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On another day, the same level of performance would have brought about a comfortable win. But there were problems — the most obvious in the team selection. Against such defensive opponents, did Brazil really need both Bruno Guimarães and João Gomes in the centre of midfield?
João Gomes was wonderful at Wembley, making his international debut in March, when he snapped into tackles and kept the English at bay. Here he was probably superfluous. Centre backs such as Marquinhos and Éder Militão hardly required the level of protection that he supplies. It was striking that he was removed only inside the final 10 minutes, because the solution is so obvious; drop Lucas Paquetá to the central midfield role that he has often played for Brazil.
Paquetá is at his best playing front to goal, where he is best able to distribute the play. Further forward in this type of games, there is the added problem of Paquetá and Rodrygo competing for the same space. Dorival Junior, then, can expect the first heavy bombardment of criticism in his time as Brazil coach, both for having selected a team that was too cautious and then for waiting too long to change the balance.
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Rodrygo, though, was probably the brightest spark of the performance. For years Brazil have harboured massive hopes of the mobile, intelligent and talented Real Madrid attacker, and he consistently found different ways to trouble the Costa Rica defence. His club partnership with VinÃcius Júnior, though, did not really fire. It was a disappointing night for Vinicius, who gave way to Endrick with just over 20 minutes remaining. This is his first tournament as Brazil’s senior attacker, but the one-against-one skills were not on show against the Costa Ricans, who managed to avoid defeat to Brazil for the first time since beating an experimental side in the Pan-American Games of 1960.
Brazil might prefer to dwell on more recent events. In the 2016 Copa Centenario, Brazil demolished their CONCACAF opponents, cruising to a 7-1 win over Haiti. It did them little good. They failed to score against their South American group rivals, drawing 0-0 with Ecuador and losing 1-0 to Peru. Their fate in this year’s group phase will also be defined by results in the matches against CONMEBOL teams. Later down the line come the dangerous Colombia. But first, Paraguay, a side whose traditional resilience proved too much for Brazil in the Copas of 2011 and 2015. Perhaps Friday’s Las Vegas venue will encourage Dorival Junior to gamble on a less cautious line up.
Source link : https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40419245/copa-america-brazil-rue-tactical-caution-copa-america-opener-vs-costa-rica
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Publish date : 2024-06-25 00:00:00
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