Brazil's Impossible Choice
I am no fan of ESPN's soccernet, even though I check the site almost every day, but for once they got it right. Sort of. Actually, Reuters got it right, and soccernet is where I found it. Here it is.
The situation is both not as bad and worse than the article makes it out to be, so I guess that on the balance Reuters got it right. Parreira, in addition to playing boring and unsuccessful soccer, has left Brazil in quite a bind. He refused to play Brazil-based players (with the rare exceptions of Robinho and Cicinho), with the exceptions of those he was clearly paid to play (more on that in a moment). So there aren't, at present, obvious replacements for players like Emerson, Roberto Carlos, Zé Roberto, and Ronaldão (he's done, face the facts and stick a fork in him -- the phenomenon ain't coming back). Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Kaká should both have another World Cup in them, if they stay healthy, and that's quite a nucleus around which to build. But Parreira refused to give experience to the players who will make up the team around them, so the next year or two will not be pretty.
But Brazil isn't England (and long may that continue), and there's no shortage of raw talent here. Players will emerge -- the CBF hasn't yet screwed up Brazilian soccer so badly that talent won't rise to the top. The on-field situation isn't as bleak as the article says. If the next manager is more daring than Parreira (and that's almost a given) then he will find world-class talent in Brazil.
The problem is the next manager, and it's a far bigger problem than you would know from the article.
Vanderlei/Vanderly/Wanderley/whatever is one of the sleaziest characters around. He lied about his age? So what. His tax returns were only the start. He was taking money from agents to play their players because once a player represents Brazil his value skyrockets. Investigators discovered that Luxemburgo (whatever he may lack in class he makes up for by having a cool name) had cashed a personal check for 800,000 reais. (You can convert that to the currency of your choice here.) Who writes a personal check for that much? A player's agent, that's who. In two years as Brazil's manager, he used 91 players. Many of whom played once or twice, were bought by European clubs, and never heard from again. Their agents took a slice of the purchase price (which is perfectly legal), making the investment in Wanderley Luxemburgo's bank account (which is completely illegal) a wise investment. Parreira is an intelligent man, and lower-key than Luxemburgo (for what it's worth), but surely this is why Diego and Alex made a few appearances in 2004.
Luxemburgo is a talented manager, to be sure, but he is so sleazy (and was such a failure his first time around, which is far worse) that it's hard to imagine that the Brazilian people will accept him. Autuori is a different case.
I remember Autuori well from the two weeks I spent in Peru in 2003. I asked to be taken to a soccer game, so my friend Marta's father (her family graciously accepted when I invited myself to visit her) took me to see his team, El Boys. Sport Boys de Callao, or El Boys, played Sporting Cristal. At the time Sporting Cristal were the defending champions and were on their way to winning another, but their manager (Autuori) had them play an extremely defensive game against a hopeless mid-table team. I had already made up my mind that El Boys were my team (it helps that they have pimp colors), but some time during the second half I decided that Autuori was my enemy. (El Boys would have won the game 1-0, but a linesman ruled a perfectly valid goal offside. I would have joined in the "hijo de puta" chants but there was a family with young children sitting in front of me, and in a way I was their guest. At times I can be quite polite.) As Peru's manager, and then as the manager of São Paulo (where he won his second Copa Libertadores) he played the same negative tactics. His Botafogo team played the same way when they won the Brazilian championship in 1995. Nobody, probably not even his mother, is excited about the prospect of him in charge of Brazil.
And that leaves... nobody. Emerson Leão, who succeeded Luxemburgo, is a great coach, but he demands more attention than his players. And then the players resent him for it. After his six-month stint in charge of Brazil was over, he claimed publicly that the CBF would give him a paper on which to write the names of the players he wanted on the team for the next game, and ten names would already be there. The CBF told him, "You pick the rest." Of course the CBF and its president, Fat Bastard (his mother named him Ricardo Teixeira), deny this. Either way (and I'm inclined to side with Leão), Leão has burned his bridges and will not be in charge of Brazil again for a long time. There are talented coaches out there, but nobody knows where. The next two years could be long ones for Brazil.
