Brazil's loss Tuesday night to arch-rivals Argentina was much more than just a loss to its greatest rival in history. It was the Seleção's first ever home defeat in a World Cup qualifying campaign, it was the third consecutive defeat of the current World Cup qualifying campaign in 2026, and the fifth of nine matches in 2023.
This loss showed just how much the most decorated team in world football history is at a nadir. An unprecedented low. The Seleção haven't won a World Cup since 2002, but throughout the years, at least the supremacy over the Albiceleste has kept them sane. Now that Leo Messi and his teammates had won in Maracanã, and chants of "Ola, Ola" were heard by the visiting crowd in extra time, it was already too much for the land of samba.
Tonight's game will long remember the violence of the Brazilian police against the Argentine crowd, the clubs that flew to every limb and caused serious injuries, and the fact that the Argentina players came off the pitch even before the game began to protest the treatment of the people who came to accompany them. But even these embarrassing and unprecedented events, even from a South American perspective, cannot really hide the great embarrassment in which Brazil finds itself.
Argentina's players celebrate. Difficult scenes for Brazilian audiences, Photo: Getty Images
Tonight's game was a bad football game. It lasted close to 100 minutes, but football was played maybe half the time. There were plenty of fouls, tough tackles, yellow cards and settling scores between the players, but still, it shows even more the difference we have made in the last 4 years between the teams since they met in the semi-finals of the 2019 Copa América. Argentina has become a team that knows how to win games and Brazil has become a loser, perhaps as never before.
Brazil has quite a few problems, but in the end it all starts and ends with management. It starts with the captains of its association who, since the failure at the World Cup a year ago, have been doing everything crooked. In a country like Brazil, sporting failures are always looking for the culprits, and fingers should be pointed at those who make the decisions. The saga of coach Fernando Dinis, the interim coach, is a big opening for criticism.
Emiliano Martínez stepping in to stop the police from beating Argentina fans
Moment of Brazil vs Argentina
🇧🇷 🆚 🇦🇷pic.twitter.com/gHyRRvNIg9
— Football Enthusiasm (@Footballers501) November 22, 2023
He started the campaign well with a 1-5 win over Bolivia, but the Seleção have been lackluster since then, especially in attack: they have scored just three times in five matches, two of those goals from Keren. Diniz, even if he is an excellent coach, which proved with Fluminenza's win at the Libertadores earlier this month, is a victim of Brazil dreaming of Carlo Ancelotti for a year. Another thing that could clear Diniz is the fact that Brazil are suffering significant injuries: Neymar, Vinicius Jr, Casemiro and Eder Militao – four key players – were missing against Argentina. However, Brazil has used 46 players in the past year, 20 of them in debut call-ups. So Diniz's consistency is also something that must be addressed. He, too, is to blame for the situation.
The players are all currently behind Diniz despite the difficult results. "He deserves to be here," Marquinhos said after tonight's loss. "We ask people to be patient with results because he's a great coach." Diniz is known for his tactical vision. The problem is that his ideas require patience and time, and Brazilians have neither patience nor time. Add to that the fact that the players know that all of Diniz's ideas will probably be replaced by those of Ancelotti, who will probably end his career at Real this May and arrive in the system and you have one big mess.
Another problem for Brazil is the fact that, unlike previous years, it does not have players who are at the peak of their careers and those who are in good shape lack experience. Fifteen of the players called up for the pair of matches against Colombia and Argentina are those who have fewer than 15 appearances for the national side. Once upon a time, in order to wear the yellow-blue-green uniform, blood had to be spit out. Today, the summonses, even if they come because of injuries of one kind or another, do not seem legitimate. The players who are supposed to carry the Seleção forward don't show too much ability in their teams, such as Raphinha at Barcelona or Rodrigo at Real Madrid.
Argentina vs brazil - El Classico South America🔥 pic.twitter.com/7qjQsCnIiG
— Young Frenkie (@Youngfrenkie21) November 22, 2023
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This summer, the Copa America will be held in the United States. In the previous Copa América, Brazil lost 1-0 in the final to Argentina in a game held in Maracanã with limited attendance due to the coronavirus. Since then, Argentina has become the undisputed king of the continent, after which it also won the finalissima and, of course, the World Cup in Qatar. By the summer, Brazil will have a number of games that can be counted on one hand, so the time to fix, to innovate, to try to bridge the difficult situation, aims at zero. Diniz will have to try to make from the lemon, lemonade. The problem is that at the moment his lemons are far from ripe.
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