Jogo Feio: Brazilian Football

[Infield Infidel]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss http://www.espnfc.us/brazil/story/1956577/dunga-confirmed-as-new-brazil-coach
 

 
"We are no longer the best," he said. "This is a project we all need to be aware of. Everybody had a concept of football and the World Cup. We can no longer pretend to be the big guys or that we are the best.
"Before the World Cup happens we sell to the public the idea we're going to win, but we don't know if we'll win. We need to be more modest. It's important to compromise because our opponents always want to beat us because we're Brazil.
"The Brazilian shirt is very respected, but everyone wants to beat us. We have to be prepared for that. We can't think that we'll pull on the Brazilian shirt and win the World Cup before it's even started.
"Nothing happens before the game starts. The most important thing is what happens during the 90 minutes on the pitch because that's when you win or lose."

 
 
Fernando Duarte not exactly pleased http://www.espnfc.us/blog/world-cup-central/59/post/1955891/dungas-return-to-brazil-is-complicated
 

 
Dunga is not the problem here. The appointment of former goalkeeper Gilmar Rinaldi as team director looked puzzling not only because of his lack of managerial experience but also because until last week he was an agent. CBF's arcane handling of the national game, represented by a league with falling attendance and the daunting perspective of playing in empty new stadiums, also comes to mind.
 
Since being humbled by Die Nationalmannschaft, Brazilians have spoken relentlessly about the changes in the German game that nudged Philipp Lahm & Co. toward the country's first world title since 1990. There hasn't been a cull of old directors taking places at their FA, which has had only 12 presidents -- nine fewer than the CBF. Brazil now will also have their 54th managerial change compared to just 10 in Germany.

 
I'll post some more stuff about the comically inept CBF, but I'm sure the brazilians and others on the board have a lot to say.

 

[rodderick]

I have so much to say, I don't even know where to begin. This is fucking laughable, the fact that they are focusing on winning the olympic gold and the 2018 World Cup, and not on a complete restructuring on how football is viewed, played, and players are developed in this country is both sad and pathetic.
 
Winning major competitions should be a mere consequence of a well structured, well run domestic league, capacitated coaches, and focused youth development. Brazil has neither of these qualities at the moment, so now they'll have a national team that plays defensive, counter attacking football against traditional opponents, in order to try to achieve some results, while ignoring the GREAT opportunity that a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany in our home gives us to rethink football here in a global scale. Fuck results, fuck titles, fuck CBF, let's stop, think, convene, and try to figure out ways to turn this around, and then the laurels will come. I don't care if takes 6, 10, 15 years. The process has to start at some point, and this was the best opportunity they had in a while to start going down that path with ample popular support. Predictably, they fucked it up. 

 

[ypioca]

Of course they fucked it up. The culture here is always to win now, bring home the Hexa, and to think about punting and re-thinking our way of doing things is sacrilege.
 
When the 7-1 beating happened, I said here that there was at least a possible silver lining, that it would cause this rotten structure to be dismantled, and we would stop kidding ourselves that, if we would just want it enough, the Cup would be ours. Well, that's not happening. Instead, they brought in Felipão Lite. Just a fucking retread.
 
Dunga will just be fired in a couple of years, when he inevitably fails to bring home the Olympic gold. Or sooner. They will bring in Muricy Ramalho or someone like him, and it's back to starting from scratch, with no vision on how to do anything different. There is no plan.
 
Honestly, the best thing they could have done was bring in people from Europe at the federation level, to show them how to actually fix the system. And this will never, ever, ever happen.

 

[rodderick]

Of course they fucked it up. The culture here is always to win now, bring home the Hexa, and to think about punting and re-thinking our way of doing things is sacrilege.
 
When the 7-1 beating happened, I said here that there was at least a possible silver lining, that it would cause this rotten structure to be dismantled, and we would stop kidding ourselves that, if we would just want it enough, the Cup would be ours. Well, that's not happening. Instead, they brought in Felipão Lite. Just a fucking retread.
 
Dunga will just be fired in a couple of years, when he inevitably fails to bring home the Olympic gold. Or sooner. They will bring in Muricy Ramalho or someone like him, and it's back to starting from scratch, with no vision on how to do anything different. There is no plan.
 
Honestly, the best thing they could have done was bring in people from Europe at the federation level, to show them how to actually fix the system. And this will never, ever, ever happen.

 
Perfect. It will never happen because they don't want it to happen. And it's not because of pride, because they don't think they have anything to learn from europeans, but because the people in charge have absolutely no other interests other than remaining in charge. Not once in this whole mess did your hear anyone from CBF talking about how to improve FOOTBALL in Brazil, it's all about the national team and CBF itself, because the success of the seleção means those guys can all remain in their comfy positions without being challenged by the population (99.9% of which doesn't give a shit as long as the national squad does well), or even the press (no one aside from ESPN Brasil seemed to be willing to stand up to CBF and Felipão before this disaster). 
 
