The GOAT debate in football is tedious, overplayed, exhausting, and as evidenced by how many people seriously consider Cristiano Ronaldo to be the greatest player of all time, often very, very stupid. Any entity that measures success in likes or views or retweets or comments has a vested interest in stirring the debate anew, and people and pundits will inevitably gravitate towards favoring the players they actually saw play, especially if advancements in filming and broadcasting meant they were able to watch them play more easily, more clearly, and colorfully.
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Pelé, the greatest footballer of all time, died in São Paulo today at the age of 82 after a lengthy battle with colon cancer.
I plan to update this post with some lengthier observations, and please leave your own tributes in the comments; I’ll include as many of them as I can. In the meantime, I can suggest a few assorted pieces of reading and viewing.
The Ringer’s Brian Philips dedicated the last episode of his 22 Goals podcast to Pelé and his famous goal in the 1958 World Cup final, the one this blog chose as the greatest Seleção goal of all time. Pelé also features in the penultimate episode, about Carlos Alberto’s goal in the 1970 final.
Netflix’s documentary Pelé combined some wonderful historical footage with an honest look at the man as he was in the throes of old age.
And here’s Pelé with his Argentine counterpart Diego Maradona—himself also deceased not terribly long ago—putting aside (well, somewhat) the question of who’s the greatest to have a little fun together.
SB Nation’s Jon Bois has a great video on 1980s baseball star Lonnie Smith, who won the World Series three times and then overcame a cocaine addiction to put together one of the greatest seasons in MLB history, but is instead remembered for failing to score the winning run in game 7 of the 1991 World Series because he lost track of the ball while rounding second base. Jon tries to talk through the play before he rewatches it to see if that’ll dull the pain, still so strong even after more than two decades. It, uh, doesn’t work:
“Go! GO! GO! FUCK! Go, go, go, go, go! Shit! Ah, holy shit. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Ah, fuck.”
JON BOIS
Two decades from now, I think we’ll still be reacting to Croatia’s equalizer in pretty much the same way as Jon reacted to Lonnie Smith’s blunder.
Fuck.
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Now that might have been the spark we needed.
After the loss to Cameroon, I wrote that I expected Brazil to still look tepid in their round of 16 match against South Korea, and that the big, palate-cleansing win we were all hoping for seemed like a distinct improbability. Instead, on the back of a barnstorming first half, we cruised to a 4-1 win with a joyfulness we haven’t often seen from Brazil, especially in World Cup play, for quite some time.
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With advancement to the Round of 16 secured after two games, Tite sent out the B team to play Cameroon, and they almost, but not quite, threw away our first-place finish in the group. Black Matt popped up to write a wonderful breakdown of that and the entire group stage, and you should definitely read his much-more-detailed thoughts on the matter, but for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts:
Continue readingOne of my favorite shows of the last five years is called The Good Place. One of the main characters in the show is a philosophy professor named Chidi Anagonye. Chidi is a good man, and a very intelligent one, but he has one fatal defect: The inability to make a decision. Due in part to his own self-awareness, he is constantly in a state of mental turmoil, questioning not just his own actions, but the thoughts behind them, wondering what biases they may be the result of. In one scene, the show flashes back to when he was a kid, tasked with picking his team for a schoolyard football game. It’s an exercise in frustration — Chidi can’t pick a single teammate.
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Casemiro is a fucking king. Brief thoughts on our 1-0 win over Switzerland:
- I kind of doubted that Neymar’s absence would be a huge detriment, but it obviously was. As Black Matt pointed out in the comments, I should have remembered that Neymar just sucks up so much attention that his mere presence opens up space for others, even if he’s not doing much himself.
- I thought Tite made a pretty significant tactical blunder in taking Lucas Paquetá off for Rodrygo at halftime. The “screw the midfield” 4-2-4/4-1-5 has worked pretty well most of the times he’s tried it, but without creative passing to link the defense and the attack, it can get pretty staid. With Neymar injured and Paquetá off the pitch, it was up to Fred and Rodrygo to provide that impetus and they couldn’t, giving up the ball to Switzerland more often in the process. Things improved notably after Bruno Guimarães’ introduction for Fred some 15 minutes later, even though he didn’t have that great of a game. Tite gets some credit for recognizing his mistake quickly and making a new change to reestablish control of the game.
