John Textor must not know what a football game is – 04/06/2024 – Tostão

John Textor, owner of SAF do Botafogo, accused, without showing evidence to the press, that there was manipulation of results to benefit Palmeiras in the last two years. He gave statements to the Civil Police, and the allegations need to be investigated.

According to people who had access to said evidence, it is subjective, based on statistics that occurred outside the usual context. As Textor is neither crazy nor an idiot, I imagine that you believe his accusations, as if football for him was always a logical sequence of mathematical, statistical data. He must not know what a football game is.

One correction. There are six, not four, Argentine coaches who work for Brazilian clubs (Cruzeiro, Atlético-MG, Inter, Vasco, Fortaleza and Cuiabá) and who compete in the Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana. There are four Portuguese coaches (Palmeiras, Corinthians, Bragantino and Botafogo). There are more foreign coaches than Brazilians.

The number of players from other South American countries playing in Brazil has also increased significantly. Is there a preference for foreign athletes, even in clubs run by Brazilians?

Some Brazilian teams played with all reserves in the first rounds of the Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, with the aim of having all the starters in the state finals, which is understandable.

However, the clubs could have saved two or three without losing quality. This is a behavior that should occur throughout the year, as is common in Europe. Furthermore, there is no problem for a player who is physically well to play, from time to time, three times from one weekend to the next. What you shouldn’t do is repeat this for several weeks in a row.

Sunday is state decision day. Players, coaches and fans need to learn that, even against great rivals, it is possible to play beautiful football, with a lot of determination, intensity, without excessive fouls and without disturbances on and off the field.

I repeat, strategic details are important, but there is an exaggeration in evaluating the coaches’ decisions. A team will not lose or win because it changed the positioning of a player, a little further forward or backward.

On Tuesday, we will see a game, in Madrid, between Real and Manchester City, in the first match of the quarter-finals of the Champions League. There are two different strategies. Guardiola does not give up the pressure to recover the ball, his control of the game and the presence of one or generally two open, positional wingers. City uses a lot of triangulations from the sides and passes and crosses to center forward Haaland and others.

Ancelotti does not give up having a trio of midfielders, who play from one midfield to the other, who control the ball, in addition to Bellingham, who participates in marking and moves forward to act close to the two strikers, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo.

Real uses a lot of throws behind the defenders’ backs to allow the two attackers to enter diagonally, especially as City’s defenders play up front. There is no center forward or fixed winger at Real. Vini and Rodrygo are great on the flanks and even more decisive in the center.

They are two very strategic teams with many stars. The ball doesn’t look for the star, as they say. He is the playmaker who knows where the ball will go before others. How does he know? Knowing! There is unconscious knowledge that precedes thought. Neuroscientists call it kinesthetic, movement, spatial intelligence.

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