That is what Brazilian football at its best looks like. The attractive game — skill and savvy and the Selecão of their canary yellow, literally dancing in joy, with even the manager, Tite, joining in.
This was an ideal game, or near enough, as Brazil cut through South Korea with precision passing, sublime dribbling and the form of performance that reminds you simply what this team can do. It was a 4-1 victory within the Round of 16 for Brazil, which could just be the favorites on this tournament now, not only for the lopsided rating but in the style of which it occurred.
The column headline on the web site for Folha de Sao Paulo, one among the country’s leading newspapers, put it best: “Brasil não dava espectáculo de tão alto nível em Copas desde o penta.” Translated: “Brazil hasn’t placed on such a high-level show within the World Cup for the reason that fifth,” as in its fifth title, back in 2002.
“We dream of the [sixth] title, obviously,” Neymar said in Portuguese, per ESPN Brazil. “But we’ve to step-by-step. It was the fourth game today, we’ve three left.”
Richarlison, who already scored what could be the goal of the tournament with a bicycle kick against Serbia, exemplified that with Brazil’s third goal within the twenty ninth minute. He got freed from a defender after juggling the ball to Marquinhos. An ideal little bit of passing from Marquinhos to Thiago Silva and back to Richarlison later, the Everton striker was slotting the ball past Kim Seung-gyu — a shocking team goal to punctuate a shocking team win.
This was two sides on a unique level, and it isn’t any insult to South Korea, which acquitted itself well within the tournament, to say that. Brazil dominated the ball, it suffocated South Korea in midfield, it passed in a fashion harking back to the Selecão of old, knifing its solution to goals.
“Over time, we grew within the competition,” Vinicius Jr. told TV Globo in Portuguese. “Every game we’re more confident, more in tune.”
From the sport’s seventh minute, when Vinicius finished off Raphinha’s cutback pass to make it 1-0, the match belonged to Brazil. Just six minutes later, Neymar — making his return to the lineup from an ankle injury — rolled a penalty shot in after Richarlison was fouled within the box to drag inside one goal of Pelé’s all-time scoring record in a Brazil shirt.
“Suffering an injury just like the one I suffered, I spent the night crying quite a bit,” Neymar said in Portuguese, “but all the pieces worked out. It was price it, it was well worth the effort. … I believe that each one the suffering now’s valid in order that ultimately we will crown something so beautiful that may occur.
Brazil is now 27-1-4 in its last 32 games across all competitions when Neymar starts. You don’t envy their quarterfinal opponents, Croatia, which beat Japan on penalties earlier within the day to advance. On the World Cup stage, those two countries last met in 2014, when Brazil, the host nation, overcame an early own goal to win 3-1 as Neymar scored twice.
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That tournament led to what Brazilians call the Mineirazo — a 7-1 semifinal loss to Germany on home soil on the Estadio do Mineirào that left a scar on the footballing nation’s soul. This one might just end in some healing, in the shape of a primary World Cup title in 20 years.
There are still three wins to go if that’s to be the case, and so they won’t all be really easy. Brazil will likely be heavy favorites against Croatia, however the winner of Argentina versus the Netherlands looms within the semifinal. The Dutch eliminated Brazil within the 2010 quarterfinals and beat it within the third-place game in 2014; Argentina defeated the Selecão on home soil within the 2021 Copa América final, and has Lionel Messi playing for his last shot on the Jules Rimet Trophy.
Monday, though, was not a day for looking forward. It was one for fiddling with unbridled joy.
The sport had change into a full-fledged carnival by halftime, when Brazil went up 4-0 within the thirty sixth minute. That passing move went from Richarlison to Vinicius to Lucas Paqueta on a volleyed finish.
Perfection made typical. Music made sport.
“May we proceed dancing,” Vinicius said, “until the ultimate.”