So Neymar won’t be a part of Brazil’s campaign any longer. Enough to send a nation of 200 million into a prolonged period of national mourning. Everybody in Brazil is out grieving for Neymar. Prime Minister Dilma Rousseff sends a heartfelt message, legends Pele and Ronaldo offer support, another footballing great, Zico writes columns condemning Juan Zuniga, journalists covering the Neymar incident cry on TV, the audience cries as well – we get it. Brazil is a nation in mourning.
Brazil v Germany – A Brazilian nightmare?
Never before has the loss of one player because of an injury thrown a nation into such a massive outpouring of grief. Not even when David Beckham’s metatarsals were injured in a Champion’s League match, just before the 2002 World Cup, did we see such a massive scale of emotions in England. How important is Neymar really to Brazil?
Well, pretty important. The entire Brazilian football team is built around Neymar. Neymar has played almost all of Brazil’s matches over the past 4 years, scoring an amazing 34 goals in 55 matches. Every Brazilian attack flows through Neymar, He is the creator almost 50% of Brazilian goals, either scoring them himself, or providing an assist. A Brazilian team without Neymar is unthinkable.
But Brazil must cope. In the Brazil v Germany game they must now play in the semi-final with a replacement for Neymar. What are Luiz Scolari’s options? He could choose to play the Chelsea midfielder Willian in Neymar’s position, or go for the diminutive Bernard. Both are quick on their feet, tidy with the ball, good, without being spectacular. Neither is known to score too many goals. Willian admitted as much, saying that he wouldn’t be a like for like replacement for Neymar, who is a goal scorer, while he is more of a midfielder who helps other people score the goals. But Scolari doesn’t have much of a choice here.
Especially when his remaining goal scoring options are a misfiring Hulk, Oscar – who never did much after a great performance in the first match against Croatia, and of course, Fred. Poor Fred. The much maligned, much criticized Fred, perhaps the worst center forward in Brazil’s history. Really, things can’t get worse for Brazil.
But they already are. Brazil’s captain and best defender Thiago Silva is also out of the match against Germany. Thiago Silva’s absence is critical as he is Brazil’s only defensive minded defender. The other three, David Luiz, Marcelo and Dani Alves are much happier attacking than defending. Scolari did try to do something about that by playing the more defensive minded Maicon instead of Dani Alves in the match against Colombia.
Germany, the other team in the semi-final match, wouldn’t mind what’s happening in Brazil too much. For a change, all the pressure is on Germany’s opponents. The win over France in the quarterfinals was critical for Joachim Loew’s team. Having achieved that, the entire team may now relax a bit, as that has got the critical German media off their back, at least for a while.
Germany are a well coached, well drilled team. Leading the German attack is the outstanding Thomas Mueller. Mueller has redefined the meaning of the term center forward, playing as a “false number 9” rather than as a true blue center forward such as, say, Karim Benzema of France, Robin Van Persie of Holland or his own fellow teammate Miroslav Klose. Mueller drifts on the side, drops behind, sometimes allowing his supporting cast of Mesut Ozil, Andre Schurrle or Mario Goetze to take up the striker’s role, but never failing to be at the end of every opportunity presented to him.
Ozil, Goetze, Schurrle have been quite good as sidekicks to Mueller, without setting the World Cup alight themselves. Toni Kroos though, has been exceptional. His vision, ball distribution, imagination have been outstanding. The central midfield for Germany has been strengthened further by the simple act of moving captain Philip Lahm back to the right back spot, with Bastian Schweinsteiger providing the cut and thrust and Sami Khedira working hard as usual. The defense looks a lot better with Mats Hummels back, and forming a serviceable pairing at the center of defense with Jerome Boateng.
The German machine has never looked better. What does this mean for Brazil, a mentally fragile Brazil, already reeling after the loss of Neymar? Not good at all. It is becoming clearer to one and all in the country that their big dream of winning the World Cup at home now looks a bridge too far. Unless Scolari performs a miracle with his side, making them perform far better than their potential and Germany have a bad day, there is absolutely no chance of Brazil getting through to the final. Scolari has always been a winner. But if he is being honest with himself, he will know that he has done enough to come so far with such a limited team.
Prediction: 3 – 1 to Germany.
