Pretty irrelevant how it sounds like, that's clearly the recipe and until they hit the final buzzer on Brazil's wc campaign, the gamble is still on. I watched the post match show keep saying "oh they don't look like much a better team would beat them", pretty irrelevant because this entire tournament is just a couple games. One down, next up.
Damn Brazil midfielders awful... you can't play like that. A lot of problems, next match Carlo needs at least couple changes.
Carlo must not let L. Pecta play in the next game. He was just horrible. Igor Thiago was awful, and then, instead of bringing on Endrick, Carlo subbed on Cunha, who is even worse than Igor for the national team. I really can't understand why he didn't let Endrick play. I just hope he'll get some minutes in the next game at least. Good thing the next game is against Haiti, so Brazil should samba all over them.
We already saw how that works. We know it could or could not work. But people still have to discuss and approximate how strong the teams are, rather than just saying "anything can happen". That's why odds exist.
Of course but Carlo wasn't hired to make Brazil play nice or entertain casuals, they hired him because of how his teams perform in tournaments under pressure. Brazil simply don't have the talent depth to play well as a team, every chronically online nerd needs to look past their own nose for once. So the recipe is to grind this tournament by relying on the best player until the wheels fall off. For what they intend to do, I think they did well.
I guess that's why Brazil is the toughest coaching job in the game. Its the worst of both worlds: you have the pressure that favorites have, but don't have the best squad. Honestly, putting aside history, drawing Morocco is not a bad result, especially for a group stage opening match. Its probably what most people had when they filled out their pre-tournament predictions/"brackets".
Also let's be honest, World cup coverage is the sewage of the sport. Hot takes, incredible overreaction, expectations beyond logical measures. Nobody ever said "man, I would have ran out to the streets to celebrate, but we won in penalty kicks". It's really the tournament where winning it by any means is all that matters, with the next one 4 years away, you get to hear the world call your team "current world champion x"
Maybe a bit more pressure in the past. A couple of Brazilians I know are kind of accepting that the talent ain't just there anymore for a couple of years now. They aren't as expecting as they used to be.
We also live in a world where you'll find the coverage of a team you're looking for. If you want negative or positive coverage of a team, you know where to look
In the entire history of the world cup, only 8 teams have won it. That tells you that the "dark horse" or unexpected team almost never wins it all. If you predict the top 3 out of 4 in this tournament, you are more than likely correct. The last time a truly dark horse came close to winning was Croatia. Mostly by slugging it out and winning it on penalties. The last time there was a "first time World cup winner" was in 2010. That should give us all an idea of how incredibly rare it is for one of the favorites (with existing history) to not win it. England and Netherlands for all their history haven't won it in over 50 yrs or never. All the past winners were from South America or Mainland Europe. So the tournament winners are predictable af. Only a handful are expected to win it all. People make these "hot takes" to spice things up in an otherwise very predictable and boring exercise. Even in the Croatia vs France final, I laughed at the people that gave Croatia a chance. Anybody who follows football knew Croatia had zero chance of beating that stacked team. Their luck had run out because they were playing a team talented enough to force a result instead of pens. It would've been pretty upsetting for some to see a world cup winner go to 4 K/O games where it was decided by pens.
I think Brazil was fortunate to get Morocco to start. It gives them time now to adjust. They clearly have some significant problems but I do no think Carlo's squad selection and tactics helped. The Brazilian fullbacks are completely anonymous. This is probably a much bigger problem than people realize. Morocco was pressing the CBs who had the ball, and they often refused to pass to wide open fullbacks which tells you alot. 36 yr old Danilo actually looked like an upgrade. Gabriel and Marquinhos are not the kind of CB pairing that can compensate for such lackluster fullbacks. Marquinhos is showing his age and Gabriel treats the ball like a hot potato. The DM needs to be fixed right in front of this backline otherwise they will get torn apart. I do not know if it was Carlo's tactical decision but Casemiro running up field constantly to provide high pressure was probably the last thing you want against Morocco. Casemiro was always caught out of position and gassed within the first 15 minutes. Fabinho came in and basically stayed in position. Neither of these 2 have legs for 90 minutes. Bruno basically has to start beside whoever is the DM because there is no one else. Who is even Bruno's alternate? I would give up on Paquete. Just play 4231 with Vini and Henrique on the wings and throw them the ball. This midfield just has to not get runover and survive. They have Rayan to swap with Henrique. Raphinha plays the 10 role but moreso for long shots and making run off the balls for the wingers who will generate the chances. He does nothing on the wing. Thiago? Seriously why? Just play Cunha or Endrick. If you start Cunha, he can swap with Raphinha on the fly, and also drop deep to help crowd the midfield. He will probably be gassed by the 60th minute, and then you just bring in Endrick who shoud be able to play more as a striker and take advantage of the increased space to knock one in. If Endrick shows you anything in the next 2 games, just start him. The Joao Pedro omission seems a bit ridiculous. Not sure who else was left of this squad but the team look fairly thin. I have not been impressed by anyone so far. If Brazil can conceal their weaknesses, they survive a couple rounds.
I know its early, but for a 48 team World Cup, we have not seen any real blow outs yet. Some of the teams I expected to get throttled have kept the games close.
So far I didn't expect any teams to get throttled. Qatar Switzerland was always going to be boring, but happy to see the late equalizer. So far all games have had goals, which is great.
Throttled was the wrong word. What I meant is that I expected them to go down a couple goals in the first half and then mail it in. Not just boring but uncompetitive.
It is fortunate because Morocco is a good team. If Brazil had steamrolled the 2 weaker teams first, they would have pretended like the Great Brazil had returned. Even if Morocco had beat them in the last game of the group stage, they would chalk it up to meaningless because they would already have had 6 points. Morocco basically plainly laid out their weaknesses and knocked them down to reality. Now they have 2 easy games to make adjustments.
Alot of teams don't play their best game in the first game and I think this was the case for both teams. They neutralized each other because they are a fairly even matchup but also it was the first game and neither team looks to have hit their stride, yet. An in form Morocco probably rocks Brazil the way Brazil played yesterday, but the reverese would be true as well.
Is Wirtz having a stroke? He looks toast right now lightly jogging around sucking wind and getting in the way of his teammates.
At 18, Bouaddi made Casemiro, Guimaraes Fabinho and Paqueta look like school boys. This is him vs RM at 16 pic.twitter.com/XTCRHEWPBz— . (@jmarquiii) October 2, 2024