Brazil’s samba has fallen silent. Norway only exposed the rot

The frightened face of Bruno Guimarães when his penalty kick bounced off Norwegian goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland’s palms; a crushed Endrick weeping on his knees inside the box; Gabriel Magalhães slumped in despair after Erling Haaland beat him in the air; manager Carlo Ancelotti staggering into the tunnel with wful disbelief. The images will haunt Brazil—the country, the consciousness of its people, and the football team.The wait for a World Cup has never been longer; their collective game in a World Cup has never looked as bereft of substance; their vacuum of talent has seldom looked as telling; their claim to be the stirring soul of the game has rarely looked as fallacious; the beats of the samba have rarely struck notes of dissonance. Brazil will still be the most successful footballing nation after the tournament. But the truth is unmakable: they are living on nostalgia, slipping into a black hole from which they may never climb back to greatness. Brazil have lost before, and for much of this game they were the better side. But this defeat felt like more than a tactical collapse; it felt like the unravelling of football’s most enchanting culture.
The round-of-16 exit is not so much a wake-up call as a slap in the face for ignoring the red flags that have been popping up for the best part of this century—not merely a prognosis of the malaise that is gnawing at them into a slow death, but its full-blown manifestation.
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Brazil lost not because Guimarães missed the penalty. He took it ahead of Vinícius Júnior, who seemed the automatic choice, because their research team had found that, among those on the field, he was the most prolific penalty-taker. A culture built on instinct increasingly leaning on science and data—inevitable in the modern age—is a striking contrast to the Brazil of old. Anybody can miss a penalty; even Ronaldo Nazário did at his peak. But to ignore their natural goalscorers, all in sharp nick, in a match of this significance would rankle Seleção fans.
Endrick deserves sympathy. At 19 and only two minutes into the game, his heavy touch betrayed a youngster desperate to seize his moment. But Brazilian stalwarts of a certain era seized such moments to become superstars. From Pelé and Garrincha to Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, they, for all their glowing virtues, were mentality monsters.
Brazil team was heartbroken after shock World Cup exit. (AP)
Arguably, the aptest metaphor for Brazil’s fall is Gabriel lying prone inside his box, heartbroken. Not because he was horrific—he had a near-flawless day till the make that resulted in Erling Haaland’s first goal—but because he was knackered then. Brazil’s shortage of centre-backs meant he and Marquinhos could afford little rest. The pair played every single minute of the tournament, masking the defensive fragilities of their full-backs, adding legs and miles for their ageing defensive midfielders.Story continues below this ad
This would hurt Brazilian football the most. The endless carousel of talent appeared to have stalled. The attackers kept popping up, but the stock of full-backs dried up; young defensive midfielders dwindled. Not too long ago, they were forced to leave prime Dani Alves on the bench because of Maicon; Fernandinho and Fabinho had to be content with bit-part appearances because Casemiro was at his all-action-hero peak. No matter how Ancelotti tried to fix the system, cracks remained like open wounds waiting to be rubbed with salt and oil. And he didn’t have the time to groom fresh talent or pick an outrageous gem from the streets.
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The chaotic adminration didn’t help; in the last ten years, they have had four presidents. In their most prosperous period of the modern era (1994 to 2006, when they were twice crowned champions), they had only one president, Ricardo Teixeira. Charges of corruption ended his tenure, but they didn’t end the malpractices. The instability spilled over into the team management too. Since Tite resigned, Brazil have had four coaches in as many years, two permanent appointments and two interim ones. The federation aggressively pursued Ancelotti for the best part of the last three years, but it was only last year that they landed him. The timeframe was too short for him to produce a miracle. In the era of structured footballing progress, miracles are out of vogue.
Resorting to the Italian was an admission of the collapse of their coaching system. Brazil may be the biggest exporter of footballing talent to Europe. But none of Europe’s top five leagues has a Brazilian manager. Beyond brief spells Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Ricardo Gomes and Leonardo, the l is remarkably thin. Argentina, contrast, are overflowing with elite managers: Marcelo Bielsa, Diego Simeone, Mauricio Pochettino, Jorge Sampaoli, Tata Martino and Lionel Scaloni. One in every six teams at this World Cup had an Argentine manager.
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None of these deep-rooted blemishes can be fixed in a day, or even a year. But it has to start soon to preserve the most vivid footballing culture in the world. Lest samba be lost forever; lest the game lose its most dazzling colour. And the heap of broken images pile on.