Croatia dances, Brazil cries

It was a duel between those who swim in abundance and those who, for demographic reasons, are forced to take advantage to the bone. And it was won by Croatia, which has less to choose from and less ability to regenerate. Dalic has pushed the best Croatian generation in history to the limit. Where the forces did not reach, the desire arrived. In Qatar he dwarfed Brazil with his disciplined, low-paced football, resistance behind and abstinence in front. It goes from overtime to overtime until the final victory. Tite’s team threw a time, did not hit another and said goodbye again in the quarterfinals on penalties. That crying will last another four years.

It is difficult to explain why Brazil dances. There is no more demanding team in this World Cup and in everything they play, and yet their players never lose their humor. They live and act as if this were just a game, oblivious to the global drama. Perhaps because if the thing doesn’t work out (and it hasn’t worked out for twenty years now) they shoot the pianist, now Tite. But the canarinha also makes exceptions, depending on the rival. And since Croatia was not about to allow the party, she lost the joy that invaded her since the victory against Korea.

Dalic had put Switzerland, a boringly hermetic and attentive team, as an example of an antagonist to Brazil. It was a red herring. From the start, Croatia did not give up the ball and imposed the trade of its midfielders: Modric, almost as a midfielder, and the sloths Brozovic and Kovacic. He also won the majority of the duels, the main index to measure the degree of commitment of a team. He even came close to scoring on a crossed cross from Pasalic, the novelty in his eleven, which Perisic did not finish off well.

Send Modric

Brazil delivered this first collective battle because their poker, almost poker, forwards had lost communication with Casemiro and the wings. The canarinha He had better footballers, but a worse plan. Even so, without continuity, he had some arrival of a certain danger: a Vinicius-Richarlison wall with an unfinished shot from the first, a shiver from Neymar at the hands of Livakovic… Not much for the attack that makes the most noise in the last thirty meters.

Enlarge

Croatia does not devour, but it does cause some paralysis in its victims. She got it with Brazil. Two full-backs outside the big circuit, Juranovic (Celtic) and Sosa (from Stuttgart), were not overwhelmed by Raphinha and Vinicius, who were in airplane mode. And its centrals locked up Richarlison, another who appeared unleashed. Nor did Neymar make a fortune between the lines, among other things because those lines, very close together, walled him up. That is one of Dalic’s great virtues, making what he has seem better than it is. An economic team that comes up when it comes down to it, although in attack it wasn’t a big deal either. That is the surface that time has eroded the most. “Where before there were strikers from Juventus or Atlético, now there are those from Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk or Osasuna,” Dalic often complains. He is right. Kramaric was part of the landscape.

change of extremes

The second half turned out otherwise. In one minute Livakovic saved three goals, from the friendly fire of Gvardiol, Vinicius and Neymar, and An imaginary Juranovic penalty was checked, one of those hands that the VAR tortures until they make them confess. It was not the case. Brazil was beginning to be Brazil. Croatia had commanded in the adage and began to suffer with him lively.

Enlarge

Tite’s rhythm was high and when it decreased, changed ends. Antony for Raphinha, Rodrygo for Vinicius. With Neymar, he did not dare. He knew why. In the first that Rodrygo undertook, Paquetá, favored by a rebound, had the goal. It was avoided by Livakovic, who is more than a hero for a day. He repeated later against Neymar and Paquetá himself. Croatia, seized with fatigue, began to hang on their goalkeeper. That is what Brazil always has: its ability to emerge from the darkness. But the attack did not free him from the extension.

Enlarge

and there it appeared neymar, the differential fact, that he threw two walls until he stood before Livakovic. Scaled by the previous mano a mano, He waited for him, threatened him, knelt him down and knocked on the empty door. It is the nuclear warhead of Brazil and little can be done against it. It seemed like the last word and it wasn’t. Croatia’s resistance capacity is infinite and Petkovic, clumsy from his entrance, caught a shot in the area that turned a touch in Marquinhos lethal. So they decided on penalties and there the success was Croatian. The legend continues.