Of the last nine official tournaments since 2010, including four World Cups and five Americas Cups, Brazil has only won one title, in 2019, when it became champion of the Americas in a tournament organized in its country. In the rest of the participations, the most seductive team of the 20th century confirmed that it is going through an identity crisis in modern football: it produces players like no other country in the world but does not transfer that talent to the results of its team. In that Brazilian GPS that cannot find the coordinates, the 0-0 against Costa Rica in its debut in the Copa América United States 2024, this Monday night in a 22nd century stadium, in Inglewood, the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, Nor did it leave auspicious feelings for Vinicius’ team, so lost that he was replaced in the second half.
The tie left Colombia at the top of group D, after its 2-1 victory against Paraguay, but the big winner on Monday was Costa Rica. To its formidable campaigns in the Italy 1990 World Cup and especially Brazil 2014, when it finished among the 8 best, Tico football will always remember this night: it added a point but it can be said that it beat Brazil 0-0. In the sum of shots on goal, of course, the five-time world champion swept: 19 to 2. But it was in vain. “We knew how to keep the score at 0-0. We did an important defensive job. We wanted to play as equals but Brazil takes you back. We are the youngest team in the Copa América,” said Costa Rica’s captain, Francisco Calvo, of FC Juárez, from Mexico, at the end of a night that is already in the history of his country.
If the stadiums in the United States came under controversy for the quality of their grass or for their dimensions on the verge of regulations, the one in California could have been accused of having an unevenness: with so much Brazilian control of the ball, it seemed that the field was inclined towards an arch. The first 45 minutes ended with 76% possession for the Dorival Júnior team, almost all played in the Costa Rican half of the field, but in a sterile way, almost without risk for Patrick Sequeira, the goalkeeper of a team from the third category of Spain, Unión Deportivo Ibiza, who successfully replaced Keylor Navas, the legend who resigned from the national team after three World Cups and 114 games.
The Brazilian traffic light already turned yellow in the opening chapter, when, of the nine shots on goal, only two were under Sequeira’s three sticks. It is also true that Brazil reached the goal with a touch from Marquinhos at the start of a Raphinha free kick, deflected at the near post by Rodrygo’s shoulder, but the VAR – after taking a couple of minutes to analyze the play – annulled 1-0 due to a millimeter and controversial advanced position by the PSG defender.
With very little of Vinicius – for now more splendid in Real Madrid than in his national team -, and missing the injured Neymar – present in the stands -, Brazil started as if to score but little by little it was consumed in the spider web designed by Gustavo Alfaro , the Argentine coach of Costa Rica who feels comfortable when his teams are not obliged to attack. The Ticos forgot about the ball and stuck to a survival system, a 4-5-1 that left forward Álvaro Zamora, from Aris Salonica in Greece, up there, disconnected from the rest of his teammates.
Little by little in the first half and definitely in the second half, the game then entered into a paradox, that of a boring development due to its lackluster play but with a growing epic tone, that of a team with names unknown to first-half football. world that maintained equality against a conglomerate of stars. The minutes passed, with the slowness of hours for the Costa Ricans and the speed of seconds for the Brazilians, and the boys from Herediano (like Haxel Quirós) or Alajuelense (Jeyland Mitchell) kept their clean sheet against figures from Real Madrid (Vinicius or Rodrigo) or Barcelona (Raphinha).
At the same time, Brazil could have played without a goalkeeper for almost the entire night: although at some point in the second half the stands began to shout “olé” in the face of a sporadic succession of Costa Rican passes, Alfaro’s team did not test Alisson’s goal until 34 minutes of the complement, when the Liverpool goalkeeper took the ball with his hands for the first time, although as a preview and not as a shot on goal. But between the goal disallowed by Marquinhos, an alleged penalty not taken by Juan Pablo Vargas and a shot on the post by Lucas Paquetá, already 17 minutes into the complement, Brazil’s outlook began to darken.
It was natural then that, with 20 minutes left, Dorival Júnior decided to bring in Endrick, the 17-year-old gem from Palmeiras that Real Madrid will begin to enjoy after the Copa América. The surprising thing was that, despite his soulless night, the coach took Vinicius out. Martinelli, the Arsenal striker, also entered, but not all the stars from the Premier League or LaLiga could compete against the ultra-defensive system of Costa Rica, determined to accomplish his feat, one of the greatest in its history.
With the hitherto unknown Sequeira as a figure, ten years after reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Brazil – when they lost on penalties to the Netherlands – Costa Rica is willing to do more: if in 2014 it eliminated Italy and England in the first round, now Alfaro’s team will try to repeat against Colombia, this Friday. The five-time world champion, on the other hand, continues to search for his lost style. A Brazil without joy that, if it were for the color of its shirt, sometimes looks like Sweden or Australia.
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