Neymar, the New King of Brazilian and World Football. (Photo: Jorge William / O Globo)
Under Dunga and Mano Menezes, the Seleção were never playing Brazilian football the way Brazilians and lovers of Brazilian football wanted them to play, and Brazil’s coaches stopped using the greatest advantage Brazil had over any national team or club team: superior skill and creativity.
Under Felipão who was obviously not new to coaching Brazil, other national teams, or high-profile club teams, Brazil combined three things: 1.) elite defenders with the technical skill of elite midfielders; 2.) intimidating and highly-skilled defensive midfielders who weren’t just providing defensive coverage; and, 3.) attacking midfielders and forwards who returned Brazil to the glory days of the likes of Pelé, Sócrates, Zico, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, and Kaká.
Brazil now has the best defenders in the world, and Brazilian defenders and defensive midfielders are by and large tall and strong athletes who are also technical masters.
What Felipão and Brazil did was use bigger, faster, and more athletic defensive players who were also highly-technical and creative players who played soccer the Brazilain way, which has proven to be the best and most successful form of football in all of world football.
While not all of the Starting XI is set in stone, Felipão has formed a cohesive group of players while still allowing some minor adjustments and changes in players depending on circumstances and the form of the players.
Brazil’s line-ups and tactics make sense, and the players who are often the substitutes are honestly better than most players starting for other national teams.
Maicon has returned to form with Roma. (Photo: Tony Gentile / Reuters)
Voicing one’s opinion about who should be on the Seleção roster is one of the quickest ways to be called an ignoramus by Brazilians and non-Brazilians alike. The root of the problem is the sheer amount of not just world-class but truly elite players in the Brazilian player pool. Any list of 23 players for the Brazilian national team always leaves out players who are truly elite players who can put even many of the world’s best players to shame.
Unlike Spain who has been on top of world football in recent years due to a core group of world-class players from basically one generation of players, Brazil has been producing a steady stream of world-class talents who exceed the amount of roster spots available on the Seleção.
Even a player like Diego have seen somewhat limited international appearances with the Brazilian national team, despite being widely-considered one of the best playmakers in the world and one of the very best players in the Bundesliga for many years. Recently, Diego enjoyed two outstanding seasons with Atlético Madrid including a Europa League trophy where he was the playmaker for Falcao, but even all of this didn’t make Diego a Seleção regular.
Any roster proposal for the Brazilian national team brings with it the inevitability of criminal snubs of truly elite players of every position.
World Soccer Source proposes the following 23-man roster for the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil with the obvious potential for changes in opinion as the World Cup approaches.
Explanations for the roster will be provided after World Soccer Source’s Seleção roster proposal.
Here is this writer’s preferred Seleção roster:
GOALKEEPERS: Julio CESAR, RAFAEL, JEFFERSON
CENTER BACKS: Thiago SILVA, David LUIZ, DANTE, DEDÉ
OUTSIDE BACKS: MAICON, Daniel ALVES, MARCELO, MAXWELL
Since the time of Lúcio, Brazil has boasted better center backs than Italy, and Brazil now has center backs in the same league as Lilian Thuram.
Thiago Silva is widely considered the best center back in the world, and David Luiz is also widely considered to be on anyone’s shortlist of best center backs.
Salvador’s own Dante put in a master class with Bayern Munich last year where many observers considered him the most important player for Bayern and the most valuable player in the Bundesliga.
Now, Brazil has three center backs who are widely considered above basically all other center backs, and domestic-based Dedé is himself a monster of a center back who is sought after by all of the world’s top clubs.
Dedé doesn’t have the same fame as the other three, but Dedé is a complete center back whose size and physique are matched by his technical ability, his defending, and his athleticism. Dedé is not just a towering and intimidating center back; Dedé is a skillful and agile center back who can shadow mark anyone.
The other center backs of note are Marquinhos of Paris Saint-Germain and formerly of Roma and Leandro Castán of Roma. The coming months will be a duel between Dedé, Marquinhos, and Leandro Castán to wear the yellow jersey of Brazil in Brazil for the World Cup.
