If it is too painful to watch those 60 seconds again, here are some pictures for you to make up your own mind. That tackle was really an immense one, and I still don't understand how Lovren would keep the ball in play when making a clearance with his relatively weaker foot at that position. Perhaps Pedro should have passed to Neymar on the left, but offering a through ball to Fred was really an easier way to go to the corner flag.
Whatever the intention, Fred had no business being so far up. Passing the ball backward or sideward and remaining in his own position was the sensible thing to do.
IMO we were deceived by Tite's arrival during the 2018 qualy. We were having a bad time and he seemingly fixed things almost overnight. There were reports at the time that the team had boycotted Dunga for not allowing social media inside the concentracao. It seems that way now to me looking back. Dunga had a really good start, 9 wins in 9 matches. Then things suddenly fell apart during Copa 15 and he never recovered. Then Tite makes his debut a year later,and in his very first game we are back in business. Was it Tite that had the midas touch or the team simply started playing what they knew? Not sure what could've been done at the time and I am not trying to crucify Tite. I did not blame him at all for 18, but this year after some questionable decisions it feels like I am having buyer's remorse 6 years into his term.
I always had bad feelings about Fred because he is a lackluster player who had no place in the Seleção. In this situation the only person who can be blamed by this is Tite.
Meh, it's not as egregious as Kompany's foul on Jesus in '18 that the damn ref didn't even bring up to VAR.
It shitty that Brazil have not to just play against other team but also against the refs. I was expecting that to happened against Belgium because the officials at VAR at that time were Italian and German duo.
I think this is recency bias. However, you are correct about the way Dunga's record was framed. However, it was very typical. In 2002 when Felipão came in we were seen as at risk of not qualifying, but it wasn't as if some miracle was required to qualify. He won 3 and lost 3 of his 6 remaining qualifying matches and all 3 losses were "expected": we lost in Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia. We won at home to Chile (last place), Paraguay (4th) and Venezuela (9th). That is not a record that suggests another coach would have been unable to qualify. Even if one of those wins had been a draw, we still would have qualified in 4th with only 2 wins in the last 4 matches. In 1993 the panic was in large part because Bolivia qualified first, but that was because they played their final game a week before we did, and due to the trauma of the Maracanazo. But a tie would have been enough to qualify. Of course, I'm glad Parreira called Romário back because that match was and still is one of the best performances I have ever witnessed in my life. So Dunga suffered a similar fate - he is remembered as putting us at risk of not qualifying - but in truth we had only lost one away match and after 6 matches the results, while not inspiring, would probably be enough to qualify at that rate. As you point out, his Copa América record played a large part in getting him removed, but so did his general animosity towards the press. Like I said "buyer's remorse" after 6 strong years of work is recency bias. Any World Cup we don't win will probably give many people that feeling.
I did not feel this way about him after 2018. Because #1 it wasn't his fault, but also #2 the perception that he was such an upgrade over Dunga that he should be allowed to remain 4 more years even though he lost. Now that 2022 has come and gone for us it makes me question if he really was the best available to us the last 4 years, especially since foreign coaches became culturally acceptable within that period. Hence the buyer's remorse.
Failure in 2018 wasn't on Tite but that in 2022 at least partially is on him. I don't mind Diniz or a foreign coach, as long as they are not likely to make blunders that are even clear to us fans (like subbing Vini Jr for a player who doesn't even play that position).
I only watched the game in the bar. Somebody said some offsides on the play. I don't see anything here. I haven't gone back to check the game so yeah ... I am still waiting for an explanation on this one. Has anybody found something ?
The reason Rodrygo doesn't play there for Real Madrid is they have VIni. He is perfectly capable of playing on the left and doing so brings an option that can also get closer to the players in the middle. In fact, that's exactly how the goal started. Rodyrgo pinched into the middle, allowing Neymar the first of the "tabelas" on his goal. "Blunders that are clear to fans" are hardly a reasonable, let alone objective, standard.
Fair enough, I can't say that it's the case for you, only that I see it as a general reason for the reaction in some people this close to the elimination. Failure is always at least partially on the coach. In 2018 there were things to blame him for just as they are now, just different sorts of things and different things being focused on more.
I think being capable of playing and doing it day in day out are 2 different things. Vini does it day in day out as does Martinelli. Rodrygo was never played in that position even in this World Cup. I agree that blunders may be subjective. However, withdrawing a star player and replacing him with a (currently) relatively weaker player who has not played in that position while having another player in reserve who actually plays that position with aplomb is an objective blunder. Not having Neymar take a penalty earlier after Rodrygo's miss is also an objective blunder. Some other mistakes like leaving Neymar on the pitch in the second half of extra time or taking off Militao could be considered subjective.
I agree with your assessment of Neymar not taking a PK as a blunder, but Militão asked to come off. He did play a great match and even found himself in position to shoot several times, which is a testament to how much ground he covered, but he came off because he told the coaching staff he needed to.
I am curious, was Tite an upgrade from Dunga? How good was Dunga in your opinion? Also was Dunga an upgrade from Scolari?
I was having a TC during extra-time, while having my eyes on the game on my phone screen. So, I did not really get the context of the Militao substitution. Good to know.
I think this is a bit result based bias. 2002 we ran a lot more risk of getting scored on by Belgium and Turkey than Tite did in 2022 at any time. So sometimes it's just a question if the other team executes on their chances or not. Croatia dominated the midfield in the 1st half but that was it. They didn't create that many scoring chances. Argentina for example played an almost perfect game (defensively, offensively they created very little) vs the Netherlands and they almost got pinched. I think we can criticize some of the things Tite did including game management in the final minutes, but I can't say Scolari was better.
Vinícius Júnior was at an offside position when Casemiro made the initial long pass, and he controlled the ball after the handball. Correct decision to me.
Thanks for the pic. But that's a fuk up if so. He didn't go for the ball. Didn't interfere with the play. It was Neymar who went for the ball.
Results definitely need to be factored in while evaluating coaches. Scolari had better players than Tite in general; however, he also almost did it with Portugal. In 2002, Turkey had some moments in the opening match and Belgium had a good spell; however, at all other times and in all the other matches, Brazil were in complete control and never looked like conceding, even when they were down to 10 men (e.g., vs England). A 10-men Brazil in 2002 kept possession of the ball expertly against a stacked England for a lot of the second half while 2022 Brazil could not do that against Croatia. That was partly due to Scolari's preparation; he regularly played 10 v 11 in training (and partly due to having superior players). I do not remember Scolari making clear in-game "blunders" as such unlike Tite.
I agree with the England and that's why I didn't include it. It was excellent game management from Scolari and I think Tite was missing that aspect of the game (playing to hold a result). But I still stand by my comment that had we settled into a defense mode, Tite would have been criticized for doing so. I have no doubt. Look at Argentina, went up 2 x 0 and then backed down and they paid for it with not only 1, but 2 late game goals. My beef with what happened is that when we pushed up for that play, we completely lost our shape. And I will talk about that in another post.
I have thought about the 2002 england game these two days. But the level of pressing in world football has improved a lot in these 20 years. And the 2022 attacking players, who are responsible for keeping possession high up the pitch, are really not experienced enough. Tite shares some responsibility certainly, but don't forget that Brasil really do not have good players to keep sustained possession in midfield when under pressure (I think we have to admit that Croatia have a better midfield than Brasil). And that's why I would like to see Fernando Diniz given a chance, would he be able to transform the team into a team that can be very confident in posession.