At the least, ten years. That’s how long it’s been since I was truly delighted with the Brazilian National Team. A Brazil performance against Argentina? Nine years; since our last Copa América title, when Brazil outperformed an impotent Argentina in Maracaibo for the 2007 continental final.
Last night, that same feeling I had when Adriano, Kaká, Ronaldinho & co. came back. And oh, what a feeling. Like The Righteous Brothers best put it back in ’64, I, along with 200 million Brazilians, had lost that “loving feeling”. Until last night, that was. It came back, and it came back with a vengeance. “It almost made the wait worthwhile” was a sentiment left after watching Neymar discombobulate Zabaleta, Coutinho mutilate the defense and rifle a beauty past their goalkeeeper, how Gabriel Jesus humiliated Otamendi (his future teammate in just a few weeks!) nearly to the point of seeing red, literally. And then there’s Messi. Actually, there isn’t much to say about him. Bleak performance. Granted, in today’s football, no single player can truly win alone, except for Messi in his national team, at times – it’s almost unfair how mesmerized some of his teammates actually look while playing alongside the man! But I’m not here as a Messi apologist. I could care less about what he did (or in this case, didn’t do). He’s already had his fun for a while, and now, it’s our turn to showboat. And showboat we did! I’m purely here to celebrate my country’s 3-0 victory over Argentina; which could’ve easily been double that scoreline.
The manner in which Tite’s men behaved before their historic southern rivals was one that gave us an infectiously proud feeling. It was almost art-like. The synergetic fluidity between a set of 11 players possessing both, defensive & offensive superiority toward their opponent, a team compact and intense from beginning to end, from before the first goal came, until well after the third goal was scored, showed the world Brazil was indeed “back to being Brazil” and put the Seleção back on the map. Now, it also gave me mixed feelings as well. To a certain extent, it angered me. And I’m angry because Dunga actually made us (and I think I can speak for most Brazilians) feel that our players, our team, was awful. How far from the truth this is! The difference now is that we have an honorable commander. A real coach, worthy of being at the helm of the world’s football superpower.
Aside from being a world class football manager, Adenor Bacchi (Tite), a coach I’ve followed closely for now 15 years, is a manager of minds, a true psychologist. For this reason, he is able to deploy those players in best shape to the task, without (and this is very important) them feeling sour over losing a position to his teammate. Tite is a fair boss. But above all, he is a boss who worked true wonders at Paulista giants, Corinthians, where he won absolutely every single relevant title with. In fact, it is his Corinthians who were the last non-European club to win the FIFA Club World Cup back in 2012, a title South American clubs obsess over, condition made possible by winning the Copa Libertadores that same year, in undefeated fashion (14 matches), which is absolutely incredible. Why is Corinthians relevant, you may ask? The thinking nucleus, or articulating core of Tite’s Brazil starts with two players whom Tite molded to being essential in offensive transition – Paulinho and Renato Augusto, players vital to his success in that magical International treble period (2012-13 Libertadores, Club WC, South American Supercup) and in yet another magical run just last year in the league, where his Corinthians won while breaking a historic performance record in the Brasileirão.
“Merecimento” is a word repeated over and over by Tite during his almost Shakespearean press conferences when asked about why his team works so well. That word roughly translates to “worthiness”, an imperative characteristic of any squad built by the Gaúcho. And right now, these national team players have all the merit in the world. Tite’s Brazil has played and won all five matches so far, scoring 15 and conceding 1 goal in the process. “Worthy” for the job? I think we all know the answer.
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