Luiz Gustavo and Casemiro give the Brazil roster two players at something close to the midfield destroyer position known as the cabeça de área role in Brazilian Portuguese. The English term midfield destroyer is a bit of a misnomer for this role with the Seleção as anyone playing for the Seleção is an extremely technically-skilled player with an outstanding overall skill-set in terms of touch, passing, movement off the ball, and vision.
Paulinho and Ramires give the Brazilian national team two box-to-box midfielders who are complete two-way midfielders who offer as much of an attacking and scoring threat as they offer defensive coverage, running, and tackling.
Paulinho and Ramires are referred to as volantes (steering wheels) in Brazilian Portuguese, which is the general term for defensive midfielders, but thinking of Paulinho and Ramires as players who mainly bring defensive coverage to the Brazilian midfielder would be off base. A volante as opposed to a cabeça de área is a box-to-box midfielder
Brazilians refer to attacking midfielders as meias, which is also the general term for midfielders, but more and more meias are listed as atacantes, which is the term for forwards or attackers.
Although there is a host of second strikers and outside forwards in the Brazilian player pool, currently there is somewhat of an absence of elite first strikers in the Brazilian player pool with the exception of Pato.
Of all the Brazilian first strikers currently on the scene, only Pato possesses the ability to simply dribble straight through elite defenders or easily finish passes with first time shots against elite competition. Pato suffered from chronic hamstring and gluteal muscle pulls with AC Milan either due to the sheer explosiveness of his acceleration from a dead stop to a full sprint or due to incompetence on the part of Milan’s medical staff, and even Kaká has made comments about the Brazilian national team having better doctors and physical therapists than AC Milan.
In addition to Pato, Leandro Damião, who lives to do rainbows, is the most ruthless and skilled of the Brazilian first strikers. The other contenders are Jô and Fred, but none of these strikers except Pato have shown anything close to being in the same solar system with Ronaldo. Ronaldo had everything: two-footed finishing, blazing speed, magic feet, a full arsenal of tricks that could leave any defender for dead, and an ability to just score at a prolific rate against anyone, anywhere, anytime.
This writer included both Ronaldinho and Kaká over Willian and Jô or Fred (even though they don’t play the same positions), and opinions on Ronaldinho and Kaká vary from person to person.
This season Ronaldinho has shown that he still has the will power, the fitness, and clearly the skill to play against anyone, but many people view Ronaldinho as past his prime.
Likewise, Kaká is somewhat out of favor, but anyone who saw his speed, endurance, technical ability, passing, and shooting in recent games saw a Kaká who looked more than equipped to excel and produce at the highest level. Kaká even netted a true golaço against Lazio.
The World Soccer Source Brazil Starting XI:
Julio CESAR; MAICON, Thiago SILVA, David LUIZ, MARCELO; RAMIRES, PAULINHO; OSCAR, KAKÁ, NEYMAR; PATO.
A more standard Seleção Starting XI might be something more like this:
Julio CESAR; MAICON, Thiago SILVA, David LUIZ, MARCELO; Luiz GUSTAVO; PAULINHO; LUCAS, OSCAR, NEYMAR; FRED
Neymar’s left-footed golaço past Iker Casillas. (Photo: AP Photo)
Supposedly, the United States Soccer Federation has been studying Brazilian soccer for years, and looking at some of the young MLS players and younger American products, maybe the USSF and MLS are placing a higher premium on technically-skilled players than they used to.
Nevertheless, Brazil’s Confederations Cup formations and starting line-ups are a good case study for the USMNT, even if the USMNT doesn’t have players who are as skilled as the very best Brazilian players.
The Seleção is the model that U.S. Soccer should look to study and emulate.
Brazilian soccer is based on skill and allowing the players the freedom to express themselves with the ball, which is Brazil’s main weapon against opponents, but Brazilian soccer is not without defense, tactics, or strategy.
