Brazil Gets Its First Win, a Triumph of Grit More Than Style

ST. PETERSBURG, Russa — For so much of Friday afternoon, there was a battle going on in Russia between Brazil and Argentina, but it was nothing like the usual fight for supremacy these two imperious soccer nations usually wage.

The contest this time around was for the least inspiring heavyweight at the 2018 World Cup.
One day after Croatia slammed Lionel Messi and his teammates, sending Argentina to the brink of elimination, Neymar’s Brazil nearly ended the day with a draw against a stubborn squad from Costa Rica. Only two stoppage-time goals saved the Selecão, giving them a 2-0 victory on a day filled with the kind of missed passes and flubbed open shots familiar to so many teams, but not the five-time world champions. Neymar, Brazil’s $300 million star, even had a penalty revoked during the second half after the referee looked at a video replay and realized Neymar had flopped in the area to win it.

With four points from two games, Brazil put itself in prime position to advance from group play. But make no mistake, that usually captivating bunch once known for a samba-style soccer and a dizzying array of diagonal runs, heel passes and bicycle kicks, looked nothing more than basic for all but the final minutes of a second straight match.

“We played a beautiful second half; there was volume, precision in the finish,” Brazil coach Tite said. “In the first half, not so well.”

Brazil does not have a lot of time to improve: even if it wins its group, it may have to face Germany or what looks to be a strong Mexico team in the first knockout game.

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Until stoppage time, it appeared that Brazil was going to need a win against a solid Serbia team in its third match to get through to the knockout stage, and it still might. Brazil last failed to advance out of group play in 1966. Still, for all the team’s brilliance both individually and in qualifying, Brazil has looked nothing like “Brazil” for the better part of three hours of soccer in Russia.

Maybe it was the royal blue uniforms they lined up in Friday, rather than their famous canary yellow shirts, that made Brazil look so unfamiliar, so off, but then they wore those in the first match and managed only a goal and a draw against Switzerland.

Was it discomfort with a European location? Ten of the 11 players in the starting lineup and the first two off the bench Friday play for clubs in Europe.

Asked to explain Brazil’s struggles, Tite said: “It’s a World Cup. The margin of error is very slim.”

Within minutes of the kickoff Friday afternoon, the whistles began rising from a crowd dominated by Brazilian fans. Carrying expectations that few other teams face, Brazil is not only supposed to win but win with style and dominance. Instead, Brazil was just another frustrated, struggling team with a superstar who wasn’t living up to his name and a lineup that seemed not to want to run.

“We know the responsibility is huge,” said Philippe Coutinho, who scored Brazil’s first goal. “When you are playing with the national team, emotionally, the coach always highlights the fact that you have to be mentally strong from the beginning to the end. Even if you score in first or last minute, you still have 90 minutes to fight. That was what happened.”

No one was worse than Willian, the Chelsea midfielder who botched passes to his feet, gave away balls and sent shots so far high and wide of the crossbar that Tite subbed him out at halftime. Willian was hardly alone, though. Brazil barely created any good chances through the first half, when they mostly wandered the field and sniped at the referee, Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands, for not giving them more free kicks.

Late in the first half, Paulinho led a rush up the right side and played a perfect centering pass across the middle of the penalty area. There wasn’t a blue shirt within 10 yards of it to connect for a shot.

In the second half, Brazil came out with a new resolve and produced an early flourish, pressing Costa Rica deep in its end and jetting to every loose ball as if the players were trying to avoid the flogging they were going to get back home if this match somehow didn’t go their way.

But the chances did not turn into goals. Gabriel Jesus clanked a header of the crossbar. The rebound ended up at the feet of Coutinho near the 18-yard line. His shot was headed for the open left side of the net, but Cristian Gamboa got his shin in the way at the last moment. Minutes later, Neymar was handed a sitter from seven yards, but sent it sailing above the crossbar, and Coutinho hit another open strike from in front of the goal right into at the arms of Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

As the minutes ticked toward the end of regulation, Costa Rica, disciplined and organized in a five-man back line, held firm. For long stretches, the Ticos kept every player behind the ball, frustrating the surging Brazilians

“I don’t know what else we could have done,” Costa Rica Manager Oscar Ramirez said. “We were playing against the second best team in the world. They have great players. Considering what I have, it was reasonable what we did.”

It nearly worked. Kuipers scolded Neymar to stop yapping at him about uncalled fouls, then delivered a yellow card when Neymar slammed the ball with his hand after yet another didn’t go his way. After one open shot from 20 yards sailed into the stands, Neymar hid his face in his shirt, devoid of the usual swagger he carries on the world’s biggest stage.

Then, just in the nick of time, Brazil did turn into some version of Brazil: not the fancy one but the one that nearly always gets the results it needs. Marcelo’s pass in from the right in the first minute of stoppage time found Roberto Firmino’s head and then Gabriel Jesus’s foot, and when it dropped into an open patch of grass right in front of Navas, Coutinho dashed into the space and slammed the ball past him.

In the final minute, Neymar got his revenge, turning home a pass from the substitute Douglas Costa behind a helpless Navas. When the final whistle blew moments later, he collapsed to knees in tears at the center of the field, covering his eyes again, this time overcome by the emotion of the narrow escape.

Tite didn’t escape unscathed, either. Rushing the field to celebrate the first goal, he got tripped up and tumbled to the grass.

“I kind of pulled a muscle,” he said later. “It tore some fibers. I’m limping during the celebration.”

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