Why Brazil Failed in the U17 World Cup
Bruno Romani | Nov 04, 2009 | Comments 4
The same way the U20 World Cup generated some analysis, the failure of the U17 deserves even more talk. First of all, being eliminated in group that had Mexico, Switzerland and Japan is a shame. There is simply no excuse.
This pathetic elimination was so bad that no projections for the future can be made. The U17 deserves words that break down what happened in Nigeria. As I see it, there are two reasons for Brazil’s youth team leave such a bad impression. One is structural.
The process by which player are selected are, to say the least, very shady. Reports of agents and relatives buying out calls, or exchanging favors, pop in blogs and among Brazilian journalists. Besides the obvious names, like Neymar and Coutinho, players who do not have the skills keep getting called for business reasons. And given the faulty coverage that the Brazilian media/press does of youth tournaments, it is almost impossible for the regular fan know who should be called. The youth squads do not have the pressure that the adult team has, and the greedy individuals take advantage of that. All this is not to mention the questionable names in the staff, including the coach – who is someone nobody knows.
The other reason is within the players. This generation is the proof that Ronaldinho Gaucho was a bad influence in the Brazilian youngsters. And I’m not talking about Ronaldinho as a person, but for what he represents. Laziness, arrogance and the impression that he can decide a game whenever he can – even though most of the time this never becomes reality. This Brazilian youngsters don’t even have the game but have the attitude. And this is terrible because, at least, Ronaldinho at some point was the genius that he still thinks he is. A little bit more humility, kids.
For some reason, a voice in the back of mind keeps blaming videogames for that. This generation that grew up playing FIFA/Pro Evolution/Winning Eleven sees the beautiful game from a perspective that magic is happening all the time and little work should be done. Wrong. For the magic to happen, a lot of work has to happen.
If the structure and the attitude of generations to come don’t change, it is very likely the sound of failure will keep striking Brazil’s youth squad.
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Filed Under: Featured • U17 World Cup • World Football
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Great re-cap!!!! Bruno!!! Totally agreed with you. This U17 team is totally disgrace to Brazilian. They were cocky, lazy and disorganised. See how Mexico and Japan played with their heart and fighting spirit, and also Ghana team in U-20 final. Coutinho and Neymar are the biggest overrated player in the tournament. They only know how to play fancy 1 – 2 but never produce a real threat. I don’t understand why the coach still keep Neymar in the starting line-up when he was not performing against Japan and Mexico. Neymar is too skinny and soft. I don’t see any great potential from him. The defence was awful. The midfielder was totally disorganised. I hope these kids learn their lesson well. Even cocky Ronaldinho has learned his lesson well. Now he knows that he has to work harder to become the real world champion.
jzlim11, thanks a lot.
I think Neymar is a good player – at least in the beginning of the year he showed that. But, after that, the media and the fans put him in a place where he does not deserve to be yet. They kept calling him the new Robinho (and remember, when Robinho played for Santos, he was a genius), and this and that. I think Neymar believed too much that he was the that great. But he is still young and hopefully he will learn.
What’s more difficult to swallow is the business side that keeps calling people who should not even be there.
Hi jzlim11,
look what Neymar did on the weekend here:
http://www.seethecup.com/brazil/brasileiro-sao-paulo-reaches-the-top-for-the-first-time/
[...] cards they received as the reason for their group stage exit, which is a sorry excuse. Bruno has an excellent piece on what happened that I highly [...]