It hard to make out, how this team would react if a goal down especially at home. The players who been here throughout the 4 year cycle has experience that in both competitive games and friendlies. Of the top of my head, Neymar, Hulk, Oscar, Silva and Marcelo had to come from a goal down twice against Honduras and Belarus in the Olympics and won and couldn't do the same versus Mexico. Under Scolari, the core group came back and drew versus England but couldn't versus Switzerland. So, it up to interpretation how they react.
Yes OK I accept that, I think what I am trying to say is I would like to make use of this friendly to see how we will react when we are losing, this is when the real character of the team comes out and we can formulate a better idea of what will happen in the WC. OK we will probably score the first goal and go on to score more in the majority of cases, but what happens when we are in adversity, when we are losing and the crowd may turn against us, what will our boys do?
Can't simulate that just by telling the team to concede. Has to be real or else I doubt the psychological aspect gets tested. Plus, I don't know how much this counts. 2010 team was down 0 x 2 in the CC09 Final and came back to win 3 x 2. In 2010, they were absolutely clueless when Holland scored the 2nd goal. I am not saying they had to score, but they didn't show psychological preparation in the way they reacted. I do hope Neymar stops his feisty reactions similar to what provoked the YC vs Panama and from what I've seen at Barca this season. Scolari needs to address that.
Agreed. Also, I would like for him to sometime continue playing instead of waiting for the refs to blow the whistle. In the panama game, he went by a defender thought he was fouled and stop. He does that often and it will not always get called and could put us in a dangerous counter attack situation.
Alves getting owned by Kolarov. Jesus christ, it doesn't take long, does it? Seriously.....imagine a better player going at Alves.
Yea but where was Luiz Gustavo? He was a little out of position and slow to close down. It was pathetic how easily Kolarov went by Alves though.
@marvio: A opção da Sérvia é clara: jogar nas costas do Daniel Alves. It should be everyone's game plan. He's a bum. He's surpassed Renato Abreu as most frustrating player to watch these last four years....
Half Time thoughts: First of all, Serbia defended really well. We are playing absolutely terrible. Offensively, we can't create, defensively, we are letting way too much space in the wings, making silly and very DANGEROUS errors in the transição de bola. Daniel Alves and Oscar aren't even looking like professional footballers. The only thing I'm enjoying is Beletti's commentaries, absolutely spot on so far. He said that that Felipão felt the lack of creativity, so he moved Neymar to the middle, oscar to the right and Hulk to the left.... Does that mean creatively we can only depend on Neymar? What the hell is Oscar supposed to be doing in the pitch!? Paulinho isn't helping either... Bad bad bad.
Not sure what's going on with Oscar. He isn't playing good balls and he can't even control passes to him. Pretty poor half.
Look on the bright side -- Germany just lost Reus to injury (severity unknown) and Armenia just scored on them. It could be worse....