Brazilian national team performed unusually and complained about arbitration, however it’s necessary to take into account important lessons from the complicated first match in Russia
For several times, during trainings, press conferences and even on TV, Tite said he wouldn’t like Brazil playing for the result but for the performance. Last Sunday, In the first World Cup 2018 match against Switzerland in Rostov that finished with a draw 1:1, there was no result and no performance. It wasn’t disappointing. Brazil played the first help satisfactory, and even scored with a great goal by Philippe Coutinho, however finished the match with the draw after the goal suffered in the second half. Brazilians complained about arbitration of the Mexican referee Cesar Ramos, nevertheless they shouldn’t put the responsibility for their failure on the absence of VAR, video assistant referee. As Tite emphasized before the match, failure in the first match (that didn’t happen since 1978) wouldn’t be a tragedy. Particularly, when playing against curious Swiss team that occupied 6th position in the Fifa world ranking.
Brazil showed a decent first half. Both teams tried to play mostly in the left wing. “Multicultural” Swiss team tried to explode Danilo’s zone with the high crosses from the Milan winger Ricardo Rodríguez. However, due to the extremely diligent left wing performance with three authentic stars (Marcelo, Neymar and Coutinho), Brazil was much sharper. Today, it’s obvious this trio is crucial but during almost two years of work of Dunga after the failure in 2014, Coutinho and Marcelo didn’t play a lot in the national team squad.
When the midfielder revealed by Vasco who currently plays in Barcelona took the ball and made a great shoot on the 20th minute of the first half, about 44 000 fans on the Arena Rostov already understood what would happen - ball in the net, Brazilian songs and dances. It was a typical shoot for Coutinho who played his first match in the World Cups at the age of 26 years, and proved that he would be able to become one of the main stars in the World Cup 2018 in Russia.
Inaccurate Neymar and strained Tite
In his first complete match since February, the Brazil No10 hadn’t enough accuracy and concentration but had enough courage. Neymar felt uncomfortable in some moves but he constantly confronted the defenders (and caused 10 out of 19 fault by Switzerland) and triggered two yellow cards - for Fabian Shaer and Valon Behrami. He tried to score from afar and have some nice passes but it was completely different from his ideal game. The same happened with Willian who almost “had flied” in the friendly matches but was too shy in the match against Switzerland.
Tite also seemed different. He didn’t celebrate the goal of Coutinho, almost didn’t gesticulate and showed certain tension. He asked for help his assistants Cleber Xavier and Sylvinho in some moments, and tried to make changes during the second half, however his substitutions weren’t successful. Gabriel Jesus also wasn’t convincing in his debut in the World Cup. The Brazil No9 ran a lot and struggled for the ball, however lacked accuracy. Finally, he was substituted by Roberto Firmino who caught the rhythm of the game and had two nice chances. One of them out of the target, and another header well saved by Yann Sommer. Brazil created some more chances at the end of the match. Coutinho, Neymar and Miranda did their best to create spaces in the Swiss defense, nevertheless no more goals were scored.
Controversial draw
Switzerland scored from the standard situation that has become a tendency in this World Cup (11 out of 25 goals were scored like that) and played a draw after the missed goal. Steven Zuber scored with a header. The replay showed that the Swiss midfielder nudged centre-back Miranda before the shoot. Brazilian players, particularly Neymar, complained and argued with the Mexican referee Cesar Ramos asking him to use VAR, however the arbitrate refused.
Brazil also claimed penalty when Gabriel Jesus tackled with the Swiss defender. Once again, the referee kept silent and didn’t even ask for VAR. Brazil shouldn’t complain about it. Both situations were complicated, and the task of the video assistant is to detect serious mistakes. And it wasn’t a case. Being optimistic, the draw can be a good result for team of Tite. Now, Brazil must win Costa Rica and Serbia, other teams from Group E, and score more goals than Switzerland in order to occupy the first position in the group.
Source: Vejaabril
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