were together a lot, we lived together a lot, and it was seven years. I often joke that I lived with him longer than with many of my relatives. It’s a great friendship with him and with others with whom we form a very strong group, Emerson who is also Brazilian, Turu Flores.
Messi is already 38 years old, returning from injury, with a team that also no longer has Di María. Do you think Argentina still needs to be in the group of favorites?
Of course, because Argentina doesn’t just have Messi. Messi is a “plus” that Argentina has, but they have an excellent midfield and attack, players like Lautaro Martínez, Julián Alvarez, if I were to list the players that Argentina has… And most importantly, they have a team, a group that has been together for a while, so I consider Argentina as one of the favorites.
Scaloni is already in this second cycle with the Argentine national team. How important is it to have this long cycle to be able to implement the work method?
In football, teamwork counts a lot, and even more so in the national team, where you don’t have much time to work. If you don’t have this set, with players used to playing in a defined tactical system, I think it will be more difficult, which is what is happening with Brazil. And they have had this advantage for 4 years now.
What did you think of the Brazilian team’s first game against Morocco? Was it within what you were already expecting from the team?
Not within my expectations as a fan. But within the reality of our football today, within what we saw in the game, the result was normal and fair. But we expect much more from the team. I was disappointed because I expected much more.
What do you think needs to change for the duel against Haiti?
I’m not even thinking about the duel against Haiti, but rather the fact that the Brazilian team needs to find a way to play, because we’re going to face better teams than Morocco up front, and scoring with the marking we had, with this very unpopulated midfield, with a lot of space, it’s difficult. So I think this problem needs to be resolved. It’s not a question of so-and-so player joining the team, but rather of getting the scheme right.
