Sure. Perhaps not as great as France, but Brazil has great depth, and that will serve Ancelotti well in the near future. For example, Endrick should have replaced Raphinha and that would have been and improvement. Can France take out Olise and Mbappe and have their replacements improve the team?
If Vini jr get tired in any game, his replacement is Martinelli. Few teams have that level of back-up for their star players.
Casemiro has a horrible game and is taken out at halftime and replaced by Fabinho and massive improvement. Fabinho has his own replacement in Ederson (Atalanta and future Man U). Really, man, few of the great teams can do this. Further, imagine yesterday's game was a Semifinal and it goes to extra time. As the game progressed Brazil was improving and in extra time Brazil gets an extra substitution and in comes Endrick. Morocco, as great as they played yesterday, cannot do this because they do not have the great depth that Brazil does.
Brazil's defense of Gabriel and Marquinhos looked a bit rickety yesterday but that was because the defensive midfield did not give much protection. Still, those two guys are world class. Of the replacements Bremer is world class and Leo Pereira is not world class but good enough.
Thank You!!!! I've been saying it for the longest time on the italy board that Brazil, and many CONMEBOL teams suffer from the same issue as the Azzurri. Build up is too slow. Norway, England, more pace but if humidity becomes an issue Brazil can offset this. IMO, only Spain isn't affected from slow play.
If many of the starters are shit, it's not that hard to have "depth" without drop off in quality in such positions.
Football more than ever is about making quick decisions, quick passes, and coordinated well trained movement. We showed none of that yesterday. Not only that, we showed some truly pathetic level of technical skills. Players were missing basic ball control and passes. They were clearly feeling the pressure. We were bad tactically and technically. Not a good combination. And not to mention players with slow reaction at every ball 3 steps behind the Moroccans. The saving grace that kept it from being a humiliating defeat is that Carlo at least fixed the tactical system after the 1st half water break to stop the bleeding on midfield ... because we were being humiliated.
Look at the turnover that lead to the Morocco goal. Not blaming a turnover deep into attack for the goal, but why isn't Paqueta's trap directionally towards his left and center of the field ? There is a huge gap there for him to run into and create a 2 v 2 against he back line with Igor on their shoulder. He traps the ball right back into a crowded space. This is ZERO situational awareness. (ignore the text of the post) Você percebe a super proteção a certos jogadores (já sabemos o motivo), quando em um gol que claramente o erro ocorre no início da jogada, quem leva a culpa é o goleiro q tb saiu errado.Obs.: inclusive o jogador q errou e gerou o contra ataque, ERROU ABSOLUTAMENTE TUDO ONTEM. pic.twitter.com/i000oOAyz0— NAÇÃO DE IDOSOS🎙 (@sfccomenta) June 14, 2026
I was not happy at all with the performance against Morocco, no creativity. Absolutely zero creativity. I think this is the first time I’ve seen Brazil play where they were being dominated in possession. The strength of Brazil has always been possession of the ball and Morocco had most of the possession, especially first half. Vini Jr awesome goal, but second half completely useless. Why he was not substituted for Endrick, I will never know. It’s still early and I’m positive, and hopeful that we will improve.
Its true that some of the starters were SHIT. But do you understand that that's what squad depth means? That if some of your players are shit indeed you have quality on the bench to replace if you need it. Look at Germany right now. Curacao just scored on Germany. What does Germany have on the bench to replace the ABSOLUTE CRAPPY Germany on the field? Very little. For Germany, what you have on the field is basically it. The bench is full to tree trunks. (And yeah, I know, Germany will probably destroy Curacao, eventually).
Truthfully I have never seen a World Cup where so many teams are relying on age 35+ YO's. You always had the odd team rely on 35+ YO Roger Milla but never to this extent. It is true that there isn't a super team out there. Brazil in the mix.
None of us were happy with the way the team played - that's a given. It was, indeed, quite subpar. But at least the team did not lose and improved in the second half, with some shots on goal. The group stage is just that - the group stage. It's a three-match period in which Brazil has been, for decades, unlikely to be eliminated at. Haiti does not seem as easy an opponent as many of us may have envisioned, but Ancelotti - however stubborn he may be - is likely to make adjustments. Let's hope for a win against Haiti.
A few last words about this game: 1) Douglas Santos played very well against Hakimi. 2) Morocco is someone else's problem now. I imagine that in the knock-out rounds Morocco will be very difficult to defeat even by the "BIG" teams. 3) Vini Jr's goal frightened Morocco.
I guess the good news is that Ancelotti got an early wake up call. Even if everybody knew Morocco was going to be a tough match, the performance must have worried him. The problem is I don't think he has in the roster the tools to necessary fix things enough. Even still, there are some clear things that need to change. Casemiro was trotting out there. I thought he had improved at ManU in the past few months, but what he showed on the pitch on Saturday was pretty bad. I would try Fabinho out even if he never was the quickest of players to begin with. Either way, I am sure both will have to be used as chances are, suspensions will be an issue. Ibanez was abused on the right. But obviously Danilo isn't really that much of a step up and can't expect him to play 90 mins. Not sure what Ancelotti can do there. I guess it can depend on the opponent we are playing if they have threat on that side of the pitch. As much as I give Vini Jr. a hard time, at least he showed up enough to make a difference with the goal. And also created 2 other chances. Tough to ask for more in such a context. He still had his usual forcing things too much and losing the ball plays ... but at least he didn't miss a sitter as he has in the past.
