“It’s not enough to be optimistic,” says Tostão. The most profound of Brazilian football analysts, the man who wore the number nine shirt so that Pelé would wear the ten in the 1970 World Cup, the most beautiful ever, Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade, alias Tostão, issues a sentence . The play of this Brazilian team does not allow them to approach the qualifiers that lead to the 2026 World Cup with guarantees. The results reinforce their vision: five wins, four losses and two draws – barely 1.5 points per day – constitutes the worst tally in the World Cup classification in the history of the most successful team. A team that one day clung to Pelé, Garrincha, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo or Neymar, and on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday (1:30 a.m., Movistar) will face Uruguay in Bahia, entrusting itself to Vinicius Júnior.
Just like in Real Madrid, in Brazil the attack pivots around Vinicius. Like Ancelotti does, coach Dorival Júnior has ensured a model that supplies the winger who plays on the left with more balls than anyone else. First, because no attacker has more minutes of play in equal physical conditions, and second because Vinicius is, according to Opta, the Brazilian winger who receives the most balls per unit of time: 183 in 460 minutes. Martinelli (76 in 186), Luiz Henrique (69 in 172), Savinho (82 in 205), or Rodrygo (387 in 846 minutes) do not enjoy equal prerogatives. At the moment with little effect, since Vinicius has not scored a goal in the seven qualifying matches he has played on the way to USA 2026, although this detail does not alter Dorival’s speech. “Vinicius deserved the Ballon d’Or because he was the most lethal player,” he says.
Vinicius is not alone. Brazil has some of the best defenders on the planet – Gabriel Magalhaes, Marquinhos, Bremer -, it has interiors that Guardiola dreamed of – Paquetá or Guimaraes -, and it has the largest roster of top-level attackers in America. But he plays badly. The draw (1-1) against Venezuela last Thursday places the team in fourth place in the table below Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia, and just one point behind Ecuador and Paraguay, fifth and sixth respectively, in a format that qualifies six teams out of ten directly. The widest margin ever. Some facilities that provided for a festival and that have done nothing but exhibit the hardship. Only in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers was such a suffering team seen. That Luiz Felipe Scolari team was an ode to great ball, but then only four out of ten qualified and Brazil finished the group third, with a higher average of goals and points than it currently registers.
“I ask the fans not to abandon the Brazilian team,” Marquinhos claimed this weekend. “Those of us who are here put on this shirt with great pride, faith, hope and dignity.” The captain intoned his prayer. The prestigious analyst Paulo Vinicius Coelho immediately replied: “The fans did not abandon the team, but the Brazilian Football Confederation abandoned the fans.”
Neymar’s injury
For two decades, Brazil’s game has disappointed as much as it has disconcerted corruption within a federation that is guided more by the principles of commerce than sport. Dorival, the leader of the qualifying project, appointed after the fleeting time of Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz on the bench, and after the failed attempt to recruit Ancelotti, according to CBF sources, has called up 25 attackers in less than a year, and this does not include Lino, the Atlético player, one of the most consistent left wingers in Europe. Dorival is assailed by doubts but he does not doubt Vinicius, even though with him Brazil has five points out of 18 and without him they have won 12 out of 15.
The failed search for a coach who inspires confidence in the players after the retirement of Tite, after the ill-fated World Cup in Qatar, seems to be as determining a factor in the team’s erratic play as the absence of Neymar. The best Brazilian player of his generation began to play in the qualifiers before breaking his ligaments in 2023. The 5-1 against Bolivia and the 0-1 against Peru, two victories in which the injured Vinicius did not participate, were a hopeful start. A year ago, Uruguay in the Centenary ended the party (2-0) coinciding with Vinicius’ return to the team and his last match with Neymar.
“We won’t put on a show from one day to the next,” says Dorival. “But we evolved.” Uruguay in Fonte Nova will put it to the test.
