On the pitch at least, Brazil answered key questions this year with a crushing success over world champions Spain in the FIFA Confederations Cup final.
As the year dawned, Brazilian fans wanted to know the following: Could the five-time world champions mold a team worthy of their history with a home World Cup fast approaching? Could they win with style rather than functionality? Could the decision to ignore the never-go-back philosophy by rehiring the man who delivered their last world title more than a decade ago prove inspired?
Over the past 12 months, Brazil have managed to answer all three questions with an emphatic “yes.”
Photo: AFP
Whether new-old helmsman Luiz Felipe Scolari really is the man with the Midas touch — he certainly was not in between his two spells in charge with glaring club failures at Chelsea and Palmeiras — can only be determined come July 13 next year, the day of the World Cup final.
What Scolari has done is galvanize the team and the fans, not least in sending an admittedly weary Spanish side packing in Rio last June.
That 3-0 triumph, with Barcelona-bound Neymar starting to live up to the hype that he could be the new Pele, at least belatedly introduced a feel-good factor to a tournament hit by mass countrywide protests.
More than a million people took to the streets across Brazil in a mass show of discontent at government corruption, maladministration and, not least, the gargantuan cost of staging top sports events.
The World Cup is set to cost US$11 billion, with about US$15 billion more being spent on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
For the bill, Brazilians will get some upgraded transport and communications infrastructure, but they will also get swanky new stadiums in places lacking a top soccer team, such as Manaus, Natal and even the capital, Brasilia.
In a country where large swathes of infrastructure is crumbling, most notably in education and health provision, the money being spent on sport has prompted anger, even if most support the events and their team.
“Brazil asked to host the World Cup. We didn’t force it on them,” was how FIFA president Sepp Blatter saw the issue.
Observers from sociologists to politicians and the fan in the street predict more protests will accompany the World Cup, noting the negative publicity of four construction worker deaths this year, including two in Sao Paulo, where the stadium due to host June 12’s opening match will not be ready until April.
Another storm cloud hung over the Brazilian league with hooliganism marring a final day which saw fans of Atletico Paranaense clash with Vasco da Gama, who were relegated, along with fellow Rio side — and outgoing champions — Fluminense, as the title went to Cruzeiro.
Even so, as Brazil prepares to get itself more or less ready for next year the clouds have lifted with their Confederations Cup form — even if they have lost Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa to Spain’s ranks.
Scolari, buoyed by the kudos of his 2002 success and that of last June, said earlier this month he is happy in the knowledge he more or less knows his team ahead of unveiling his squad on May 7.
“I am still observing players — but this is my team,” he said after his side defeated a capable Chile in a Toronto friendly.
“I think we have a great chance. We shall be competing at home and we have a great team, excellent players and have our home fans behind us,” Scolari said, dubbing glory next year an “obligation.”
Scolari first took over a year before Brazil’s 2002 win over Germany in Tokyo with the team struggling in the qualifiers.
This time, as the hosts they have had to live off a diet of friendlies — the Confederations Cup aside — but Scolari’s steady hand and authoritarian gaze are widely seen as assets.
Even Pele gave his seal of approval, having voiced doubts when Scolari replaced Mano Menezes a year ago.
“I think we have what it takes to be champions. With Felipao [Scolari], the team has improved,” Pele said.
In rising above the protests to show Spain they cannot count on being top dogs for much longer, Brazil this year created a platform for World Cup year, when they will finally seek to cast off the memory of losing the 1950 final to upstart neighbors Uruguay.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS