Are we fools? – 05/08/2023 – Juca Kfouri

The week saw elimination at the women’s World Cup, and the men didn’t do too well either.

There were those who said, after Germany’s 6-0 over Morocco, that at least among them there were still fools in football.

After the group stage, the Moroccans were classified, and the Germans, on the plane back to Berlin and surroundings.

If there are fools, it’s the Germans, or our Brazilians, who lost their spot to the Jamaicans.
Regarding football in Morocco, it should be remembered that men were fourth in Qatar — and Brazil, seventh.

Among the grown men, such figures, those of fools, are in fact increasingly rare or are changing places.

Let’s see, as repetitive as it may be, the performance of Brazilian teams in those days.

In international clashes, whether for Libertadores or Sul-Americana, only Fortaleza won away from home, defeating Paraguayan Libertad by 1-0.

Moreover, in Sula, São Paulo lost to San Lorenzo in Argentina (1-0), and Goiás was practically eliminated there by Estudiantes (3-0); Botafogo and Corinthians won at home, but only by a goal difference, against Paraguayan Guaraní (2-1) and Argentine Newell’s Old Boys (2-1), respectively.

In the Brazilian match, between América and Bragantino, it was a tie (1 to 1).

Let’s agree that the chance of only one Brazilian reaching the quarterfinals exists, something worrying.

In Libertadores, who won played at home: Flamengo 1 to 0 in the Paraguayan Olimpia.

Palmeiras also won away from home, but against the helpless Atlético Mineiro (1-0), victim of the 4Rs that turned into four mistakes —the businessmen who borrowed the club to buy it as debt creditors.

Rubens and Rafael Menin, Ricardo Guimarães and Renato Salvador were smart.

Fluminense, in Buenos Aires, only tied with Argentinos Juniors (1 to 1) and thanks to a goal scored over an improvised goalkeeper and with a lettuce hand, an outfield player, because the specialist was expelled from the field. A game that goes down in the books as the scene of one of the most shocking cases of fracture ever seen, that of full-back Luciano Sánchez, in an accidental bid with the traumatized Marcelo.

Athletico Paranaense took a beating from Bolívar, in La Paz, by 3 to 1, and will have to make an exemplary performance to survive.

And Inter took the upset of River Plate, at Monumental de Núñez, by 2 to 1.

Summary of the opera in the main continental tournament: out of 12 points, only four were Brazilians against foreigners.

If it serves to put the fool’s hat on our teams, it’s too soon to say, because Flamengo and Palmeiras, in alphabetical order, remain favorites to decide the title again. But…

Winning the Libertadores has never been easy, and the global evolution in football projects that each edition will be more difficult, even with the brutal difference between the investment made by our clubs and that of the brothers, as well as the incomparable support given to the women’s team in given to Jamaica.

Brazilian football stopped in time and space when it believed that the talent of the players would be enough. Not enough.

Neither will bring the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who, hurray!, speaks Spanish and will be able to make the transition to Portuguese easily.

Because Pia Sundhage’s Swedish and English prevented her from speaking the language and understanding Patropi’s football culture.

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