Translated into English, the Portuguese phrase ‘colhendo os
frutos’ has a simple enough meaning: as you sow, so you reap. But in the
context of the World Cup and when the country is Brazil, whatever you sow, anything
less than the title is not reaped well.
“Second place is never good enough — I know that from France
’98,” former striker and World Cup winner Bebeto was quoted as saying in an
interview in the April 2014 issue of football magazine FourFourTwo.
To get to where Bebeto wants Brazil to be, they will have to
make history. No team has won the World Cup after winning the Confederations
Cup. But the five-time winners have rewritten World Cup records so naysayers
beware! With the crowd behind them, a savvy coach and a settled team enjoying a
sparkling run of form, Brazil are hot favourites to lift a record sixth World
Cup this July.
Brazil have won seven games in a row and 13 of their last
14, and fans no longer wonder whether they can win the competition, they are
expecting it. The worry, however, is whether they have peaked too early.
“We have a good team, in Thiago Silva possibly the best
national team captain but also one that is very young. Germany are big
favourites and let’s not forget Spain the world champions. I wish they win it
but I can’t say Brazil will be champions,” Carlos Alberto Torres, captain of
the 1970 World Cup winning Brazil team, had told HT in Kolkata last December.
Another pertinent question is how they will respond to the
pressure of playing the World Cup at home in front of passionate fans desperate
for success. While the squad announced by coach Luis Felipe Scolari has
experience of paying at the top level in Europe, this will be a different ball
game.
enormous pressure
The only other time Brazil hosted the World Cup was in 1950
when the home side lost out in the final match to Uruguay. It scarred the
nation and made Maracanazo part of football’s lexicon. There will be talk of
‘El Fantasma del 50’ if Brazil start slowly and anxious supporters get on their
backs.
And that’s where Scolari has such an important role to play.
When he took over in December 2012 from Mano Menezes, Brazil were struggling
just like they were one year before the 2002 finals. Scolari’s team went on to
win that World Cup and — this is just as important — redeem the reputation of
the big striker Ronaldo who had collapsed in the 1998 final.
- See more at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/sports-news/football/world-cup-2014-a-nation-s-zeal-for-a-sixth-title/article1-1218517.aspx#sthash.Z3glUQvt.dpuf
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