Long after Brazil‘s 3-0 win over Haiti had eased to the pace of a training game, and Carlo Ancelotti was actually playing some of the positives down, there was suddenly a rush of energy near the press conference room. People were hurrying over, in a way they weren’t quite doing for Matheus Cunha or even Vinicius Junior.
In the corridors leading up from the Philadelphia Eagles’ dressing room, where the post-game media duties were taking place, were a proper constellation of stars.
All of Romario, Bebeto, Rivaldo and Kaka were just… milling around, waiting to go somewhere. They were so idle, in fact, that they were happily posing for the multiple requests for selfies. People were of course doing the cradle celebration to Bebeto, who was only too delighted to smile along.
Now with silver hair, the former striker was resplendent in a blue suit and pink tie, making him look like a Republican senator.
On his lapel, though, was one reason for all the fuss. He and Rivaldo had little pins of the World Cup itself, given they’ve actually won it.
Romario wasn’t quite dressed like that, since he is working for Brazilian television. The star of USA 94, in fact, conducted the flash interview with Vinicius.
While the Real Madrid forward is hardly fazed by much, you can imagine how intimidating it could be to be interviewed by a legend who has done what you never have but an entire nation is desperate for.
And that, as well as all the buzz around legends, raises something else about this Brazil team. It was already written in these pages last week that the famous yellow shirt has lost its allure. That goes hand in hand with how this team – at least as a concept – have lost their fear factor.
Sure, you are still wary of them. You wouldn’t want to face them in the knockouts. But are you really scared of them? Are you intimidated by what they can do to you in an instant, in the way Romario or Bebeto could?
You can see all of that old awe in the very wonder at their presence. They inspire delight because of how devastating they used to be.
One of many tricks such stars pulled is that they actually played in dour sides – in both 1994 and 2002 – but what lasts in the memory are the moments of magic; those flashes when they’d suddenly illuminate and decide a match in seconds.
That’s what this shirt used to represent. It was spectacle, sparkle and… stardust. It was awesome, as they say here, but in the truest sense of the word.
You were afforded a rare glimpse of a higher level of player. You feared what they could do to you. This was Brazil.
Now, they’re just another good team, with some stars. If England were to face them in a potential quarter-final in Miami, could they really be considered favourites?
And there is more to this than just how the globalisation of football has made us so much more familiar with the best in the world.
Brazil haven’t even had a properly good World Cup since they last won it.
Little wonder they’ve lost their fear factor. In the 24 years since Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho all won it – and the other two “Rs” were also here tonight in even more elevated circumstances – Brazil have got past the quarter-finals just once. And that ended up being the worst experience of the lot, as a home World Cup clouded by so much nervous energy collapsed into that 7-1 humiliation against Germany.
They’ve otherwise been beaten by France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Croatia in relatively staid eliminations.
The former winners present in Philadelphia aren’t just heroes, then. They’re ghosts, whose success haunts every team. You can see some of this – the sense of some kind of mythical quest – in one of the main obsessions around the team.
They are still looking for the messiah, the singular figure arising out of their history to carry the team again.
So it is that Neymar is in the squad almost as a totem, with Endrick now the chosen one. The majority Brazilian crowd were desperate for his eventual introduction from the bench, especially when Raphinha went off injured. Endrick offered real spark and then scored, only for the strike to be ruled out for offside.
One of Ancelotti’s most important responsibilities with this team might be to temper all of that, to bring the kind of balance that his famous composure lends itself to. Here, he had to explain why Rayan initially came on.
The win over Haiti otherwise duly showed how this Brazil aren’t quite one level or the other. They don’t look elite as a side, but there is quality in moments. They are exceptional in certain positions, but so mediocre in others.
They put on a bit of a show, but that in a game where it was still occasionally difficult not to turn to your phone for distraction. Maybe the most important development, however, is how they are picking up momentum as Ancelotti gradually figures things out.
Vinicius made it two goals in two, while scoring another that was classically Vinicius. How many times have we seen him outstrip a defence to finish like that?
He may not yet have the aura of his predecessors present here tonight, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that he’s one of the best in the world.
The same could be said of Alisson for his position, and the goalkeeper even added to the show with one fine turn.
Gabriel and Marquinhos are both so secure at centre-back. Bruno Guimaraes is sought-after in the engine room, and – for all the focus on the midfield – were the workmen of 1994 and 2002, like Mauro Silva and Kleberson, really better?
Cunha, meanwhile, may have offered Ancelotti that solution up front, with two very different types of goal.
The first showed a poacher’s instinct. The second was the type of thrashed high finish he has already made a trademark for Manchester United.
Just when you thought the chance had gone, Cunha produced something. Maybe it will be like that for the team as a whole.
Typically, though, just as one solution presented itself, another problem arose. Raphinha went down injured, when he’d been so impressive in stretching the game.
Ancelotti addressed this in the same tempered way. Maybe it will be the story of their campaign.
No, Brazil do not have that fear factor. But they do have something, and it can grow.
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