Brazilians obsessed with gold in Olympic football
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Brazil’s Neymar, right, Marquinhos, center, and Renato Augusto, left, take part in a Brazil Olympic football team training session in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday. / AP-Yonhap
By Valter Junior
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil ― There was a time when Brazil ruled football, maybe it was not so long ago, but for the fans it seems it was decades ago. Not only when it comes to winning titles but also in the way the sport was played here.
Many can play football. Few can play the Brazilian way. That was in the past, though. Now the land of the Joga Bonito (Beautiful Game) seems to have stopped in time and is no longer the object of envy from other national teams. Even when Brazilian players amazed the world when they were on the ball, there was something unreachable for them. Brazil never won an Olympic gold medal in football. And when the Selecao ― the nickname for the Brazilian team ― is living the darkest days of its life, the only medal missing in Brazil’s gallery ― the gold ― can still be won and maybe a new era can be kicked off.
With Rio de Janeiro hosting the Olympics, the football tournament turns out to be a huge opportunity to reconnect the team and players with their supporters. The link got weaker when the exodus of the best players to Europe started in the mid 1990’s. Interest in the national team has been decreasing since then, reaching its lowest point now, as poor results and bad performances have become expected, and the board of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) is in trouble with the law -- its President Marco Polo Del Nero does not leave the country because he is afraid of being arrested.
The country has no faith in its strengths after the 7-1 defeat at the hands of Germany, two years ago at the World Cup, and the two back-to-back early exits in the Copa America. Brazil has never been in such bad shape. Brazilian football is on its knees. All aspects of it have been criticized, but there is no path being built to change this awful picture.
In this context, the Olympics Games are a chance to raise the Brazilian football image or risk it becoming worse. The gold medal has been an obsession in Brazil for decades. Every four years a master plan was created to win the football tournament at the Olympics, but the CBF’s approaches caused the same frustrated endings.
Brazil had great campaigns but never felt the taste of gold ― the Selecao won silver medals three times in 1984, 1988 and 2012 and two bronze in 1996 and 2008.
Since the 1996 Summer Games, the manager of the Brazilian national football team has been coaching the team at the Olympics as well. In the only time it was not planned, in 2004, Brazil didn’t even qualify for the Olympics.
This time it will be different. After sacking Dunga two months ago, the CBF decided to put the Olympic team in Rogerio Micale’s hands. He is a next generation coach and he has never managed any of the big Brazilian clubs. Micale’s expertise has always been working with youth academies, always with good results. Although he lacks experience with big events, Micale, a Guardiola’s fan, has what has been claimed for Brazilian coaches: he has studied to be a manager. Brazil’s football culture is dominated by former players working in managerial roles who bring with them only their on-field experience.
“He lacks experience, but he has a bunch of good things. He has a great future. It has been an honor to work with him. I am learning a lot,” Neymar recently commented about Micale.
Although the forward for Barcelona is leading the team, and he has gifted partners such as Gabigol, Gabriel Jesus and Luan, all of them targeted by big Europeans clubs, this team has less expectations on their shoulders than other Brazilian squads had in the past. That can be helpful, but they still have to deal with their ghosts. Whenever Brazil hosted major events, the Selecao suffered defeats that will last forever, as happened in the 1950 World Cup, when Uruguay beat Brazil in the final at Maracana, the same stadium where the gold medal game will take place this summer, and the 7-1 loss to Germany in 2014. Only first place can make those ghosts vanish.
And maybe this lack of faith can be the best way for them to go. When you are not living a good moment it is always good to try new things. In the case of Brazilian football, an Olympic gold medal won’t be a bad outcome.
Valter Junior is a journalist for Metro Brazil. He can be reached at vajunior@gmail.com.