FIFA World Cup 2014: No-nonsense Scolari will bank on Brazil's defence

FIFA World Cup 2014: No-nonsense Scolari will bank on Brazil's defence

SAO PAULO: Brazil are seeking an unprecedented sixth World Cup title, this time in a tournament at home which provides as much hope as it invokes trepidation. In Sao Paulo on Thursday, the Balkan nation of Croatia dubbed by many as the Brazilians of Europe - will pose the first challenge to the home country's quest for the sixth title.

They show the direction to the rest of the world, but Brazil are acutely aware that 64 years ago they lost their way playing at Rio de Janeiro's gigantic Maracana Stadium in the final of the 1950 World Cup. A tragedy of war-like proportions, with 200,000 Brazilians witness to it, the Maracanazo has come to be a millstone around the national team's neck. Each time they play at the Maracana, the ghost of 1950 rises.

It is with the task of banishing this feeling that Luiz Felipe Scolari, an avuncular, no-nonsense coach who led Brazil to the title in 2002, was given charge of the Selecao for their most-important, pressure-soaked campaign. It is perhaps with this idea that Scolari decided to do away with traces of the past and recent history - only skipper Thiago Silva, Dani Alves, Ramires and veteran goalkeeper Juilo Cesar have survived from the 2010 squad that so spectacularly crashed and burned under manager Dunga.

All the retained names are defenceminded players - an anachronism in the established Brazilian scheme of things - but it points to a direction which indicates that the coach knows his mind. A pragmatic man, Scolari knows the art of disguising a functional set-up within the idea of fluid beauty. To the untrained eye, his Brazilian teams - most notably the one spearheaded by Ronaldo which won the title in 2002 - have that dash of the mercurial about them, but look beneath the hood and you will find a powerful, finely-tuned engine running the beast.

With Silva, the Paris Saint Germain mainstay, as Scolari's leader of the pack, it is for the first time in recent memory that Brazil's defence is being spoken about in assured terms rather than a brilliant midfield, like the one of 1982 or an assembly of supreme forwards (2006). Both in 1982 and 2006, the Selecao promised much but failed to deliver in the end. A flexible 4-3-3 formation that can slip into a 4-2-3-1 is more of a defence-based formula than an attacking one.

Yet, like in 2002, when Scolari stumbled upon a brilliant Ronaldinho - whom he ignored this time - to do the magic up front with a rejuvenated Ronaldo, the star of the show this time, without doubt, is Neymar. The slight 22-year-old wears his stardom in an easy, casual manner but is constantly made aware of his potential standing in the pantheon of Brazilian greats should he deliver the World Cup to them.

Scolari's detractors feel that the team is too fresh and too untested and that the success of last year's Confederations Cup should not serve as a yardstick for the real thing. Lack of playing time together could prove a deterrent but with most of his squad playing in top leagues of Europe till the final day of the season, the concept of functioning together should not be more than a niggle.

The same goes for Nico Kovac, Scolari's opposite number in the Croatian camp. His two key men - Luka Modric and Mario Mandzukic - have been busy all season for their clubs, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and take the same form into the World Cup.

Kovacs will know a thing or two about the Brazilian way. Captain of his side when the two teams met in group clash in the 2006 World Cup, the ace up his sleeve will be the Brazilian-born Eduardo, who returns home in a very different manner - this time trying to halt the aspirations of his original homeland in Croatia's first step at making history.















Source : times of india