Four Brazilian Clubs Are Off To A Near Perfect Start At Club World Cup

Over the decades, Brazil has forged a reputation playing samba football.

It is a dance that teams have done to bring the ball down the field while entertaining fans before scoring a goal.

But that, more or less, is in the past.

Today’s Brazilian game is of a hybrid of several styles. That doesn’t mean players and teams have forgotten how to dazzle fans and foes with their creative style. But they can use a pragmatic approach in this modern age of soccer. Brazilian teams have combined superior skills, speed, grit and coaches’ tactical acumen on the path to success.

Just look at what has transpired at the FIFA Club World Cup after the four Brazilian sides finished their second game of the group stage with a sterling 6-0-2 record. The only “blemishes” were draws by Palmeiras and Fluminense.

Flamengo and Botafogo are a perfect 2-0-0 apiece while Palmeiras and Fluminense are 1-0-1 each.

A surprising start

After his team turned a one-goal deficit upside down and into a sparkling 3-1 triumph over 10-man Chelsea in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, Flamengo head coach Filipe Luís admitted that he was surprised that Brazilians clubs have fared so well so far.

“Because I know the quality of these Europeans clubs, especially the elite of football,” he said during a postgame press conference at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday. “The absolute elite, it’s about 10-12 clubs. I’m surprised that this they have these results is true. Sometimes the weather, they’re not used to this. But what I can say that South American clubs are very competitive. We know in [the] Copa Libertadores that [it] was so difficult to win. It’s so difficult and not always the best win. It sometimes is the most competitive, and it’s a lot of different grass, weather and altitudes. We have a lot of adaptations on our game, and we’re used to this, to this kind of weather.”

Luis was alluding to the hot and humid weather that is expected to follow the tournament to its completion on July 13.

He was talking less than 24 hours after Botafogo pulled off a 1-0 stunner past European defending champion Paris-Saint Germain on Igor Jesus’s 36th-minute tally at the Rose Bowl on Thursday night. Yes, the same PSG which trounced Atletico Madrid in its opener, 4-0.

Botafogo proves its worth

“That’s why I say the graveyard in football is full of favorites,” Botafogo coach Renato Paiva said. “It was really about believing in ourselves. … We played a match that was almost perfect, technically speaking. There were really no opportunities for PSG. We had a lot of team spirit, and I was saying backstage that we won this match making PSG taste their own poison, because we were what PSG has been for some time, which is a real team.”

Botafogo has allowed only one goal in two matches, and PSG’s Enrique gave the winners their due.

“I think it’s normal,” he said. “This competition is very intense and difficult. Every team is motivated, especially against our team. I think sometimes our team struggled against their defense. I think Botafogo is one of the toughest defensive teams in the tournament.”

Flamengo isn’t too shabby as well. The Brazilian side, which blanked Espérance de Tunis in its opener, 2-0, fell behind to the Premier League power on Friday on Pedro Neto’s goal in the 13th minute.

Give Luis some credit as he made two key second-half substitutions that helped turn the game around. In the 56th minute, he replaced Giorgian de Arrascaeta with 34-year-old Bruno Henrique, before pulling Wesley in favor of Wallace Yan in the 82nd minute.

The great comeback

Bruno Henrique and Wallace Yan made Luis look like a super-genius. Henrique connected for the equalizer only six minutes after entering the fray, in the 62nd minute. After Henrique supplied Dani with a feed off a corner kick for the go-ahead goal in the 65th minute, Wallace Yan provided an insurance score in the 83rd minute of the lightning comeback.

The final goal came after Nicolas Jackson was given his marching orders after a 68th-minute red card.

“Well, that’s best part for the for the coach, right? Make substitutions,” Luis said. “They go into the game and score goals and make assists. So that makes me really happy. But the thing that makes me most proud is that [defender] Wesley made a mistake … and he kept playing. So that’s the thing that makes me more proud today. As a coach, the thing makes more make me more happy than this, people who makes mistakes and though and don’t feel the tensions of the game and just keep playing like it was a friendly.”

So, Brazilian soccer clubs can be pragmatic and can play a gritty game, if necessary. Beautiful football might sound great, but it doesn’t always win championships.

During the legendary Pele’s heyday with Brazil, the Seleção won an unprecedented three world titles within a four-tournament span, from 1958 to 1970.

But that was then and this is now.

Some three decades ago, the Brazilian national team began to occasionally infuse other styles into its game.

Change at the 1994 World Cup

At the 1994 World Cup, head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was hounded by his country’s media about his team not playing the traditional Brazilian way in every World Cup match. That side still used the team’s triangle passing attack but added an occasional long ball or medium pass to open up the defense.

Brazil won the 1994 world championship, edging Italy in a shootout after the teams played to a rather forgettable scoreless draw, to snap a 24-World Cup drought.

The bottom line was that the Brazilians won.

What we have learned from international soccer tournaments is that just because a team gets off to a fantastic start doesn’t necessarily wear the crown after enduring six or seven difficult matches.

It takes a combination of talent, gritty, avoiding silly mistakes and blunders, and yes, sometimes even luck on some close calls by game officials.

Saying that, so far so good for the Brazilian quartet. None of the foursome has booked a spot in the Round of 16 just yet, but a positive result in their third and final group stage contests will do the trick.

Palmeiras will close out Group A against Inter Miami CF and Lionel Messi at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. on Monday, June 23. Botafogo will face Atletico Madrid in the Group B finale at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on that day as well. In Group C, Flamengo will take on Los Angeles FC at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla. on Tuesday, June 24. And Fluminense meets the Mamelodi Sundowns at Hard Rock to finish off Group F action on Wednesday, June 25.

“I believe that the Brazilians who are playing here, they’re not thinking about they want to put Brazilian football in a certain level,” Luis said. “We are here because we want to win. But if this is beneficial to Brazilian football, that’s even better. But that’s not why I am here for. I’m not thinking about the Brazilian football as a whole, but about Flamengo and the Brazilian and Flamengo fans, but the level of competitiveness. We really want to make a good World Cup. We want to play well. And it’s true that, indeed, the South American clubs are playing as if it was the final of a World Cup.”

The final is set for MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on July 13. If any of those four sides reach the championship game, it will reminder to any skeptics that the Brazilian game is still alive and kicking.