Brazil enter the 2024 Copa América in flux. A side that routinely waltzes into World Cups as favourites has fallen behind quality European opponents. And increasingly the Seleção are struggling in South America, too.
They’ve yet to find their groove in the post-Tite era. The former head coach was moved on after back-to-back World Cup quarter-final exits in Russia and Qatar. And in the 18 months since Tite departed, little has gone to plan. CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues guaranteed that Carlo Ancelotti would replace Tite by the end of his contract with Real Madrid, and hit on the creative (or unusual) tactic of installing Fluminense coach Fernando Diniz as a bridge appointment until Ancelotti arrived, with Diniz keeping his club responsibilities alongside the national team.
Diniz wasn’t the first choice. He was the second bridge appointment as the federation waited on Don Carlo. Ramon Menezes, the coach of the under-20s, was initially drafted in as an interim while Brazil waited for a permanent coach, but he oversaw a woeful run of friendlies against Morocco, Guinea and Senegal that spurred Rodrigues into action.
Embarrassingly, Rodrigues was ordered out of his office due to a judicial ruling. That was compounded by Ancelotti’s decision to renew his contract with Real Madrid. The CBF opted to stick with Diniz, one of the shining lights of South American coaching, despite him pulling double duty with Fluminense. Diniz set himself a personal mission – bordering on a tactical crusade – to return Brazil to its footballing roots, championing a style of play known as relationism. But banking on style over substance was a flop, with Diniz taking charge for just six games. Under Diniz, Brazil won twice, drew once and lost three games in succession to Uruguay, Colombia and Argentina – the latter in a fully packed Maracanã, which is where Brazil also lost the 2021 Copa América final to their arch-rivals.
Diniz left the job with Brazil sixth in the South American World Cup qualifying group. The who and how of the defeats, were just as troubling: Brazil lost three times in a row for the first time; they lost to Uruguay for the first time in eight years; a defeat to Colombia was the first time they had lost to the nation in qualifiers. Off the field, they were threatened with expulsion from the 2026 World Cup and dealt with fan disorder after a qualifying defeat to Argentina.
With the team slumping, Rodrigues was reinstated as the president of the CBF. His first decision was to sack Diniz. Rodrigues replaced the tactical ideologue with Dorival Júnior, who had just won the Copa do Brasil with São Paulo. He took charge with the goal of getting the national team back on track for friendlies against England and Spain. Back-to-back friendlies against strong European competition would prove a rare test; the creation of the Nations League has limited the national team’s exposure to the best Uefa has to offer, to the detriment of the side’s development.
The European friendlies were a success. Brazil chalked up a 1-0 win over England at Wembley and then snatched a late goal in a 3-3 draw in Spain. The mood of the squad lifted. The quick turnaround had a lot to do with the rise of Endrick. The youngster, who will join Real Madrid after the Copa América, scored the winning goal at Wembley – becoming the youngest ever male goalscorer there and dedicating his strike to Bobby Charlton – and played an important role against Spain at his future home, the Santiago Bernabéu.
Despite being only 17, and the manager’s demands of the football world to be “very careful” with him, Endrick is one of the players that Dorival trusts. His time, so far, has been limited, but he is the face of what is referred to in Brazil as a new “cycle” – the end of which will coincide with the 2026 World Cup and the expiration of Dorival’s contract that year.
Endrick was central again during the team’s Copa América tune-up games. He scored a 96th minute winner in a 3-2 win over Mexico, though was less involved in Brazil’s 1-1 draw with the US. Nonetheless, he will wear No 9 at the Copa, a shirt that weighs heavily in Brazil and which the likes of Fred, Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison have failed to convince in. Endrick is yet to start for the national team, but being handed the No 9 indicates Dorival plans to expedite his role in the team – with an eye on the next World Cup.
The No 10 shirt also has a new occupant. Rodrygo will replace Neymar, who has yet to play a single minute under Dorival after pulling up injured in the Uruguay defeat. But even though he recently lifted his second Champions League title with Madrid, Rodrygo enters this summer under pressure. His future at Real is cloudy, due to the arrival of Kylian Mbappé and Endrick. Comments he said were misconstrued seemed to show him flirting with a potential exit, calling Manchester City the “best team in the world” and saying they “play the best football”.
