Brazil's national team began it's journey on FIFA 2018 World Cup this past Sunday, June 17th, against Switzerland, claiming to be one of the favorites to win the biggest football tournament of all. On the field, however, we saw a very nervous team, which committed a lot of mistakes in creating plays, once again showing a huge reliance on Neymar Jr., something that wasn't common since Tite's arrival, as coach.

It is true that Neymar is currently one of the three best players in the world, next to Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, however, making him responsible for a whole team in the hardest competition in the world is a task that he may not accomplish, considering the whole negative experience back to 2014 and other factors that will be mentioned later.

In the last World Cup, at the age of 22, the Brazilian striker was the biggest star in the squad, with the mission to bring to the national team their sixth world title, in their own home. However, that dream lasted until the quarter finals, when he suffered a knee strike from Juan Camilo Zuniga, in Brazil's 2 - 1 victory against Colombia. That resulted in a back bone fracture and a whole team unprepared to face the biggest contender to the title on the next round.

Against one of, if not the best German team in history, Brazil suffered it biggest loss in the World Cup, the 7 - 1. Without it biggest star, the team set up by Luis Felipe Scolari - the coach who won Brazil's fifth title, in 2002 - was considered only average, with a lot of contested names like Fred, Bernard, Dante, Jô, among others.

After that, the national team would have another challenge - achieve their first Olympic gold medal at home, in Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, in 2016. At that time, the forward leadership and compromise was severely contested by the whole Brazilian press, due to the fact that the player was always on night clubs and parties, while his teammates where being beat and eliminated by Peru at the CONMEBOL America Cup.

After two 0-0 scores in the first round, the Brazilian press once again started to blast not only Neymar Jr., but the whole new generation that was playing the tournament. However, the team started to play well, managing to beat Germany in the finals, with the star scoring a free kick goal and converting the last penalty kick - which resulted in Brazil winning the gold medal.

With that, a whole revolution into the Brazilian Football Confederence (CBF) started in later 2016, when Adenor Leonardo Bachi, well known as Tite, left Sport Club Corinthians Paulista to join the national team as the head coach, along with Eduardo Gaspar, as the new general coordinator of the Brazil team. Back then, Tite was already an unanimous call as the best manager in the country.

Adenor, then, changed the whole Brazilian football scenario, calling new 'treasures' as Gabriel Jesus, Philippe Coutinho, and much more, in addition to introduce new tactical schemes, which led to a colossal Brazil campaign into the World Cup qualifiers. Not only that, Tite relieved a huge boulder off Neymar' shoulders, being not the only star in the team.

With that being said, Neymar's past as a team leader must be reviewed. The forward was promoted to Santos Futebol Clube professional in 2009, where he stayed until 2013 - being the Brazilian team greatest player, leading to the Libertadores Cup championship in 2011. Then, he joined Barcelona, building the most prolific and dangerous trio in football recent history along with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez.

As a 'MSN' member, the Brazilian displayed some terrific skills and plays, qualifying himself as one of the best players in the world. Still, Neymar demonstrated some frustration occasionally, accumulating red cards and a negative hot head behavior. That lead to the forward joining Paris Saint Germain in 2017, not only to leave Messi's shadow so he could become a team leader, but specially to achieve the FIFA's Golden Ball - an award last won by a Brazilian player in 2007, with Kaká, who was a AC Milan member back then.

At PSG, the striker's early journey was already twisted, arguing with the team idol Edinson Cavani to see who would take the ball to a penalty kick. That shown that the french team coach, Unai Emery, couldn't control the 'Brazilian young lion' - which led to himself leaving his job in April of this year - and the rest of the team, being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League after a huge loss against Real Madrid, which Neymar did not play.

The star broke his right foot, placing his presence at the World Cup in jeopardy. Instead of staying in France so he could treat his injury with Paris Saint Germain doctors, Neymar decided to go back to Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, where he stayed for several weeks, only then returning to Paris to finish his treatment. Now, there are tons of rumors about a transfer to Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo leaving to Manchester United or even to the french team.

After almost three months, Neymar returned to action in a friendly match against Croatia, which he only played the second half, and still managed to score. Then, he was almost a full-time against Austria, showing everybody that he was ready to play the World Cup, even with an minimal discomfort. Against Switzerland, however, the forward showed poor decisions, losing easy balls and failing to avoid his opponents, in addition to extremely delayed passes to the other teammates.

Sure, Neymar Jr. still is Brazil's biggest star, however, he isn't anymore the only above the average player on the squad - joined by Gabriel Jesus, Philippe Coutinho and Willian. The forward should have a lead role on the team? Absolutely. However, he does not need to be what Cristiano Ronaldo represents to Portugal or Lionel Messi to Argentina, specially because he's not as experienced as them - each one won five Golden Ball and are above the 30 years old.

That's what most people, including him, don't get it. There's so much pressure once again on his shoulders in winning the World Cup and becoming the best player in the world that he can't absorb. With that, he becomes even more a selfish player on the field, making bad decisions and wanting to decide the matches by himself, something that happened in this past first game.

Cristiano plays by himself in Portugal, and the team will hardly get to the semifinal, not because of his leadership, but because he's the only above the average player. The same can happen with Messi's Argentina, specially because his team is not as good as the last one in 2014. This, however, is not the case for Brazil, who's packed with talented players as Casemiro, Marcelo, Paulinho - which was 'rescued' in China by Tite - and many others mentioned earlier in this text.

That must lead to Neymar recognizing that he can share the responsibility with others and once again become a light headed, quick and skilled player who can have terrific appearances. But, that can only happen if he displays some team work, otherwise, Brazil once again can be in a though spot, not as similar as back in 2014, but close.