Carlo Ancelotti is battling to make Brazil great again - but has a tough task on his hands
Brazil arrive at the World Cup with less talent and more injuries than usual - but also with a coach who can work miracles.
All three host nations will have played their first matches by the time that Saturday evening rolls around, but it never really feels like the World Cup until Brazil are involved. When they take on Morocco in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey this weekend, the party will finally get started in earnest.
For all that Brazil remain utterly synonymous with the World Cup, however, it’s been quite a long time since they last won it in 2002, and the sense of inevitability and invulnerability that once surrounded them has eroded with each failure since. Ronaldo, Péle, Zico and the rest were a while ago now. Do Brazil still have what it takes to win football’s greatest tournament?
Brazil don’t feel invincible any more – but Carlo Ancelotti offers hope
Frankly, it is difficult to draw kindly comparisons between the current Brazil squad and the great sides of the past. This is a team which has less star power and less strength in depth than we are accustomed to, and which has a particularly glaring weakness at full-back. This is a Brazil side which limped through qualifying, costing their previous head coach his job along the way.
Dorival Júnior was sacked in the wake of a humbling 4-1 defeat to Argentina in Buenos Aires, and they ultimately won just eight of their 18 qualifying matches. There are only two reasons that Brazil still have the feel of World Cup contenders about them – the climate, and their coach.
This is expected to be the hottest World Cup since 1994, when Brazil mastered the American heat even as their rivals wilted, and their experience playing in sweltering conditions may give them an edge over sides like France who may find it harder to get conditioned. But the real reason that people still believe in the Seleçao is Carlo Ancelotti.
The 67-year-old has won everything in his club career, including five Champions League titles as a manager (along with two more as a player) which serves as a testament to his well-earned reputation as a knock-out tournament specialist. The first foreigner to manage Brazil in 60 years, it’s hard to imagine anyone better qualified to end the long wait for a sixth World Cup.
His side has improved since he took control last May, but results have still been distinctly uneven. He has won seven of his 12 games in charge but has lost games to Bolivia, Japan, and to a France side who played the majority of the second half with 10 men. There have been some positive performances, too, but this is not a completely convincing team and Ancelotti hasn’t quite found his rhythm as their coach. Yet.
Betting against Ancelotti has usually proven to be a poor strategy, and there is still some genuine quality in the ranks. Vinícius Junior is world class, their centre-back pairing of Gabriel Magalhães and Marquinhos competed against each other in the Champions League final, and Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães and Igor Thiago give Brazil a core of Premier League players who have been in fine form over the past year or so. The foundations of a fine team are in place.
Neymar’s presence - and absence - gives Brazil a headache
Still, a side-by-side comparison between Brazil’s squad and those that sides like Spain, France and England have brought to the tournament isn’t especially flattering, while injuries have cost Ancelotti the services of Eder Militão, Rodrygo and Estêvão Willian, further compounding the sense that this side isn’t quite as terrifying as so many that have come before.
There is also uncertainty over the status of Neymar, who was somewhat controversially called up by Ancelotti at the age of 34 even with his club career crawling towards its conclusion. A calf injury will likely rule him out of the first match, at least, and the more pessimistic reports in the media suggest that he may struggle to play at all.
Whether that matters or not is debatable. Neymar may have fallen short of his immense potential in club football but he always saved his best for Brazil – he has a record 79 goals in 128 caps and has been a talismanic figure in a yellow shirt. There has been a debate as to whether Ancelotti called Neymar up because he truly believed that he could step up for his country one last time, or whether he simply thought that his absence would cause so much comment that it could cast a shadow over their preparations. We may never find out.
With or without Neymar, Brazil face an uphill battle to restore the sense of invincibility which became their heritage as they won five World Cups. The 24-year wait for another title has started to become a psychological burden – not quite enough years of hurt to be writing songs about, perhaps, but enough that many Brazilians now bring their crushing 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany in Belo Horizonte to mind more easily than their many moments of past glory.
Brazilian fans don’t come into World Cups which quite as much confidence and conviction these days, although an enormous number of their supporters are expected to gamble on being able to get over the American border – and the presence of Ancelotti in the dugout may just turn hope into expectation for many of them.
They will certainly be expected to beat a Morocco side whose preparations have been hampered by injuries, and it is demanded that they cruise their way to the top of a group which also includes Scotland and Haiti. The question is how much further they can go. This isn’t the Brazil of old. But it’s still Brazil.