Scratch is far from his glory years and prolongs his bad historical moment after the failure in the continental competition. Towards the middle of the 2020s, the canarinha does not add titles. In the previous one, he accumulated three celebrations, far from the five of the first decade of the century.
Brazil succumbed to Uruguay on penalties. Dorival Junior’s selection marks the first failure of his process. Although he remains undefeated (in history this last match counts as a draw), he fails to convince in his country. Against La Celeste, and this was a trend throughout the Copa América, Scratch were a flat team, lacking creativity in the final quarter of the pitch. Added to this is the fact that in the quarter-finals they did not have Vinicius, their most important element in attack.
Of course, the decline of the canarinha has been going on for longer. Over the last decade they have suffered from a loss of notoriety in major tournaments. After winning the Confederations Cup in 2013, the Verdeamarela has added more setbacks than celebrations in the different tournaments in which it participates. The 2010s were a particularly poor decade for a team that has historically been a protagonist in world football. They still have the aforementioned Confederations, the gold at the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2019 Copa América. The contrast is that between 2000 and 2009 they won five trophies.
The picture does not seem to change over the course of the current decade. They lost in the final of the 2021 Copa América, in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar they crashed out against Croatia in the quarter-finals, the same phase in which they said goodbye to the current continental competition. In the United States, they have won only one match out of four, against Paraguay, which is currently positioned as one of the worst teams in the South American concert. In this meeting, their numbers were highlighted. But against the Costa Rican defense, they did not go beyond zero and against Colombia, they did not win either. Against the Celeste, not even having one more for 20 minutes was in their favor.
In the current qualifiers, Brazil is in sixth place. After six dates played, they have two wins, one draw and three losses. Dorival Junior, the strategist, is focusing his efforts on improving after last weekend’s elimination. “We have two years to work before the World Cup. The first thing is to qualify because we are sixth in the standings and it is a position that makes us uncomfortable,” he acknowledged in a press conference. For Scratch, recent times have been marked by losses of positive sequences. Until 2021, every Copa America that took place in the land of samba was a sure title for them. There, they fell against Argentina. Also against the Albiceleste, their classic rival, they lost the record of unbeaten home runs in the Qualifiers that had existed since 1954.
In the tournament held in North America, the Canarinha appeared with a team with an average age of 24.8 years. Neymar was not present, who, despite being in Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia, is the historic scorer of his team. An injury has not prevented him from remaining inactive for several months. Other names that were fixed until a few months ago, such as Casemiro, Gabriel Jesus or Ederson, have not been mentioned either.
Farewell to inventiveness?
A few months before his death, the historic Argentine coach Cesar Luis Menotti made a diagnosis of the moment of the auriverde. “Sometimes I’m ashamed to hear it and feel it because I had to live it in the most brilliant era in the history of Brazilian football, living in Brazil for the 1970 World Cup and I saw all the preparation, all that it meant in Brazil. when at that time we were man to man or in traffic jams. It seems to me that there is a cultural decline, they are in another world and I can’t understand it. Sometimes I don’t understand how you can play so badly, how you can play without ideas and without supporting the brilliant history of Brazilian football.” released in February.
The football history of the Brazilian team is full of moments of change. The most iconic was after the 1950 World Cup defeat against Uruguay. This even led them to change their shirts. They changed from white to the well-known yellow-green. In the 60s, Jogo Bonito became popular and Pelé’s World Cups arrived (1958, 1962 and 1970). However, in 1982 they suffered another turning point: elimination from the World Cup in Spain, despite being favourites and having a team full of talent.
On his return to the top in 1994, Carlos Alberto Parreira opted for a rigid 4-4-2, but it was a team with attacking inventiveness with Romario and Bebeto. In 2002, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cafú, Roberto Carlos and Rivaldo were the talented players that the equally pragmatic Luiz Felipe Scolari had. Even though the technicians were defensive, the creativity of their individualities transformed them into formidable teams. Currently, they are not able to gather stars that make the difference when they come together within their national team. An x-ray of this Marcelo Bielsa over the past week, pointing out that the reason for the decline could be the young age at which Brazilian footballers are entering Europe.
“Football, which is one of the few things that the poorest maintain horizontally, no longer has it, because at 17, Endrick, or the Palmeiras winger (leaves). “It’s a pity that I have to say this, which will only bring me criticism…”, said the strategist.
From the 2002 World Cup until today, Brazil has failed to maintain a long process over time. Alone with Tite, he left without achieving his great goal. Even though these were the best years of Scratch in recent seasons. Since 2002, Parreira died, Dunga (twice), Mano Menezes, Scolari returned. In 2023 there were two interim positions, first Ramon Menezes and then Fernando Diniz. Until Dorival Junior took over. A characteristic of coaches the Brazilians It is their limited international experience. They all developed their careers in the Brasileirao and in various teams, with more than one level for each.
The current Canarinha strategist has managed 20 teams in his country. Tite did the same in 14, with an intermediate stopover in the United Arab Emirates. Ramon Menezes ordered eight casts from his country; Diniz was in 13. If you look at the history of the Brazilian First Division, until 2021, local coaches have always been the champions. A hegemony that was broken with the Portuguese Abel Ferreira, double champion with Palmeiras. Even though it was in the orbit of the CBF, the latter still does not have a foreign technician at the controls of the Scratch. In the Brazilian Confederation, they hoped to close the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti to make the leap in quality. However, the Italian preferred to continue at Real Madrid.
Follow on Sporty
Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