- One yellow card through two games! And it’s to a player we’d probably all like to see play less! A massive improvement from our disciplinary record in past World Cups, which was already pretty good.
Brazil vs. Cameroon
Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail, December 2, 2022
Kickoff: 2:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM BRT / 7:00 PM GMT
US TV/Streaming: FOX / foxsports.com/live ; Telemundo / Peacock
Possible Starting Lineup: Ederson, Daniel Alves, Militão, Bremer, Alex Telles; Fabinho, Bruno Guimarães; Antony, Rodrygo, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli.
Injury and Suspension Report: Neymar (ankle sprain + edema); Danilo (ankle sprain); Alex Sandro (hip). Several players (Neymar, Antony, Alisson, Vini Jr., Paquetá) have reportedly caught some sort of stomach bug that’s going around the group. FIFA protocols do not require that they test for COVID. Nobody is suspended.
Discipline Report: Fred has one yellow card.
Notes And Storylines
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In our first match of the World Cup, we produced an excellent second half and a solid 2-0 win over Serbia, but lost Neymar and Danilo to ankle injuries which are likely to keep them out for at least the rest of the group stage. Some quick pros, cons, and other takeaways from that match:
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I meant to have some post up sooner than now.
We’re now less than a week three days away from Brazil’s first game at the World Cup, when those of us based in the US will be faced with the hard choice between celebrating Thanksgiving and watching the Seleção take on Serbia. In my head, I wanted to have already written a post responding to Tite’s final squad selection and use this as more of a preview / “what are our chances?” post ahead of that game. Unfortunately, I moved last week, and that kind of took up most of my time.
Anyways, here’s Brazil’s squad for the World Cup. It is still—knock on fucking wood—unchanged since Tite announced it on November 7th. While other teams are seeing star players drop like flies, thus far (keeps pounding on wood) nobody in this actually quite good squad has yet been cut due to injury:
GOALKEEPERS
Alisson – Liverpool (ENG)
Ederson – Manchester City (ENG)
Weverton – Palmeiras (BRA)
FULLBACKS
Alex Sandro – Juventus (ITA)
Alex Telles – Sevilla (ESP)
Dani Alves – Pumas (MEX)
Danilo – Juventus (ITA)
CENTER-BACKS
Bremer – Juventus (ITA)
Éder Militão – Real Madrid (ESP)
Marquinhos – Paris Saint Germain (FRA)
Thiago Silva – Chelsea (ENG)
MIDFIELDERS
Bruno Guimarães – Newcastle (ENG)
Casemiro – Manchester United (ENG)
Everton Ribeiro – Flamengo (BRA)
Fabinho – Liverpool (ENG)
Fred – Manchester United (ENG)
Lucas Paquetá – West Ham United (ING)
FORWARDS
Antony – Manchester United (ENG)
Gabriel Jesus – Arsenal (ENG)
Gabriel Martinelli – Arsenal (ENG)
Neymar Jr. – Paris Saint Germain (FRA)
Pedro – Flamengo (BRA)
Raphinha – Barcelona (ESP)
Richarlison – Tottenham (ENG)
Rodrygo – Real Madrid (ESP)
Vinicius Jr. – Real Madrid (ESP)
Breaking Down The Squad
I wrote what was intended to be a separate post about how this squad compares to Brazil’s recent World Cup teams, much as I did before the 2018 World Cup, an article lost in that year’s infamous site crash. I’m going to start with that before talking about our path to the trophy.
So: is it a good list?
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On next Monday, November 7th, Tite will announce the 26 players who will make up Brazil’s squad at the World Cup in Qatar. This is my attempt to figure out where his head is at, examine Brazil’s depth chart, and try and figure out who he’s actually going to pick.
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