Every soccer fan in the world would have probably predicted Brazil as one of the teams to win the World Cup. Not only did they feature a very dynamic and talented team, but they had the advantage of playing at home, with their fans in their country. But, after just two games played, we are starting to see that this team might have some flaws that will prevent them from reaching their 6th World Cup title.
Lack of Veteran Presence- Yes, Brazil’s squad has very athletic and young players like their star Neymar at his young age of only 22 years and Oscar which is also 22 years old, but in crunch time it appears that Brazil is missing that veteran leader that can give them advice through the toughest moments of a match. Julio Cesar, at 34 years of age, is the oldest member of the roster, but being a goalkeeper limits him to talk or lead on the field. Most of the older players on the squad haven’t seen playing time as they have been on the bench. Luiz Felipe Scolari decided to leave Ronaldinho and Kaka out of the team, any one of these two players could have fulfilled this role of veteran leadership.
Home Field Advantage?- In their most recent game, Brazil’s forward Fred was substituted and as he jogged out of the field into the bench you could clearly hear the booing coming down from the crowd. Brazil’s fans were obviously not to happy with Fred’s performance or the team’s performance overall (maybe both). We can now clearly see that Brazil, rather than having an advantage, playing at home, is becoming a disadvantage. It appears that playing at home has only added pressure to the Brazilian players. Plus, it becomes a lose-lose situation for Brazil because if they lose, it will be a huge failure for them, and if they win, fans will say “they should have won the cup anyways.”
Level of Play- Brazil expected to have a walk-through in Group A. Win three out of three in the group stage and move on to the knock-out rounds on their road to the final. After their first two games, there is still a lot of doubts with this team. In their first game versus Croatia, Brazil got a gift from Japanese referee, Yuichi Nishimura, after he called a penalty kick on a play that clearly showed no foul. Then Brazil faced Mexico and couldn’t find a way to score and nearly lost the match in the late minutes of the game. Now with one game left in the group stage against Cameroon, the Brazilians better bring their “joga bonito” and find a quick hot streak because teams like the Netherlands and Germany seem to be the teams to beat at the moment.
Strikers not Striking?- When you think of the great strikers in the World Cup, you think of Robin Van Persie of the Netherlands, Karim Benzema of France, and even Mario Balotelli of Italy. So where do we rank Fred or Jo of Brazil? Coach Scolari has already tried using both of his strikers and he isn’t getting the results he would want. Fred has been the most criticized of the two as he has had the most playing time. If we go back to 2002 when Brazil won their most recent World Cup, the striker on that Brazil team was Ronaldo. He broke the record for most goals in World Cup history as he earned a total of 15 goals after his last World Cup in 2006. A lethal striker is a big part of a championship team and right now Brazil doesn’t have one.
Photo Credit: http://tvnz.co.nz/football-news/happened-brazil-v-croatia-6001675
