Brazil fail to live up to their hype at the World Cup as usual

Brazil didn’t live up to the hype at this World Cup. But then they almost never do.

It’ll be quite a stretch, but try to imagine someone who has a good understanding of soccer but no knowledge of any of the teams playing at this World Cup.

That means this person will never have met the myth of “samba football.” They’ll have no idea what it means for a player to follow in the tradition of Garrincha, Pele, Zico, Romario and Ronaldo.

And now ask yourself two questions: (i) simply by watching all the matches at the 2018 World Cup, would this spectator ever have guessed that Brazil were the most hyped team in the tournament?; (ii) would this person have believed that Neymar is the most expensive player in the history of soccer?

Strip away the myth, the hype, the propaganda and Brazil were simply one of a number of well-organized, talented squads who could have potentially gone on to lift this World Cup.

Nobody could claim that Brazil blew away any of their opponents at this tournament. Instead, they ground the opposition down – or, in the game against Switzerland, tried to do so and failed. This is not a Brazilian team that could ever be described as buccaneering.

Of course, there have been moments to savor, such as Philippe Coutinho’s wondrous strike against Switzerland, but they’ve been the exception rather than the rule.

Instead, this Brazil side seemed to be set up to keep things tight — prior to this quarter-final, they’d earned 19 clean sheets in the previous 25 games under the current coach Tite — and then expect that winning marginal battles would tip the game in their favor.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but you can’t really complain if your opponents then overcome you by doing the same thing more effectively, as Belgium did today. And you also can’t really expect people to start lauding you as purveyors of the beautiful game.

In keeping with this conservative approach from Tite, he barely changed his starting 11 throughout the tournament, despite Brazil’s unexceptional performances. That continued today, with the only alterations being caused by Casemiro’s suspension and Marcelo’s recovery from injury.

In stark contrast, Belgium manager Roberto Martinez was bold — bringing Fellaini and Chadli in, changing to a back four, pushing DeBruyne further forward and deploying Lukaku wide. And Martinez reaped the benefits.

Of course, Brazil’s apologists will point to a number of excuses. Brazil struck the woodwork when the game was scoreless, Belgium’s opener was an own-goal, VAR could have been kinder to Brazil, as could parries, deflections and so on.

But the majority of teams that exited the tournament could easily have made similar complaints — including the universally derided Germany side — which just underlines that this Brazil squad were only ever part of the pack.

Brazil were one of a number of teams that could potentially have won this World Cup. But it was the history and hype associated with them that made the side stand out, not the quality of their play.

Next: Thibaut Courtois key to Belgium’s success against Brazil