Brazil's U-20 players have the potential to end their national team's dependence on Neymar
Where have the Brazilian world-class players gone? Brazil have struggled to produce brilliant footballers over the past years and Neymar definitely can not be working on his own to change the painful scenario.
When the Brazilian national team won the Fifa World Cup in 2002, plenty of people were completely wrong when they thought the following years would bring a pile of uncountable glories and tears of happiness for a nation which has always been well-known worldwide because of its squad clogged full of world stars.
In fact, that World Cup title was just the beginning of a tremendous nightmare for the “Seleção Canarinho” and its followers. For the Germans, however, that was a useful loss even without winning the trophy, as they woke up on time and used that 2-0 defeat in the final to boost their football’s reconstruction from the bottom up. As a result, they became world champions 13 years later. What about Brazil?
In the South American football crazy nation, the likes of Marcos, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Dida, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho Gaúcho, Kaká, Lúcio and others would obviously get older. As a result, they would at any moment hang up their boots and no longer play football, as it happened to some of them.
A direct consequence of it was that the “Seleção Verde e Amarela” would have to pick new talented young players to take over and keep pushing each other always to a higher level, the same way Germany did really well. But the problem is that the homework has not been done yet. Since the humiliating 7-1 defeat to Joachim Löw’s side last year in the World Cup, significant renovation or, at least, a small improvement has not been made to save the Brazilian football.
“The success of the Brazilian National team is in Dunga’s hands”, said Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo, the most decorated World Cup footballer of all time. He’s won more titles than anyone. As a player in World Cups, Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962, as a coach in 1970 and assistant coach in 1994. Perhaps the former player could have added one more detail to his speech: “there will be no success and the situation will get even worse if Neymar continues playing nearly alone on the pitch”.
Although the Barcelona star doesn’t have strong characteristics to be a supreme leader, it seems Neymar makes his colleagues feel safer and more comfortable when he’s around. But things seem to be falling apart when the striker is not in action. He is not allowed to get injured or be sent off, otherwise bye, bye Brazil.
Brazil need more players on the pitch to take up responsibilities along with Neymar. Does Dunga have anything in mind?
Brazil Under-20 can give Neymar a hand
The Brazilian crowd were denied the Under-20 World Cup title last month, as Brazil lost 2-1 to Serbia in the final. However, there's hope that the youth squad will hand Dunga a few great players. The future still can be bright. Dunga has said he hopes his side can hit back from the shame of Belo Horizonte and also forget the early elimination from the Copa América at the hands of Paraguay.
One of those young players who can help Brazil achieve this goal is the defensive midfielder Danilo, named as the second best player of the U20 World Cup in New Zealand. Danilo is 19 years old and has just completed his move to La Liga side Valencia, after he left the Portuguese club Braga.
“He’s got quality, is good both tactically and with the ball. He knows how to deal with every single part of the game. He’s a complete player and it’s what the Brazilian national team needs. There isn’t another player like him”, the Spanish journalist Axel Torres told Globoesporte.com a few weeks ago.
Marlon and Lucão are high-quality defenders and both gained the attention of the public last June. The first one is a 19-year-old Fluminense star who showed during the U20 World Cup in New Zealand a fantastic ability to distribute the ball from defense and intercept passes. Lucão plays for São Paulo and he understands that a defender has the obligation of doing the most organising and needs to be able to read the game the best. Pay attention, Dunga!
Jorge is another one who has a brilliant future ahead. He not only impressed the journalists from Brazil but also the sports media from other parts of the world while he was defending the U20 Brazilian team last month. He’s 19 years old and plays as a left-back for Flamengo.
“He had an amazing development during the competition. He was criticised earlier this year because he was controlling the game too much. Now he’s shown he can be faster when necessary. He played an excellent game against Serbia in the final,” admitted the Brazilian journalist Pedro Venâncio.
Marcos Guilherme is another pretty young Brazilian player who can very soon wear the Seleção’s shirt. He’s a 19-year-old talented player who’s currently defending Atlético Paranaense. Certainly among the most important names of the youth squad, Guilherme is the right player to speed up the pace of any kind of game. He’s not that tall nor strong enough to use his body in order to protect the ball from the opponents. But he’s definitely capable of scoring goals and changing a game’s atmosphere at any moment.
In conclusion, the current scenario of Brazilian football is disappointing and fans around the world might be asking themselves: “What’s going on over there?”. Some Brazilians think the country doesn’t have anything else to offer in terms of high quality football.
It might not be an intelligent view though if we consider that there are many talented young players who can rebuild the football in Brazil and bring back World Cups, Copa Américas, Confederations Cups and, the most important thing, the happiness after winning a relevant match.
Any rebuilding process takes time and that’s why it should have been started as soon as the Germans won that unforgettable match in Belo Horizonte. But It’s not an incurable disease. The CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) just needs to wake up and start the revolution.