President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) thanked the Brazilian national team coach, Carlo Ancelotti, for leaving Casemiro on the field after Japan’s goal in the first half of the match against Brazil last Monday (29).
“Everyone who was with me watching the game was saying: ‘Take Casemiro out! Take Casemiro out!’ I don’t know who! I was there too. Then I learned that it is very easy for us to make assumptions. I now want to thank Ancelotti, in public, because he [Casemiro] came back and scored the goal”, said the Chief Executive during the launch ceremony of the Safra Plan in Brasília.
The Brazilian team controlled possession of the ball at the beginning of the match and rotated it in search of spaces. As the sides were well blocked by the Japanese wingers, the team managed to find some more acute passes through the middle, with shots saved by goalkeeper Zion Suzuki.
Danilo tried, in the 27th minute, to catch the Japanese defense off guard. After stealing the ball, he made a disastrous pass through the middle and offered a counterattack on the counterattack. Casemiro, at a slow pace, was easily surpassed by Sano, who hit well from outside the area and scored for Japan in the first half.
Despite the Japanese effort, the Brazilian team came back pressing in the second half and beat Japan 2-1, with goals from Casemiro and Martinelli — with the last of the balls scored during stoppage time.
This is not the first time that Lula has commented on Brazilian national team players called up for the World Cup. Still in June, the president mocked striker Neymar’s participation in the championship.
The PT member’s speech occurred after he praised the player Marta and asked a boy in the audience who would be a good player in the country today. Upon hearing the Santos striker’s response, the president stated that he “isn’t even playing”.
“I saw something yesterday on the internet, that Neymar is the first home office in the world,” said Lula, causing laughter from supporters at an investment announcement event at a hospital in Belo Horizonte. Afterwards, the PT member joked about the possibility of a selection created by artificial intelligence, “with ten Pelés”.
Neymar did not enter the field in the game against Japan. The player made his debut in this year’s World Cup in the 31st minute in the second half of the match against Scotland, still in the group stage, in June, almost a thousand days after the injury that kept him out of the national team’s games.
Before Brazil’s debut in the World Cup, Lula also recorded a video asking the team for determination.
