World Cup 2026

[HVC]

That's dumb you're not gonna win a physical fight against the nords

[Duque de Bragança]

Penalty for Brazil.

[HVC]

Guess they wanted to give neymar a goal for sympathies sake.

[Josquius]

I have no idea why Brazil got a penalty there and I need to see a transcript of that debate between neymar and the keeper.

[HVC]

Still a bullshit call. And I wanted brazil to win.

[HVC]

So 5-0 Norwegian remains undefeated by Brazil

[Duque de Bragança]

No extra time à la Portugal-Croatia this time, sorry.
Norway 2 Brazil 1

[HVC]

No extra time à la Portugal-Croatia this time, sorry.
Norway 2 Brazil 1

Still got to like 15 minutes extra time, so close.

[Norgy]

Bye, Brazil!

[Josephus]

You mentioned the favellas and there is some truth to that. I've heard it said that today Brazilian soccer players are no longer plucked from the slums kicking tin cans around, but from the European style academies. Problem with that is the people who can afford the academies come from the middle class and that leaves out a huge chunk of Brazilian children, and that is part of the problem.

[HVC]

I wasn't being Facetious. Academies can train great players,  but not with the classic style of Brazil. The beauty isn't there when you build by numbers. Every country can do that (with the right amount to of cash), but few can recreate the old brazil.

Another, lesser, problem is Brazilians leave brazil at larger numbers now so you lose cohesion.   

[Duque de Bragança]

No extra time à la Portugal-Croatia this time, sorry.
Norway 2 Brazil 1

Still got to like 15 minutes extra time, so close.

15 > 12

[Josephus]

I wasn't being Facetious. Academies can train great players,  but not with the classic style of Brazil. The beauty isn't there when you build by numbers. Every country can do that (with the right amount to of cash), but few can recreate the old brazil.

Another, lesser, problem is Brazilians leave brazil at larger numbers now so you lose cohesion.   

What also made Brazil good, back in the day, was that they didn't play the European game. Their game was rhtyhmic, the jogo bonito, less tactical than the European style. But over time, starting in the mid 80s perhaps, they shifted to the European style, perhaps influenced by the fact that, as you said, many of their guys were playing there.

Brazil lost what made them so good.

And, yeah, Pele.

[Sheilbh]

Also just globalisation and everyone being able to watch each other. The days of some team turning up and no-one knowing how to play against them are gone.

I think it's part of why I liked France-Paraguay - bit of a throwback with a team just doing something totally different, that's their identity. Quite rare to see now.

[Duque de Bragança]

Tactically, Brazilian clubs have been importing European coaches to close the gap, i.e Portuguese ones since they need to speak the language.
For the national squad, language matters less and Ancelotti can do a decent italianised portunhol.

P-S: jogo bonito died in 1982, killed by la Nazionale on July 5, precisely.