Brazilian players are allowed the freedom to be more creative with the ball than other national teams, and Brazilians don’t base their attack on merely sending in a steady stream of crosses into the box without a clear target. The premium on working the ball around mostly on the ground is so high that many of the passes that the Brazilian national team executes in its own final third are very risqué by other national teams’ standards.
After a series of games intended to find his best formation and combination of players, Felipão found a strong and balanced Seleção XI right before the 2013 Confederations Cup started.
Traditionally, Brazil uses a 4-2-2-2 formation, but the Confederations Cup formation was more akin to a 4-2-3-1 where the right attacking midfielder and left attacking midfielders were really almost forwards.
There was nothing new or revolutionary about Felipão’s tactics, but they were well-designed and perfectly implemented. In the 4-2-3-1 formation, Brazil mostly used this XI below:
Julio Cesar; Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Marcelo; Luiz Gustavo, Paulinho; Hulk, Oscar, Neymar; Fred.
The Seleção almost always exclusively uses two center backs, who have the technical ability and speed of a defensive midfielder, and outside backs that provide width to the attack while always defending the flanks with speed and skill.
In front of the defense, Brazil normally uses two defensive midfielders: one who is more of a midfield destroyer (Luiz Gustavo) and another who is a box-to-box midfielder (Paulinho).
These two players were one of the keys for Brazil’s success because they brought needed defensive skills to a midfield that allowed Brazil to win the ball back without sacrificing technical ability. They also ran without tiring.
There is some important background information about Brazil’s use of defensive midfielders.
It’s fairly well-known that Brazil uses a system of normally two defensive midfielders. One of them plays deeper and doesn’t really go forward, and this midfield destroyer is called a cabeça de área or a volante de contenção. In addition to this player who is associated with the number 5, there is also a more box-to-box midfielder who is associated with the number 8 and called a “volante.” “Volante” is a general term for any defensive midfielder, and it means “steering wheel.”
In front of these two defensive midfielders, Felipão used a line of three attacking midfielders where Oscar was the playmaker (meia-armador) in the middle and Neymar and Hulk were really almost forwards just lining up out left and right on paper.
Likewise, Jürgen Klinsmann has begun to at least iron out a tactical formation. Recently, Klinsmann starting using a 4-2-3-1 formation where two different kinds of defensive midfielders lined up behind three attacking midfielders and a striker. At times, Klinsmann used two strikers during the Gold Cup.
Klinsmann’s switch to the 4-2-3-1 formation was a deviation from his previous use of three defensive midfielders, but Klinsmann has still never fielded three highly-skilled attacking midfielders like Landon Donovan, Joe Benny Corona, and Clint Dempsey at the same time.
In the Gold Cup, a midfield destroyer was used next to an attacking midfielder (Stuart Holden or Mix Diskerud), who was impersonating a box-to-box midfielder, who both lined up behind a line of three attacking midfielders, and this formation and its tactics are covered in detail in other recent World Soccer Source articles.
This formation is somewhat similar to what Felipão used during the Confederations Cup.
Klinsmann is well-aware of how Brazil plays and surely studied their tactics during the Confederations Cup closely, but looking at how Brazil played and why it worked is something that Americans and non-Americans might be wise to do.
This Brazilian midfield formation outlined above is something that Klinsmann has used with the USMNT, but many of Klinsmann’s right and left midfielders in World Cup qualifiers have been players who are either married to the sideline or just looking to play crosses or both.
Klinsmann has used Geoff Cameron as a midfield destroyer with Michael Bradley as a box-to-box midfielder, and in Gold Cup games without Bradley or Cameron, Klinsmann has used Joe Benny Corona as a playmaker flanked by attacking midfielders on the right and left with a striker up top.
The system that Brazil used is a perfect example for the USMNT to study and implement, even if it isn’t as good as the Brazilian version.
Certainly, the USMNT can use a similar set-up to Brazil, which other national teams and clubs also use, even if the overall skill level of all the players is nowhere near Brazil’s.
Tactically, the balance of that Brazilian squad was perfect.