Different type of content, but Futebol Maximo on YT points out very well the little details in terms of decision making on the field that makes a difference in today's game. They do very good work.
While I have not gone back and researched the lineups, I am confident in stating that in all the World Cups at least far back as 1994 (I barely watched 1990 and 1986), Brazil's opening game starting XI was altered as the competition progressed. As well, the group stage is the time each time is afforded latitude to make adjustments and even to lose one match. Brazil reached the final in 1998 despite losing the third match to Norway. Brazil drew against Sweden in 1994 and won the title. The performance against Morocco was disappointing, but Brazil got one point out of that. Ancelotti will almost certainly deploy a different starting XI vs. Haiti. Haiti will have to attack us more - they lost their opening game.
The trouble with Haiti being second now is that if we do look good, we have to consider how much of that is due to fixing the line-up and approach and how much is about the two teams being on very different levels. One of the expected changes is Danilo at right-back. If he plays against Haiti, he'd have to play against Scotland, wouldn't he? And in the round of 32 and so on. Maybe the right play is to play Ibañez against Haiti to give him the chance to recover, because against Scotland it's critical that we know if we can count on him again or not. Although, I think for Casemiro it is a good opportunity to rest him and try a midfield without Fabinho or Casemiro. What I'm saying is, I don't think we'll see all the changes at once. And I think Ancelotti's pragmatism will explain the changes we don't see - we have one more group match after Haiti and these are still seen as chances to make adjustments. I would love to see Danilo, Bruno Guimarães and Paquetá in the middle against Haiti. I would be ok with Ibañez getting a start to "recuperar" him and have Danilo rested for Scotland if needed. I would expect Casemiro to come back against Scotland even if he doesn't start against Haiti (but I expect him to start, for now). As for the Morocco game, Endrick not coming in is understandable, despite what I hear so many pundits say, simply because we lost two subs with the awful performances + yellow cards of Casemiro and Ibañez. I would have preferred to see Endrick in those last 15 minutes, but it makes sense why Danilo Santos was the last sub. If we had the full 5 subs for the second half surely he would have come in.
Highly recommended channel. Only problem is I haven't found the time to watch them, as they usually make longer videos and they require more attention. I should probably be prioritizing them more. Here's the post-match analysis against Morocco.
Yes the live post match reactions are long and take dedicated attention. But from what I see, a day or two later they post a shorter video with the important snippets of the 1+ hour content. They also post other shorter dedicated content highlighting specific things. I like that they find a way to still post videos of the plays in question to illustrate what they are talking about. Not sure how long that will last given copy right issues.
It's good to be reminded that Ancelotti didn't build a possession team. It's supposed to be a transition team. Only problem is that we don't see the coordination necessary to create those transitions effectively ... like Dunga was able to do in 2010 (obviously we are in different times and it's a different system). Also Vini and Raphinha for example seem to rarely be able to combine.
Unfortunately, one of the reasons for the poor performance was one of my concerns coming into the tournament. The team has no cohesion from all the testing Ancelotti has been doing since he took over. Beyond some of the individual performances, this team had very little movement when in possession of the ball. There weren't multiple options coming close to where the ball was to create passing options.
Allison - Unfortunately, he is still our clear cut #1 GK option. He has not been able to replicate his club form with the national team. He generally does not come up with big saves during important games and his penalty saving record has been well noted. I agree it's harsh to solely blame him for Morocco's goal, but he hesitated enough to be late to make a play on the goal. Ibanez - I can't really blame him for his performance since he is being played out of position and Ancelotti did not call up a replacement for Wesley. Wesley may have his fault, but he was a huge loss. He is the closest thing we have to a two way player at right back. Casemiro - I am a bit puzzled about what is going on with him. He was in solid form for United this season. In the Egypt friendly and now this game, he looked poor and was at least partially to blame for goals in both games. I would like to get input from any United fans who watched the Morocco game. @benni... Paqueta - Since joining Flamengo, he has not yet solidified a place in the starting lineup. His form was improving before the WC break. However, it is arguable whether he should have been added to the squad, much less a starter. I think we need to find a way to get Danilo Santos on the field. Raphinha - I am not going to bother getting into details here, but it's more of the same with him on the Selecao. He can't replicate his Barca performances for the Selecao for a variety of factors. Igor Thiago - I am not in the camp that believed not calling Joao Pedro was a huge mistake because JP did not take advantage of his opportunities. However, having said that, I was afraid Ancelotti and others would buy into the Igor Thiago hype. He had no business starting the game.
You'd really need to put a lot of legs around him and then you also cant expect him to play 90 minutes every game. Vini didnt really help defend until later in the game. There were times where Vini and Igor Thiago were upfront resting, disconnected from the teams defensive shape. That will never work with Casemiro. I know im biased, but Ancelotti might want to consider changing shape against good midfielders. Going with Casemiro, Bruno plus someone like Ederson. Doesnt seem like the squad has the appropriate players to help Casemiro. The only guys who can help are Bruno and Ederson. The other guys are all over 35+. Casemiro's partner for us regularly covered more ground than every other player.
Sounds like a job for Danilo Santos... the dilemma then is whether to drop Paquetá for him or just eventually drop Casemiro and have BG, Paquetá and Danilo in the middle when whe play 3.