It’s different for his club teammate. Vinícius Júnior is in the form of his career. He is expected to lead the way for Brazil this summer, and is the favourite to scoop Brazil’s first Ballon d’Or since Kaká in 2007. Adding an international trophy to last season’s Champions League would tip him past the other frontrunners for Europe’s top individual prize. But it won’t be simple. Vinícius has thus far struggled to replicate his club form for Brazil. He has scored just three goals and added four assists for the national team since 2019, the sort of tally he seems to produce in Madrid in a fortnight.
It’s not just the winger that has encountered problems adapting to different styles of play since the Tite era, though. Moving from a rigid positional model Tite adopted at the end of his reign – and which most of the players are used to at their clubs in Europe – towards Deniz’s relationalism was a wonky fit for some.
Adapting to Dorival should, theoretically, be “easier,” according to newly appointed captain Danilo. Dorival’s style is similar to Tite’s – though he has less defensive strength in his squad – but he has also shown a willingness to adapt unlike Diniz, who is more of a doctrinaire coach.
Dorival is now pushing ahead with an overhaul, albeit with ideas that echo how the team played under Tite. He has left Casemiro, Richarlison, Thiago Silva and Gabriel Jesus out of the Copa América squad, dropping big-name players in favour of those who fit his plan and who can grow together before the next World Cup. Danilo says he sees sense in Dorival resetting.
“I think in this transition we have a very important role, which is to be open to new ideas, to changes,” Danilo wrote this month. “It’s about understanding the balance between what can be useful going forward and what really needs to change.”
Given the backdrop, Dorival and Brazil are under no real pressure to win this summer’s Copa América and certainly not as much as Tite was in 2019, where failure could have cost him his job, or in 2021 when the tournament was played on home soil but set against a Covid-tinged backdrop and in-fighting between the coach and the country’s president.
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If anyone is putting pressure on the national team, beyond the usual expectant public, it is surprise sources like Ronaldinho. He vowed to boycott this year’s Copa América, in comments which were a throwback to how Diego Maradona would routinely talk down his national team successors before tournaments.
“That’s it folks. I’ve had enough,” Ronaldinho wrote on social media. “This is a sad moment for those who love Brazilian football.” He called the team “one of the worst teams in recent years” with “no respectable leaders” and “mostly average players”, who have a “lack of love for the shirt, lack of grit and the most important of all: football”.
Once Raphinha called Ronaldinho out, revealing the Barcelona legend had recently asked Vinícius for tickets, Ronaldinho backed down. He said that he would “never abandon Brazilian football” – before shamelessly segueing into a plug for his latest sponsorship campaign.
But the truth is that many Brazilian fans do feel that way about the current squad. Perhaps it is only fresh blood dazzling this summer that can bring the tempestuous back on side.
This, after all, is Brazil. Winning with flair is always the minimum requirement. “For the Englishman, football is an athletic exercise; for the Brazilian it’s a game,” Mazzoni, a journalist for A Gazeta, wrote in 1949. That theory has held for nearly a century, with World Cup win following World Cup win, alongside some of the most awe-inspiring football in the sport’s history. But with the game evolving away from individuality, Tite tried to drag Brazil to a new ideal, preaching discipline above artistry. Under Diniz, elegance was restored; style preferable even to results. Dorival will need to find a third way to re-energise the Brazilian public: embracing the artistry of his young forward line while showing enough rigour to grind out results.
Should they fall short this summer, Dorival can hide behind the argument that the team is a work in progress. But there needs to at least be a vision of what this side is building towards.
In a Players’ Tribune column, Danilo acknowledged the discontent. “For a long time, we haven’t been good enough,” Danilo wrote. We are a group with a lot of hunger, and a lot of pride in representing our country. At the same time, we see and hear what is being said about us. Every player who wears the yellow jersey feels the weight of it, no matter what people say. ‘We don’t feel the pressure’. Bullshit! It’s Brazil. You always feel pressure”
Brazil have traditionally not taken Copa América seriously, which, in part, explains how Argentina and Uruguay have won 15 titles to the Seleção’s nine. Yet reclaiming that title lost to the Albiceleste at the Maracanã would help convince some that Dorival is the right man to lead the team to the 2026 World Cup, while also restoring the pride that many have lost in the national team.
Source: theguardian.com
