Brazil and Argentina swap roles in South Africa
Brazil.
Just the sight of the word immediately conjures up the familiar images. The golden shirts, the fancy flicks and tricks, the great goals, the World Cup trophies, but things are a little different out in South Africa.
They are still good. They’ve breezed into the quarter finals scoring eight goals and have one of the top scorers in the competition in Luís Fabiano, but they are bit too, well, sensible to be Brazil aren’t they? What has become of the great entertainers?
“Where has the Brazil team we all know disappeared to in this World Cup?” says Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, possibly with more than a hint of fear in his voice that this outbreak of Brazilian common sense will end his own Netherlands’ World Cup dreams when the pair meet on Friday afternoon.
“I look at this team and I remember people like Gerson, Tostao, Falcao, Zico or Socrates. Now I only see Gilberto, Melo, Bastos, Julio Baptista. Where is the Brazilian magic? Brazil need to play with more intensity, more bite on the pitch, because they are not special. Always the fans want to enjoy Brazil, enjoy their fantasy at World Cups, but they do not have that this summer.”
They don’t, but they do have a wealth of other qualities.
One of the best defences in the competition – and that goes for goalscoring too, for Maicon and Juan have both found the net at this tournament – is protected by two holding midfielders in Gilberto and Melo, with the leggy, energetic Ramires coming in for the latter against Chile in the second round and setting up a goal for Robinho, and surely no side that contains the erstwhile Manchester City man alongside Kaká can be described as dull? Fabiano may not be as aesthetically pleasing, but he can find the back of the net at a whim.
But there isn’t that sparkle, and coach Dunga has been criticised for it back in South America.
It is a team in his image. The 1994 World Cup winning captain was an unfussy, uncomplicated player who got the job done by whatever means necessary.
That 1994 team never found universal acclaim in Brazil because of its supposedly slow, defensive style, and what became known as Era Dunga is hardly looked back upon with great joy.
Success then, but at all costs, which sounds a bit like their great South American rivals.
Sir Alf Ramsey once famously described the 1966 Argentina team as “animals”, and refused his England side permission to swap shirts with them due to what he saw as their unfair style of play.
Diego Maradona apart, Argentina have always been famous for producing uncompromising, hard players who would give their all to win by any means necessary. Maradona would to, but he was blessed enough to do it whilst also producing the kind of skills that have barely been seen on a football pitch either before or since.
Now, he’s the coach, and his footballing philosophy has been passed onto his players in the much the same way as Dunga’s has onto the Brazilians.
Carlos Tévez, Sergio Aguero, Diego Milito, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ángel di María, Maxi Rodríguez, Juan Sebastián Verón and of course the incomparable Lionel Messi, the names of the gifted, attack-minded players in Maradona’s World Cup squad flow off the tongue.
They are of course backed up by tough, defensive forces such as Martín Demichelis, Walter Samuel and captain Javier Mascherano – all good teams need players like those – but for this summer’s fantasy football, the Albicelestes are the team to watch.
Their forthcoming quarter final with the vibrant, attacking Germany promises to be one of the matches of the tournament, and with the world still waiting to see Messi’s first goal in South Africa, there could be few better times for the Barcelona man to provide it.
During Maradona’s pomp, there must have been plenty in Brazil casting envious glances towards their South American cousins and wishing that they could poach him and put him in the famous gold shirts.
Now, his team are playing like the Brazil of old, and it is Dunga’s side who are seen as the more functional, less fantastical outfit.
Both are playing winning football though; their approaches work.
Perhaps opposites attract, and we could be seeing a World Cup final that is both a clash of cultures and a clash of styles, just not the stereotypical ones.
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