There isn’t a spin to be placed on this, no ‘positives to be taken’ from Brazil’s exit from the Ladies’s World Cup. The workforce had a full cycle of preparation, with unprecedented assets, beneath the command of a prime class coach in Pia Sundhage — and can now go away after the group stage for the primary time since 1995.
It’s an unmitigated catastrophe. Additionally it is a melancholic finish to the World Cup profession of the nice Marta — nearly as melancholic as her performances on this event.
– Ladies’s World Cup bracket and fixtures schedule
However Jamaica had been capable of smother that hazard, as opponents have been capable of smother Marta on this competitors. Her sixth World Cup could effectively have been one too many. It has been a while since she has been capable of tip the stability on a person degree. Tellingly, 14 of her 17 World Cup objectives got here within the first three tournaments she performed. The ultimate three introduced only one purpose from open play.
But when she has been overtaken, that’s not solely the consequence of the inevitable decline of age. Additionally it is the product of the speedy improvement of the game — one thing that she did greater than anybody else to result in. In that sense, she is a sufferer of her personal success — which could give a small crumb of comfort on the lengthy journey again from Australia.
Brazil met Jamaica of their opening sport of the earlier World Cup. Brazil gained 3-0, with all of the objectives coming from veteran striker Cristiane. Sundhage took cost after the event. She ditched Cristiane and stored Marta. Which may have been a mistake. Sundhage’s whole reign will now come beneath the microscope — which is suitable, for the reason that whole course of was set as much as be judged on outcomes on this event.
The game has developed to the extent the place there’s typically a tremendous margin between successful and dropping. Brazil produced a wonderful opening win (4-0 over Panama) adopted by a slender defeat to France after which a deadly draw in opposition to Jamaica the place they’d all of the play however created only a few probabilities. The Panama sport was very a lot her triumph. The workforce performed as a collective block, squeezing the opposition into their half of the sphere, working laborious to win again possession and conserving the strain on.
The France match didn’t go so effectively. Sundhage was out-thought. She thought that France had been gradual to recompose their defence, and went with two fast strikers to reveal them on the transitions. Nevertheless it left Brazil too stretched out, and France took benefit of the area. Which brings us to the Jamaica sport, the place the workforce’s limitations had been uncovered, in two key areas.
Firstly, their artistic repertoire proved closely depending on firing in crosses in opposition to weak groups unable to defend within the air. As quickly as they got here up in opposition to extra competent and higher organised defences then they bumped into issues. That is particularly worrying since, after a few years when defence was the main target, Sundhage had not too long ago been concentrating on widening the attacking repertoire.
After which there’s the workforce’s emotional state. Towards Jamaica, because the clock ticked away the workforce bought worse via the course of the sport. The primary half not less than introduced the occasional half probability. After the break, when the screw actually ought to have been turned, there was subsequent to nothing. Beneath scoreboard strain, the workforce didn’t carry out.
Was there an excessive amount of emotional dependence on a Marta who was now not capable of ship? Or was there an inadequate emotional connection between Sundhage and her gamers? One problem which has been effervescent beneath for some time now — and which got here to the floor after the defeat to France — was Sundhage’s lack of proficiency in Portuguese. After 4 years she nonetheless doesn’t converse the language in public and is, apparently, hesitant and halting in personal. She typically appears mystified by her gamers, complaining in the course of the course of this competitors that typically they move an excessive amount of, and typically they don’t move sufficient.
The combination of Scandinavia and South America was all the time stuffed with potential alternatives and threats. In some methods it has labored. The gamers in all probability suppose extra collectively than earlier than, and are much less vulnerable to go to floor on the lookout for low cost fouls. However perhaps, when it got here right down to it there was an absence of an emotional connection when it mattered most.
What occurs now? Marta leaves the stage, and will probably be attention-grabbing to see what she does subsequent. Will Pia keep? She is beneath contract till the 2024 Olympics in Paris, however nothing is assured.
Brazil’s greatest participant within the Jamaica sport was skilled centre again Rafaelle. After the sport she was requested if Sundhage ought to be changed. “I feel we’ve got to consider what’s greatest for ladies’s soccer,” she mentioned. “If there’s somebody higher, with extra high quality, then the game deserves it.” It’s hardly a ringing endorsement.
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