The apathy and lack of drive to fundamentally restructure football in Brazil comes from this fucking extrativist mentality ingrained in CBF. They aren't there to serve, represent and manage Brazilian football, they are there to take from Brazilian football, and they'll die before they take any measures that run counter to that status quo.
 
This isn't exclusive to Brazil. For example, Grondona has been running AFA since 1979, and now the Argentina league is in an even shittier position than Brasileirão is. Sure, they came second in the World Cup, but they didn't show anything of note on the pitch, and apart from 4 or 5 attacking players, the rest of their squad is very average. They are going through similar problems as Brazil is, though not as drastic, and yet they came close to winning the World Cup. That just illustrates how results have fuck all to do with it.

 

[Infield Infidel]

This is a great long-ish article on SI about the state of the game in Brazil. http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/07/16/brazil-soccer-problems-world-cup-scolari-cbf-neymar
 
I knew they played a lot of games, but 80 per year?
 

 
The problems facing the game in Brazil run deep. The average crowd at a top flight game is just 15,000 – lower than Major League Soccer. Fans are kept away not just by the often uninspiring quality of play on offer, but also by inconvenient kickoff times, governed by the TV broadcasters – 10 p.m. on midweek evenings is a common start time, once the nightly diet of novelas (soap operas) has been consumed.
Violence is another factor in keeping crowds down – there have been 234 (and counting) soccer-related murders in Brazil since 1988, mainly connected to the country’s notorious torcidas organizadas (hooligan gangs, or organized fan clubs, depending on your point of view).
Then there is the fixture calendar. Salvador Dali would have struggled to create anything as surreal. Before the national championship starts in May, Brazil’s top clubs play five-month state championships – the equivalent of, say, the Boston Red Sox spending five months of the year playing competitive games against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats or the Portland Sea Dogs.
Such games are often watched by hundreds, rather than thousands of people, and the ensuing fixture squeeze – a top Brazilian side competing in the continental Copa Libertadores, national championship, the Copa do Brasil and state championship can play well over 80 games a year – results in exhausted players and a bewildered, disinterested fan base.

 

[rodderick]

This is a great long-ish article on SI about the state of the game in Brazil. http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/07/16/brazil-soccer-problems-world-cup-scolari-cbf-neymar
 
I knew they played a lot of games, but 80 per year?
 

 
Absolutely fantastic article. That's pretty much it, in a nutshell. NONE of these issues have been addressed by CBF so far, and the fact that no one from this shit pile of an entity has had the guts to have a meeting with Common Sense F.C to have an open discussion about their proposals is sickening.

 

[slamminsammya]

Bem feito, CBF.

 

[rembrat]

So, 7-1, in Brazil, wasn't humiliating enough to beget major changes? Wow.

 

[Zososoxfan]

This isn't exclusive to Brazil. For example, Grondona has been running AFA since 1979, and now the Argentina league is in an even shittier position than Brasileirão is. Sure, they came second in the World Cup, but they didn't show anything of note on the pitch, and apart from 4 or 5 attacking players, the rest of their squad is very average. They are going through similar problems as Brazil is, though not as drastic, and yet they came close to winning the World Cup. That just illustrates how results have fuck all to do with it.

 
I agree that AFA is shambolic as is La Primera (Argentine first division), but I disagree (and this is probably...definitely the wrong place to write this) that Argentina didn't show anything on the pitch. It wasn't pretty, but Argentina showed a stingy defense and an actual plan throughout the WC. Considering this has been a huge problem since '98, it was a welcome change. I mean, look no farther than Argentina v. Germany 2010 and this year's final. Argentina's 2 performances in those games was night and day and it wasn't the players who made such a big difference - it was the gameplan and commitment to defense.

 

[soxfan121]

Dunga is not a fan of crying, hair dye, hats with logos and many other things involving Neymar. 

 

[JayMags71]

Well, that seems like a well-prioritized list of shortcomings. Not at all misguided or superficial.

 

[rodderick]

Dunga is not a fan of crying, hair dye, hats with logos and many other things involving Neymar. 

 
I'm done expecting CBF to take any significant measures in improving football in Brazil. For now I'll enjoy the fact that at least my team plays somewhat attractive football and is well run by competent management. We're an oasis in a desert of mediocrity at this point, so seeing as there's no interest at all in improving the conditions for all teams at all levels, I hope this scenario continues for a little while longer.