Another common theme that our media has been putting out there is "O Neymar faz falta?" They are basically insinuating that we do not need him, but to answer the question, yes, we do miss him. He would make an impact and things would be easier than they have been. Just because we have advanced to the final of the Copa America doesn't mean we do not need him. We are less Neymar dependent than we were a few years ago, but he makes an impact. We haven't been better offensively without him, so not sure why we need to turn this into not missing him.
If one focuses on last night's match, they need to realize they weren't playing like the Japanese did in the first round. A number of quick hard fouls in succession - Gabriel Jesus' knee was scraped and bloody. This wasn't just because soccer is physical; they were trying to take him out of the game, mentally if not physically. Over on their forums, some posters are saying said CBF bribed the ref more than AFA did or could; there was a post about prostitutes being used as bribery currency; yet another raised the specter of controversial refereeing from Korea/Japan 2002 (Spain vs. Korea) and said last night's referee must be investigated. I thought it was just all said in the heat of the moment, but some of those posters are the "ultra" type who believe to their core Brazil wins due to corruption rather than to merit. But there was a little bit of what I'd call minor infighting when one poster said Brazil wasn't dominated and that the first goal was a great play. The Fantino reporter I mentioned yesterday went as far as to say in a postmatch statement that he thinks they have a 20% chance of reaching Qatar 2022. Whatever one's viewpoint, some of those guys sure have a penchant for the dramatic.
That question was bound to be asked and will surely be rehashed if we win the title. I don't mind it. It's just another topic to fill up the air. I think most will agree that he is missed although I have to admit I don't miss a couple of parts of his game that I wish he'd get rid of.
I mind it because it's just a cheap way to drum up controversy to create a discussion. I don't disagree with what you said about Neymar, but after weighing the pros and cons, nothing that has happened in this tournament has shown that we do not miss him. We are still a while away from not missing him.
Yeah, I've seen it basically throughout the entire tournament. It just amazes me how divisive Neymar can be. No matter what he does, the haters will always hate him and his biggest fanboys will always defend him. The media business has never been about calling a spade for a spade. Have we shown signs of improvement without him compared to previous years when we played without him? Yes, I agree. Are we better overall without him? No, not even close. End of discussion. If we had another player or two in his position that was balling out at an elite level, then maybe there would be a case, but we do not have that.
This is just journalist talk. Of course Neymar is an impact player. Who doesn't know that? But it is good to see that we don't depend on him as much as we did in 2016. Seems like Neymar has been pissing a lot of people off. Have you all noticed what Casagrande was saying about Gabriel Jesus' spectacular play that resulted in our 2nd goal? He was saying "this is a real attacker who doesn't fall all the time, and keeps going." The "doesn't fall all the time" part was clearly a jab at Neymar.
They are FOS; sore losers who need conspiracy theories to justify their utter failure to win any title in more than a quarter of a century. The ref was weak, especially as a disciplinarian, but he wasn't biased for one team over the other. As a matter of fact, he called a free kick for Argentina just outside the box that was very dangerous, and actually should have been called for Brazil as the Argentina player committed a hand ball foul. And their complaints about a PK? Laughable. That foul was clearly outside the box. Argentina was the team that came in to play violent football to intimidate or take out Brazilian players. Well, it didn't work, because we had two genial plays that resulted in two goals, while their captain Messi played well for a change (when it's their national team and not Barcelona) but couldn't produce what Daniel Alves and Gabriel Jesus did. Yeah, we got a bit lucky with their two post hits. But it happens. Good teams have a bit of luck too. Overall I think we clearly deserved the victory.
There is one good point though ... the VAR people would have to have had overturned a Brazil goal, give a PK to Argentina, and a 2nd yellow to Dani Alves. Takes some balls to make that call in the host country.
Overturned a Brazil goal? What was wrong with Brazil's goals? I didn't notice anything and didn't hear any commentator saying otherwise.
Interesting stat though is that we are the team that has the most dribbles in CA and we were the team with most dribbles in last year's WC. So the criticism that we don't dribble is a bit unwarranted ... at least compared to other teams today.
Rewatched most the game and he had some bad passes but overall, he was really good. At 36, it's pretty amazing, and at the same time not great because the rest of the team just wasn't good. Casemiro was simply awful and I am worried about his decline. Luckily we may have good options coming up to replace him. Arthur and Coutinho also with too many misplaced passes. GJ had a good game because of the important plays but as a winger, it's a negative. I hope Tite doesn't look at this as a success for this test. We have better wingers. Everton was invisible in the 1st half. Then again he never got the ball in good situations ... when he got them which were very, very few times. Maybe 3.
We do that too, in all fairness. By "we" I don't mean us at BS, but the avg fan in Brazil ever since the 1998 loss agains France there's conspiracy theory for every defeat. In 1998 "entregou" because of Nike, in 2006 and 2010 entregou to host the WC in Brazil, etc.
is As a result of fouls he received in the semifinals. And yet their federation sends a letter in protest demanding loyalty and ethics. By the way, I had some sympathy for Scaloni until this game. Here we had a young former assistant without any major experience taking on a very difficult job; he was being criticized from every angle in his country. But during the game, he got in the face of our players and threatened them. No professionalism whatsoever. If the Argentines have any sense, they will let him go as soon as feasible and hire a real manager. It isn't Scaloni's fault that AFA's notorious mafia-like corruption is the reason other established coaches refused the job, but Scaloni is very much responsible for how he acted against Brazil's players. After what he did, I'm even gladder Brazil defeated him.