The team was difficult to beat with speed or skill down the middle, and the flanks were patrolled by outside backs, who posed a two-way threat.
Additionally, when the outside backs attacked, the defensive midfielders dropped back to fill the hole left by the outside backs.
Finally, with a playmaker like Oscar combining with Neymar, Hulk, and Fred, the attacking threat was too much for Spain who were humiliated by Brazil in the Confederations Cup Final.
For all the stereotypes of Brazil not defending, Brazil’s 2013 Confederations Cup squad showed not only good team defense through pressing, but they also displayed outstanding individual defenders in the line of two defensive midfielders and in the defensive back four.
This system is essentially what Jürgen Klinsmann is trying to implement with the United States Men’s National Team, and frankly some of his player selections do not seem to have the physical gifts and skills to fulfill their required roles.
To Klinsmann’s credit, in the Gold Cup, he did use a formation that was similar to Brazil’s, but now it’s time to put the higher-level players together in a balanced starting line-up.
The USMNT hasn’t yet used outside backs or center backs like Brazil uses, and given how obvious it is to start Geoff Cameron, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Joe Benny Corona, Clint Dempsey, and Jozy Altidore as the Front Six, Klinsmann will have to start using faster and more skilled center backs who are flanked by modern outside backs who pose an attacking threat and who defend out wide.
While Brazil uses Daniel Alves at right back and Marcelo at left back, Jürgen Klinsmann refuses to use any of the new MLS outside backs like Chris Klute, DeAndre Yedlin, or Andrew Farrell who at least attempt to play with the same aggressive attacking style down the sideline and who can defend skillful and quick attackers.
At center back, Klinsmann has never fielded two players who combine athleticism, technical ability, and the defensive skills of quick, strong, and talented defensive midfielders like Geoff Cameron.
The Brazilian way is one way for the United States to start improving its level of play, but Jürgen Klinsmann will have to field the players with the right tools because the Brazilian way is rooted in having technically-gifted players at every position, even the most defensive positions.
Neymar opened the scoring with a half-volleyed golaço. (Photo: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP)
Neymar silenced his critics with a half-volley golaço in the third minute of Brazil’s opening Confederations Cup match against Japan in Brasilia.
On a field that resembled a slip ‘n slide, Brazil’s three goal victory over Japan was exactly the sort of emphatic win that Brazil needed to get their foreign and domestic critics off their backs.
All three Brazilian goals were golaços, which gave the Seleção the satisfaction of knowing that they not only defeated Japan easily, but that the goals were electrifying enough for a not easily impressed Brazilian public.
Brazil’s first goal came courtesy of a Marcelo cross, which was chested down to Neymar by Fred, and Neymar half-volleyed Fred’s chested pass into the upper 90.
It was a goal that showed why Neymar’s technical ability is so revered worldwide. Neymar’s golaço registered high on the difficulty scale, and it will likely lift some of the pressure off his shoulders and allow him to play with more joy in Brazil’s upcoming games.
The second Brazilian goal was scored by Corinthians’ goal-scoring box-to-box midfielder, Paulinho (a player heavily linked with Inter Milan), and the goal off the half-turn showed his ability to score goals from the midfield.
While Neymar’s goal was the most riveting of the three goals, the third goal where Jô megged the Japanese goalkeeper was an example of Oscar’s excellent passing ability, as Oscar threaded an expertly-weighted pass through the Japanese defense. Both Oscar’s pass and Jô’s finish were equally artistic.
Japan is a technically-skilled team, but this game against Brazil offered little in the way of highlights or positive points for Japan. The grass was way too soft, wet, and slippery for both teams, so the field conditions weren’t really the main problem with Japan’s play. Japan is a team that played well-below its ability, and this loss should provide the Japanese coaching staff with plenty of video evidence of areas that need to be improved in the upcoming games.
This was an important statement game for both Neymar and the Seleção, and Brazil’s convincing victory was just what the Brazilian national team needed to build up some new hope and confidence, in addition to gaining the respect of its fans again.