The situation is both not as bad and worse than the article makes it out to be, so I guess that on the balance Reuters got it right. Parreira, in addition to playing boring and unsuccessful soccer, has left Brazil in quite a bind. He refused to play Brazil-based players (with the rare exceptions of Robinho and Cicinho), with the exceptions of those he was clearly paid to play (more on that in a moment). So there aren't, at present, obvious replacements for players like Emerson, Roberto Carlos, Zé Roberto, and Ronaldão (he's done, face the facts and stick a fork in him -- the phenomenon ain't coming back). Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Kaká should both have another World Cup in them, if they stay healthy, and that's quite a nucleus around which to build. But Parreira refused to give experience to the players who will make up the team around them, so the next year or two will not be pretty.
But Brazil isn't England (and long may that continue), and there's no shortage of raw talent here. Players will emerge -- the CBF hasn't yet screwed up Brazilian soccer so badly that talent won't rise to the top. The on-field situation isn't as bleak as the article says. If the next manager is more daring than Parreira (and that's almost a given) then he will find world-class talent in Brazil.
The problem is the next manager, and it's a far bigger problem than you would know from the article.
Vanderlei/Vanderly/Wanderley/whatever is one of the sleaziest characters around. He lied about his age? So what. His tax returns were only the start. He was taking money from agents to play their players because once a player represents Brazil his value skyrockets. Investigators discovered that Luxemburgo (whatever he may lack in class he makes up for by having a cool name) had cashed a personal check for 800,000 reais. (You can convert that to the currency of your choice here.) Who writes a personal check for that much? A player's agent, that's who. In two years as Brazil's manager, he used 91 players. Many of whom played once or twice, were bought by European clubs, and never heard from again. Their agents took a slice of the purchase price (which is perfectly legal), making the investment in Wanderley Luxemburgo's bank account (which is completely illegal) a wise investment. Parreira is an intelligent man, and lower-key than Luxemburgo (for what it's worth), but surely this is why Diego and Alex made a few appearances in 2004.
Luxemburgo is a talented manager, to be sure, but he is so sleazy (and was such a failure his first time around, which is far worse) that it's hard to imagine that the Brazilian people will accept him. Autuori is a different case.
I remember Autuori well from the two weeks I spent in Peru in 2003. I asked to be taken to a soccer game, so my friend Marta's father (her family graciously accepted when I invited myself to visit her) took me to see his team, El Boys. Sport Boys de Callao, or El Boys, played Sporting Cristal. At the time Sporting Cristal were the defending champions and were on their way to winning another, but their manager (Autuori) had them play an extremely defensive game against a hopeless mid-table team. I had already made up my mind that El Boys were my team (it helps that they have pimp colors), but some time during the second half I decided that Autuori was my enemy. (El Boys would have won the game 1-0, but a linesman ruled a perfectly valid goal offside. I would have joined in the "hijo de puta" chants but there was a family with young children sitting in front of me, and in a way I was their guest. At times I can be quite polite.) As Peru's manager, and then as the manager of São Paulo (where he won his second Copa Libertadores) he played the same negative tactics. His Botafogo team played the same way when they won the Brazilian championship in 1995. Nobody, probably not even his mother, is excited about the prospect of him in charge of Brazil.
And that leaves... nobody. Emerson Leão, who succeeded Luxemburgo, is a great coach, but he demands more attention than his players. And then the players resent him for it. After his six-month stint in charge of Brazil was over, he claimed publicly that the CBF would give him a paper on which to write the names of the players he wanted on the team for the next game, and ten names would already be there. The CBF told him, "You pick the rest." Of course the CBF and its president, Fat Bastard (his mother named him Ricardo Teixeira), deny this. Either way (and I'm inclined to side with Leão), Leão has burned his bridges and will not be in charge of Brazil again for a long time. There are talented coaches out there, but nobody knows where. The next two years could be long ones for Brazil.
posted by Venha Futuro at 9:33 PM
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